This is a pretty typical week for San Diego blues around town, although it is light at Humphrey’s Backstage on Shelter Island. But in another week, Kona Kai Lounge should be open again and hosting regular blues bands. Patrick’s has mostly blues this week, which means there is live blues music every day of the week. Enjoy!
I’m happy to say that Patrick’s Pub in the Gaslamp has a full week of San Diego blues, and most of it straight up blues. Unfortunately I’m not in town to enjoy it, although I did go to a great bl…ues gig last night in Newburyport, Massachusetts hosted by Parker Wheeler with his friends (this week it was SuperChief Trio).
There are a few highlights this week to check out… Whitney Shay and Robin Henkel will be at 98 Bottles doing a tribute to Little Richard, and Tyler Ray Davidson (a super talented young guitarist who often plays at the Youth Blues Jam) will have his own blues band performing at Hennessey’s on Saturday afternoon. I’m sorry to miss both of these, so I hope you get to catch one of them.
This is a light week for San Diego blues, but you will still find some good live blues every single night in the Gaslamp. There is also Saturday afternoons at Hennessey’s!
I’m sad to see that Patrick’s Pub is shifting to more rock and Humphrey’s Backstage has less blues, but Kona Kai’s lounge will be re-opening in July.
Years ago, blues sax player Terry Hanck played in San Diego with Elvin Bishop when he was on tour out of San Francisco. He was back in town on Sunday with his band at Patrick’s Pub. Joining them on stage was Johnny Vernazza, who used to play with both Elvin and Terry.
Patrick’s isn’t an easy place to get good quality video, but for the Terry Hanck fans, it will be fun to watch.
San Diego Blues
It is a pretty typical week for downtown San Diego blues, with most of it happening at the SpeakEasy and Patrick’s in the Gaslamp.
Hopefully Kona Kai’s renovations will wrap up soon on Shelter Island, and they will resume their schedule of blues a few times a week. It is a nice complement to Humphrey’s Backstage schedule (which is now a mix of blues on Mondays & R&B on many Thursdays and Sundays – along with their predominantly jazz calendar).
We seem to have more R&B bands getting booked this spring, which suggests the venues are getting more people out for that. I’m hoping we will see a trend back to more blues in the summer.
One other trend, that is drawing a nice crowd, is the 2-5pm blues at Hennessey’s/SpeakEasy. This past weekend was the Youth Blues Jam, which is always impressive, and this coming Saturday we will have John January & The Rare Creed!
It was a slow (always that way after a holiday weekend) but good jam night at Patrick’s Pub. Here is a clip of newcomer to the jam, Fred Lawson, on bass and singing You Better Pray. Great song and some great solos from Johnny Vernazza on guitar, Chuck Arcilla on sax, and Walter Gentry on sax – our beloved jam host, along with Matthew Burgher on drums.
Note: Video is a bit grainy and a few times out of focus, which happens when the lighting isn’t that good where the sax players stand. But still very worth watching.
San Diego Blues
Memorial Day kicks off another full week of blues around town. This week most of the live blues is at the Gaslamp SpeakEasy, Patrick’s Pub and Humphrey’s Backstage Lounge. So it’s a bit light, but still lots of good music every single night.
At JammingOut at HOB this Wednesday there will be a local featured band, as they do now the last Wednesday of the month. This time it is Bi-Polar Express, who is also playing at the Harley Davidson in Little Italy next Saturday from noon-1:30.
And we have a band coming in from out of town on Sunday night, the Terry Hanck band (Terry plays sax) – based out of San Francisco, which will be playing at Patrick’s. They won the blues category in the International Songwriting Competition last year and are now back out on tour. I checked out their website, and they sound great!
I have wanted to hear this band for a while, and I finally saw them the other night at the Gaslamp SpeakEasy. They will be back there again at the end of June. This is Doc Holiday’s organ-influenced and soul-infused sound that runs the gamut of jazz, blues, rock and soul – with John Hunt (a fabulous guitarist) and Billy Wear on drums. Everyone seemed to really enjoy them.
There was a wide mix of tune genres, and these 2 videos just give you a taste of what these guys play.
This first video highlights Doc on the organ in the song A Real Good ‘Un.
And in this video, John Hunt does a fabulous medley of cover songs Susie Q and Born on the Bayou.
San Diego Blues
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
This week we have a nice mix of blues – from straight up blues to blues mixed in with zydeco, swing, jazz, R&B and soul. Silky Sol is new in town – from St. Louis, and she has an amazing soul voice (think Aretha Franklin). You can catch her Saturday afternoon at the SpeakEasy from 2-5pm.
Jams are happening as usual on Monday (Gaslamp SpeakEasy), Tuesday (Patrick’s Pub) and Wednesday (JammingOut at House of Blues AND also at Humphrey’s), so there are two jams now happening regularly on Wednesday nights.
NOTE: JammingOut at HOB on Wednesday will start at 9pm, not 7pm – this week only.
