Will Play Harp For Food - Anything Helps!

I was recently approached by a promoter in Portland about performing at a harp show at a club there on an "off" day - by that I mean not a Friday or Saturday night.  After checking out the money offer, I sent the following response (names have been removed for obvious reasons):

"Hello ____,

Sorry, but I will have to decline to play this gig. As you know, a trip to Portland is a 350 mile round trip for me.  That's a tank of gasoline, which costs me about $35 these days.  The round trip also takes six hours to complete.

It looks like _____'s band is a five piece combo, so with the additional two harp players, I assume that there would be a seven-way split of the money.  If the club pays the maximum of $500 (which seems unlikely on a Sunday afternoon), the musicians would get a payout of $71 each.  $71 minus $35 equals a net payout of $36 for me.

Now, let's say that I play one hour, then add the six hours of travel time.  That equals seven hours of time expended on my part.  The $36 estimated net payout divided by seven hours equals $5+ per hour.  This is approximately how much money I used to make mowing lawns when I was a teenager in the '60s.

I love playing music, but I don't love playing it that much!  So I must respectfully decline your offer, but thanks for thinking of me!

Linda Hornbuckle Is Dead

Longtime contributor to the Portland, OR music scene, Linda Hornbuckle, died on October 4th, 2014 after a long struggle with liver and kidney cancer.  She was 59 years old.

RIP Linda Hornbuckle.  

Photo by Patrick Lamb Productions.

See a brief obituary here.

A Summer Gig on the Beach

I played a gig with the Brian Butler Band last week on the beach in West Seattle.  This was an annual backyard party that Brian's band has been playing for the last five years.  As you can see from the photo below, the host's back yard is actually on the beach, just about a stone's throw from the Fauntleroy ferry dock.

This was an easy, fun party.  I munched on catered barbecue while party attendees took over the stage and played Neil Young and Grateful Dead songs.  I have known guitarist  Brian Butler since the mid-'70s.  He played in my band Nitelife briefly back in the day when we were playing the dives downtown on First Avenue.

We managed to wrap the gig up and split before it started raining, so it was all good!

You can check out the band I play in, the Boneyard Preachers, here.  See you at the nightclub!

Brian Lee & the Orbiters at the Highway 99 Blues club

I dropped by the Highway 99 Blues Club tonight to see Brian Lee and the Orbiters do a tribute to to the music of the great Little Walter Jacobs and Big Walter Horton.  The Orbiters are recent recipients of Best Band and Best Traditional Blues Act awards from the Washington Blues Society.

The Orbiters are normally a quartet, but this evening they hired guitarist Eric Daw so that Brian could play harp during the "tribute" portion of the night (the first set).  Journeyman bassist Mark Dalton was also filling in for the regular Orbiter bassist, Hank Yanda.

I had to leave early to get my beauty sleep, but here are some photos from the gig:

Left to right: Brian Lee, Mark Dalton, and Eric Daw.

Brian Lee and Eric Daw

Left to right: Steve Yonck, Mark Dalton, Eric Daw, and Brian Lee.

Russ Kammerer and Mark Dalton.

I wonder what will become of the Highway 99 Blues Club when they finally get Bertha, the waterfront tunnel boring machine unstuck, and they tear the remaining portions of the Highway 99 viaduct down?  The club is practically underneath the viaduct structure.

You can check out the band I play in, the Boneyard Preachers, here.  See you at the nightclub!

I'm TRYING to Watch the Game Here!!

The Preachers played  at a new bar in Renton last night, a sports bar that features a gazillion beers on tap.  The joint's kitchen wasn't open yet, so customers had to order food via the phone from the surrounding restaurants, or leave the place, eat elsewhere, then return.

We set up on the bandstand, which is about four and a half feet above the floor and directly behind the bar.  This arrangement put all of our amplifiers at the ear level of the bartenders and wait staff. There was a house PA system that seemed to work fine for the hip hop music played on our breaks, but the mains appeared to be off when the band was playing.  I'm fairly certain that the only PA speaker that was working during our sets was the single floor monitor.

The bandstand.

The view from the bandstand.

