Saturday, January 24, 2009

January Update

It's been a really busy month. Surprisingly, I was able to catch several shows in my effort to appreciate some fine, high quality musical performances. I was even lucky enough to participate in some of them.

January 6, 2009

I headed down to the Mojo Lounge. Steve Freund was hosting the World Famous Tuesday Night Blues Jam. I arrived fashionably late and was told that I missed a fabulous opening set. As always, it was a fun evening. I jammed with Double G, Tom Bowers, June Core and Mighty Mike.

January 13, 2009

Kenny "Blue" Ray was hosting the World Famous Tuesday Night Blues Jam at the Mojo Lounge. I played a fun set with Double G, Chris Brown, Johnny Cat, East Bay Wes, Ray Figueroa and Norm DeCarlo.

January 17, 2009

I went to the Poor House Bistro. Charles Wheal was on the bandstand with Steve Wolf and Kent Bryson. He put on solid show taking the audience on a musical journey borrowing material from the songbooks of Leroy Carr, Big Maceo, Jimmy Rogers and BB King. Charles had several harp players sit in throughout the course of the evening. Aki Kumar, Jimmy Dewrance and I sat in on a few tunes.

January 18, 2009

I went out to the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company and caught Andy Santana w/ Johnny Cat, Mike Phillips and Joey Ventittelli. As always, Andy is an excellent performer and he put on a great show. Pat Wilder and Norm Decarlo sat in for a few tunes.

Afterward, I headed over to the Old Princeton Landing to check out Stan Erhart's jam. I saw a lot of familiar faces. I joined Johnny Cat, Mike Phillips, Gino Bambino and a couple of other guys for a tune. I did a couple of tunes with Scott Duncan. He and I have jammed together several times at the Mojo Lounge. It was fun. I hung out for a bit before returning to the East Bay. I don't get out there often enough.

January 20, 2009

It was Tuesday night, I dropped into the Mojo Lounge and was able to jam with Barrelhouse Solly, Marc Carino, June Core and Steve Freund.

January 21, 2009



I attended the third anniversary of the Redwood City Blues Jam at the Fox Theater in Redwood City. I arrived in the beginning of Kenny "Blue" Ray's fine set with a multitude of great guests.

I took a quick break and headed over to Murf's Broadway Cocktail Lounge and caught a fabulous eight piece jazz band. When I headed back to the Fox, Daniel Castro was finishing up a set.

Mighty Mike Schermer went up delivered a phenomenal set. He had several incredibly talented guests including: Lara Price, Steve Freund, Shana Morrison and John Nemeth. Afterward, Kenny Neal and his band put on a really good show. Photos from the evenings festivities are: http://mrjoe.dyndns.org/gallery/blues2009

Enough of this for now.