Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Finally, He Speaks... about Jam Night

Yes, I'm finally posting on our blog. I know that you have been entertained with Sheri's posts, and so have I. Just bear with me though and I'll try not to bore you too much. Hang in there with me for a couple posts, I'll get used too this blog thing!

I was surprised earlier in the afternoon when I was told to take the next three days off, it's been a long week already. Boss gave me a little break.
So with a day off coming up, we set out for a bues jam somewhere. We decided to expand our horizons a bit, travel a little further. A good friend and great guitarist, George Price, has been telling us to come up north a ways and check out the jam up there. After looking up the address, we were off and on our way. Forty-five minutes later, we pull up to North End Pub, a club with a blues jam we've have been hearing about.

We walked in, and there was an open table right up in front of a pretty full, but comfortable room. We saw some familiar faces, said "Hey," and soon we were feeling right at home. Nice...

George and the house band were sounding great, and there were a few "notable" musicians in the room. Sheri and I felt that this night definately had potential for some great jams.
We ordered drinks and dinner, which was quite good!... you're never really sure how the food is gonna be at a night club, are you? (But this post is to talk blues jam, we'll do the food critic thing another time!)

After the house bands' set, the floor was opened up for the jammers. Lots of familiar faces, and a few new people we got to meet. The crowd was enjoying the music, dancing, and celebrating the bass players birthday. All the while, Sheri and I are keeping an eye on the talent in the room, hoping that we would get to hear the "real" players get up and jam. After a four sets of jammers, George finally called the "pro" jammers up. It was late by then, but the wait was sooooo worth it!

There's alot of good musicians in Atlanta and a handful of great ones.Five musicians in that handful, in my opinion, were in the house that night. Andrew Black, vocals and guitar player, a real entertainer... Mike Martin, highly respected guitar player... Jimmy Mouton, heard him for the first time that night, awesome... Greg High, a bass player with the fingers of a lead guitar player, he's just that good... and the incredible John McNight on the drums.

All I can say is... wow. These guys were awesome. They started out with their own version of "I Wish," Stevie Wonder. Next they did a Stevie Ray tune, then an Allman Brothers classic "Whipping Post" and finished with a hot jazz number that Mike just tore up. What a night!

We left there just amazed and feeling lucky that we were able to hear all that talent, concert quality stuff, at a cozy club, an hour drive outside of the city. We will be back there again.

See you there next time?
Peace

2 comments:

Makalani said...

Yeah Robert!!! It was a great night and you captured it so eloquently.

Folks, what he didn't tell you is that he played two of the four jam sets. Yes, Robert plays bass and is quite talented, but very modest.

Till next time....

Jen Strange said...

great to hear from you Robert!!! It was fun to read what you wrote.

Sis, did you know that you can have a profile picture pop up next to your comments like my cool one? you should put a cool pic of the two of you up -- I can help you with that tomorrow if you want.

Can't wait to see you guys!!!

jen