Lucerne is a magnificent city in Switzerland with a population of 80,000 surrounded by scenic high Swiss mountains on the banks of Lake Lucerne with wonderfully restored features of its 800 year old heritage and tradition, super friendly restaurants like my regular haunt Café Rex and wonderful museums, which has become famous amongst Blues Fans in the past decade as one of the world’s foremost, important and primary Blues Festivals, showcasing top quality performances from the finest Blues Musicians on tour from the American Blues circuits.

 
Six hours of the finest world class blues live every night for a week every November in the elegant and excellent sound stages of the Grand Casino in Lucerne with Sunday brunch performances in the plush and stylish Hotel Schweizerhof. This is a well run professionally organised Festival that has gone from strength to strength because of its uncompromising commitment to providing a focus on real bluesmen, providing a stage for masters of the craft, exciting and revered legendary performers treading the famous blues stages of Chicago, Memphis, Californian and the other Blues States of America.

 
The spectacular line up of performers for each Lucerne Festival for the past eleven years is credited to the superb selection process of Guido “Mojo”Schmidt and his administration committee who spend the months leading up to each years Lucerne Festival visiting blues performances around the world to assemble each years world class line up to provide 12 acts for 30 exquisite performances throughout the week.

 
The official performances are sold out well in advance but because of the brilliant organising committee we had pre-booked our tickets at the Grand Casino Lucerne and accommodation arrangements at the Hotel Flora months in advance thanks to email exchanges with Festival Administrator Martin Bruendler and everything was ready and waiting for us like clockwork in through Swiss fashion.

 
I set off on this years blues pilgrimage in the company of veteran Irish blues travellers, Charlie Hussey presenter of my favourite weekly blues radio program Bluestrain on Dublin City Anna Livia 103.2 FM every Sunday night, Big Eddie Breslin regular blues traveller abroad, who I met for the first time and exchanged tales of all the concerts we had both been in attendance at in Dublin over the previous 30 years and also Southside Eddie Soye who weaned me off the guitar styles of Keith Richard, Nils Lofgren and Angus Young back in the 80’s and converted me to the primitive beauty and perfection of pre rock guitar styles from the likes of Jimmy Reed, Freddie, BB, and Albert King with his regular homemade compilations, and encyclopaedic knowledge and passion for the Blues.

 
The Lucerne Festival Committee have created a specialised atmosphere around the performances that makes it a pleasure for Blues travellers with a staff that demonstrate a rare and wonderful courteousness, efficiency and professional attention to every possible detail including earplugs if God forbid anyone would want to subdue these amazing performances in any way.

 
At the end of each performance fans have a chance to meet the performers and get CD’s from the nearby Crosscut Records stand, programmes and fan paraphernalia signed in a specially designated area that was a real treat for I believe both artist and fans alike. I ended up coming home with twenty-four CD’s from the Lucerne Festival representative of the musicians in attendance at this year’s festival. I watched as fans got old LP covers they had brought with them autographed and I witnessed one lady get a harmonica signed by her idol Charlie Musslewhite.

 
One of the notable features of being in the presence of such fabulous calibre of musicians is the beautiful individuality of each performer and that’s one of the striking experiences, I acknowledged and recognised, witnessing up to seven hours of live blues each night across the two stages in the Grand Casino from masters of the harp and guitar like Billy Boy Arnold, James Cotton, Charlie Musslewhite, Philip Walker, Bob Margolin, Johnny Bassett, who have each clocked up a half century of on the boards experience, entertainment finesse, flair and refinement. At this level the artists all have immediately recognisable blues styles; they not only speak the language fluently but also can master the grammar book as well with conviction. Watching players like Billy Flynn and James Wheeler play their guitars is like watching passion and personality articulated through the language of the blues, add the rhythm section from heaven Willie Big Eyes Smith on drums and Bob Stroger on Bass and the end result is totally beyond anything words can describe.

 

This was the line up for Billy Boy Arnold & The All Star Band and it featured a magical musical marriage of legendary performers who have carved out their own signature sound, have refined their chops down to reflect and reproduce Chicago, Texas, Southern States, and West Coast Blues perfection effortlessly and naturally.

 
Chicago Blues Guitar luminary and leading light Billy Flynn’s economical approach and perfectly placed fills crafted some of the most memorable blues guitar of the festival with the ultimate ability of knowing when to get in and when to get out and seems to truly enjoy performing adding humour and class to the proceedings looking like a very competent bank manager on stage. Describing himself to me afterwards as the only Irishman who’s never been to Ireland, the multi-talented Billy Flynn has the gift of the gab, a humorous, easy going, affable musician playing a clean Les Paul Copy through a Fender Amp and occasionally pulling a slide or harp from his pocket for a killer blast.

 
The All Stars created a great atmosphere in advance of the arrival of Chicago Harp Legend Billy Boy Arnold on stage, whose landmark 50’s classic’s “Ain’t Got You” and “I Wish You Would” inspired every pub blues band in Ireland and England in the sixties following successful chart hits for the Yardbirds. Born in Chicago 1935 and recording since 1952 with Bo Diddley “I’m A Man” in ‘55 and on Vee Jay Records with Jody Williams and Henry Gray, a youthful looking Billy Boy Arnold leads the All Star Band into each of his classics by playing the opening riff on a Fender Strat and as soon as Billy, James, Bob and Willie are locked into the groove he would fumble in his jacket for his harp, wet his lips and the world would stop for what seemed like blissful eternity as the audience swayed along to the infectious groove of his hypnotic R&B blue vocal, his unique harp and his classic compositions delivered with authoritative conviction and effortless ease.

 
“I got women to the left of me
I got women to the right of me
I got pretty women all around me
But I Ain’t Got You”

 

For me the wildest, high energy performances of the Lucerne Festival in 2005 was from Chicago Slide Guitarist Lil Ed and The Blues Imperials and it zapped me completely with its electric fast lane house rocking intensity and had the packed Grand Casino overjoyed and rapturous in its appreciation and amazement for every minute of Lil Ed’s fun loving acrobatic stage moves.

 
Following in the classic slide guitar style of his uncle J.B. Hutto and evoking the spirit and memories of razor slide legends like Hound Dog Taylor and Elmore James this is one of the best heads down, raw and exciting blues and boogie bands to ever set foot on a stage. This was a sweat dripping, blistering, jaw dropping suspension of belief performance with the Blues Imperials pounding out the rhythms, his massive half brother Pookie Young on Bass and long time accomplice Mike Garrett on rhythm and lead guitar, and the pulsating Kelly Littleton on Drums laying down the pounding foundations for Lil Ed William’s tireless duck walking, back bending, tip toeing, flying leap, mind blowing guitar escapades around the stage and out into the awe-diance playing screaming raw edged solo’s that sound like the speakers had been slashed with razor blades.

