Having joined the growing percentage of the world's population being recently un-employed, I have been experiencing some re-adjustments. Now I suddenly find myself sleeping when it's dark and waking when it gets light. Daytime activities aside, I have found myself free to participate in some social endeavors in the evening hours. On June 8, I participated in the Slow Jam at Paddy O'Reillys, playing guitar and singing with twenty-something like-minded people. In the picture one can see Deborah Monlux far left on the fiddle, Gary on guitar, Sue on banjo and Rob on guitar in the foreground. Behind them are two mandolin players and a dobro player.
Then on the next Thursday, I got to see the legendary Danny Kalb playing at Jalopy with his bass player, Bob Jones, and drummer Mark Ambrosino. Danny was amazing. His (electrified) acoustic guitar carried instrumental solos and rhythmic accompaniment to his raspy blues vocals. Bob Jones sang bits of harmony on
30 Years and
Who Put a Ring, and finished off several numbers by bowing his bass. Danny pleased us with some of the old favorites like
Baby Please Don't Go,
Alberta and
Jesus Met the Woman at the Well. But also mixed in some really great tunes I had not heard before. Another audience member suggested that the song
Got to Get Goin' Again sounded like a very autobiographical sentiment for where Danny is now. There were times when Kalb's bluesy improvisations on the upper strings almost flew off into another world, but his wonderful rhythmic thumping and running base strings always brought us back to the Blues that we can't help but love.
Danny was joined by young guitar wizard, Randy Johnson, for 3 tunes including
Good Morning Blues and an incredible instrumental version of
Lullabye of Birdland. Kalb finished his set with Big Bill Broonzy's
Hey, Hey. But the audience wanted an encore, and Danny satisfied with the sweetest jazz/Blues instrumental on guitar.
