Hugh's Blues at the Salmon Bay Eagles

I dropped by the Salmon Bay Eagles club last night to see a rare performance of the Seattle band Hugh's Blues.  Various versions of this band, always fronted by harp blower and singer Greg "GW" Levell, were a fixture on the Seattle music scene from about the mid-'80s  to (I'm guessing) the late '90s. 

GW quit playing altogether after that and the band members went their separate ways, so it has been a long time since I have seen him.  I have been hearing reports recently that his reanimated band was playing occasionally, and there they were last night at the Eagles, in the flesh!  GW told me that he has retired from the concrete business after 35 years, and is now going to school. He has been married for 13 years and is living with his wife in North Bend.

I got the impression that he is not really interested in "starting the band again," but he will probably do these one-off gigs every now and then for the fun of it.  I saw the band's first set, which consisted mainly of the soul-blues material that GW is known to favor. 

Here are some photos from the gig:

Left to right: Jack Cook, Bert DeCoy (GW's son-in-law), and Greg "GW" Levell.

Left to right: Al Farlow, Steve Branca, and Billy Reed.

 

 

Now here's something you don't see very often.  A harp player blowing through a piggyback 1963 Fender Tremolux!  Ain't she a beauty?  I'll bet this is a killer guitar amp.

You can check out the Boneyard Preachers here.  See you at the nightclub!