 

This is pure old fashioned Chicago magic from the grinning pocket sized former buffer at the Red Carpet Car Wash, who demonstrated to all present how he has built a reputation for tearing up concert and festival stages for the past twenty years with ferocious, roaring hot slide playing and sizzling, solid, hard hitting live blues energy adding a platoon of new supporters to his loyal following of fans affectionately called Ed Heads at Lucerne this year.

 
“Because you never miss your water
Till your well runs dry”

 

One of the Lucerne Blues Festival favourites over the years has been Bob Margolin and his All Star Blues Jam this year was a fantastic celebration of Chicago Blues from himself and his sidemen. Steady Rollin Bob who learned his chops in Muddy Waters famous band also had the aforementioned Muddy sideman Willie Big Eyes Smith on Drums and award winning Brooklyn born slick back biker look alike Mookie Brill on Bass, David Maxwell on Keyboards accompanied by Bobs sister Sherry, the marvellous Mark Kaz Kazanoff on Saxophone, and a brilliant performance from Nappy Brown regarded as the greatest living blues singer, with a strip teasing procession into the middle of the crowd. Bob has a proven track record for producing the brightest and best blues performances on stage and in the studio and his passion and skill motivates brilliant Chicago Blues performances from his collaborations. One of my favourite blues writers, Bobs insightful contributions to Blues Revue are a wise counsel and a must for any aspiring musicians wishing to create music and perform and keep the Blues flame alight around the globe, a tremendous guitarist and bandleader his sound is dependable and foot tappingly spontaneous and when he cuts loose on his Les Paul the result is a adoring wailing blue sound that is vintage, groovy, authentic and bone chilling.

 

Charlie Musslewhite put on two superb showcases of his talent and music in Lucerne, one the first night I arrived he performed a sumptuously intimate solo show that was like a workshop demonstrating his mastery and skill in an atmosphere of palpable warmth and affection for this very likable journeyman of the blues. With his case of Harps open in front of him he dipped into a treasure throve of delights holding the audience’s attention in the metaphorical palm of his hand. When he arrived for his second show two nights later, with the remarkable Kid Anderson on Guitar, it was a stunning, electrifying solid Musslewhite spectacular. The sizzling chemistry on stage between Charlie, Kid and the Band was musically explosive relentless and the individual brilliance at play on stage combined to generate a rocket fuelled blues presentation and performance that was clearly as enjoyable and pleasurable for the Charlie Musslewhite Band on the main stage, as it was for the elated crowd beaming in a state of high excitement on that Saturday night in the Grand Casino.

 
“You know the blues overtook me
When I was a little child
Fast women and whiskey
Made this southern boy wild”

 

One of the early morning highlights of the Lucerne Festival was going down to breakfast in the Hotel Flora for a relatively healthy fare in comparison to the greasy fry ups back in Ireland instead settling down to an a tasty assortment of cold meats, cheese, fresh fruit garnished with loads of yoghurt and pots of tea .The other treat was meeting all the musicians resident in the hotel having a chat with fans and planning rehearsals and interviews for the day ahead and a favourite every morning as I dragged myself out of bed in time for the breakfast, was greeting Billy Flynn and The Carter Brothers always bright and cheerful and groomed for the day ahead even though I would have left them jamming at 4am in the Grand Casino.

 
The Carter Brothers are enjoying well deserved acclamation on the Festival scene with their brand of soulful blues and the crowd pleasing conversations from Roman Carter on vocals and his brother Albert on guitar dressed in matching full length pin stripe suits on stage was visually dramatic and fabulous as they worked their back catalogue of hits from the early sixties.

 
These great survivors Roman and Albert had been playing their brand of invigorating, tough bluesy southern soul and good time stompers, in the shadows of the music scene in local clubs back home after slipping out of the limelight in the late sixties and have re emerged onto the international circuit in recent years to find their reissued material has fashioned a popular fan base in Europe and Japan. Roman has a wonderfully catching, anguished toned voice that could peel the potatoes for you, and takes the audience into a magnificent ambiance of down home blues and deep soul updated by the sound of their rhythm section and the modern blues guitar sound of Adam Myles who told me he mastered his chops playing along to our own Rory Gallagher’s licks and techniques, bursting forth on cue like a double barrel shotgun on stage. The Carter Brothers are amazing and if fair is not just something you pay in the taxi then they will hopefully enjoy their well earned success in their senior years ahead, and finally, sticking with the breakfast theme, from their 1964 hit, Southern Country Boy.

 
“You cook me fried chicken and hot biscuits
You serve it to me in bed
You pick the seeds out of my watermelon baby
And put a pillow under my head”

 

Great Harp legend James Cotton known as Mr Superharp arrived on stage with another fantastic assemblage of talented sidemen that included Darrell Nulisch on vocals, David Maxwell on keyboards and the incendiary guitar talents of Rico McFarland. This crowd were delighted to see and hear this true legend of the harp that shared stages with Sonny Boy Williamson, Howling Wolf, Johnny Winter and Muddy Waters who commanded the crowd’s attention with his personality and style.

 
One of the hardest working bluesmen on stage and in the studio James Cotton’s reputation as a Harp player has been recognised across all genres of contemporary music in the last fifty years and his music lives and breaths as the template for blues harp performance in not only Blues but also Country and Rock as well. Perched on his seat on stage James blows the living daylights out of his harps creating a wall of sound and texture with a relaxed atmosphere that makes you feel your standing at the steps of a front porch in Mississippi in the presence of a Blues Master.

 

Detroit was well represented by the excellent Detroit R&B Revue with the very tasty and assured guitar skills of Johnny Bassett breathing fire into his sweet licks backed up by the driving sound of a stage full of Detroit’s finest rhythm n blues players with 50’s star Joe Weaver laying sweet soul tinged blues vocals for the first phase of the set and the belting Thornetta Davis arriving later to take the session into the stratosphere.

 

Bringing to mind another great Master of the Blues was heralded by the arrival of the great John Lee Hooker companion and studio associate and incredible slide guitarist Roy Rodgers with his superb Delta Kings. Working with an assortment of amplified acoustic guitars including a stunning double neck this was a barnstorming, high-energy set of pure and authentic blues guitar mastery and technique. It was a rock solid throbbing honky tonk performance that pulsated beneath the soles of your feet with a cutting edge of tightness and force that was breathtaking to observe and had the camera brigade at the front of the stage furiously trying to track the manic pace on stage some of whom were wielding elongated lens and attachments that would require planning permission back in Ireland.