I sent posters to the club, which were not in evidence anywhere.  Our gig did appear on the club's website, with a starting time shown as "all day."  The Preachers' name did not appear on the event board inside the club.  All of the big screen TVs were left on (sound off) during the gig, so that the customers would not be distracted by the band, I guess.

Bless the club's heart for hiring us, but the 20-something crowd in attendance couldn't have cared less about the music the Preachers were playing.  It occurred to me that if you want to determine what music is most appropriate for a club, pay attention to the music being played on the breaks.  At this place, familiar hip-hop and current R&B tunes were being blasted at the crowd, who seemed to be familiar with every tune.

I hate to say it, but why not just hire a DJ for this sort of venue?  Just curious!

On the positive side, we did get paid and the staff was helpful and friendly, so it's all good.  I don't think we would be interested in playing there again, though.

You can find out more about the Boneyard Preachers here.  See you at the nightclub!

Janice Scroggins is Dead

Our hearts go out to the Portland music community and the family of the awesome pianist Janice Scroggins, who died suddenly of a heart attack on May 27th, 2014.  Very sad!

RIP Janice Scroggins.  Look here for a brief obituary.  Photo by John Rudoff.

Enough already with the exposure...it burns, IT BURNS!

The Preachers have been spending a good amount of time recently fending off promoters and bar owners that would love for us to play for free, or close to it.  For the "exposure," of course.

A gal that has a weekly public access show asked us to play and be videotaped at a new music venue on Seattle's west side.  This gig of hers is always free, and we actually did one of these sessions last year.  The problem is that we have never met a single person that actually saw that specific show, either live or as an archived performance.  Not one.  So we turned the offer to participate down.

However, we did contact the west side club about a possible gig, which precipitated the usual kind of funny back and forth with the club owner.  First, he wanted to know many people on our e-mail list would show up at a gig.  How could we possibly know the answer to that question? So for giggles we told him that 50 percent of the folks on the e-mail list usually show up.   He responded that that's what ALL the bands say, and that very few people usually show up because of an e-mail invitation. Frankly, I agreed with him, but I was curious why he was asking a question that he already knew he answer to?

After hearing our modest compensation request, he told us that he only guarantees "new" bands $125 for the night.  Plus, he only has to pay his most popular band (that packs the place, apparently) $250.  So, we scratched that one off the list too.

Next we were approached by someone that wanted to "live stream" one of our paying gigs on the web. For free, of course.  We discovered that anyone that wanted to watch the performance on the web would have to pay.  We were told that any money collected would apply to the cost of putting the event on the web, and the band would not be compensated.  Thanks, but no thanks!

Finally, Stoop Down's other band, The Market Street Dixieland Jass Band, approached a new club in the Public Market area about a gig.  The deal?  The door, minus $150 for the sound guy! They decided not to play there for some reason

Enough with the exposure already - it's killing us!

You can find out more about the Boneyard Preachers here.  See you at the nightclub!

Mike Moothart Benefit Update

We have been getting inquiries about how to donate to the Moothart benefit fund by folks that can't attend the benefit in Portland on May 18th.

It is easy to make a donation!  You can send checks to this address:

111 SE 214th Avenue
Gresham, OR  97030

Please make any checks payable to Mike Moothart.

That was easy!  Do  it today!

Mike Moothart Benefit in Portland - May 18th, 2014

NW blues fans - Please see the message below from our friend Bill Rhoades regarding the forthcoming benefit for another one of our friends, the powerful and inspiring harp blower, Mike Moothart. I'm planning on attending this show, how about you?

Mike Moothart - Photo by Greg "Slim Lively" Johnson.

There are many great things about living in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. Really way too many to list here. But a couple I will list are the fantastic music scene we have and all the outstanding musicians that pull together when one of us is in need. I know. I can speak from personal experience. I was helped a number of times by the folks here in Portland and in Eugene, when going through health issues. If it wasn't for Randy Lilya, Jan Bisconer, Greg Lively,the C.B.A, Terry Currier, Bill Shreve, Paul Biondi, M.E.M.A (Musicians Emergency Medical Assoc.) and all the musicians, I probably would be living out on the street. 

Well, that time has come up again. One of the Northwest's most outstanding Blues Harmonica players needs help.Mike Moothart was recently diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer. It had spread to five tumors on his spine. One tumor was removed and this eliminated him being paralyzed from the waist down. Mike has been receiving hormone/chemo/radiation treatments and the doctor have found the results encouraging so far, saying that he has responded well to the treatments.

