RIP Janice Scroggins. Look here for a brief obituary. Photo by John Rudoff.
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
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!
Tuesday, May 06, 2014
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!
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!
Friday, April 25, 2014
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!
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!
Sunday, April 20, 2014
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?
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.
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
Sunday, April 06, 2014
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.
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.
Saturday, January 11, 2014
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!
Sunday, December 08, 2013
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.
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!
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 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!
Sunday, November 10, 2013
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:
You can check out the Boneyard Preachers here. See you at the nightclub!
Friday, November 01, 2013
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:
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!
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