 

Roy Rodgers connects to the audience with a certainty and solid confidence in his absolutely amazing skill on the six strings. Like his famous namesake Roy Rodgers rode into Lucerne on his six-string trigger and proceeded to shoot up the place with a rousing, motivating inspired performance leaving not a sinner on the streets when he walked off the stage. Roy remembered fondly his open air performance in College Green, Dublin back in the 90’s at the Temple Bar Blues Festival sadly now defunct and was looking for forward to revisiting a stage in Ireland some day soon.

 

One on my most memorable blues gigs in Dublin was by Philip Walker and it was acknowledged by many in I spoke with in Lucerne this year that their cherished performances was from the Philip Walker Big Band Blues Show with his four piece brass ensemble.

 
The super talented line up of superb musicianship and first class blues guitar presented a unique blend of blues.

 
Philip Walker is deservedly considered to be one of the best guitarists and live performer on today’s blues stage and has earned the respect and love of his colleagues and fans the world over for his outstanding full size sound embroidered with immaculate fret work. Standing with authoritativeness centre stage he builds each song up from its roots into a flowering orchestration of counter melodies taking the audience with him into dynamic climax after climax full of blue swing, jive and West Coast versatility. His voice has a wonderful silky smooth sleek timbre that is uplifting, raspy and swampy and fills the air with intimate, impassioned, emotional magic and is in pole position as one of the most important performances for any fan of the guitar and a live performance to witness on stage with 50 years of stagecraft charisma standing tall as a well dressed mountain in living breathing authenticity.

 

The final performance bringing proceedings to a close in the Grand Casino was left in the very capable hands of young gun Ronnie Baker Brooks now cutting a blazing reputation for himself after serving his apprenticeship as sideman for his famous Dad, the legendary and celebrated Lonnie Brooks. He has got the blueprints and is building a blistering, smokin, full frontal assault on his fret board with his modern speedy blues shuffles driving along with the rhythm crunchiness of tank tracks under the hood.

 
Ronnie is a classic showman on stage manipulating the guitar and sound into a melting brew of audience captivation fuelled by a boundless non stop energy and unpredictable joy at one stage bringing his performance across the hall and in behind the bar where he proceeded to have a cocktail through a straw while playing a paint peeling solo behind his head.

 
Rico McFarland joined Ronnie midway through a song on stage with as unbelievable as it sounds four hands tearing note perfected fills from Ronnie’s guitar and in true camaraderie Ronnie handed the guitar to Rico to finish out the song in his own inimitable style while looking on approvingly from the side of the stage.

 

It doesn’t get and better than this and as we danced into the early hours of the morning in Lucerne and began to wind down we all felt collectively blues zapped and orgasmic after such a range of sublime and intricately beautifully potent blues performances from the stellar line ups on the Lucerne Blues Festival stages in 2005 where age was nothing but a number.

 

Mick Kenny

This was my first time to see American Bluesman Johnny Winter perform having been a fan since buying his storming live album back in the early 70’s.

White Blues Rock guitar slinger Johnny was born in Texas in 1944 and has been recording, playing and producing great rock and blues music since he was 15 years of age.Rolling Stone magazine picked up on Johnny Winter back in 1968 and resulted in incendiary performances in Woodstock and numerous festivals and jams with Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison in the rock arena and Walter Horton, Willie Dixon and Muddy Waters in the blues world.

 

He hooked up with legendary Bluesman Muddy Waters in 1977, playing and producing some Grammy Award winning recordings with Muddy and his band up until Muddy’s death and was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall Of Fame in 1988.His career was badly screwed up by poor management over the years with many dubious releases credited to the mercenary motives of former manager Roy Ames.

 

Johnny’s tone has been pure authentic Delta blues crunch and boogie grind with amazing prowess on acoustic and electric bottleneck and has been burning up stages with his lightning.The Astoria in London was packed with fans many like me who travelled a great distance just to see Johnny perform conscious of the fact that he has lived life in the fast lane over the years and is lucky to be still alive and well the title of one of his hits.

 

The Scott Mc Keon Band kicked off the show in The Astoria with some loud high energy rock blues reminiscent of the main act and also in the style of Stevie Ray Vaughan and the new young guns of the genre.Johnny arrived on stage dressed in black, with his trademark Black Hat and sat down on a chair at the front of the stage.

 

At 63 years of age he may look physically weak in appearance but his guitar skill is still astonishing with dazzling fret board skill.I had to withdraw from the front of the stage because of the sheer distorted volume coming from a wall of speakers and moved about the various circles and balconies which are very much similar to our own Olympia in design, to get a better sound position stopping into the Keith Moon Bar for some local sustenance.

 

All my favourite covers were blasted out like Hoochie Coochie Man, Hideaway, Tore Down, It’s All Over Now, Blackjack and Highway 61 Revisited in a set lasting 90 minutes long.The Astoria was clearly full of dedicated fans who were in thrilled to see their hero and master of the blues rock guitar still on fire with his rhythm section Scott Spray on Bass and Wayne June on Drums pumping solidly behind him.

 

There is a fond regard and great sympathy for this artist who has suffered so much mismanagement and drug abuse and thanks to his new management has been rehabilitating his body and career with this highly acclaimed and successful tour.

 

The term living legend is often bandied about but no one deserves the title more than this master of modern rock blues who certainly plays its loud and proud at 63 and long may he continue.It was my first time to see the unusual Lazer Guitar which Johnny maintains is the perfect mix between the Stratocaster and the Gibson and was screaming white hot riffs in the hands of this giant of rock n blues guitar.

 

“Oh God said to Abraham, kill me a son
Abe said man you must be putting me on
God said no, Abe said what
God said you can do what you want Abe but
Next time you see me coming you better run
Well, Abe said where you want this killing done
God said out on Highway 61”

 

Mik Kenny aka MTW

The Jed Thomas Band from Harrogate in Yorkshire deep in Emmerdale land, got the August Bank Holiday weekend of to an excellent start in JJ Smyths Friday night with their own tight brand of high energy British Rockin’ Blues with crying bottleneck squeals, amazing fretwork, plenty of crunch n bite and relentless rhythm attack.

 
What makes Jed Thomas so enjoyable on this side of the water is his dedication and celebration of the guitar style and approach of our own Rory Gallagher, capturing the atmosphere and mood of Rory’s trademark techniques and blending them seamlessly into his own fluent interpretation of the blues.

 
The Jed Thomas performance is a direct descendant of the history of British Blues and Rock and contains all the essence, exciting sounds and potent influences of progressive blues.The evolution of the blues in the hands and hearts of musicians like Rory Gallagher, Tony McPhee Groundhogs, Alvin Lee Ten Years After and Jed Thomas has been first not to treat it as a museum piece, to be stifled over, but to give it a contemporary modern living experience and impetus so that despite the assault of time, the music of the Hooker, Wolf, Muddy and Sonny Boy that inspired them to pick up that lump of wood and wire in the first place has ongoing vitality. Music like life itself is about growth and motion, a fixed point of view constrains anyone who has one.

