Saturday Blues at Hennesseys & SpeakEasy

For those that don’t know, the Gaslamp SpeakEasy is owned by Hennessey’s Tavern right next door, and both venues have live music.  The last Saturday of every month, talented kids under 21 play blues at Hennessey’s from 2-5pm.

Here is a video of Leilani Kilgore (youth blues ambassador for BLUSD – our San Diego blues society) performing that great Jimi Hendrix cover song Red House, along with Malachi Johnson on bass (who usually plays drums) and Orion Lewis on drums.

Later that night I caught Stoney B Blues band on the SpeakEasy side.  Stoney is singing a BB King cover song, Why I Sing the Blues, with his band members, Bob Prater on bass, Pat Kelley on keyboard and Paul Carlomango on drums.  It is always dark in the SpeakEasy, but the video is pretty good considering the lighting.

San Diego Blues

San Diego Blues Calendar: Aug 25th – 31st

Blues Calendar - Aug 25This week most of the live blues music downtown happens Monday-Thursday and again on Saturday.  The weekends are often light, but this Labor Day weekend will be particularly slow, although Saturday at the Gaslamp SpeakEasy there will be 2 blues events – one in the afternoon with super talented young adults and kids, and another in the later evening with Stoney B Blues.

On Tuesday night, there is a great line up of blues bands and musicians at Proud Mary’s in Kearny Mesa (at the Ramada) who are coming together to raise money for local blues musician, Leo Dombecki, who needs help with medical expenses.  It isn’t on my calendar, since its out of the downtown area.  But it will be a great night there.

This Wednesday at the House of Blues, there will be a featured local band at the blues jam, as there is the last Wed of evert month.  This time it will be Leilani Kilgore & the Voodoo Electrics – a band formed out of the youth jams with extremely talented young adults who are committed to playing the blues and keeping the blues alive!

Another Fun Surprise at Blues Jam

I’ve said it before, but you really never know who will show up at a jam and amaze you.  An unknown, but local blues singer from Atlanta, showed up at the JammingOut at HOB last night, and he gave us a great performance of a song I think is called Break It Down.

Check out this delightful song with Willie Simmons singing, David Lewis is on harmonica, Nicholas Butterfield and Doyle Thomas are on guitars – and Lafayette Falkquay too in back, Harry on bass, and Rio Rhythm on drums.

San Diego Blues

San Diego Blues Calendar: Aug 18th – 24th

Blues Calendar - Aug 18We have a good week of San Diego blues bands, blues jams and bluesy jazz artists coming up – even naughty dirty blues and jazz on Friday night with Whitney Shay, Robin Henkel and Sue Palmer.

Stoney B will now be playing the blues on the first 3 Wednesday nights of each month at the SpeakEasy, where Lance Dieckmann has been playing the past year or so, but Lance will be back…  he will be stopping in to join Stoney from time to time.  The 4th Wed of the month will be a bluesfest.

Heads up, Stoney will be holding his annual Blues Summit on Sunday October 5th in the late afternoon, so put that on your calendars.  It’s always a great event.  More to come…

And this Sunday is the annual BLUSD (local blues society) member appreciation party (non-members also welcome) at Tio Leos (2-6pm), featuring Kid Ramos, Scoty Williams, Mercedes Moore, Taryn Donath, Eric Lieberman, Jon Atkinson, Marcus Bashore, Missy Andersen, and others.  I hope you’ll be able to make it.

Wednesday Nights Jamming Out at HOB

Every jam has its own familiar faces and this week we had  a good mix of regular JammingOut musicians who were back to jam together and have a good time.  As one of the JammingOut hosts, Rosa Lea Schiavone, recently said, “everyone leaves their ego at the door” and its so true.  It’s a great group of people and a lot of fun, and the jam runs from 7-11pm every Wednesday night.

In this video another one of our hosts and a guitar player, Doyle Thomas, got on stage and sang the cover song One Way Out.  Playing with him are David Damaso and Mike (standing in back and not sure of his last name) on guitars, David Lewis on harmonica, Matt Casey on drums, Dino on trumpet and I didn’t catch who was playing the bass.

