One of my favorite female blues singers is Michele Lundeen, and she performs downtown fairly often – mostly at Humphrey’s Backstage Lounge. She will be back there next week on Tuesday the 16th 7pm.
I was there Friday night and got this video of her singing the cover song Some Kind of Wonderful with her band. I need to get more video of her!! She’s good and lots of fun, and she owns up to her name – the Queen of Steam.
San Diego Blues
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!
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!
LaMonte DeMille is back in town with his Chicago Blues after being away this past year. He was at Humphrey’s Backstage this weekend with his band, which includes many familiar faces in our blues scene (Walter Gentry on sax, Victor Franklin on bass and Ernie Ferrel on trumpet).
San Diego Blues
If you are having a hard day, as I was yesterday, zydeco music can really lift your spirits. So I went to Humphrey’s Backstage last night to hear the Bayou Brothers – one of the few Cajun and blues bands in San Diego, and it got me up dancing along with everyone else. Check them out the next time they play at Tio Leo’s on a zydeco Tuesday or they are back at Humphrey’s!
