BlueNotes

Author

Jim White blogs about the blues and related music.

Register to comment
Guide to commenting

Syndication

BlueNotes' Stuff

BlueNotes Motto:
Doin' the lord's work for the devil's music

Blues on YouTube

Favorite photo:

Annie Raines at the Thunderbird Cafe on Oct. 31.  (Jim White photo)

Blues quote:
"If I hadn't heard blues, I would have missed a big part of myself."  -- Paul Rishell

Photos:
BlueNotes photo gallery
Pittsburgh Blues Festival '08

Ernie Hawkins and his good-time band; Blues Night Out

I just wanted to get on the record how much I enjoyed Ernie Hawkins and his somewhat unusual band last night at Calliope's Blues & BBQ concert that also served to open Calliope's cool new performance space in Simmons Hall at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.

Hawkins brought along a tuba, clarinet, harp and percussion player with washboard, for a set of blues and other old-timey songs like "Diddy Wah Diddy" and "Glory of Love" that blended nicely into an evening of sparkling music.

But that's just the beginning. I'll have more in the next day or so, with some photos.

And just a reminder that tonight is another Blues Night Out for the Blues Society of Western Pa., featuring the Jimmy Adler Band, at Dante's on Brownsville Road. The band will follow the society's membership meeting. Why not go on out and join the society, help promote the blues in the area, meet some knowledgeable and avid blues fans, and hear some good music? One of the many good things they do is host these blues nights, bringing local blues bands to different neighborhoods in BluesBurgh. After all, you've got to drink somewhere -- might as well be with some blues in the background.

 


Posted Oct 24 2009, 01:00 AM by Jim White
Filed under:

Comments

rd350c wrote re: Ernie Hawkins and his good-time band; Blues Night Out
on Sat, Oct 24 2009 5:11 PM

We had to pass on this one.  Kinda pricey, and I'm having to watch the pennies as of late.  But now that I hear about his "somewhat unusual" band, I really wish we'd gone.  I've seen Ernie a lot, and he holds his own on guitar, but I can't imagine how good he was with all that extra 'stuff' (especially the TUBA!).  Having seen the Klezmatics last week at Caliope, we were nicely primed for unusual (but not un-traditional) instrumental accompaniment  

I am eager to hear and see more about the Simmons hall space.  we saw Del and Steve at the Arts center Caliope tent a few years back,

www.youtube.com/watch

but the racket from the traffic climbing the big hill on Shady was sometimes annoying.

also, it you went to the Ernie website, the B&W pik of him playing "Big Bertha" on the top doesn't do justice to the shirt

i274.photobucket.com/.../MVC-025X.jpg

we joked that his shirt was louder than all of that day's bands put together....................

BLUZER wrote re: Ernie Hawkins and his good-time band; Blues Night Out
on Sat, Oct 24 2009 9:02 PM

One of my all-time favorite Blues songs....Here's the original (and in my opinion still the best) version.

www.youtube.com/watch

P.S. your video was pretty dark.

www.youtube.com/watch

Here's the version all the kids like...

www.youtube.com/watch

And all I can say about this one is, 'Look what they've done to my song, Ma!!"

www.youtube.com/watch