The Year Is Flying By!

It's already October. Some cool stuff happened in September.

"September 2" - Steve Freund hosted the World Famous Tuesday night Blues Jam at the Mojo Lounge.

"September 3" - I dropped into the Redwood City Blues Jam on the way to pick up a friend at the airport. Daniel Castro was the host. I caught his opening set. It was quite enjoyable.

"September 9" - Kenny "Blue" Ray hosted the World Famous Tuesday night Blues Jam at the Mojo Lounge. The place was packed with a multitude of Blue Ray's students.

"September 10" - I went to see Steve Freund tear it up at the Redwood City Blues Jam. He was joined by the lovely Jan Fanucchi. Juce Garcia sat in with them. It made for an interesting evening.

"September 16" - Steve Freund hosted the World Famous Tuesday night Blues Jam at the Mojo Lounge. It was a killer evening. If you're in the Bay Area, it's a show not to be missed.

"September 19" - Began a string of nights out that I am still attempting to recover from the lack of sleep. I caught Little Jonny and the Giants at the Poor House Bistro. I shot a bunch of video of Jon. He puts on a very righteous show, but the video shall speak for itself.

In this clip, he performs he Elmore James classic, "Talk To Me Baby." Little Jon Lawton (vocals/guitar), Marty Dotson (drums), Mark Fenichel (harmonica), Eddie B (bass) and Sid Morris (keyboards).



More videos can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/user/jlemko.

Later in the evening, Jon called Scott Miller and me to the stage for a couple of tunes.

After this show was over, everyone headed north to the Mojo Lounge to catch RJ Mischo's show, which was already in progress. He was joined by Kid Andersen, Kedar Roy and J Hansen. He put on a fantastic show. Half of the audience were musicians. He asked Frank Bey to join him for a few tunes and he blew the roof off of the place with some fine vocals. RJ also asked Jon Lawton to the stage for a few.

"September 20" - Saturday night, we returned to the scene of the previous night's crimes and caught RJ Mischo at the Mojo Lounge. I dragged my wife down there with several of her friends. We had a blast! There were several fantastic performers lurking in the audience like John Nemeth. By the time, the night was reaching it's conclusion, I was starting to run out of gas.

"September 21" - I spent Sunday evening on the coast. Don Yonders, East Bay Wes and I headed out to the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company. We saw RJ Mischo with a radically different band featuring Steve Freund, Kedar Roy and Marty Dotson. It was a very nice evening of straight Chicago Blues done the old fashioned way. RJ was kind enough to ask me up to play a couple of tunes. The Half Moon Bay Brewing Company is a cool venue to see music. The atmosphere is laid back. The beers are great. The food is excellent.

"September 23" - I rested on Monday. Tuesday night, Jimmy Dewrance was hosting the World Famous Tuesday night Blues Jam at the Mojo Lounge. He was joined by Russell Barber, Eddie B and Hans Bosse. It was a pretty busy and crazy night.

"September 24" - RJ Mischo was hosting the Redwood City Blues Jam. He was joined by Steve Freund, Anthony Paule, Randy Bermudes and June Core. I shot a couple of video clips. First up, RJ performs the title track off of his most current CD, The King of a Mighty Good Time.



More videos can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/user/jlemko.

"September 26" - This was the final night of RJ Mischo's west coast trip. He was at the Poor House Bistro in San Jose. One of the cool things about seeing RJ is that he hires all sorts of different musicians which makes for a completely different show every time you see him. This was no exception. He had Kid Andersen, Mike Phillips and Hans Bosse with him.

He had a few folks sit in like Frank Derose, Big John Stokes, Jimmy Dewrance and me. There was also a 13 year old girl that sat in. She had a huge voice. If we don't see this girl on American Idol in the future, I would be shocked.

Here is a video clip of them performing the Muddy Waters classic, "Forty Days and Forty Nights" at the Poor House Bistro.



"September 27" - I stopped on the way to Gilroy Gardens and caught the first set of the School of the Blues Summer Concert. I shot a some video of my friend, Rich Fell's first performance on bass.

"September 30" - Steve Freund hosted the World Famous Tuesday night Blues Jam at the Mojo Lounge. I sat in with Steve, Marc Carino and June Core. It turned out to be a very interesting evening. Former Bay Area resident, Twist Turner dropped in for a visit. It was nice to see a familiar face from Chicago.