Adventures in Jamming
From time to time members of the band venture further afield in search of jamming nirvana - D the harp player has been spotted at various suspicious looking gatherings of like-minded bluenatics in all manner of unlikely settings - Northampton and Pilkington anyone? S the voice and six string strangler recently jammed in Micheldever, Norwich, Ipswich, Basingstoke and Bentworth in a single week. Accompanied by H the 4-string shedevil he has jammed as far away as St Austell and Redruth.
North of the Border...
The next foray into the wild, wooly, wide world of jam was S's recent trip to Scotland. Starting on Monday night in Glasgow at the Spirit Bar - a different experience indeed! Though he failed to stay long enough to actually play, he was impressed by the high standard of rock playing and even more so by the extraordinary capacity for drinking that audience and muso alike displayed there.
Tuesday night at the State Bar in Glasgow - excellent house band "Statesboro Blues Band" invited our hero up to play a couple of numbers - we knew there was a market for "My Baby Don't Wear No Panties" - unfortunately it turns out to be 450 miles away! It went down a storm though. Generally a splendid night out with a great deal of fine music at a well led jam.
Having taken Wednesday off, if it's Thursday it must be "Sinky's" in Dunfermline - a jam/open mic so well established that S used to play at it when he lived there 12 years ago! The Falcons are still the house band and remain an extraordinarily good listen. Not quite as extraordinary as the volume at which this jam is conducted perhaps, but that's another subject. S got up to play and sing a few with an old friend - The Reverend William Logan - and was suitably dazzled by his playing as usual - after banging out 5 numbers the mic was handed over to Mr Logan who immediately put S in his place by calling for a Steely Dan song - by the end of the song our boy was reasonably confident that "that chord" was Z minor 17th diminished 5th augmented with something resembling a cattle prod... but there remained no time to display his new found jazzlike prowess as "Sweet Home Alabama" lowered the bar somewhat. The highlight of the evening was definitely William S Logan Esquire's blast through a series of Beatles classics as part of a three-piece - spectacular. Looking forward to returning here again sometime...
Where next?
Turns out to be the heaving metropolis that is Bishop's Stortford...
The Blues Alive club at the Half Moon in Bishop's Stortford is a long established jam of no uncertain reputation. It happens every Wednesday (unless there is a gig - which are very high standard - Ian Siegal Band and Matt Schofield for instance) doors opening at 8.30. Our windswept hero S turned up at the given time to be greeted by a very friendly bunch of bluesers, mostly, but not exclusively, best described as "experienced". The house band, including a lady bass player (making S feel very much at home!), kicked off a little after 9 o'clock and it was quite obvious from the start that the standard was as high as previously described. Gear provided was of the highest quality, including two pedal boards with a stratospheric selection of stomp box royalty- almost every legendary overdrive pedal was offered!
S was up first change and played with 3 of the house band - three numbers which were extremely well received - including the Panties song again! After several more changes he returned to sing 3 more with a very competent backing band.
A few more combinations to listen to and then S left to travel back to his hotel - a quite splendid evening and one that he would very much like to repeat...
March 2007 sees S back in Glagow at the States Bar in Holland Street - the Statesboro Blues Band in one of it's variations still rocking the joint - S got up and played a couple and had a glorious time - thanks to Jim and Alan as always, this is a truly great evening of jamming.