February Blues / Henry's Blues

It's been a blah week for me. In fact, I was down right in a funk for the last two days, pasting on a smile at work, but not fooling many with that. It's the first week of February, the air has been freezing, the snow won't go away, my partner has been miserable with a cold that won't quit and unending work (apparently, the recession has not effected people who want web sites, which we are not complaining about...)

I have some friends from the Maine blues music scene who are down in Memphis this week competing in the International Blues Challenge. A bunch of bluesers playing a few nights worth of their sets in front of hard core blues fans and esteemed judges. The "winner" gets groovy things like a recording contract and other career boosting prizes. I've been getting daily emails from my new buddy Tom "The H Bomb" (a drummer), and he's having a ball.

I had told him he had to try and witness a former band mate of mine, the very lovely piano/blues singer diva Cheryl Renee, as she would be down there competing this year. Turns out, she was going to be playing in the same venue as Tom's band, one hour later!

He emailed me yesterday with a story about how he was hanging out on Beale Street the day after their first night of performances with Cheryl, shooting the breeze, when a man approached her and asked for her business card and a CD. Turns out he had been a judge at her performance the night before, and hadn't had a chance to speak with her then.

He was an executive from Alligator Records, perhaps the top blues labels there is! Tom wrote that after the man walked away, Cheryl jumped for joy! Tom said that he had just witnessed a slice of history, right there! Cheryl is that good, and she's been singing and bluesing her whole life.. she deserves some serious recognition.

It's good to see old friends getting to places they've got to be. Some of my old band mates and music peers are really doing well for themselves, and I'm thrilled. I decided a long time ago that I'm too much of a homebody and cat lover to be away on the road doing the music thing on that level, so I'm not bitter or anything. I did do a couple of smallish tours and got a feel for what life "on the road" is like, and it's pretty grueling. You really really got to believe in and love what your doing to survive.


In front of The Slippery Noodle blues club in Indianna, July 6, 1993.

Plus, a little financial help from a label and a publicist and a manager and a roadie and a driver and FANS doesn't hurt either.

Last night I transferred an old tape from a gig with a blues band I was playing bass with a lot back in the day, and here's a song of us backing up a good friend Henry Lee Spencer, blues man. The track is about five minutes long, but try and stick around until he starts singing (he's also playing the harmonica). You won't believe his voice!

Hey Little Girl

There are a million stories about Henry that have yet to be written down, but for a little more from my point of view, check out this blog post I wrote a couple of years ago on my My Space blog.

After all this, I'm slowly crawling out of my blues funk. Nothing like a little blues to get you out of the blues. Right.