It was raining cats and dogs in Dublin all day long with no let up as the clock ticked towards 9pm, but because there was two great bands playing in JJ’ Smyth’s in aid of Dublin City Anna Livia FM’s fundraiser, a wonderful local radio station catering for Blues, Jazz and a whole spectrum of special interest programmes seldom available on the mainstream, I had no option but to wrap up and head into town.
I have become very fond of many of the shows on Dublin City Anna Livia 103.2 FM and Charlie Hussey’s Bluestrain on Sunday night has been two hours of pure and untrammelled joy since the early 90’s. The daily Live Drive shows AM & PM have kept me a turn ahead of the traffic gridlock on many occasions and when time allows I chill out with the meditation show on Friday morning. The many excellent shows like Raymond Mc Gee’s Route 103 for when the living is easy, the wine is open and she’s texting you to set the alarm before you come up because she knows your hypnotized by the Ray’s gems on the Saturday night radio, Backbeat to the 60’s, Super Soul Kitchen and John Kavanagh’s Elvis Memories,( who I am forever indebted to for a treasured James Burton personalised guitar pick) fantastic radio wonderfully presented in their own inimitable styles transmitting a charm all of its own.Thinking about JB Legendary Master of the Telecaster from Shreveport Louisiana on a meter to measure stage cool, there is super cool, frosty, North Pole and then there is James Burton the ultimate string pickin gunslinger.
Local Radio where else are you going to hear two women discussing the merits of fake testicles for neutered dogs on a Saturday morning? Dublin City Anna Livia FM is a gold mine and a pleasure to listen to as the DJ’s are not interested in self selling or beating you over the head with themselves, instead focussing on careful judgement and discernment, revealing a pleasant intelligent interest especially in matters of local interest style and taste, music, musicians, songs n songwriters.
Thankfully JJ’Smyth’s was full of like-minded patronage and support when I arrived and the bad weather outside only seemed to encourage a determination amongst those present to let their hair down and have some fun tonight.
Parchman Farm got the show on the road with their signature version of Mose Allison’s key changing classic that provides the group’s moniker. Peter Mc Gowan’s guitar prowess and spine chilling guitar breaks along with his tireless energy and passion to keep the blues alive in Ireland has always been a treat, and has made me an avid fan and supporter over the years. Parchman Farm have refined their current individual talents into one of the most tightly meshed blues machines on the scene. Tony Poland has developed a well-deserved reputation as one of the finest harp players in the country and was in fine form tonight with superb raging and wailing versatility in his chromatic and blues harp rhythm and lead contributions. Tommy Grimes is a kicking front man raunchy and raucous, getting the crowd in the mood with his gritty growling lugubrious vocals on dark brooding numbers like Little Walter Jacobs “Last Night” and making space for each of the band to step up to the mark with Tony Poland playing out of his skin with fluid, darting, swooping appropriate top class Mississippi saxophone solo’s.
“Last Night
I lost the best friend I ever had
Now you gone and left me
That makes me feel so bad”
Aaron on Double Bass and Fran on Drums tie down the rhythm with style and flash, a solid rolling back line and the perfect foil for the guitar harp and vocal front line. Pete let fly with some of his clean stinging, scorching solos on “Dog Eat Dog” which demonstrates his passion and ability to construct a solo that flows in such a way that it is fresh with ideas and twists that never runs out of steam and pays homage to his traditional Chicago heroes like the superb Jimmy Johnson. Pete’s a Chicago man at heart his lead breaks comes in like a flick knife flashing in a Southside Chicago brawl and makes no apology for keeping his tone in that traditional period when Muddy, Wolf, Hooker and Elmore first decided to plug the six Country Blues strings into the electriCITY grid and hooked us all on fine, singing, swearing and swaggering electric blues and Little Walter threw away the rule book and joined in.
Parchman Farm blaze through a wide variety of Chicago and West Coast styles sung and played with heart and soul and rollicking drumming in a solid gold easy foot tapping groove revealing a deep appreciation, passion and love for the music they play. Its that unrelenting passion for the roots of the electric Chicago & West Coast blues that has endeared them to their fans as a fabulous gritty R & B vibe over the years on the scene and makes them one of the most popular musical chasers for a few pints in town on a Saturday night.
The night was buzzing when Hollywood Slim and the Fat Cats took to the stage and captured the atmosphere perfectly with a brilliant superlative performance. A multi-talented foursome dressed in Hawaiian shirts bringing sunshine on a cloudy day with a professional tightness that deserves to prosper.
Hollywood Slim takes the stage with a authoritative long lean stage strolling swagger from the get go, and works the awe-dience like a Deep South preacher with his deep coffee baritone resonance. The Reverend Hollywood Slim’s irrepressible looning and front man peachiness along with the Fat Cats smooth instrumental proficiency results in a set that consistently created an extra magical flair on stage and a warmth of enthusiasm and awe-dience involvement in JJ’Smyth’s.
Hollywood Slim has charisma and his rappy half inflected monologue and swing draws and grabs the attention of the camera phones in the crowd managing to imbue the blues with a good humoured cheekiness between the flashes.
