John PNW Visit

August 27th through the 31st, Joanna and I enjoyed a visit by the String Bending Madman himself, John Londay. A great time was enjoyed by all including seeing Lee Ritenour at Dimitriou's, Crabbing and a Mariner's game.

John with his first crab, a peewee Red Rock that promptly got thrown back in.

The bottom of a Sunflower Star. The legs look like they would be soft but are actually feel hard like scales.

John and the Old Man

A Keeper, it was obviously a gorgeous day

One very cool cloud formation

Open Face Crab Salad Sandwich

John's recipe. Very, very tasty

Blackberries, soon to be part of a pie

Hundreds of blackberries died to make this pie.

However, it did provide 8 servings of fruit

One cow died to make this steak.

Open Face Refried Bean Sandwich

Recipe from Mexican Made Easy with improvements

and spuds by John

Additional time was spent playing music, listening to music, watching music videos and a bass lesson for Pops from John. This was a great way to spend three plus days.

Thanks John!

Mount Baker R & B Festival

The Mount Baker Festival has a unique PNW flavor. It is held at the Deming Log Event Fairground, a dedicated venue for Lumberjack Competitions. It is on the west slope of Mount Baker about 10 miles from any real civilization.

Rustic is a good description of the site and many of the attendees. Frequent sights included bald head pony tails, outrageous gray hair mullets, 65 year old Earth Mommas wearing beaded mini-skirts over well worn jeans, and guy and gal coots showing off their tats.

Saying it was laid back and loosely, but well run sums it up nicely. It was really enjoyable with everyone as friendly as could be. The people watching was enormous fun.

Joanna and I volunteered doing three shifts each at the beer tent. The Midnight to 2:00 pm Saturday shift was interesting. It was a jam with local blues musicians. It reinforced the deep appreciation and respect I have for 1% of the guitar players in the world. That would be those that really know how to play. The other 99% should be segregated from the rest of humankind.

The entire happening was fun and wacky. It was an experience. It was a movement.

The Drive Up

We took the west route from Bainbridge riding the Edmonds-Kingston Ferry to get to the East side of the sound. We drove I-5 part of the way and then detoured to Edison along State Route 11. This is a destination for foodies with good reason. Joanna enjoyed a great berry pie while I loved a gooey pecan roll. We also bought some bread from an Artisan Baker and visited a small but terrific deli.

We continued North on Route 11 as it followed the coast.

San Juan Islands

The San Juans from a Route 11 pulloff.

Same location facing Northwest

The Music

A Simple Machine

A three piece blues rock band with a heavy SRV/Hendrix influence. Good players tending toward long jams.

The Fat Tones

Three piece band playing updated blues. They and the crowd had a great time. All three of these guys sing at the same time, in tune. It was very impressive and made it special for me.

The Randy Oxford Band

http://randyoxford.com/new_band/index.html

Played Smoking hot blues. Easily the most exciting band we saw. They did some original material that was stunningly good. The only band I've seen this year that topped them in wowing the crowd was Trombone Shorty.

There is no substitute for everyone in the band being really talented and playing their asses off.

They just toured the midwest including Chicago and Omaha. Worth making an effort to see if they are in your area.

Farko Dosumov, their bass player has an intensity that will knock you back ten steps. He channels Jaco Pastorius. He hails from Uzbekistan.

Rafael Tranquilino

Musical director of the band and seriously good. At the end of their set, he had nothing left to say, and that is saying a lot. We got everything he had, which was a bunch.

Janiva Magness

Using what she's got to get what she wants.

Solid professional backup band. Solid professional show. They played better than when we saw them at the Waterfront Blues Festival. Had the misfortune of following The Randy Oxford Band. Could not keep up with them in the intensity department.

Leon Russell

As you would expect, a great show. He has not lost a bit in the piano chops department. Terrific material with a lot of variety. The voice is different but still sounds distinctive and very good. All great players. The guitarist did a solo song playing acoustic and singing Walking Blues in the traditional Robert Johnson style. Impressive. Reminded me of how John plays that material.

