Len Rainey has Chicago roots, and you can hear it in the way he plays the blues. You can find him regularly at Patrick’s Pub and Humphreys.
Last night I finally got some video of his band playing at Patrick’s, which includes Walter Gentry on sax, Johnny Vernazza on guitar, Matt on drums, and Len singing and playing bass. Here he is performing a favorite cover song Black Cat Bone.
Every Wednesday night on the free stage at House of Blues is a good blues jam, hosted by JammingOut.net and BLUSD. Last night ended with members of the house band back up on stage doing the cover song Woke Up This Morning (Kevin Cooper on bass guitar, Lafayette Falkquay on lead guitar and Packy B on rhythm guitar) along with John Rokas on drums, who was visiting from Cleveland, OH.
Every Tuesday night you can catch Lafayette Falkquay and his blues band playing at the Gaslamp SpeakEasy. Lafayette is one of those southern bluesman you don’t get to hear often enough, so its always a treat for me to listen to him perform. Here is a video from last night with Lafayette singing Going to Louisiana, supported by Chris Terrell on drums and Ronnie Baumslater on bass.
There were a number of guitar players who showed up at the SpeakEasy blues jam Monday, and in this video they all jammed and did solos. From left to right, Jon Fai, Patrick Jarrell, Brandon Cerquedo and Fuzzy Rankins. Bob Prater was on bass and Bruce Hutcherson on drums.
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.
We have another full week of blues around town. In addition to what’s on the calendar, Whitney Shay will be playing at the new Central Library (Park Blvd & J Street) this Wednesday 5:30-7:30.
And starting at 7pm that night is the Wednesday night BLUSD JammingOut on the free Voodoo Stage at House of Blues. As you can see from video I took last Wednesday, this jam brings in some great musicians.
There is also a youth jam on Saturday afternoon for kids under 22 years old at the Gaslamp SpeakEasy, which is always good. We are hoping to see more talented kids at this blues jam, so don’t miss it if you are downtown.
What a great night at House of Blues on the Voodoo Stage! A number of musicians who happened to be in San Diego showed up to play, and the organizers for JammingOut Wednesdays (Rosalea Schiavone, Doyle Thomas and Kevin Cooper) did a great job getting them all up to play.
In this video, LaMonte DeMille who has been playing the past year in Europe and just got back into town was on lead guitar and vocals, supported by Irakli Aladash on bass, Tony Garrick on drums and Brad Hanson on harmonica, who was visiting from Washington state. We are going to see a lot more of LaMonte around town when he settles back into the area this Spring – check out his UTube videos at demac520.
At the end of the evening, a newcomer to the jam, Greg Dones got up to play bass and sang the cover song The Blues is Alright. With him was Brad Hanson on harp, Packy B on guitar, and I didn’t catch who was on drums. It was a fabulous ending to the jam.
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 just heard that Jimmy Love’s will be closing for renovations this week. I don’t know for how long. As a result, Annette DaBomb won’t be playing there this Wednesday, although I understand Fuzzy Rankins will still be there for the dinner hour (6-8:45) on Friday – although that could change too.
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.
