Irene's/Ottawa Canada

This truly is the best blues jam(Stellar Cast Blues Showcase) in Ottawa. A lot of credit goes to Mike Ktenas of Mojo Guitar Repair for pulling this off every Thursday night. Bassman Mike and drummer Corkey Kealy always have a guest "host" player of the highest caliber to kick the night off from the first note. Last night it was guitar ace JW Jones from Ottawa. I got to sit in for the fourth set and it was a real pleasure to play with JW. An international blues star in his own right, I also see he has been working with my favorite living blues drummer Richard Innes during the recording of his latest, soon to be released CD.

The Rainbow/Ottawa, Canada

Good blues jam going on here once again. The jammers were down to a minimum last time I played here about two months ago. However tonight things were looking and sounding much better. Rumour has it that that Dan Aykroyd will stop in here to jam on harp when he is in town to visit. I was up on stage for the third set with Mike on bass, Dr Dave and Rob on guitars. Great players and a fun time.

Also got to play on an Ayotte set of drums for the first time. This Canadian made set sounds great and with the wood hoops rim shots were easily played.

Acton Jazz Cafe/Acton, MA

The Acton Jazz Cafe last Thursday was busy as usual. It's been about two months since I last played the blues jam here. Up tonight with Rob and Herb on guitars along with a bass player that had a custom made stand-up solid body that looked werid, but sounded fine. We started off the four song set with a Jimmy Reed tune "Baby What You Want Me To Do." Which reminded me of a new Austin City Limits program I just saw on PBS-HD a few weeks before. The show was a tribute to Jimmy Reed featuring the "Jimmy Reed Highway". Great music and musicians-the drummer West Starr played a late 50's or early 60's Rogers set with center lugs on the bass and toms. I've never seen that kind of Rogers set before. Wes's blues drumming was teriffic-no over playing, just keeping the grove simple and in the pocket. In fact, Wes appeared to be a left handed drummer playing a right handed set--interesting.

Chan's/Woonsocket, RI

I've been playing the once a month blues jam at Chan's off and on for the last year and a half. If you read any of my earlier posts from this year you can see that at one time it was just a terrific place to play. It had been a while since I had the chance to go until last month and then again last night. Things here have really changed. No longer is there the big crowd turnout to hear the music. A lot of the jammers have stopped coming too. There used to be keyboard players, horn players and really great musicians from other working bands that would stop in to jam-not any more. What happened here? Here's my observations: For what ever reason Jam Master Ken has let a 17 year old guitar slinger just take over this jam. Now don't get me wrong. The kid plays pretty well for his age. However, he is not even close to what Monster Mike Welch's ability was when he was that old. This kid also plays way too loud, even after being asked to turn it down a bit. Attitude problems? The smart remarks he makes over the mike between songs gets old quick and enough with the constant Hendrix and Cream tunes. But the real problem here is that he is up on the bandstand just about all night long. Last night he was up except for about 30 minutes during this 3 hour blues jam. Give this kid his spot of 3,4, 5 tunes and he's done just like everyone else. Let the rest of the jammers play the blues(It is still a blues jam isn't it?) and everyone will again enjoy a night out listening to the blues instead of having to babysit this guitar child.