Redwood City Blues Jam Report

It's been almost three months since my last trip to the Little Fox. It was the final Kenny "Blue" Ray performance in the Bay Area for a while. He recently relocated to Portland, Oregon. I got with two songs to spare in the first set. Mr Blue Ray was onstage with Steve Edmonson, Wendy Dewitt, Greg, Ray Ray and Norm. As one would expect, the music was excellent.

I grabbed a beer. I stopped to shoot the breeze with Dave Workman for a bit. I ran into Don Yonders and Barrelhouse Solly (who appears to be working his way through the Roosevelt Sykes songbook, which sort of hacks me off. I was hoping to hear him sing Texas Flood or Mustang Sally in his own inimitable style.)

Vince got one annoying jerk off of his back right away. He called me up almost instantly along with the Pastor of the Telecaster, Jerome Engelberts, Ira, Norm and two other guys that I had never seen before.

Barrelhouse Solly and Don Yonders got up with some other guys that I've seen before, but I can't remember their names. Must be the latent effects from partaking of too many 40's of Mickey's Malt Liquor as a youth. Don and Solly sounded really good together. Don Yonders is strong guitar player that flies below the radar screen. He's not flashy or in your face, but he always sounds good.

Next up was a lady with a huge voice that sang a really nice version of Stormy Monday. I have no clue who the heck she was, but she was really good. She sang two songs and split. She was joined by a really energetic bass player and a flashy, but quite good guitar player.

Amy Lou, Johnny Cat, Greg Heumann and Vince really tore it up. I don't remember who was the rhythm section, but the drummer was very good, so it was probably Norm Decarlo. I suspect that Scott was playing the bass. As is customary, they tore it up.

KBR, Wendy, Ray Ray, Norm and Dave Workman were up next. They sounded fantastic. It was nice to see and hear Dave. It's been far too long, since I had seen him play.

I had gotten about four hours of sleep and I don't bounce back as well as I did in my younger days, so I had to split during the middle of their set.

It was a really good night. I had some interesting conversations. I saw some great players and talked to some people I hadn't seen in 24 hours or longer.