At the end of the JammingOut at HOB jam Wednesday night, Fuzzy Rankins showed up and played with Lafayette Falkquay, both of them incredible lead guitarists. Here they are having a fun time with Fuzzy singing Stop Following Me Around. On stage with them are Billy Wear on drums, Kevin Cooper on bass and Justin Fools on harp. It was a great way to end the night.
San Diego Blues
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
Two of my favorite local bands were playing last night just a block from each other in the Gaslamp. Fuzzy Rankins blues band was at Patrick’s Pub and Whitney Shay (with her jazzy blues trio) was at the SpeakEasy which had a packed house. No surprise with Whitney there!
Before Patrick’s got too crowded, I was able to get this video of Fuzzy doing his funked up version of Muddy Water’s great cover song Got My Mojo Working. His band members last night were Ronnie Baumslater on bass and Michael Minor on drums.
Then I went over to the SpeakEasy to catch Whitney singing, Jodie Hill on bass and Marley Waak on the drums. Everyone was having a great time.
San Diego Blues
Walter Gentry’s Tuesday night jam was another packed evening on and off the stage. Who ever said blues is boring hasn’t been to a San Diego jam!
Here we have Ray Zvetini playing guitar and singing an Albert King (and later Eric Clapton) cover song Crosscut Saw. With him on stage are Doyle Thomas on guitar, Seth Webster on bass, Lisa Viegas on drums, Tim Sutherland on keyboard, Ray Brown on trumpet and John Brooks on sax.
Some of the musicians switched out and Ray Brown took over the vocals and belted out that great Commodore’s cover song Brick House. Justin Fools joined in on harmonica, Fuzzy Rankins played the keyboard, Matt Taylor was back on drums, and I’m not sure who was playing the other guitar. Seth was still on bass, John was on sax, and I didn’t catch who joined them on trumpet. The sound got a bit loud, so it didn’t pick up too well on my mic.
Earlier that night, Somerset Barnard, visiting from Australia, was performing one of his own tunes Nobody’s Fault. He was joined by Seth Webster on bass guitar, Johnny Vernazza on guitar, Matt Taylor on drums, Ray Brown on trumpet and John Brooks on sax.
San Diego Blues
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
Every Tuesday night Lafayette Falkquay and his blues band plays at the Gaslamp SpeakEasy. On drums is Billy Wear and on bass is Ronnie Baumslater. This Tuesday he was also joined by harmonica player, Doug Camphuis (who played with Lafayette a number of years ago), doing one of Lafayette’s signature cover songs… Black Cat Bone.
A former drummer also stopped in to play with the band, Frank Alverez, and here he is playing with other friends who came in that night: Fuzzy Rankins on guitar and Ms Silky Sol (Red Afro Queen) as they perform cover song Rock Me Baby.
And later on Ronnie took over the mike to sing Skin Tight. Not exactly blues, but rounded out the evening perfectly.
San Diego Blues
I’m out in Memphis, getting to hear some of the best blues bands from all over the world down on Beale Street, in the heart of the blues. Our own Fuzzy Rankins Blues Band, representing the Blues Lovers United of San Diego, raised the bar early in the International Blues Competition.
People were commenting on how good they were, and that is saying something. There were some incredibly good bands competing to win the title. While Fuzzy’s band didn’t win, which is a disappointment, they stood out among the hundreds of bands who came to perform.
Here they are playing at the Rum Boogie Café on Beale Street. Bruce Hutcherson was explosive on drums, Tom Mylett was keeping the bottom nice and strong on bass, Hindy Bare was rounding it out on the organ, and Fuzzy was ripping it up and doing his thing.
Here is some video from Monday night’s blues jam at the Speakeasy. Fuzzy Rankins on lead guitar, Irakli Aladash on bass guitar and Patrick Jarrell on rhythm guitar, along with an out-of-town visitor, John Rokas, on drums.
Thanks to Irakli for sending me this clip.
Its been a while since Fuzzy and his band has played at Patrick’s Pub, and he was back last night to a good crowd. He will be back there again later this month on the 30th!
I wasn’t able to get the whole song (cover song You Talk Too Much) in this clip, which is a shame. I realized half way into it that my video wasn’t actually recording, but the rest is pretty good of TC Tye on keys, Bruce Hutcherson on drums, Cecil McBee on bass, Fuzzy, and an out-of-town harmonica player, Danny Thornburry from Louisville, KY.
I was away most of last week and missed catching the blues around town, so I hope to catch more of the bands and jams this week. Last night I stopped in at the Gaslamp SpeakEasy Monday night jam for the second set, and I got to hear these musicians jammin together with Fuzzy Rankins. It was a great set and this video is of their last song before the break.
On guitars with Fuzzy were Patrick Jerrell and Jon Fai (furthest to his right), Karl Bradley on drums (who did a solo in this video), Bob Prater on bass guitar, and behind Jon (where its hard to see him) was Justin Fools on harmonica.