I'm not pulling any punches here. The cost of this is huge. Add all this to the fact that two weeks before he was diagnosed, he was "let go" from his job of thirty years. He still has some insurance for himself and his daughter but the monthly costs of that are large.

Mike has been a solid Blues musician and Blues supporter for over 40 plus years. He grew up with Curtis Salgado in Eugene, OR, and played in many bands there. He offered his home to musicians traveling through like Big Walter Horton, Sonny Rhodes and many others. After moving to Portland, he played with the Jim Mesi Band, Jimmy Lloyd Rea & the Switchmasters and has frequently been seen at the Blues Harmonica Blow-Off's and Summit's. At one point he even drove the van for the Paul deLay Band. Mike loves Blues music and is hands down, one of the most hard blowing harp players out there. He used to ask people not to stand in front of him when he played because of the danger of being "sucked up into the harmonica."

Now Thanks to Randy Lilya, Sonny Hess, the Spare Room and an award winning list of Portland musicians, a benefit will be held to help Mike off-set the enormous costs of his treatments. On Sunday May 18th at the Spare Room - located at 4830 N.E. 42nd Ave - here in Portland, OR., an All-Star cast of players will get together and play from 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm.

Donations will be accepted throughout the evening and there will a "ton" of unbelievable music and musicians!

Let me throw some names out and see if this gets your attention. Curtis Salgado, Linda Hornbuckle, Norman Sylvester D.K. Stewart, Lloyd Jones, Jim Mesi, Terry Robb, Andy Stokes, Sonny Hess, Steve Bradley, Bill Rhoades, Alan Hager, Jim Wallace, Jimmy Lloyd Rea, Sir Henry Cooper, John Koonce, Doug Rowell, Newell C. Briggs, Randy Lilya and Robbi Laws.

There will be many more players showing up. Way too many to list. A line-up not to be missed!

 

So please put that date on your calendar. May 18th - Sunday 5 pm to 10 pm at the Spare Room. Once again we can show that not only do the musicians here in the Northwest play great together but that they look out for each other and help when the time comes up.

Don't miss this show - like J.B. Hutto used to say "It will be heavy!

Bill Rhoades

Oops!

I was notified today that some of the photos previously published on this blog have disappeared.


Yikes! This apparently happened the other day when I was deleting photos from my Google+ account with my smart phone.  Unfortunately, the photos were also deleted from the linked Picasa storage space.


I haven't found a way to retrieve these photos - sorry about that!  Lesson learned.  I will be more careful about this sort of thing in the future.

Big City Rhythm & Blues Magazine Does Seattle

The current issue of the Big City Rhythm & Blues Magazine includes a large section on the Seattle blues music scene. I think that the cover photo (above) is very representative.

Commenting on this content wouldn't be prudent.  Not gonna do it!  Well, on second thought, I do have one question, and just one tiny comment:

First, who in the heck is Seattle guitarist Jim Allchin, and why is he being credited with "blazing a path in contemporary blues?"  True, I see that he has one of the basic requirements of all the great blues guitarists nailed down - he is a retired Microsoft executive. Plus, he has released some vanity CDs. But has anyone ever seen him actually perform outside of a studio?  In a nightclub or a concert?  Anywhere?

Second, I  absolutely love this photo of Bobby Murray, Robert Cray, and a tiny dog:

You can find out about the band I play in, the Boneyard Preachers, here.  See you at the nightclub!

Opening for a DJ? Say It Ain't So!

The Preachers played three one-nighters this past Thanksgiving weekend, which was pretty unusual for us.  Not the one-nighters, which are typical for this area, but the number of them.

Two of the gigs had an unusual component.  We were essentially opening up for the main attraction - a DJ!  On Friday night we played the Blues Theatre gig at Jazzbones in Tacoma.  The gig is from 8-10:30 PM, and all band gear has to be cleared off of the stage in 30 minutes so that the DJ can get set up.

The Preachers at Jazzbones.  Photo created by Lauri Miller.

