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

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

 

Blues JammingOut on Wednesday Nights

If you have been following this blog for a while, you know I often go to the JammingOut at HOB.  I can’t always get to the other jams around town, so I try to make it to this one as often as I can.  It’s always good and often there are newcomers to the jam who rock the night.  There were quite a few musicians there who I hadn’t seen before.

One of them was Maria Woodard, a jazz and Latin singer in San Diego, who got up and did a number of tunes.  Here she is singing the Fats Domino song Kansas City.  With her on stage was Rich Giglio and Doyle Thomas on guitars, Tom Safreed on harmonica, Dale Davis on bass and Steve Douglas on drums.

Nick Butterfield was back again, and he gave us an awesome performance of that great Creedence Clearwater Revival cover tune Born on the Bayou.  He’s joined by Rich on guitar, Dale on bass, Dave Good on saxophone, Richie Strell playing the accordion, Reggie Ford on drums, and I’m not sure who was playing the harmonica.  Enjoy!

Later, Harmonica John Frazer played and sang Steve Miller band cover song Your Cash Ain’t Nothing But Trash with Will Lovalot on guitar, Steve Welles on bass, and I believe it was Max on drums.

San Diego Blues

JammingOut at HOB Kicks Off 2nd Year

Every Wednesday night, “JammingOut at HOB” hosts a blues jam that has developed a wonderful following in its first year, and this past Wednesday they celebrated their 1st anniversary downstairs at the House of Blues.  It was a fun evening, and here are some videos I got – the lighting wasn’t great so its a bit dark and grainy, but most of it is good.

Here is Dona Aguinaldo, one of a number of wonderful female vocalists that night, who got up to sing Etta James’ cover At Last.  Wow!  I just wish the lighting had been better… On stage with her (and doing their own jamming solos) is Bob Sortillon (standing next to her) and Rich Giglio on guitars, Tom Safreed on harmonica, Dave Lindgren on bass, and Steve Douglas on drums.  Bob, Rick and Dave also each sang some great songs, but the videos didn’t turn out.

Then Christine Gilardi performed Bonnie Rait’s cover song Love Me Like a Man.  She rocks it with Somerset Barnard on guitar, Tom Safreed on harmonica, Yasha Susoeff on sax, Victor Franklin on bass and Michael Minor on drums.

Afterwards Victoria Wasserman got up with them and nailed it with that so familiar BB King (amongst others) cover song Stormy Monday.

Somerset Barnard, visiting from Brisbane Australia for a few weeks, got us up and dancing to another favorite, Got My Mojo Working.

And to end the evening we had Len Rainey, a favorite local bluesman, take the stage and sing, as only Len can do it, the cover song Kiddio.  He’s joined by Doyle Thomas on guitar, Kevin Cooper on keyboards, Michael Minor on drums, David Lewis on harps – as well as Steve Lang.  Again the video is a bit dark, even after lightening it up as much as I could.

The final song brought Lafayette Falkquay on the stage to join Len on bass, and they had a fun exchange as they performed Slow Down Baby together.

I only captured a bit of the evening.  We also had a number of brass players (more sax, trumpet and trombone), and other performers who made it a special anniversary evening.

Next week the jam is back upstairs, but it starts 2 hours later at 9pm (for just this week).
San Diego Blues

Oh What A Night JammingOut at HOB

Last night brought in a great crowd and another awesome mix of musicians at the JammingOut at HOB.  We just kept the video going as the night got better and better, and we only caught the last 2 hours of the 4 hour jam!  Most of these musicians have never played together, and often they don’t even know each other before going up on stage, so it isn’t always clean and smooth.  But everyone has a good time!

Local bass player, Shaaron Schuemaker, was singing Sam Cooke’s cover song Bring It On Home to Me in this clip.  She was joined by Jaz Jaszewski and Judd Austin on guitars, Steve Douglas on drums and Tom Safreed on harmonica, who was the recent winner of the BLUSD Spring Harpfest two weeks ago.  Congrats to Tom!

A member of the audience, Greg Loving from Indianapolis, then got up to join the folks on stage to sing cover song Falsom Prison Blues, to the delight of his other colleagues from out of town and the rest of us.  He was great!

New to the jam was Terry Padgett, who came in and sang cover songs Wish I Had a Nickle and Turn On Your Love Light, while playing guitar.  He was joined by Shaaron on bass, Nicholas Butterfield on guitar, Dennis Bucko on harmonica, and Bert Hammer (visiting from Canada) on drums.

Then Nicholas took over and sang Bill Wither’s cover song Use Me.

This was followed by Doyle Thomas playing guitar and singing his favorite Stevie Ray Vaughn cover song Pride and Joy.  He was joined by Junya Isogawa and Jacinto Castaneda on guitars, Fuzzy Rankins on bass (which is rare to see), and Jay Morris on drums.

And the night ended with Silky Sol (aka: Red Afro Queen) coming to the stage, along with Kevin Cooper on bass, Fuzzy Rankins and Mark Augustin  (host of the 88.3 Jazz/blues jam now at Proud Mary’s earlier in the evening) on guitars, and Michael Minor on drums.  They performed Jimmy Reed’s cover song Big Boss Man and then Aretha Franklin’s cover song Rock Steady.  Unfortunately both videos got cut off at the end, particularly the last video – ran out of memory taking so many videos 😉

San Diego Blues

Another Good Wednesday Night Jam at HOB

We got a lot of video from last night’s jam, starting with Donna Larsen singing T-Bone Walker’s cover song Stormy Monday.  She’s joined by Doyle Thomas and Judd Austin on guitars, Tony Garrick on drums, and Avel (I think that was his first name…) on bass.

Later Victoria Wasserman sang Aretha Franklin’s cover song Chain of Fools, along with Jacinto Castaneda and Nicholas Butterfield on guitar, Dale Davis on bass and Michael Minor on drums.

And the evening ended as it always does with the house jam band back up on stage.  Here we’ve got Lafayette Falkquay and Doyle Thomas having some fun singing the great BB King cover song Every Day I Have The Blues together.  With them are Judd Austin and Junya Isogawa on guitars, Kevin Cooper on bass and Michael Minor on drums.

San Diego Blues

Mixing it Up at Wednesday Night Jam

Each week a new mix of musicians shows up at the JammingOut & BLUSD jam (at House of Blues Voodoo Stage) and gets randomly assigned to get up on stage together.  Last night Bobby Hayse, from Indiana, came in and sang cover song Mustang Sally, along with Brandon Cerquedo on guitar (who did the solo in this clip), Doyle Thomas on guitar, Jim Holtz on bass and Tony Garrick on drums.

San Diego Blues

The Saxations at HOB Jam

The JammingOut BLUSD jam at House of Blues was hopping last night, and as usual there were lots of local musicians who showed up to jam.  You never know who will be there, and last night was a real treat to have two members of The Saxations quartet in the house.  Playing the sax were Leilani Vidal and Michelle Maynard, who joined Doyle Thomas on guitar and vocals, Chris Cooper on keyboard, Irakli Aladash on bass, and Michael Minor on drums to perform cover song Unchain My Heart.