Leon was one of the few guys left on my Bucket List. I am very glad I was able to see him.

Leon's Full Band

The Back of Leon's Piano Rig

Mount Baker Blues Fest Website: http://www.boomkak.com/bakerblues/info.html

The New Digs, Post # 1

We moved into our current place about 6 weeks ago. Here are a few photos:

The New Gentleman's Enclave

Enclave View Two

This is an extraordinarily cool quilt created by my talented sister Susan. Not only is the front super cool, there is an interesting legend on the back. It makes the room.

Spotted Towhee outside our bedroom window

More pics to come

Vashon Day Trip

Yesterday, Joanna and I took a day trip to Vashon Island. Although it is located in Puget Sound not too far from Bainbridge Island, about 7 miles by boat, you have to take a 45 mile drive onto the Peninsula to board the nearest ferry. It was a pleasant drive and a short, enjoyable ferry ride.

Berkeley Breathed, Bloom County cartoonist once lived on Vashon. If he was looking to get away from it all and have very little human contact this is the place. It is well known as an enclave for artists and writers.

Fort Robinson Lighthouse

Driftwood on Beach Next to Lighthouse

Field of Lavender

Banana Slug

This is a nice example of the famous Pacific North West Banana Slug. This was a pretty good sized guy, about 6 inches long. If you kiss one, it will numb your lips.

Waterfront Blues Festival

Joanna and I took our first trip to the Portland Waterfront Blues Festival Friday through Monday. We signed up for a package tour sponsored by KPLU, the Seattle NPR station. The package included the train ride from Seattle to Portland and back, bus transportation to and from the hotel, hotel reservations, festival passes, passes to after hours blues jams, a blues riverboat cruise, tote bag and a drinks and food reception. The room at the Marriott was great. It was across the street from the festival with a balcony facing the main stages.

View of the main festival ground

The festival is held in a natural amphitheater in Downtown Portland facing the Willamette River. This photo was taken from the riverboat cruise we took. There are two main stages, one at each end of the amphitheater. As soon as one show ended at one stage, the next show started at the alternate stage. It was continuous music from noon until about 10:00 at night. You could get a good seat for one stage and stay there, as the sound system was set up so the sound was good wherever you where.

Trombone Shorty

Hands down the best act of the festival, and that is saying a lot. Trombone Shorty on trombone and trumpet, backed by alto and baritone saxes, bass, drums, guitar and Mississippi congettos. Every one a killer player. They are playing 200 shows a year and are funky and tight, with great material. Think Ernie-K-Doe on a massive dose of human growth hormone with gobs of jazz, funk and soul thrown in. They were so good, I also went to their after hours jam. The dance floor was bouncing up and down so far I thought it was going to cave in. Do not miss a chance to see this guy.

Booker T

A dictionary of classic soul, done in a great, mellow way. A lot of Booker T and the MGs of course, plus Sam & Dave, Otis Redding, Bill Withers, Temptations and more. I believe he wrote, co-wrote or engineered all the songs he played. That is Booker on the guitar. He played more guitar than keyboards and was really good. He is one of the artists that is hard to see as he rarely gigs. Another act worth making a real effort to see.

Janiva Magness

Won Best Comtemporary Blues Artist last three years and BB King Best Blues Entertainer of the year for 2009. Four pieces, bass, guitar, drums and B-3. All really good musicians, although it would have been even better if John had been on the guitar. Really good music, great, well paced show but came up just a little short of being really great.

Commander Cody

Texas Honky Tonk, Truck Driving songs, Lost Love songs and Hot Rod Lincoln. "You're gonna drive me to drinkin, if you don't stop driving that Hot Rod Lincoln!". He sounded exactly like he did on his album from 40 years ago: Hot Licks, Cold Steel and Truck Driver's Favorites. He played and sang great, yet appeared to be almost completely drunk. A very cool show.