A little over 50 people paid a cover to see the Preachers.  By the time I took the last of my stuff out to my car, there was easily a hundred people in the club waiting for the DJ to start, and a line was forming outside the door.  A waiter told me that it is not unusual for 300-400 people to attend the DJ show on Friday nights.

By the way, we had friends from Silverdale, Shoreline, and Ballard show up for this gig, but not one of our Tacoma peeps.  Go figure!

On Saturday night we played at the H20 in Anacortes.  This is the live music venue owned by the same folks that own the Rockfish Grill next door.  The bands that used to play at the Rockfish now play at the H20, a larger venue dedicated to live music. Much to the relief of the diners at the Rockfish, I'm guessing.

This is another early gig (7:30-10:30 PM),  and another DJ set up on the stage after we cleared off our equipment.  The neighborhood was pretty quiet for a Saturday night and we only had about a third of the seats filled during our gig.  There was no throng waiting to hear canned music when we left, so maybe everyone had had too much weekend by then?

In other news, we played a set at the Friends of the Holidays benefit at The Swiss in Tacoma on Sunday and had a blast!  We were the only stone cold blues band to play the gig.  We may have puzzled some of the attendees, but I thought that the Preachers played a great set.

We were proceeded by the young local hotshot guitarist Nolan Garrett.  I guess some people think this kid is going to be the next Jonny Lang. Well, his band is certainly loud enough to qualify!

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

Fun with Power Tubes

Jet City Blues readers will know that I have been fiddling with my Fender Bassman LTD amp to improve the tone of the beast.  Sometimes a power tube change can make a positive change in tone, as I discovered when I installed a pair of reissue Tung-Sol 5881s in my old Victoria Bassman clone.

The factory specifies 6L6 power tubes for the LTD.  A friend recommended trying JJ Electronic 6L6GC tubes, so I ordered a pair from Eurotubes in Oregon.

The LTD is an adjustable bias amp.  This means that the plate voltage delivered to the power tubes has to be adjusted to factory specs after installation.  Now, if I took the amp to a Seattle shop to have this work done, I would have to wait six to eight weeks to get the amp back.  Eurotubes has detailed biasing instructions both in writing and in video format on their web page, So I thought I would give it a try.

Well actually, I asked my girlfriend Lauri to give it a try, since she worked at Seattle's Bozotronics back in the day, and knows how to get around inside of a hot amplifier without getting electrocuted.  She was coming over to my place to join us for dinner on Thanksgiving, so she brought her Fluke multi-meter with her and we learned how to bias tubes that day.

We took the upper back panel off of the cabinet, revealing the amplifier components.  We located the bias trim pot and bias test point on the printed circuit board and Lauri set the meter to read millivolts.  The amp has to be on (including the Standby switch) for a few minutes for the meter to read correctly.  First, we measured the factory setting for the stock Groove Tubes 6L6s.  To get this reading the multi-meter black probe touches the amp chassis and the red probe touches the bias test point.  This setting was 59 millivolts.  I played harp through the amp for a little bit to get some sort of tone baseline.

Eurotubes recommends that the JJ tubes be set somewhere between 60 and 90 millivolts.  How to decide where to set it?  Simple - play through the amp at different bias setting to see which one sounds the best to you.  Turning the trim pot with a screwdriver either decreases (turn left) or increases (turn right) the tube plate voltage.

Surprisingly (to me, anyway), the JJ tubes did not sound as good in the amp as the stock Groove Tubes 6L6s did, no matter what the bias setting.  The JJ tubes were too clean and subtracted from the essential Bassman funkiness.  I am guessing that the JJ tubes would be a good choice for a guitar player that wants a good clean tone though.

So, we reinstalled the Groove Tubes 6L6s and tried various bias settings.  The best sounding bias setting?  59 millivolts - right where we started!  So, no more fooling around with power tubes for now.  By the way, the Weber P10R speaker clones that I recently installed in the amp are really starting to blossom after a few gigs.  They are a BIG improvement over the reissue Jensens installed at the factory.

My thanks to Lauri for her help with this project!

Please remember that guitar amps operate on dangerously high electrical voltages.  If you feel uncomfortable performing this type of work on your amp, DO NOT DO IT! Take the amp to your local repair shop instead.

