Wednesday, June 29, 2005

This Week - Part One

Monday, I went to the Alameda County Fair to check out Charlie Musselwhite & Elvin Bishop. Prior to Monday, I was not a big Elvin Bishop fan, but the show on Monday changed my opinion. I'm still not a huge fan, but the performance was very good. I would definitely go and see him again. Not a lot of blues, but the music was quite enjoyable. His tone was simply amazing. The sound was good. Overall, his performance was very good.

It was exactly the opposite of the Charlie Musselwhite show. Prior to Monday, I wasn't a huge Charlie Musselwhite fan. I always thought he was a great harmonica player, but I was never really moved by any of his recordings that I had heard. I really went to see his band. His performance changed my opinion. He's very impressive. He's sporting some really great tone and he played some very cool old tunes and mixed in some other stuff to keep it fresh. His band was excellent. What can you say about Kid Andersen, June Core and Randy Bermudez that hasn't already been said? They are great. It was really unfortunate that the sound totally sucked for the Charlie Musselwhite sets. The fairgrounds ought to can that soundman. He finally got it right on the last song of the second show. It was an excellent show. I would definitely go to see him again.

Tuesday night, I dropped into the Mojo Lounge for about an hour or so. The place was buzzing about some tunes that RJ and Mark Hummel had played together. RJ had Bob Welsh, Mike Phillips and Hans Bosse making up the house band for the evening. Arthur Daugherty played a few Lazy Lester and Sonny Boy Williamson tunes. Scott Hickman got up and played a couple of Big Walter tunes before the band took a break. Scott Miller had a couple of very nice guitar solos. After the break, RJ called me up. I played a tune with him and the members of the Buzzy Dupree Orchestra. At that point, I had to bail. The alarm clock would be going off in five short hours.

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