 
It’s an emotional experience for the awe-diance, makes you feel glad inside, makes the crowd holler with enthusiasm, makes life surge as each song builds up to a delayed explosion, makes the shapely Rebecca dance elatedly around the pounding relentless beat all the way up to the stage and back.

 
The performance of this three piece turbo charged outfit live from Leeds, was brilliant and well balanced in every respect, with superb support on Bass from Nibb and Paul flailing like an octopus with an itch on Drums.

 
From the minute Jed lets rip, his amazing speed and accuracy are captivating, this guy is matchfit and capable of mastering the fretboard workout from hell, as is evidenced by the paint worn edges of his battered Cherry Red Strat through his confusing but highly effective customised effects unit. Jed’s tools of expression are a varied range of right hand and left hand perfectly played fast blues rock guitar techniques that would take me several lifetimes to master.

 
The Jed Thomas Band grooves along like a locomotion trying to out run Sitting Bull who is emblazoned on Jed’s Strat, across the wild primitive plains of Boom Boom Boom Boom, fast and furious SRV and Chuck Berry shuffles, topped off with tone and phrasing that reflects a wealth of delightful influences blended together to create his own signature sound.It’s evident watching these guys play, that the collective honed skills are the result of years of hard work and demanding schedules demonstrated with that fluent familiarity with each other’s technical vernacular.

 
Anto from JJ’s House Band joined the band on Blues Harp for a Mystery Train style jam in place of their own Harp player who missed the flight or as Jed remarked later on when he did arrive, travelled over via Spain. Tony Poland from Parchman Farm also got up for another call and response jam with Jed on guitar.The repertoire is diverse and versatile Jed producing three different guitars in various tunings for forays into blistering Rock Blues and Bottleneck with a piece of copper pipe on a hollow bodied Epiphone and finishing the night off on a Fender Telecaster as sharp as a crosscut saw.

 

Statesboro Blues, Shake Your Money Maker, Rollin n Tumblin, all given a hard driving facial along with originals such as Devils Been Blowing In Your Ear all played at breathtaking speed as Jed coaxing amazing sounds from his armoury of influences displayed balls out riffing and furious chordal changing stamina.

 
The buzz was Canned Heat, John Lee Hooker, Bo Diddley, ACDC, George Thorogood to Live At Leeds but the icing on the cake for me is that I felt I was back 30 years watching the similar intensity and chemistry of our own local hero Rory Gallagher in the Carlton Cinema or on the boards in the National Stadium.

 
Jed is a devoted fan of Rory as demonstrated in two stellar workouts on Laundromat and Messing With The Kid telling us that if it weren’t for Rory he would not be standing on the stage tonight.Thankfully a Jed Thomas gig will ensure that Rory’s music and technique which opened up my own universe with Taste and the subsequent pilgrimages to witness our white hot guitarist in action, will always be just a memory away and serve to remind us just how brilliant Rory was and the tragedy that his contribution to the traditions of Blues guitar ended so prematurely.

 
Apart from being great commemorators of Rory Gallagher, what grabbed my attention most about the Jed Thomas Band are their focus, attention, sheer authority, control, and confidence in their repertoire, combining all the elements of blues past with high energy dynamic modern techniques including a rapid fire devastating drum solo.

 
Without the slightest hesitation I have now added Jed Thomas to my favourites list as one of the most exciting guitarists on the planet, with a style that combines traditional blues, blazing progressive blues, touch, tone, speed, energy and stamina in a very creative, fertile, testosterone laden style uniquely his own.

 

” Well Mama killed a chicken,
She thought it was a duck
She put it on the table
With his legs sticking up

You’ve got to bottle it up and go
You’ve got to bottle it up and go
Yes them high-powered women
Sure got to bottle it up and go”

 

Mick Kenny aka MTW

I got a poster up on the wall at home that refers to the wisdom of a Statesman Marcus Cato, who was hanging out back in 234 – 192 BC:

 
“The best way to keep good acts in memory is to refresh them with new.”

 
With that in mind I responded to Pat Cannon’s gig texts and headed over to his Thursday night session in MB Slattery’s to hear a new funky blues, rock and latinesque soul band called Hot New Machine.

 
Hot New Machine is a busy three piece collaboration featuring a much travelled young New Yorker and two mint fresh Dubliners on Bass and Percussion.

 
In accordance with Marcus Cato’s philosophy, Hot New Machine do provide a refreshing blend of very approachable tight, funky, soulful music infused with total conviction and Bradley’s musical observations in South America for five years and Spain for three, singing many of his own original’s in melodic Portuguese.

 
All the favours were well represented in the jubilant and jovial version of Marvin Gaye’s Sexual Healing at the start of the set with its latinesque jive on Bradley’s Fender Stratocaster and vocals driven by melodic bass and percussive warmth.

 
This difference in style and approach and willingness to embrace the wider world is infectious and upbeat and full of enjoyment for the audience and capable of igniting the dancing G spot for several gyratory young ladies in post coital bliss around the front of the stage.

 
Bradley’s subtle and complex picking has developed from his original inspiration Eric Clapton into an R&B cool sounding groove full of Brazilian and Spanish journeyman dalliances giving the impression of someone having the time of his life finding his own groove driven along by an Irish rhythm section full of youthful, catchy, poppy, and glitterball funky vigour that could just as easily provide a backdrop for Alex Turner. Bassman the man with the plan shuffles about the stage, interlocking Bradley for some slash and burn adding plenty of visual excitement.

 
Hot New Machine have a spirited, bounciness to their performance, and the atmosphere is full of energy and multi lingual exchanges with the rapidly apparent multi national audience characteristic of the new Irish social scene engaging enthusiastically.

 
Hard working live music promoter Pat Cannon is moving his promotions to a new redesigned Lower Deck in September with gigs from the following lined up: from Full Circle, Bree with encouraging plans in the pipeline to bring in another International Blues Artist in collaboration with JJ Smyth’s Blues promoter Barry O Reilly.

 
The Lower Deck sounds even if my previous visit there is a very smudgy recollection of being in a reduced state of awareness at a Planxty style session in ’75 moving bipedally around a dark venue amongst a room full of my peers resembling in hindsight a tribe of white handed gibbons.

 

Mick Kenny aka MTW

Monday night is a jazz night in JJ Smyths which at the moment is featuring a series of gigs by The Phil Ware Trio with a different guest week and when I got an email saying that Honor Heffernan’s next Dublin performance was as this week’s featured guest in Dublin’s most intimate jazz venue, I jumped into the car and down to Aungier St to see this extraordinary, classy Irish entertainer live on familiar ground.

