New Tracks & Sweepers for Today's Show

Hello again TMB and Local Blues Fans -

Just a quick review, My two youngest daughters and I saw the Lefteye Jump Blues Band at the 1820 Coffeehouse & Wine Bar two weekends ago after the Green Mountain Chew-Chew. Recently, My son and I had a chance to go to the Blues Night at the Lincoln Inn and hear Jim Branca with special guest, Greg Izor along with special secret guest appearance of "Harmonica" Bob McKenzie. (I loved watching Jim and Bob tossing musical lines back and forth during their great cover of "Flip, Flip or Fly"). Let me tell you that Lefteye Jump, Jim Branca, Greg Izor, Bob McKenzie, Joe Moore, Nobby Reed, Bill Darrow, Jason Corbiere, Tom Buckley and other great local blues artists are creating a live Blues music scene on this side of the Winooski river. Venues like, 1820 Coffee House and Wine Bar, Lincoln Inn, and Backstage Restaurant are making a serious effort to have live music, including blues music here in Essex-Colchester-Williston corner of Chittenden County. What is a little appreciated fact, these shows all have started at 7pm or 8pm which makes it so easier to bring your kids to a live music performance where you can sit down and enjoy the musicians interacting with the audience, the bandmates and the music. Again, I am not knocking the Burlington music at all. I have seen great shows at Nectars, Parimas, Radio Bean, and other venues. I have even taken my high schoolers to Higher Ground to hear a couple of groups. Sorry for the rambling, I just wanted to share my appreciation to the musicians and venues in Essex for supporting a live Blues music scene where there was no cover charge and all you had to do was show up. Each time I went to a show, I also stayed longer than the hour I allotted myself because it was that much fun.

Today's show will feature some tracks from Jim Branca's CD, "Live" including one of my favorite tunes which I heard live last week, an original song by Jim, "Life's Been Living Me". Also, I will be playing a few more tracks from Dave Howard & The High Rollers' "Sure Bet". I already have some favorite tracks but my middle daughter has a favorite track too. (...but different than mine) All in all, it is a great collection of roots music. As I have mentioned before, Dave Howard is the new lead singer for Roomful of Blues. I have heard Dave Howard live with Roomful at the Champlain Valley Balloon & Music festival a few weeks ago and will anxiously await the release Roomful of Blues' lastest studio effort in the fall. Until then, unless you go to a Roomful of Blues show (...and you should), you will just have to tune into the show to heard Dave's whiskey-soaked baritone on "Sure Bet" and his solo effort "I Tried to Tell You", a collection of country tunes. Now...listen, I am the first to say that if you want to know if someone can sing, have them sing a country tune. It will be obvious, Dave can sing.


Lastly, today will be the premiere of a new radio sweeper that the Ty Curtis Band did for me. (Aw schucks) I love the Ty Curtis Band's debut CD, "Stubborn Mind" but this sweepers also tells me that they have a sense of humor and have fun. My good friend, BoogieKingSteve, the "Tzar of West Coast Blues Programming", tells me that the TCB is as good or better live than their CD. (Isn't that always the case for a great blues band?)

Gotta run and do a show,

OneChord