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

The Preachers' November and December Gigs

Hey, here's what's happening with the Preachers in November and December:

 

11/29 - Jazzbones in Tacoma, WA.  Showtime is 8:00 PM.  $6.00 cover.  This will be our first time appearing at this venue, so we hope  to see some of our Tacoma peeps at this show.  Tickets are available online from the Jazzbones website. 

 

The owner contacted Stoop Down earlier this week and complained that no one had purchased any tickets to the show yet.  We checked the club's web site, and lo and behold, this gig wasn't even on their calendar, how unusual!  It is now, so please buy a ticket, would ya?  We promise to play good for y'all!

 

11/30 - H2O in Anacortes, WA.  Showtime is 7:30 PM.  Located right next door to the Rockfish Grill (same owners), we hear that this venue gets to rocking!

 

12/1 - The Swiss in Tacoma, WA.  Say what?  TWO Preachers gigs in Tacoma on one weekend?  The band will be playing a short set (6:25 - 7:15 PM) at the Friends of the Holidays benefit.  It's a good cause, so be there!

 

 

 

12/6 - Preachers Mike Lynch and Patty Mey will be performing at the Legends of the Blues Concert at the Byrnes Performing Arts Center in Arlington, WA.  Showtime is 7:00 PM.  $15.00 cover.  You can buy tickets online here:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/508572

 

 

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

Some Weber Speakers and a gig at Duff's Garage

I finally pulled the trigger on a quartet of Weber speakers for my reissue Fender Bassman LTD amp.  I chose the 10A100T model speaker, which Weber describes as a clone of the late '50s Jensen P10R.  The main difference between this speaker and the 10A100 Weber speakers that I have bought in the past is that the 10A100T has a ribbed cone whereas the 10A100 has a smooth cone.  Both are 10-inch speakers with one-inch voice coils and are rated at 15 watts of power handling capability.  Alnico magnets, of course.

So what's the difference?  The smooth cone speaker (a clone of the early '50s Jensen speakers) should distort earlier than the speaker with the stiffer ribbed cone.  The ribbed cone speakers should work just fine for me, because I like some speaker distortion, but not tons of it. 

Here's a photo of the Weber speakers installed in the Bassman amp.  Note that, just like the in original Fender Bassman, the magnet covers have to be removed from the upper speakers in order to reinstall the amplifier. 

It is hard to quantify the difference between how speakers sound, but I will try here.  Compared to the reissue Jensen speakers (ribbed cones also, but rated at 25 watts) that this amp was shipped with, I would say that the Weber speakers sound punchier, more articulate, and put out more bass.  From past experience, I am anticipating that the new speakers will develop a nice fat, warm distortion and even more bass output as they break in.

My first gig with these new speakers in the amp was at Duff's Garage in Portland last night.  I found that I had to dial up the Presence and Treble controls and dial back the Bass and Mid controls to get my sound.  I think that this is gonna work out fine.  I sold all four of the reissue Jensens in two days, so it's all good!

Speaking of the Duff's gig, we had fun playing there again, and were glad to see some of our Portland peeps (hi Kristi and Rob!) including Uncle Ray Varner, bassist David Kahl, and harp blowers Arthur Moore and Jim Wallace.  There were some pretty darn good dancers at the gig, including one couple that was doing some great (and unusual, for me to see anyway) Balboa steps.  Here's an example of some freestyle Balboa dancing:

The Preachers at Duff's Garage. Photo created by Lauri Miller.

 

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

Ships Passing in the Night...

I, and some of my Seattle musician pals, had a brief  but interesting interaction with the excellent keyboard player Alberto Gianquinto in the very early '80s.

I am going to guess that this happened (someone correct me if I'm wrong here) in the winter of 1980.  My excellent girlfriend at the time, Monica, had gone on vacation to Mexico with her friend Patsy. When they returned Monica told me that they had met this great blues piano player by the name of Alberto Gianquinto who was playing for tips on the beach where they were hanging out.  And, Patsy was going to fly Alberto up to Seattle to hang out - would I like to meet him?

The name Alberto Gianquinto rang a bell with me right away, because I knew that someone by that name had played on the first two James Cotton Blues Band albums.  I didn't know it at the time, but Alberto had also recorded with Elvin Bishop, Son Seals, and Santana.  So yeah, I would like to meet him!  But why in earth did they discover him playing on the beach for tips?