 
I picked up Honor’s new CD Fire and Ice a few months back and since then I have developed a slow burning infatuation with each song and felt that an opportunity to hear the material in the flesh would be the perfect way to spend a Monday night in October.For many years now I have held Honor Heffernan in exhilarating regard and her appearances on TV and Radio are a constant and eager delight demonstrating an artist on top of things and on top of her game, an inspiration and antidote for the dust and confusion of life.

 
To also put my affection for this wonderful Dublin born singer in context its about the fact that I grew on a mainstream musical diet of Rock, Blues, Country and Folk and considered Jazz as a void of nothingness, a stupendous mountain of technical proficiency that I was unable to secure my footing, having nothing to cling on to in the musically adventurous unknown, where nothing appeared recognisable invariably finding myself slipping back to the more familiar terrain of the blue rhythm highway until Honor opened the door for me, getting me all musically restimulated, revitalized and reorganised to her music and the artists she passionately interprets with such a sparkling and bright vocal presence.

 
I have had a similar experience in recent years with guitar music, it being my favourite key of choice for opening the door to a musical performance, turning left on blue into the engaging jazzy blue sound of Chicago Guitarist Dave Specter and our own superb Nigel Mooney and his recent All Your Love In Vain CD which is a passport to musically get with it, have fun and be alive jazz.

 
The Phil Ware Trio featuring Phil on Piano, Dave Redmond on Double Bass, and Kevin Brady on Drums were the perfect atmospheric backdrop for Honor, superbly embellishing her engaging live performance material and cool vocal repertoire of classics in the warm candle lit ambiance of JJ’s upstairs lounge.

 
Honor Heffernan’s calm confident friendly stage presence is captivating and her voice has what it takes to meet and handle anything and everything bridging gaps between all genres.

 
Song’s like Old Devil Moon, All Or Nothing At All and Mel Torme’s Born To Be Blue flow lyrically; clear and distinct like a glacial singing stream flowing down from a Swiss mountaintop beneath a cobalt blue expanse of sky revealing not a cloud in sight.

 
How Insensitive the last track on Fire & Ice was a rich and luxuriant gem on the night with some dazzling subtleness and delicacy from Phil, Dave and Kevin parking it in the same garage for me as The Girl From Ipanema at the risk of sounding like a complete Philistine.
From West Side Story Honor gave a perfect and flawless version of Cool.

 
“Take it slow and Daddy O
You can live it up and die in bed”

 
Again and Again Honor Heffernan zaps the audience with her wonderful pretty anachronistically demure and comforting stage presence, her beautifully ethereal long wavy blonde hair which was captured in a radiantly glorious photograph on the flip side cover of her Stormy Waters LP cover which is strategically positioned at the front of my treasured vinyl collection because of its ability to generate a tremendous upsurge of spirit every time it catch’s my eye.

 
Be Cool and Shadow Of Your Smile were hypnotically spellbinding with Phil Ware’s rippling pianistic sweeping melodies complementing Honor’s visionary vocals so beautifully in front of Dave Redmonds cinematic bass lines and Kevin Brady’s gentle timekeeping percussion brushing those incredibly potent Joni Mitchell poetic confessional lyric’s off the stage and into an indelible space in our precious memory bank.

 
Its a terrific band with an honest soulful vocal delivery, a romantic and silky smooth groove that’s effortlessly appealing, never overshadowing Honor’s vocals and takes the listener away to the musical equivalent of yoga, leaving mind, body and soul refreshed in a musigasm and wishing that songs like I Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out To Dry and Temperance Street could last all night long.
Honor Heffernan’s self assured vocals are a national treasure and her stature owes much to the earnest, poised, quality material she chooses to perform with such a characteristically emotionally moving graceful style.

 
It was a heavenly live set of songs that has me listening to her Fire And Ice CD with such a renewed sense of appreciation that I feel like I am practically related to the songs now.

 

“Charm them
Don’t alarm them
Keep things light
Keep your worries out of sight
And play it cool
Play it cool
50 -50
Fire and Ice.”

 

Mick Kenny aka MTW

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

It was a hot summers night in Dublin, World Cup fever was everywhere with the familiar battle cry of the grounded Irish Football supporter to be heard in full throttle in every bar along the way to JJ’s.

 
“There one Team missing
There’s only one Team missing”

 
In JJ Smyths there was another gathering at the weekly Irish Blues Club session and it was the Lucerne Blues Festival supporters club past present and future and on stage was the flamboyant Hollywood Slim & The Fat Cats the perfect band in perfect form.

 
I got an amazing buzz from this band in the fall of 2005 at a benefit gig for Charlie Hussy’s Dublin City Anna Livia 103.2 and tonight they continued to exceed all expectations with a wonderful performance in the cool candle lit ambiance of JJ Smyth’s.

 
Hollywood Slim & The Fat Cats create an atmosphere for me of a swinging hot West Coast juke joint full of shades, Hawaiian shirts and Veronica Lake look-alike cocktail waitresses.
Individually each member Junior Hynes Guitar, Papa Hynes Drums, Brendan Rev Priestly Bass, and Hollywood Slim on Harp and Vocals, have a skilful commanding stage presence but the tight knit well rehearsed chemistry of all four members bursts with an energy that lifts their own music and their covers into a brilliant homage to their heroes and influences that is rarely matched.

 
Diving straight in with some beautifully tempered T Bone Walker followed by the Texas swinging prime of Clarence Gatemouth Brown’s Okie Dokie Stomp, Junior Hynes impacts immediately with sublime sophisticated technique on his Fender Strat through ever-reliable tweed Fender Bassman with a hint of additional reverb.

 
His tone throughout the entire set was a delight, true blue and complemented by an excellent balance from the Bass, Drum and Vocal which, although full of dynamics always stayed within a very comfortable volume range throughout the entire performance.
Hollywood Slim is fun on stage, exuding humour and vocal histrionics in-between swapping harp phrases with Junior’s Guitar or just launching into some melt down blues harp flourishes.

 
The powerhouse cohesiveness turns out two-focussed high intensity Jimmie Rogers tunes reminding many of the blues lovers in the audience of a memorable night in the company of the great blues man up in Whelan’s in the 90’s with Houndog Taylor’s stick man Ted Harvey shaking the foundations.

 
Junior Hynes is playing out of his skin this weather and his recent trip to Memphis seems to have added a few more colours to his technique rooted in the Texas jump blues of the aforementioned T Bone Walker, Gatemouth Brown and the later exponents like Hollywood Fats and much more making him one of the most well rounded blues guitarist’s on the scene.

