There are a couple of special local blues shows around over the weekend, so take note and try to take part. The blues needs you just as much as you need it. Or them. I never know for sure.
First, on Saturday night, at the Hard Rock Cafe in Station Square, the Muddy Kreek Blues Band holds a benefit for P.R.O.M.I.S.E., a youth-mentoring group, and will feature group members as well. Muddy Kreek is a relatively new band in town, and I hear good things.
Then on Sunday, from noon-8, at Moondog's in Blawnox, the 3rd Annual No Steelers Game Blues Jam to benefit the Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank and food drive (bring non-perishable food).
Here's that lineup:
12:30 - Shot o' Soul
1:15 - Blu Razor Band with Zach Tyler
2:00 - Sweaty Betty Blues Band with Bubs McKeg
2:45 - Jimmy Adler Band
3:30 - Jill Simmons and Andrea Pearl
4:15 - Pamela Bick and the Warehouse Band
5:00 - Mystic Knights with Gil Snyder and Craig King
5:45 - Big ol' Blues Jam with Patti Spadaro
Dylan speaks
I guess I'm just catching up with the news, but it's still worth a mention. Bob Dylan (who had already endorsed Barack Obama for president), gave his first-ever concert at the University of Minnesota on election night. By all accounts, he was beside himself (for the silent one, anyway), in his encore after Obama had pretty much won the night.
Here's a description from the Minneapolis City Pages:
... last night, after a lengthy break between his regular set and his encore which I can only imagine was spent discovering that Barack Obama had won the election, Dylan returned to the stage to play "Like a Rolling Stone" and then turned to the audience and spoke.
"I was born in 1941," he said, a wavering sentimentality in his scratchy voice. "That was the year they bombed Pearl Harbor. I've been living in darkness ever since. It looks like things are going to change now."
He turned back to his keyboard and led the band in an almost unrecognizable rendition of "Blowin' in the Wind." Throughout most of the set, Dylan opted to keep his voice low and sparse as he half-sang, half-coughed the words into the microphone, but at the end of "Blowin' in the Wind" he strained his voice to hit the high register of the original melody and held onto the words in the chorus as long as he could. When his voice couldn't bear any more, he picked up his harmonica and practically skipped to the center of the stage. Even from my seat in the balcony it was obvious that Dylan was excited, and it only served to further ignite the fired-up crowd.
As the entire sold-out room rose to its feet with praise, Dylan and his bandmates lined up at the front of the stage to take a bow. In his tight tuxedo pants and white wide-brimmed hat, Dylan danced around like a marionette doll, waving his pointer fingers in the air like guns. It was surprisingly charismatic and endearing moment, and it had the whole room roaring with cheers and applause.
I know, that's a long excerpt. But it's a good one. And what does that have to do with BlueNotes? Well, BlueNotes is a big Dylan fan (much like Obama, I hear), and Dylan has always been a big blues fan. So that's good enough.
But it's a good one.
Posted
Nov 21 2008, 01:06 AM
by
Jim White