San Diego Blues Calendar: Dec 1st – 7th

Blues Calendar - Dec 1This is a bit of strange week for San Diego blues.  There isn’t much real blues happening at the Speakeasy or Patrick’s, which is highly unusual.  But you can hear some good blues at Balboa Park’s December Nights on Friday and Saturday.

I haven’t heard Rosy Dawn before, and she’s playing at Patrick’s and Hennessey’s at the end of the week.  From what I hear, she does blues, R&B and soul.

You can also get some downtown blues at the jams Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.
Take note: the JammingOut at HOB jam is on Thursday, not Wednesday, this week.
Enjoy the music!

 

San Diego Blues Calendar: Nov 24th – 30th

Blues Calendar - Nov 24 It’s a light week for the holidays, but still plenty of good San Diego blues and jazzy or soulful blues to be found downtown at the Speakeasy and Patrick’s, even on Thanksgiving evening.

Taryn Donath will be at the Speakeasy both Tuesday and Friday night, and Stoney B will be there Wednesday and Thursday.  If you haven’t heard either of these great performers, you are in for a treat.  Stoney is a wonderful storytelling blues man, and Taryn is a fabulous swinging jazz keyboardist with an incredible voice.

And if you haven’t checked out Prohibition yet, Saturday night with Whitney Shay will be fun. She brings a lot of soul and spunk to her jazz and blues; perfect for a Friday night!

 

San Diego Blues Calendar: Nov 17th – 23rd

Blues Calendar - Nov 17

The weekly Wednesday night blues jam, JammingOut at HOB, is canceled this week and will resume December 3rd.  But there is the jam tonight at the Speakeasy and tomorrow night at Patrick’s for all you jam lovers and musicians.

The rest of the week is pretty typical, with some changes at the Speakeasy now that Lafayette and Annette DaBomb are no longer playing there.  The blues band Polar Express will be there Tuesday night, and Wilovalot will be back Saturday night.  He used to play there regularly on Sundays, which is now a Rockabilly night.

San Diego Blues Calendar: Nov 10th – 16th

Blues Calendar - Nov 10

This week marks a change in the schedule at the Gaslamp Speakeasy.  Long-time regulars, Lafayette Blues Band as well as Annette DaBomb & the Bomb Squad, will no longer be playing on Tuesday and Thursday nights.  Annette has moved to Houston, and she will be very missed!  Lafayette is still playing in the host band at the JammingOut at HOB on Wednesday nights, so you can catch him there at 7pm.

For those who love Humphrey’s, there is a bit more blues out there this week, and for Patrick’s regulars there is a new band playing on Sunday night, Fat Shirley, and they sound interesting.  Enjoy the week!

Sweet Goodbye to Annette DaBomb

Last Thursday was Annette DaBomb’s final performance downtown at the Gaslamp Speakeasy, and it was bittersweet to me.  I’ve come to love her and her beautiful voice.

Annette DaBomb & the Bomb Squad

Here’s Annette with her Bomb Squad musicians, long-time drummer Tony Peterson, keyboardist Alan Zundelevich, and bass player Cecil McBee.

And some video I took the week before of Annette singing that great cover song Everyday I Have the Blues.

San Diego Blues

San Diego Blues Calendar: Nov 3rd – 9th

Blues Calendar - Nov 3

I’m late getting the calendar out this week, but usually Mondays and Tuesdays are often pretty much the same every week.  Fuzzy Rankins’ jam on Mondays and Walter Gentry’s jam on Tuesdays.  Blues Mondays at Humphreys. R&B Mondays at Patricks.  Zydeco Tuesdays at Tio Leos.  And blues Monday-Saturday at the SpeakEasy.

For the rest of the week, we have a pretty full schedule.  If you didn’t hear Stoney B last night you can catch him tonight at the SpeakEasy.  And Annette DaBomb is here for one more week at the SpeakEasy on both Thursday and Friday night.  Whitney Shay is at the US Grant Grill on Friday and then again at Prohibition on Saturday night – a small little hidden speakeasy on 5th near Market.  And there’s a good line up at Patrick’s, including Len Rainey, Fuzzy Rankins and a new blues rock guitarist in town, Jo Hell.

Hope to see you out there enjoying the San Diego Blues!!

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!!

Missy & Heine Andersen Win the San Diego Blues Competition

Congratulations to Missy and Heine for winning the solo/duo San Diego International Blues Competition (IBC).  They will represent us at the annual IBC in Memphis this coming January.  See the video of them from my post 2 weeks ago.

Also performing was Harmonica John Frazer, playing the harp and guitar while performing this well known Sonny Boy Williamson cover song, Help Me.

As well as Ben Powell, who won the local competition two years ago.  Here is Ben performing a Blind Willie Johnson cover tune, Bye and Bye I’m Going to See the King.  As Ben shared with us, the songs he likes to perform are the older country blues songs of the 1920s and 30s, and they are wonderful tunes.

Here’s Ben playing and singing his tune Away From Home.

And another one of Ben performing Sitting On Top of The World

And last but not least, Andres Acuna (who used to play in Annette DaBomb’s band) and Eddie Sadler were also in the final round.  I didn’t get video of them (ran out of memory ;( , but they were also very good.

San Diego Blues

Stoney B Blues Summit Rocked the House – Michele Lundeen & Annette DaBomb

Two of my favorite soulful blues singers in San Diego were at the Stoney B Summit last Sunday night, and they were fantastic.

Michele isn’t called the Queen of Steam for nothing.  Here she is singing one of her original songs, Song Inside Me (title of her CD – great CD!, which you can get link to it on my Tunes page).  She’s singing with Charles Burton on guitar (who also performed on her CD), Ric Lee on drums, John Simons on bass and special guest Irv Goldstein on the organ.

In this video Michele is singing another one of her originals, also on that same CD, called Blues is a Feeling.  Great song.

Here is Annette DaBomb singing cover song Got My Mojo Working, with Andres Acuna on guitar, Doc Holiday on keyboards, Bob Prater on bass, Tony Peterson on drums, and Zach Cole harmonica.

San Diego Blues

Stoney B Blues Summit Rocked the House – Gomez Blues Project

Stoney B hosted his third annual blues summit Sunday evening at the TinRoof, and dozens of blues musicians and blues bands participated to a packed crowd.  It was a fantastic event, and I was able to get a lot of great video.

Alex Gomez was there with his Gomez Blues Project band, including a new blues singer in town, Cerissa Cole.  Wow, she has an incredible voice.  Here she is singing Aretha Franklin’s cover song Rock Steady.  She is with Alex Gomez on guitar, Victor Franklin on bass, Tony Peterson on drums & vocals, Walter Gentry playing the sax & Doc Holiday on keyboards.

And this next video is of them performing cover song Chain of Fools.

And last they did a Poppa Chubby cover song Stoop Down Baby, This tune features Walter Gentry on sax doing a solo and Alex Gomez on guitar.

San Diego Blues