 
Standards like Kansas City are turned into masterpieces of musicianship; a treasure throve of propulsive bass rhythms and the hot and sensitive swinging drums of Papa Hynes on his first live outing since knocking his shoulder out recently yet in absolutely astounding form.Bobby Blue Bland is treated to all kinds of wonderful dynamic subtleties casting an exuberant spell around JJ Smyths with some fine groovin R n B and rapid clean toned guitar lines.

 
The evening is full of go for broke upbeat songs catching the groove shooting up the spines in the house, killer tone, speed and bottleneck magic in the summer air.When a formidable band like Hollywood Slim & The Fat Cats takes on a song like the Hucklebuck then the real dynamics of good interpretation are always a treat, retracing the riff all the way back to Charlie Parker, revelling in Hollywood Slims showmanship and Junior Hynes dizzying speed.

 
You probably knew this already, but now the idea has the official stamp of science.Researchers compared a group of guitarists recently with a group of non-musicians by tapping their fingertips while scanning their brain for activity (insert obvious joke here).Turns out the musicians brains showed a much larger area of response when the left hand fingertips were tapped with the conclusion that the hours of practice and playing are not only training your fingers but are actually expanding the number of brain cells that send them cerebral and inspiration e-mail.

 
Hollywood Slim & The Fat Cats have a lot of seasoning in the mix and add appropriate attack, tension balance and release to their respective rolls that is such a joy for a fan of this style of music handed down by T Bone Walker, Clarence Gatemouth Brown, Charlie Christian, Duke Robillard, Ray Charles, Django Reinhardt, Sam Cooke, Kid Ramos and of course the Hollywood Fats Band.

 
They say that if the only tool a tradesman has is a hammer then everything looks like a nail and if that is through then rest assured when you watch these guy’s play you soon realise that they have the whole toolbox with them.

 
Hollywood Slim has an electrifying presence on stage and reels in the audience with his farmyard boogie, mature and diverse delivery style making the sophisticated technical proficiency; rich tone and tremendous enthusiasm of this quartet look deceptively easy.Junior Hynes show enormous growth as a player showcasing impressive improvisational skill and technique who is digging deep into a rich vein of blues turning left on swing and right on inspiration to anyone wishing to witness some sweet swinging chops on the freeboard.

 
Just like their version of Route 66 any trip down this memorable musical path will bring you into contact with several different styles that swing, are danceable and very well played by the delightfully entertaining Hollywood Slim & The Fat Cats.

 
Whatever about the World Cup the Blues was on a winner Tuesday night in JJ Smyth’s with the fine performance from Hollywood Slim & The Fat Cats including a double barrel blast in the middle from JJ’s Interval Band featuring Dave on Guitar, Declan on Bass & Vocals, A J on Harp and Irish Blues Club organiser Barry O Reilly on Drums.

 

Mick Kenny aka MTW

The wonderful atmosphere at a Gypsy Lacy gig is fuelled by a mix of humour; nostalgia and good old fashioned audience participation sing a long.

 
What makes it so popular is the link it has with the great family get together customary to Dublin in the rare auld times.

 
When the weekend came around in the old days in Dublin, families would gather in each others house kids and all and have an evening, that started off with a table full of delights, ham sandwiches, Swiss rolls, homemade tarts and finished off with a sing song ignited by enough bottles of porter and spirit to sedate a rampaging rhinoceros trying to get his rocks off.

 
Everyone was obliged to have a party piece and the ballad was a favourite particularly one with plenty of humour and wit in the lyrics.Then the sixties came and groups like the Dubliners and the Clancy Brothers took the Irish folk ballad to world wide acclaim and also took the families out of the homes and into a new phenomenon, singing pubs the length and breath of the country.

 
What was unique about the Folk Ballad groups that were born out of this custom was the bond between the audience and the musicians on stage with rousing chorus’s lifting the roof off the rafters.This was a very spontaneous style of music that fused traditional melodies and instrumentation with the humorous story telling lyrics of the family sing a long. The traditional songs taken across the Atlantic by our exiled cousins in the previous generations were being reinterpreted back across the waves by artists like Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash just in time to add to a new fashionable Folk Ballad boom in Ireland.

 
Suddenly the extended family descended every weekend and several nights a week to the Embankment, Old Shielding, Wexford Inn, and Murray’s out in Lusk and Brigit Burkes up in Tallaght.

 
Ever since from Ballyfermot to Ballybunion, Bundoran to Bantry the Irish Pub Ballad Group has been synonymous with having the craic agus ceol and is one of our most popular tourist attractions and entertainment exports.

 
Gypsy Lacy carry on that tradition to perfection and have been doing so now for many years in the Irish Ballad pubs around the country and abroad with all the ingredients of a great night out reverberating around the venue as soon as the sound of Sean’s Tanglewood six string, Brendan’s Mandolin, leader and founder member, Christy’s squeeze box and whistle and Joe’s bass anchoring it all down, rings out through the sound system.

 
The repertoire is a set of classic Irish Pub Ballads and makes way for contributions from the audience which is art form in itself as singers get up and challenge the lads to straddle and stay in tune as their party piece invariable progresses through more keys or quays than there is on both sides of the Liffey.

 
Gypsy Lacy are up for party mood big time and have a song and tune for every occasion, and can do every thing, incorporating popular classics like Wonderful Tonight into an atmosphere that’s boozy and live and always with its heart in the right place.There is bedrock of talent and craftsmanship going on at the root of the Gypsy Lacy sound and they make it look easy and that’s the secret of seasoned performers like these guys and just when you wish the night could last all night long, sadly along comes closing time and the National Anthem to send everyone along their merry way home.

 
Gypsy Lacy are artists with ability providing the bridge that spans a night full of enjoyable entertainment with a lounge full of cheer and porter, the memories generated are souvenirs of a great night out and mementos for great family events, with their own inimitable versions of the ballad favourites and Christy’s comedic good humour.For brews, ballads, laughs and tales of the Irish way of life Gypsy Lacy are great fun.The most popular song of the sing a long in the Kestral was from the host of the night’s proceedings the lovely dark haired beauty Irene who was celebrating the fact that she was 18 years old with 22 years experience and impressed all with her rendition of the standard of the Dublin family get together Molly Malone.

 

Molly Malone (In Dublin’s Fair City)

 

In Dublin’s fair city, where the girls are so pretty
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone
She wheeled a wheelbarrow, through streets broad and narrow
Crying: Cockles and Mussels, Alive, Alive O

Chorus: Alive, alive O
Alive, alive O
Crying, cockles and Mussels
Alive, alive O

She was a fishmonger, and sure t’was no wonders
For so were her Father and Mother before
And they all wheeled their barrows,
Through streets broad and narrow
Crying: Cockles and Mussels, Alive, alive O

(chorus)
She died of a fever, and no one to grieve her
And that was the end of sweet Molly Malone
Now her ghost wheels her barrow
Through streets broad and narrow
Crying: Cockles and Mussels, alive, alive O

 

Mick Kenny aka MTW

Lonesome George Thorogood as he likes to call himself tore up the Olympia with his own brand of hard rocking slide guitar blues Monday night.