Michael Burks and Lucky Peterson

Missed the first half of the show as we were on the cruise. The half of the show we saw was one continuous jam. They did Voodoo Child in double time. Yes, you read that correctly. It was quite interesting, but I cannot say it was an improvement over either Jimi's or Stevie's versions. Lucky was hammering it on both organ and guitar.

Super Chickan

This photo was taken from the balcony of our hotel room. Old style Chicago Blues, pure and simple. Messin with the Kid.

The Willamette River

This shot was taken from the Riverboat Cruise on a part of the Willamette just above where it meets the Columbia River, 78 upstream from where Lewis and Clarke finally reached the Pacific Ocean in November of 1805. Since then, the river has been inhabited by many more people and a lot fewer salmon.

Coda

This festival is put on by the Oregon Food Bank. They raised approximately $400,000 and many semi-truck loads of food. It is almost entirely run by volunteers and they do a remarkable job. It ran really smoothly from traffic flow to security.

It was a pleasure to meet John Kessler. He hosts KPLU's Saturday and Sunday night blues shows from 6:00 p.m. until midnight, every week. Not only is he a DJ and radio personality, he is also a player and recording engineer. On top of all that, a very nice guy.

The package tour was well worth while. Not only was it less expensive than if we had driven and done our own booking, there is no way we could have gotten the marvelous hotel room we enjoyed.

If you are considering going to this festival, contact Joanna or I and we will give you all you need to know to get the most out of it.

Crabbing Season Opens

Thursday, July 1st was opening day for crabbing in our part of Puget Sound. We spent a lovely afternoon on the Point White dock catching our dinner. We caught about 25 crabs, with a dozen or so of legal size. We kept 4 for dinner. One Dungeness and three Red Rocks.

The weather remains cool. We have yet to see 80 degrees and are still needing to use the electric blanket. It was overcast and partly sunny all afternoon and a great day to spend on the water.

Preparing lunch for my Red Rock and Dungeness Friends.

A Large Sun Star. Wish this was a video so you could see all the legs doing "The Wave."

A Little Guy who had lunch on me. Perhaps we will meet in a year or two when he is a little more grown up.

An Ochre Star on the Piling below where we were crabbing.

A Kelp Crab. These do not show up very often.

A bucket of crabs.

The Keepers

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings

Joanna and I saw Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings Monday evening at Showbox SoDo, an ornate old ballroom south of Safeco Field. It was our first visit to the venue, a really nice place to see a show.

The Heavy opened and did a nice job. They closed with their number "How Do You Like Me Now", the one you are probably familiar with from the car ad.

Sharon Jones was great. She worked her butt off. The band started off a little rocky, but once they started hitting on all cylinders they rocked hard. As you can imagine, it was an old school R & B Revue type show. Oddly enough, the entire horn section looked like degenerates. No one saw that coming!

The bass player, Bosco Mann, was the musical director and gave all the cues, although it was obvious Sharon was the Keeper of the Keys and was running the show. The energy she put out, her dancing and singing were reminiscent of a James Brown show.

She got a number of audience members on the stage and had them dancing in a line and then had them dance themselves individually off the stage. Have Mercy! For the age of some of these gals, they were moving it pretty good. The guys didn't do too badly either.

Her guitar player, Binky Griptite, acted as the MC. He was from the classic mold. He knew how to shamelessly work the crowd, and did it to death. He made the crowd beg for an encore, which was of course "100 Days and 100 Nights."

If you want a feel for how the band looked and sounded like, you might want to check out some Wilson Pickett or Otis Redding live clips on You Tube.

We got home a little after 1:00 a.m.

A week from Friday we take off for the four day Waterfront Blues Festival in Portland.

suggested links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ouI5KcyHfE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOJR11cSvHY&feature=fvst

http://www.waterfrontbluesfest.com/

http://www.showboxonline.com/

Carpe Diem..............all day long.