San Diego Blues Calendar: Oct 20th – 26th

Blues Calendar - Oct 20There is quite a bit of San Diego blues happening this week in the Gaslamp.  Check out the bands and jams at the Gaslamp Speakeasy and Patrick’s Pub, as well as Hennessey’s (next to Speakeasy) and Spike Africa.

Jams always bring in great musicians from around the greater San Diego area and from out of town.  The jams happen Mondays at the Speakeasy with host Fuzzy Rankins, Tuesdays at Patrick’s with Walter Gentry and Wednesdays at the House of Blues with JammingOut at HOB, sponsored by BLUSD.

The Youth Blues Jam will be on Saturday from 2-5pm, so if you know of or have kids under 21 who play, encourage them to participate or watch.

And for some pre-Halloween fun, go see Whitney Shay and Robin Henkel do their spooky blues, jazz and soul at 98 Bottles on Friday night.  Or catch Whitney and her trio at the US Grant on Thursday.  Lots of great options this week!!

A Jammin Birthday Night

We celebrated Victor Franklin’s 60th birthday at the JammingOut at HOB blues jam, and many of his friends showed up to play with him.  Unfortunately most of the video I took didn’t turn out so well, but this one of his good friend Theo Bellow on accordion turned out pretty well.

Theo is singing and playing Big Chief, with Victor on bass, CJ Hutchins on guitar and Ric Lee on drums.

San Diego Blues

San Diego Blues Calendar: Sept 29th – Oct 5th

Blues Calendar - Sept 29

We have a great week of live San Diego blues music around town! There is a lot happening in the Gaslamp, on Shelter Island and even a night in Little Italy.

Tonight we have the weekly and popular blues jam at the SpeakEasy, Walter Gentry’s R&B band at Patrick’s and a beautiful blues singer, Janice Edwards, out at Humphrey’s. What a great way to kick off the week. Enjoy!!

The Little Kings – Guest band at JammingOut at HOB

I’ve been hearing about the Little Kings, but hadn’t heard them until this week.  They were the featured band of the month (last Wednesdays of the month) at JammingOut at HOB.  And they were great!  They play again tonight downtown at the SpeakEasy.

Here are some videos of them: The first one is a Magic Sam cover song, You Belong to Me, sung by David Mosby with his band.

This second video is also of a Magic Sam cover tune, Look What You’ve Done to Me.

And third is an Ike Turner cover called Rocket 88.

The night wasn’t complete without jammers, and here we have Nicolas Butterfield performing a Bill Withers cover Use Me Up, which he does so well.  On stage with Nick was guitarist Dave Keefer, Justin Fools on harmonica, Samuel on bass and Reggie Ford on drums.

San Diego Blues

Good Lineup at Wednesday’s Blues Jam

JammingOut at HOB had a full house and one good set after another Wednesday night.  It was a great night.

Returning for a third time to the jam was Willie Simmons, who got up to perform a song I’ll call Good Woman (not sure what the song is really called), and rocked the house.  He was on stage with Jacinto Castaneda and Rich Giglio on guitars, Matt Casey on drums, Earl Pratt on bass and two sax players I don’t know.

In the next set, Kammie Thomas sang BB King’s cover song Thrill is Gone, with Jacinto Casteneda and Fuzzy Rankins on guitars, Kevin Cooper on bass, Reggie Ford on drums.

The night ended with Fuzzy Rankins and Lafayette Falkquay singing and playing guitars together, along with Kevin Cooper on bass, Timothy on drums, and the two sax players whose names I didn’t catch

San Diego Blues

 

 

San Diego Blues Calendar: Sept 1st – 7th

Blues Calendar - Sept 1

There’s a nice mix of San Diego blues this week around town, and most of it is at the Gaslamp SpeakEasy, Humphrey’s and Patrick’s Pub.  The times I have on the calendar for Humphrey’s is an hour later than posted on their site, because often they start late.

Some of the best blues can happen at the jams, which are on Mondays (SpeakEasy), Tuesdays (Patrick’s) and Wednesdays (House of Blues).

In a month (Oct 6th), we will have the San Diego Music Awards and they include best live band (Whitney Shay has been nominated), best blues band and best blues album.  Please vote for your favorite bands and musicians.  You can vote every day if you want  at www.sandiegomusicawards.com.

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

 

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.

Typical Wednesday Night of Blues N More

As readers of this blog know by now, I’m a regular at the JammingOut at HOB (House of Blues Voodoo Stage in the Gaslamp) on Wednesday nights.

Last night Carrie Shannon, who I’ve never heard before, got up and sang a sassy ZZ Top cover song, Tush.  On stage with her was Nicholas Butterfield and Junya Isogawa on guitars, Kevin Cooper on bass, David Lewis on harmonica and Edward Cleveland on drums.

Later Will Lovalot performed that great Freddie King song Big Legged Woman, along with David Damaso (and then Lafayette Falkquay) on guitars, Harmonica John (Frazer), Dino on trumpet, Kevin Cooper on bass and Michael Minor on drums.

San Diego Blues

JammingOut at House Jam Birthday Party

To celebrate the birthdays of JammingOut at HOB host Rosa Lea Schiavone and guitarist Rich Giglio, who is frequently at the Wednesday night blues jam, Rich hosted a house jam this past weekend that brought a lot of people together to play blues and enjoy great food and friends.

Here’s Big Slim performing the BB cover song Thrill is Gone, along with Rich, Doyle Thomas and Stoney B on guitars, Tom Slotkin on harmonica, Kelly on drums (who you really can’t see), Ray Brown on trumpet, and I didn’t catch who was playing the sax.

San Diego Blues