 
Not since the great Elmore James first dusted his broom has an audience witnessed such a stage technique emphasising blistering well-lubricated raw and primitive power chords sliding into a stratosphere of musical excitement and sexuality.

 
With the seating removed on the ground floor the tightly packed audience jived and bopped away all night long reminiscent of a 1950’s high school hop.

 
The show promptly got off to a real treat from a Detroit country blues band called The Deadstring Brothers. Front man Kurt Marschke bounced about the stage like a young Pete Townshend with windmill arcs across the strings of his battered Fender Telecaster in-between his excellent vocal duets with Marsha Marjieh. Their music grooves along full of magical American classic rock influences, its Mamas and Papas meets early 70’s Rolling Stones wild horses era with the urban echoes of the MC 5 and The Ramones all bubbling away in a nice new Country Stew full of modern flavours similar in taste and texture to Lucinda Williams, Rosanne Cash, Sheryl Crow and The Dixie Chicks. The textured keyboards and pedal steel contributions were timely and sublime in the mix and each song revealed a solid road tested quality. Warning up the audience for someone revered as much as George Thorogood is a big ask but one that The Deadstring Brothers accomplished with confident ease gaining many new fans in Dublin on the night.

 
The 55-year-old George Thorogood and his band the Destroyers known in the early years as the Delaware Destroyers has been rocking the blues since his debut album release back in 1974.George arrived on stage in dark shades dressed in black as were the rest of the Destroyers and launched into a new potential anthem from his new CD Hard Stuff called Rock Party prowling the stage, scanning the crowd at different levels leaving no one in any doubt that the main man had arrived for the main attraction.

 
The Destroyers are a well-oiled machine moving in synchronised patterns to the pounding beat, Slim Jim Suhler on Gibson Les Paul, superb skin hammering pile driver Jeff Simon on Drums, Bill Blough on Bass and Buddy Leach on Saxophone.

 

A purple hue hung over two banks of 6 foot high black covered amplification on each side of the Drums sitting on a high rise.George throws the glasses across the stage and launches into Who Do You Love, the drums sounding like thunder behind the driving Bo Diddley rhythm.

 
The songs roll on one after the other with hardly time to draw a breath between each classic hit and when George does start rapping with the audience its bad boy talk with a delirious audience hanging on to every word.

 
“I am going to do everything in my power tonight to get arrested and if someone is going to get arrested tonight then it might as well be me”

 
The Fixer, Move It On Over, One Bourbon One Scotch One Beer tear up the house in a take no prisoners approach by this American Band.

 
Like many white boy blues players George found the blues through listening to what his early heroes the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton and Peter Green were listening to and exploring this historical Aladdin’s Cave blues guitar wizardry all the way along Highway 61.
To get a feel for George Thorogood’s music imagine you’re making a Terminator movie and Arnie arrives into the roughest bar in town on a mission from the future naked as the day he was born.

 
He throws back a treble Southern Comfort and heads over to a psychopathic biker shaving himself with the flame of lighter in the corner. He tells the badass dude he wants his clothes, his customised Harley Davison and his motorcycle boots. “You forgot to say please” the Hells Angel replies as he stubs out his cigarette into Arnie’s chest, followed by a bout of physical convincing before Arnie’s heads back out to the mean streets fully clothed in the doomed bikers possessions.

 
Outside leaning against a parking meter beside the Harley is a voluptuous blonde scantily clad homeless hooker, falling out of Rolling Stoned tongue logo top.
She’s nineteen years old with ways like a baby child, as Muddy Waters would have said, eyes as blue as the deepest blues.

 
She doesn’t know where she’s goin and you don’t want to know where she’s been.
She makes Arnie an offer he can’t refuse, in return for a ride out of town on the back of the bike she will rub him down with sweet scented oils every night after his daily battles to save the planet.

 
As the two of them roar out of town at dawn into a badass future an appropriate and tailor-made piece of music erupts and it can only be Bad To The Bone by George Thorogood.

 

This classic piece of slide is an Open G power chord rotating assault on the 3rd and 5th fret moving it up to the 12fret for the solo that’s got a primitive early match play of Big Bad Bo Diddley and John Lee Hooker meets Chuck Berry and Jimmy Reed vibe.It’s that old perfection of simplicity that George brings to his music and its been that way ever since George first say the light, attending a John Hammond gig and the place lighting up like the church in the Blues Brothers. That was the turning point for a life of high volume white knuckled slide guitar playing just looking for the next gig.

 
George has been the hottest ticket in Dublin for me ever since I witnessed his trailblazing acrobatic action packed guitar style including reversed duck hopping stage manoeuvres in the afternoon sun in front of 82,000 fans supporting The Rolling Stones in Slane in 1982 and I was standing in the middle of Wembley Stadium for the legendary 1985 Live Aid show when George’s performance of Madison Blues with his special guest Albert Collin’s blues master of the Telecaster was beamed from the Philadelphia stage by satellite link up on to the huge screens on either side of the Wembley stage and around the globe into the largest TV audience ever on the planet.

 
George Thorogood & The Destroyers is an act that needs to be experienced live to get the full impact with Lonesome George himself shifting between the mean, moody and magnificent on his good time southern fried blues rocking formula and The Destroyers stunning hot tight and punchy contributions on bass, drums and horns stuffed with personality.

 
George Thorogood’s gig was packed to the gunnels with relentless fast, furious, slow and sublime excitement and guaranteed satisfied smiles on every face walking out of the Olympia Theatre on to Dame St after a series of encores that left the audience exhausted with new songs like Hello Josephine leaving indelible imprints on their first outing.

 

Mick Kenny aka MTW

Stayed on in Switzerland after the Lucerne Blues Festival to attend the first staging of the Geneva Blues Summit organised by Laurent Gillieron blues fan and guitarist with the Backstroke Blues Band.

 
Modelled on the Lucerne template with all its attention to detail Laurent and his administration team are motivated by the same principles, to bring a well organised blues event to the Geneva social scene, a scene Laurent describes as a musical desert in terms of live blues activity.

 
I travelled down to Geneva on a three hour train ride through picture postcard countryside till I finally seen this big internationally renowned city on the Lake Geneva shoreline.Once you get the hang of the bus and train system it’s easy to make your way around the delights of this city bustling with shopping activity, museums, exotic flower gardens on the lakefront and lots of serene old world charm in the old town region. Also paid visits to famous Geneva attractions like the headquarters of the United Nations and the International Red Cross but my favourite haunt was to Starbucks on Rue de Rive whose window seats offer a relaxing view of the hustle and bustle with the nicest mug of coffee decorated with sumptuous cream and sprinklings on top.