I was playing in a band with Seattle bassist John Lee at the time.  The meeting happened at a long-gone joint on the main drag in Anacortes, Washington.  This place had a ridiculous stage located about ten feet in the air where every piece of equipment had to be lugged up a staircase, one at a time.  I recall that it was snowing that day and the windshield wipers on John's truck were only working intermittently.  Occasionally, one of us had to roll down the passenger window to have a look forward and help John stay on the road. 

We made it to the gig somehow, set up, and played the first set.  And sure enough, Monica and Patsy showed up with Alberto in tow.  The club had an upright piano located on the floor below the stage, so we put a mic on it and our new piano player wailed away with us.  It was like suddenly having Lafayette Leake join the band!

Alberto was a great keyboardist and even greater storyteller (he told Monica an Patsy that he had to leave Mexico because of some problems associated with federal piracy charges), but he was on a total losing streak at the time.  He didn't have transportation, a job, money, or a keyboard that he could use to gig with.  He did the sofa circuit thing for a while (Patsy, Seattle guitarist Jack Cook, and John Lee put him up) in Seattle but finally wore out his welcome and headed back to a warmer place, his hometown, the San Francisco Bay area. 

We heard that he died there on the street, homeless, in 1986.

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!

The Second Annual Harp Hysteria Show at the Salmon Bay Eagles

We had a great time playing at the second annual Harp Hysteria show at the Salmon Bay Eagles club last Saturday.

The Preachers did a great job of backing up me, Portland's Arthur "Fresh Air" Moore, and our pal Joe T. Cook.  Joe and his family moved to the Seattle area recently from Minneapolis where he was a fixture on the blues scene for 25 years.

Our thanks to Zab and Eagles for hosting this gig, and all the fans for turning out!  The Eagles has been hosting blues music in Ballard for over 20 years now.  They provide a stage, lights, and a PA system - what a concept! 

Here are some photos from the gig for you:

Let the games begin!

The Portland crew. That's Arthur Moore on the right.

Arthur and Steve Yonck.  Some of Arthur's friends from Portland sat in during his set.

Blues fans Isis and Lauri.  Hi guys!

The Boneyard Preachers with some harp player.  That's my lucky "Nekkid Girl" shirt. Photo created by staff photographer Lauri Miller.

Joe T. Cook and Steve.  Joe is a great singer, harp player, and songwriter!

Joe rockin' the chromatic harp.

That's all, folks!  Joe T. Cook and the Boneyard Preachers.  Photo created by Zab.

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

The Preachers play the Issaquah Salmon Days Festival

The Preachers played our last outdoor gig this year at the Issaquah Salmon Days Festival last Saturday.  We played the last set of the day, and were on our way home by 6:30 PM.  Unlike our last community festival gig, the sun was out and it was reasonably warm.

See? Sunlight!

The PA was sounding good this day and I noticed that the monitors were being mixed by a guy on an iPad - wireless!  First time I've seen that!

Umm...now let's see, where was I?

I noticed an older fellow standing in front of the PA main speakers that was apparently hard of hearing as he kept cupping his ears with his hands towards the speakers.  He seemed to really be enjoying the band.  Later, he gave a tip for the band to someone in the nearby Washington Blues Society booth.  How much of a tip? One dollar!

Tomorrow night is the Preachers second annual harp show at the Salmon Bay Eagles in Ballard, featuring Arthur "Fresh Air" Moore, Joe T. Cook, and yours truly.  We hope to see you there!

The photos in this blog were created by staff photographer Lauri Miller.

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

Early Warning!! Really Big Harp Show at the Salmon Bay Eagles!

The second annual Harp Hysteria show will occur this coming Saturday, October 12th at Seattle's blues clubhouse, the Salmon Bay Eagles.

The Boneyard Preachers will be backing up yours truly, plus harp blowers Arthur "Fresh Air" Moore (from Portland, Oregon), and our pal Joe T. Cook, a recent transplant to Seattle from the Minneapolis blues scene.

Showtime will be 8:30 PM, and there will be a $5.00 cover for non-Eagles members.  Sorry, there will be no pest...er, guest list for this event.

So come on down and be somebody!

 

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