At the end of the night and last song, we were entertained by Kevin Cooper on bass, singing Mustang Sally – who was joined by Tony Peterson who amped it up even more, along with Lafayette and Mike on guitars, Dino on trumpet, and I can’t remember who the drummer is.  Lots of fun for everyone!

San Diego Blues

 

Tuesday Night Southern Blues

Lafayette can steal your heart with his deep southern blues, romanticism and playful charm, and I try to catch him on Tuesday nights where he plays regularly at the Gaslamp SpeakEasy.

Here he is performing Sonny Boy Williams’ cover song Dr Feelgood, with his band members, Chris Terrell on drums and Ronnie Baumslater on bass.  The lighting is better now at the SpeakEasy, but it is still tough to fully capture Lafayette who almost always wears black.  When the lighting isn’t good, the video gets a bit blurry, but most of it is pretty good.

In this video Lafayette sings about that Little Girl of Mine.  I’m not sure who wrote the song, or who was playing the electric acoustic guitar who was sitting in with them last night.

San Diego Blues

 

San Diego Blues Calendar: Aug 11th – 17th

Blues Calendar - Aug 11It is another lite week of San Diego blues downtown, and the only blues related music on Shelter Island will be Missy Andersen’s CD release party at Humphreys next Sunday from 4-6pm.  Missy is terrific, and she has lots of R&B blues fans, so get there early!

The only blues you will hear at Patrick’s Pub will be during the Tuesday night jam, and usually that jam has an R&B influence.  But if you like R&B… you will hear that Monday, Wednesday and Saturday there.

The Gaslamp SpeakEasy predictabily has great blues and bluesy jazz Mon-Sat nights from 9p-1am, and it is always good music.  Check out the videos I took of Annette DaBomb this past week, and of Stoney B with Lance Dieckmann.  I plan on getting much more video, so you can enjoy too if you can’t get there.

Soulful Blues & Jazz at the SpeakEasy

Thursday night, I was able to catch the lovely Annette DaBomb and talented bomb Squad band members at the Gaslamp SpeakEasy. They are a total delight (and often quite playful) as they perform a soulful mix of blues, jazz and swing jazz, like the Frank Sinatra cover song The Lady is a Tramp in this first video. Accompanying Annette are Tony Peterson on drums, Alan Z (Zundelevich) on piano, and Doug Brunelle on bass, clarinet and flute.

Here is a blues tune: Aretha Franklins’ cover song Evil Gal Blues

And last, but not least, that great cover song Fever, first performed by Little Willie John and later sung by Peggy Lee, Elvis Presley, Ella Fitzgerald and many others.

San Diego Blues

Stoney B is Back in San Diego

Stoney B has been in New Orleans for the last year, and he’s back playing in San Diego to the delight of local blues fans, including me. He is the real deal – a great blues man who plays the guitar and sings with a passion, grit, storytelling and talent you can never get enough of.

He was playing with Lance Dieckmann’s band at the SpeakEasy the past couple of weeks, and that may be where you’ll find him for a while. Here he is performing Jimi Hendrix’ great cover song, Red House. The lighting at the SpeakEasy makes this video a bit grainy and out of focus, but it is worth viewing. I will get more videos of Stoney, and hopefully better quality.

San Diego Blues

San Diego Blues Calendar: Aug 4th – 10th

Blues Calendar - Aug 4
Monday through Thursday this week, we have lots of San Diego blues to choose from. It is lite over the weekend, which isn’t unusual downtown. But Patrick’s, which usually has some blues, will be mostly rock so they aren’t on the schedule for Friday or Sunday.

Humphrey’s on the other hand has lots of blues this week, and on Wednesday evening some powerful R&B/blues with Ms Silky Sol, who is new to the San Diego scene from St. Louis (where she has a great following). She is a raw, tell-it-like-it-is powerhouse with an incredible voice.  Go check her out!