 
The first event in the Geneva Blues Summit was a workshop for local blues guitarists, featuring two separate classes from the headliners, Dave Specter and Steve Freund in the huge Ramada Encore Hotel complex. All the guitarists formed a wide semi circle in each of two rooms with their electric guitars and practice amps and absorbed all the tips and techniques offered by these two excellent American Blues Guitarists. Its was a revealing insight by these two great players into their own individual styles and teaching routines, as well as into the world of ninth chord and seventh chord progressions, into classic Freddie King blues riffs, resolving Robert Johnson style turnarounds, and phrases that transform the chords in theory into waves of emotional magic on stage.

 

I first came across Dave Specter and The Bluebirds on a visit to Paris in 2004 and was captivated by his wonderful jazzy blue guitar style with his Epiphone Riviera in an All Star Chicago revue that also featured Jimmy Burns and Nora Jean Brusco and would site his versions of Hot Cha from his Speculatin album and People Get Ready from his recent CD release with Steve Freund on It Is What It Is as two favourites on my play list of the year and so it was an eagerly awaited prospect to see him perform again in Geneva.

 

The Geneva Blues Summit performances the following night took place in a fine old venue with balcony’s and high carved wooden walls and ceilings on the Salle du Faubourg in the centre of Geneva.

 
All the trappings of a well organised event were on hand staffed by a loyal team of enthusiastic volunteers committed to putting on a top quality night of blues entertainment.

 

The first band on stage was the Backstroke Blues Band featuring
Laurent Hat Trick Gillieron on guitar, Valerie Snow White Biselx on vocals, Patrick Mr Groove Pegataz on Bass and Jean Christian Boom Boom Barben on Drums. This local blues band formed in 1996 kicked into their well rehearsed set to a warm and enthusiastic attendance and featured a set of original songs and covers influenced by Smokin Joe Kubek, Little Charlie & The Nitecats, T Bone Walker and the guest star Dave Specter. Laurent only took up the guitar at the age of 27 and had spent the last fourteen years well developing his finely honed chops on the fretboard.

 
The upbeat tempo energised and pumped out the blues, capturing the houserockin’ atmosphere and spirit of this special event with Laurent guitar breaks and Valerie’s soaring vocals, burning across the stage with eagerness and clear passion for live performance.

 

They were followed on stage by the big band sound of Bluecerne, a blues band up from Lucerne with Heinz Moby Arnold on keyboards and harmonica who had joined the Backstroke Blues Band on stage for a jam, Renato Cazzaniga on vocals who punctuated his stage delivery with some high kicks reminiscent of Van Morrison’s performance on the Last Waltz, Roli Mossman on some very nice subtle and probing Guitar, Michi Butikofer on Bass, Josi Muff on Drums, Patrick Roosli on Saxophone and Martin Scheidegger on Trumpet. It was a fine big brassy energetic performance with plenty of give and take between the musicians, spontaneity, humour and improvisation.

 
“We‘re here to entertain you
Let’s have a party all through the night
We’ll be up till tomorrow morning
When the sun is shinning bright”

 

The headliner act Dave Specter & The Bluebirds featuring Steve Freund arrived on stage with a fire and a depth of emotion from the four players on stage that could best be described as 110% craftsmanship quality.

 
With Otis Rush sideman Harlen Terson on Bass and Mike Schlick on Drums, a marvellously talented rhythm section and regular members of Dave’s Bluebirds revealing the subtlety and shading of experienced road tested blues journeymen, the lush tones of Dave’s Epiphone Riviera and Steve’s harder edged Les Paul creating a joyful feast of tone and phrasing magic on stage.

 
A tall soft spoken man, Dave Specter is a musicians musician, the modern master of the instrumental, a genre that relies on the voice of the guitar and excels when that voice is as rich and warm as Dave’s eclectic trademark signature sound full of nice melodic phrase sliding, sophisticated slippery riff driven soulful single note lines, double stops, great tone and superb measured composure with a rhythm intensity that adds an hypnotic presence to his songs and covers like Hot Cha on the Speculatin CD and the burner on the night People Get Ready a magical fretboard excursion between Steve on rhythm, some soulful motown mastery on bass from Harlen and Mike Schlick’s incredibly subtle jazzy drumming with the end result sounding like four different languages all conversing fluently and cohesively together on stage.

 
The beauty of Dave Specter’s style, lies in his smooth blues tinged relaxed grooves that breeze into the atmosphere with the soul of the blues and the sensitivity of fluid, percussive and spontaneously jazzy technical proficiency. What I particularly like about Dave’s staggering music is the toe tapping irresistibility and marvellous charm of the instrumental musicianship.

 
Steve Freund has been demonstrating his passion to play blues guitar eight day’s a week from the east coast to the west coast his current base, since the early seventies, working with Sunnyland Slim, Eddie Taylor, Luther Allison and Koko Taylor and is now a traditional master of the Chicago blues guitar techniques with an absolutely fantastic blues voice.Steve and Dave work well together on stage and in the studio both being comfortably versed in each others guitar language skills as demonstrated on Steve’s CD I’ll Be Your Mule and Dave and Steve’s latest collaboration It Is What It Is.

 
Organiser and a really nice guy Laurent Gillieron joined Dave and Steve on Stage for a good old fashioned blues jam and acquitted himself admirably in the company of such skilful guitar wizards and brought proceedings to a satisfying close for everyone in attendance at this first Geneva Blues Summit.

 
It was a great night clearly enjoyed by the crowd transfixed by the skilful musicians, dancing and taking in all the action on stage.It was a lovely break in Geneva and worth it just to see two calibre players like Dave Specter and Steve Freund perform live on stage in the company of such superb complementary and interesting musicians as Harlen Terson and Mike Schlick.

 
One observation I did notice was a lack of posters in the local music shops and ticket outlets where many locals seemed surprised and unaware of the event happening which I felt might be a problem in solving the commercial nature of such a blues event in Geneva.
This is a big problem in the bigger cities and likewise in Dublin where event recognition is difficult and crowd attendance inconsistent. Lucerne a smaller city admittedly in terms of coverage was noticeably for its pavement displays around the main streets and massive billboards near festival locations like the Hotel Schweizerhof.

 
It was the end of a great blues holiday in Switzerland and the next morning I was waiting on a bus to the airport when the Bluecerne van pulled in and gave me a lift on their way back to Lucerne which was much appreciated by these guys who were in great form and are most definitely on the bright side of the road.

 

Mick Kenny