Papa Hynes on Drums is outstanding and doesn’t miss a beat hitting everything into the pocket with effortless ease and his performance is a lesson in flair and economy and with Rev Priestly on a firm and powerful bass, the rhythm section is specifically interesting, fine and relaxed one minute, rhythmically strong and stabbingly percussive the next and glorious to listen to as they lay down the well manicured foundations of each song and set out the presentation for the notable and amazing crowd killing guitar work of Junior Hynes.
Seek out this guy for yourselves all you blues guitar aficionados, he is a very accomplished player creating breath-taking textures that evoke a welcome insight into the swing styles of T Bone Walker, Louis Jordan and as demonstrated on the late Clarence Gatemouth Brown’s “Okie Dokie Stomp” (1924-2005 died in Texas after fleeing his destroyed New Orleans home and taking shelter from Hurricane Katrina) and the appropriate updates along the way like the obvious ignition and possible mentor Hollywood Fats, always remaining engagingly ineffable and inexpressibly delightful.
One of the welcome Blues developments for me in recent years has been the structure and form the current Irish Blues Bands now bring to bear on stage, leaving behind the meandering and aimless virtuosity of the rock blues era, and putting on a show that is entertaining and spectacular with more density and cohesion in the set.
A Fender Strat magician Junior Hynes guitar style is stunning and reveals a variety of flavours in the Blues Ice Cream van, hitting the spot each time and delivering the goods with delicious samples of his talent. Taking classic Chicago blues phrases, hooks and licks and making them sound eternal and sophisticated with a fluency that swings sweet north, south, east, and west, without sacrificing any blue in a stylistic West Coast sound, using a capo to get plenty of open string smoothness, that complements the bands 70’s California Swing Blues. The result is a cutting and uncluttered ambiance that has finesse, taste, and respect.
Modulating between crisp clean honeyed swing chording and some sweet mellifluous single and double stop bends and locked into the infectious impermeable rhythm section the songs rolled into the night positively steaming because these guys really do play well off each other.
Hollywood Slim has goofiness on stage that is a bull eye, bawdy, unpredictable and gets top score for his ability to create the sound of our favourite farmyard animals with his harmonica, which constantly surprises in its emphasis such as his cheeky and imaginative rendition of the “Hucklebuck” and a Hollywood Fats (1954-1986) gem called Red Headed Woman, which was a storming performance.
Steeped in tradition Hollywood Slim and the Fat Cats is pure old style swing blues with flair and energy to burn, tips it hi hat firmly in the direction of fun and pleasure and surely did bring sunshine on a rain dancers day.
In a week in October 2005 in which the blues world mourns yet another recently deceased loss, this time of Little Milton (1934-2005), its good to go home knowing that the blues is alright in Dublin thanks to blues journeymen like Parchman Farm and Hollywood Slim and the Fat Cats and of course Charlie Hussey and the Bluestrain on Dublin City Anna Livia FM 103.2. Both bands have an identifiable core that is tight and punchy and infuses the atmosphere with a sense of fun and celebration and that’s the kind of provocative exciting entertainment a blues audience needs to get those toes tapping in time to the precious 12 bar portions.
In 1970 Muddy Waters played out in UCD and his message on the night was that the Bluesman’s main function is to “play good time music in order to exorcise despair and anguish and to play it so blue it will dance the ass off ya” and if he was walking by JJ Smyth’s tonight he would be proud of his upbeat good time Irish offspring. Thankfully down through the years, I have had the pleasure to connect into Muddy’s spirit and message on the back streets of Dublin, because of the tireless efforts of passionate flag bearers like Red Peters, Jimmy Faulkner, Don Baker, Pat Farrell, Ed Deane, Nigel Mooney, Ben Prevo, Mary Stokes, Bree Harris, Dermot Byrne, Peter Moore, Pat Mc Sweeney and his sadly departed brother Paul who I have no doubt is up there in the heavens trying to convince the publican upstairs that a Blues residency in the back lounge would solve the commercial nature of his business.
The festivities ended on a high note for me when Charlie Hussey hosted the raffle and I went home with first prize, an arm full of blues CD’s. One of the CD’s contains a version of Guitar Slim’s The Things That I Use To Do, my desert island blues song, the ultimate vertical expression of horizontal emotion, which I reckon was playing in the Coombe when I arrived in 1954 because it would subliminally command me to put the world on hold for the 3 minutes and 2 seconds of mould breaking magic every time I’d hear it on Radio Caroline on the old Pye Radio, grabbing the sweeping brush to play some imaginary guitar in front of the mirror. It was the in North County Dublin Blues, so poor growing up if I wasn’t a boy I’d have had nothing to play with, but when those primitive rhythms came on the radio it was like tripping through the tulips.
What goes round comes round, an appropriate finale.
Hey Hey The Blues is Alright
Hey Hey The Blues is Alright
Hey Hey The Blues is Alright
Hey Hey The Blues is Alright
It’s Alright
It’s Alright
Every Day and Night.
Mick Kenny aka MTW
