Railhead-Boulder Station Hotel/Las Vegas, NV

While looking for a blues jam to play on Thursday here in Vegas and finding none. I took a chance and went to check out a place that I had heard there was blues being featured every Thursday night. I was blown away when I walked into this show room and found Tommy Castro and his band just finishing up their first song of the night. Lucky for me they were just getting started playing from about 8-11 with about 40 minute break between two sets. Tommys great, but of course it was the drummer, Chris Sandoval that I enjoyed watching and listening to. He plays for the groove and keeps the fills to a minimum-a la Al Jackson, Jr. A blues drummer after my own heart. His double shuffle is dead on and he plays a great train beat. During the break between sets I got a chance to talk to Chris about his snare drum, among other things. The snare sounded great and I found out it was an older 6 1/2" Pearl free floating shell that he had found in a music store. Chris brought it back to life by drilling it for Ludwig lugs and using a Pearl die-cast rim on the batter side. I asked if they were going to do their song "My Older Sisters Radio" off their new album. Chris said they would and later Tommy intro'd it by giving Bill Wax from XM Radio credit for playing and pluging it on Bluesville channel 74 on the satellite. If you haven't seen this band in concert you need to. I think they maybe coming to Chan's in June. Check them out.

Bunkhouse Saloon/Las Vegas, NV

Played the blues jam here last Tuesday evening. The Bunkhouse's location isn't anywhere near the strip and blocks from the brightly light downtown area. The house band started at 10 and jammers started being called up by 11:15 . The jam is run by a harp player better known as "Lipz". Pretty much the run of the mill blues songs here "Mustang Sally, Sweet Home Chicago, Stormy Monday"-you get the idea. The biggest surprise of the night was the ride cymbal on the house drummers kit set up at an 85 degree angle. Why do people play cymbals in that position? I sure there must be other jams to play in sin city, just not tonight.

Worcester Magazine/Worcester, MA

I was sure surprised to see my blog comments about the Gilreins blues jam last Sunday reprinted this week in Worcester Magazine. But there it was on page 10, April 19th edition in their "Blog Log" compiled by Scott Zoback. I also received a Email response from Tom Doyle/Gilreins "Home of the Blues". It reads: " Hi, Sorry for the long wait I know we had a couple of bands scheduled and most weeks we won't have entire bands but we had a couple bands trying to get into the club and had to give them a chance. Please stop in again and sit in for a few more songs. Hope to see you again. T " Don't worry Tom. I will be back when I can, but my travel this next week takes me out to Las Vegas.

Acton Jazz Cafe/Acton, MA

Back for the Thursday night blues jam this week. Played the third set on the house kit for the first time. Usually Mike Avery brings his set, but he didn't have time to pick it up at home before the jam. This set is a mid-grade Pearl kit, nothing special. Thank goodness I had brought my own snare drum. The big news of the night was that house guitar player Tom Yates had just won the title of "King of the Blues" at Guitar Centers NE competition in Natick. I've had the pleasure of playing drums behind Tom many times at this jam. He's a fine blues player and singer. I wish I could have been at the contest.

Warmdaddys/Philadelphia,PA

Philly is not a stronghold of the blues, but the blues jam here at Warmdaddys is helping to keep the flame alive. First, you have a new beautiful restaurant/ bar venue-great food. Second, A big stage and a sound system with a sound man that knows what to do with it. And third, the blues jam itself being run by Randy Lippincott and his band. Randy does a great job of matching up new or struggling players with the more experienced ones with great results. Where else can you go and play with the caliber of players that come here every Tuesday night to jam. Randy who has played guitar with Luther "Guitar" Johnson, Debbie Davies and Johnny Copeland. Then there is Don Evans ex-guitar player for Billy Joel and the real deal, guitar man James"Thunderbird" Ford from South Carolina. I've been playing this jam for about four years now every time I'm in Philly and it's still a thrill to play here. Tonight I was the only drummer to show up other than Bob the house drummer, so I got to play two sets. One was backing up James "Thunderbird" Ford. To play a shuffle behind this guy is a blues drummers dream. I've been here in the past when there's been 5 or more drummers signed up to play, so a night this light on drummers is rare. The house drum kit is a well worn Pearl kit with a snare that I dislike, so I brought along my Eames Master Model snare to play. Even Bob the house drummer used it once he heard how good it sounded. Check out Warmdaddys website: www.warmdaddys.com

Gilreins/Worcester, MA

New blues jam and last night was their second Sunday. Gilreins is a blues club that is well known in the area, but has been closed for a few years. The new owner has done a beautiful job of revamping this venue. However the jam still needs some work. First there's a good size stage and sound system. Nice crowd and some dancing, which is always a plus. The jam starts at 4 pm and ends at 9. I arrived at 6 and signed in on the jam list, but never got on to play until after 8. It seems that if you show up with a group to play you get on first, even if you are at the bottom of the list. One group was a jazz quartet that got to play 5 songs. Hey, I thought this was a Blues Jam? Using the sign up list in order and limiting sets to 3 songs or 15 minutes is a good policy to consider here since most players, myself included, won't be returning if they have to wait a long time to play while having to listen to something other than blues. The house drummer is a friendly guy with a great set of Sonor drums with a poppin' Gretch snare. This is one of the nicer sets I've ever had a chance to play at a jam. Check out Gilreins website: www.gilreins.net

Providence Zen Center/Cumberland, RI

Not a blues jam, but a half hour gig playing "Buddha's Birthday Weekend" celebration on April 7th. I received a Email from my buddy Bob Cohen who I met at the Chan's blues jam that he needed a drummer for a Saturday night blues gig. My problem was that I was traveling for ten days straight and would not have any time to practice. In fact, I didn't get back home until about 6 hours before the start of the gig. So, Bob posted the songs on his Web-site for us to learn, and we had about 5 minutes to go over the starts and stops of the tunes before we played. All in all we sounded great! The group was made up of myself on the cocktail set, Bob on harp and singing, Bob Vabulus on bass and Chris Stovall Brown on guitar. With the majority of my playing doing jams this was a real treat to play with some terrific local blues musicians.

Oskies/Farragut,TN

Played this Wednesday night blues jam last night. Friendly players, but blues music was in short supply at this venue. A big disappointment with the caliber of players and selection of "blues songs". When did "Smoke On The Water" gain entry into any ones blues set list? The drums carried on the theme being a Pearl set from the eighties that were well worn and hadn't had a head change since then. I won't be back anytime.