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Gig Updates July 26, 2008- Saturday night Moondogs: Blawnox, Pa. I must admit, my ole ass was draggin on da way home from dis gig. Whitey, Harry and I opened up with a lazy take on “Lazybones” then chased that with “Nightclub”. It was cool to look out in the house and see a bunch of folks I seen last night. Didn’t want do any of the tunes we did last night. “We Come a Long Way” came down clean. “Graceland” made me proud and “That Ain’t Gonna Happen” sucked all the air right outta da room. It was time to change it up, so we brought Frank Giove up on stage to play guitar with us. Frank is an old friend; we went thru junior and high school together. He was a hot player back then, playing surf instrumentals and he’s a hot player now, rockin da blues. “Hoochie Mama” nand “Barefootin” both gave my ole bud a chance to bang his strat around. With Mark Stutso on drums and Harry Bottoms on bass, Zack Wiesinger storm trouped the joint playing this goofy lick that seemed to never end. He then played a solo slow blues on electric guitar, it was herky jerky, but it was impressive. We took a short pause in the action, then came back onstage with Mark Stutso front n’ center. A dramatic take of “Your Go Your Way” quieted down the house n’ got folks focused on Stutso’s voice. “Million Tears” was a groove; “Three Times Your Fool” brought down the house, like they used t’ say. Nothin But Trouble is the name of the next act to get on the Moondog stage. Three Delawareans and one yinzer make up this blues rocking band. Two electric guitars, bass and drums fill out the sound. They came on strong n’ didn’t let up. Zack Wiesinger joined them for the last couple tunes. One, being that ole Ten Years After tune I like so much. The perfect thing to do after the heavy performance by Nothin But Trouble was to go in the other direction. Me n’ mine got back onstage to back up Bob Addelman who sang a great take on Dion’s “Run Around Sue” as Whitey and Harry conjured up some instant BG vocals. Somewhere in the middle of that, Frank Giove starts hackin wit us again. Katie Ramone got up and sang “I’d Rather Go Blind”, she got folks clapping. About this time, Stutso jumps on “Work Together”…………so I take the opportunity to stand on the side of the stage and let Frank Giove and Stutso rip a slow blues, “It’s My Own Fault” ………..I handed my guitar to Zack, n’ we smacked “Mojo” around awhile. We all said goodnight……….but the fat lady hadn’t sung, so Moondog got onstage to sing “I Shall Be Released”………wonderful evenings like this are precious……..did I mention my ole ass was draggin. July 26, 2008-Saturday evening Pittsburgh Blues Festival: Hartwood Acres, Pittsburgh, Pa. The blues fest gets bigger every year. I must also say, it gets to be more fun every year. We had Shari Richards singing lead on the two opening tunes. “Let The Good Times Roll” and “Rock Me Baby” gave this Pittsburgh girl a chance to show her hometown what an ass kicker she really is. Shari is a real natural performer, I just watched the crowd follow her every move. Bob Adelman on trumpet and Eric Spalding on sax did a fine job of making up instant horn lines to fill out the sound. By the time we brought Mark Stutso onstage, the crowd swelled to a fairly impressive size, luv dat. Stutso sang the wrong words to the opening line of “Million Tears”, then gave a near perfect reading of every line he sang the rest of the show. “Victoria’s Secret”, “If I Had a Child”, “I Hate a Nickel” all rocked da house. We featured Zack Wiesinger on lead guitar and he brought his own unique style to this material. “Heart Break Shake” was a highlight with Whitey Cooper pounding on his floor tom, heads was bobbin far as I could see. When we hit “Bow Legged Woman” the crowd was treated to an extended guitar solo from Zack that brought cheers from the blues hungry throng. “Send You Back” was a gas; the rave up ending felt like it could have gone on forever. At this point we got Shari out front again to sing “I’d Rather Go Blind”, powerful. Our show closed with Shari n’ Stutso singing “Work Together”. N’ dats what happened, from da instant horn lines, to da crazy guitar of young Zack, da good rockin rhythm of Whitey n’ bass ambassador Harry Bottoms, to lil’ ole me, just watchin it all come together………..da blues is alright……… July 25, 2008-Friday Moondogs: Blawnox, Pa. I was excited even before we went onstage on this after the Blues Fest Jam. Whitey n’ Harry and I opened the evening with a short but powerful set. “Boilermaker”, “End of the Line”, “Son of a Gun”, “Ain’t It Amazing”, then we banged out a couple oldies. “That Girl” n’ “Burnin Up”, there was magic in the air by this time. We brought out ole and dear friend, Bob McKeag to sing and play guitar on a couple blues jams that I didn’t even know, didn’t matter cause McKeag had it all covered. We then brought a lady onstage I didn’t know, didn’t know her original tunes either, but Patti Spadoro played some nice guitar and sang her way to some strong applause on the two numbers she presented. Then enters zydeco legends, Lil’ Brian and the Zydeco Travelers, straight from the blues festival. These professionals held the stage for about an hour of highly energized entertainment. John their guitar player asked me