Deckbar & Grille/New Orleans, LA

This was my first visit to New Orleans post Katrina. After spending a few nights listening to the blues in the french quarter-Brian Lee at the Jazz Emporium and Big Al and the Blues Masters at the Funky Pirate, it was time for me to find a jam. No jams seemed to be happening on or around Bourbon St, however a $15 cab ride got me over to the Deckbar & Grille for a kickin' blues jam Wednesday night. Big Daddy's Juke Joint Blues Jam with Oscar & The Blues Cats starts around 8:30. This is a super jam with some terrific players showing up. Oscar did a good job getting everyone up and kept things cooking for the next four hours. Roger is the house drummer here and had a set of 60's Premeir drums that were fun to play and sounded great! This neighborhood blues jam is well worth checking out any time you're in the Crescent City.

Warmdaddy's/Philadelphia, PA

It's official! The Tuesday night blues jam with Randy Lippincott is back at Warmdaddy's. I was pleasantly surprised this week to play this great jam again. I'm not sure what happened here, but they're back. A very smart move by the management since it was a full house for Tuesday. A lot of the regular jammers are back also. If you are going to be in Philly make sure you check this jam out. Bob is the house drummer and a great guy who is always ready to share the drummers chair after the first set.

Rain Desert Resturant/Danielson, CT

Tuesday night is the blues jam night here at the Rain Desert. An out of the way club in the quiet corner of NE CT. Not a big showing here tonight for jammers or listeners. Good sound system with a large stage was a pleasant surprise....though up on stage my monitor was not working. A friendly jam master that got everyone up and gave me plenty of time behind the kit. Thank you, I enjoyed my time. The house kit was very tired however and needed an adjustable seat really bad. One thing that I haven't seen any other venue do that is done here is to video the jam and later post it on the clubs web site for all to enjoy. I believe the sound man had two stationary cameras setup so that he could fade between them recording all the action.

Acton Jazz Cafe/Acton, MA

Well December turned into a busy travel month for me and I didn't even have the time to comment here on the blues jam activity that I was a part of in Orlando, FL and Phoenix, AZ. However, I did get to play one more time in '07 at the Acton Jazz Cafe this past Thursday night. As always it was a great time playing to a packed house. I was up with the second set of jammers, playing on the house set of drums, which I dislike since you have to have a rock on top of the bass drum to hold the right mounted tom in place so you can play it. I did bring along my own snare-the 6 1/2X14" Ludwig Pioneer which sounds great and makes me feel more at home. People always seem to ask me as a drummer how do I like playing on a drum set that isn't my own at a jam. My answer back starts with asking the question if they have ever borrowed a bathing suit to go swimming. It feels like that. You can go swimming but it never really feels comfortable. The big news here tonight is a time change for the start of the jam, which will now be at 8pm and not the 9 or 9:30 that I've been seeing in the past. This is a wise decision on the part of the management-since most folks coming in on a Thursday are here only for the jam and really don't want to stick around late or wait while another band finishes up before the blues jam begins.