to play with them, so I did, about the first half of their set. But I wanted to get off stage and enjoy these guys myself. I was sitting by the bar when they broke into a medley of “Beast Of Burden” and “No Woman No Cry”. We then brought Whitey Cooper out front to sing “Try Me” with Lil’Bryan on accordion and blues guitar hero Tab Benoit on drums. Following that, Whitey crooned “634-5789”. Lil’Bryan’s drummer got out front on the scrub board as Whitey shouted out “Mojo”, all the while Tab was funkin up da tubs like a garbage truck rollin down an alley, {that’s a compliment}. We all sang happy birthday to our host Ron Moondog Esser, then bartender Bill got up and sang happy birthday in Polish, luv dat. Then Lil’Bryan’s bass player Max, all the way from East Africa, took center stage leading McKeag, Tab and I on an extended African blues jam. What a true pleasure that was. Mckeag closed out the show singing “Why I Sing The Blues”………….and believe me everyone in the house went home pleased n’ satisfied…………. July 19, 2008-Saturday Mogie’s: Lower Burrell, Pa. It was a pleasant evening on the patio. Folks was comin n’ goin, eatin, drinkin, laughin……..beautiful. I probably should have called a few more of the older tunes; you know, dat ole Pittsburgh rock n’ roll. “Burnin’ Up” got over well as did “Ready Freddy”. “End of the Line” came off strong; I’m slowly getting better at the slide work that makes that tune come alive. “That Ain’t Gonna Happen” kicked it all into gear somewhere early in set one. A rousing version of “Steeler Nation” reminded everyone just how close football season is. Ole pal and drummer, George da Greek was in the house, so we got him up to play while we turned Whitey Cooper loose with a microphone. Da Greek was in fine form and laid down the perfect groove, as Whitey crooned. “Great Balls Of Fire”, “634-5709”, “Try Me” n’ “Mojo” all sounded fresh as can be. I saw a ton of ole buddies and did a buncha’ laughin. Saw the lovely Erin Burkett and Virgil Waters having dinner, was lookin for Higgy…………..n’ getting jiggy. Katie Ramone got up with us to sing “I’d Rather Go Blind”…….da nite closed out with “Rock You”………….at dat moment in time my whole life made perfect sense. July 18, 2008 The Roar on the Shore: Downtown Erie, Pa. Big stage, big PA, and my big mouth, luv it. Got a chance to meet a mess of locals, most of ‘em Cleve Brownie fans……….dawg pounders, I call ‘em…..then there was some ball bustin goin down……..’n before ya know it, Nat da hat from Rocket Radio was introducing us to the crowd. We did the first half hour three piece. “Boilermaker”, “Somethin’s Cookin”, “Minimum Wage”, “If I Had A Child”, “Hoochie Mama”, n’ “Little Things”, we took a very short pause……..I looked out front and thought, “dis is startin to look like a wang dang doodle”……lets fire ‘em up boys……this time, Vinny Q came onstage with us to play some raggedy ass guitar,……..luv dat.”Reddy Freddy”, “Rock n’ Roll City”, “Heat Of The Night”, “Son Of A Gun”, Vinny really helps to make things come alive with his guitar style…….”Who Dat Do Dat”, “Nightclub”, “Poor Little Rich Kid”, “Burnin’ Up”, “Smoke Two Joints” hit a sweet spot with da heads. We did Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” and folks were cheering at the end of V Q’s guitar solo….cool….. I broke a string on the first note of “Moneymaker” but the show went on…….both Whitey and Harry were their usual power house of rhythm n’ time. And on this day, a whole lotta folks got to share in that………..our show was followed by our good buddies, Felix And The Hurricanes…………….I need more of da roar on da shore…….next summer? July 12, 2008-Saturday Excuses: Southside-Pittsburgh, Pa Seemed like folks needed to hear that ole Pittsburgh rock n’ roll on this summer evening. Cool……so we did some a’ dat. “White Trash Tragedy” sticks out as a tune that held it’s own early on, as did “Ain’t It Amazing”. Harry got in touch with his people on “Pots n’ Pans”. “T-Bird” had wings. For some reason we did “3 River Rock”, which is actually a very cool tune with a serious hometown heart. Set two kicked with “Graceland” which we sent out to Nick, “the good Italian boy”. “Hells Highway” was smoking. We sent the ole Silencers classic, “Sidewalk Romeo” out to Terrible Tom. Katie Ramone got up with us to sing a very well received “I’d Rather Go Blind” and “Be My Baby”. Somewhere in the madness we spanked “End Of The Line”………I could have played all night…. I could have played all night….then still have played some more……….. July 5, 2008 Road Worthy Tavern: West Liberty, West Virginia While tuning up the band out in the parking lot we saw a giant toad that come out of the pond. This club is located on the side of a mountain in the HILLS of WVA, love that large. We saw a red fox on the way home, we didn’t see Red Fox the star of Sanford n’ Son, we saw the beast. Cool, huh? We also saw a couple ole buddies that we hadn’t seen in a bunch of years, folks from down Fairmont way. Whitey’s drums sounded great onstage, I hope they sounded that good out front. I hit a couple strong solo’s tonight, like on “Nothin to Lose” and “T-Bird”. We did “Over Said and Done”, hadn’t done that in a coons age. Oh yea, we saw a raccoon on the way home too. Cool, huh?
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