The Blue Island Beer Club at Jolli Mons

We have been scheduled as the featured act on January 21 at Jolli Mons in Dunedin, FL. We will be on stage at 8:30pm, following a few other folks.

Jolli Mons is a cool restaurant/bar that has a nice outdoor seating area and a covered stage. Part of the outdoor area is also covered and I believe they have heaters for chilly evenings. Jolli Mons has a wide selection of casual dining dishes including seafood (it is after all only a few hundred yards from the water).

The host, Scotty Rexroat, will start the show at 7 pm with his environmentally sensitive Florida songs. Scotty has great equipment which helps us sound as good as possible.

Here is a link to Jolli Mons - Jolli Mons Dunedin

Incidentally, Jim Mason is the featured act on the 7th. Jim is an excellent singer/songwriter with a long list of credentials that includes singing backup for John Lennon and co-writing I Dig Rock 'N Roll Music with Paul of Peter, Paul and Mary.

Jammin' at the Katiki

I went to the Katiki blues jam last night and enjoyed it as usual. Tommy McCoy is back in town and he played a great set with Pat Brogan and the rhythm section from the house band. There was a great crowd and I always credit the Roadhouse Rockers for maintaining a high standard at the jam which results in happy customers.

I got up a little later with the Roadhouse Rockers (Kent, Jeff and Pug) plus Bennie on harmonica and Dick on trumpet. Playing with the RRs is a pleasure because they are so good at picking up on a song immediately and making it sound good. The crowd seemed to like us and we kept the dance floor full. Happy customers keep the jam going. Some other jams I have attended have almost no customers except for the musicians themselves........they don't last long.

Happy New Year,

Colin

A Blue Island Beer Club update....

The Blue Island Beer Club (Bruce Kula and Colin Ward) is alive and well and ready to play some gigs in 2009. We have been practicing regularly and our repertoire of songs is up to 80 originals and covers and we have tested a wide variety of new brews.

We have added new original songs from both Bruce and Colin, plus we have dug back in the archives to find some great cover songs that you may not have heard for a while. Think Badfinger, Ten Years After, Otis Redding and of course The Beatles.

We like the new Guinness in bottles with a widget and most India Pale Ales (although there is a wide variation within that class). Neither one of us likes the peculiar taste that comes with any beer from Belgium.........awful stuff..........right down the drain with it.

In the interest of practicing in front of live people, we went to a coffee shop open mike/mic in Indian Shores. It is small and intimate, but they had a nice P.A., appreciative people, and decent coffee and drinks. A bit of a jam ensued and we had Tom sitting in with us on saxophone for a few songs.

To listen to samples of The Blue Island Beer Club, you can go here. Lone Palm Tree.

To try the aforementioned brews, you can visit your local liquor store (but watch out for Made In Belgium).

Valerie Carter is in the house......

......were the words spoken by the blues jam coordinator the other night. Valerie has relatives in the area and she and her sister regularly drop by a local blues jam whenever she is in town. So you may be asking who Valerie is. The short answer is that she is a singer who Music Row Magazine once described as "possibly the best female voice on the planet".

Valerie has been a member of James Taylor's band since 1975 and she has been on tour with James, as well as Jackson Browne, The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt and a host of other artists. Her mentor was Lowell George of Little Feat. Valerie is totally down to earth and jumps up to sing backup with the folks playing at the jam (including me which makes me feel very honored!), plus she sings a couple of songs by herself.

One of the things that comes home to me when I see Valerie is just how good someone of this caliber really is. We hear good singers in local establishments all the time, but frankly Valerie can blow them all away without even trying. Her vocal power, pitch, timing, stage presence, whatever, are just fantastic.

Check out her website.

and her MySpace page

Cadillac Records

I've been resting a sore back which I hurt either playing tennis or moving an amplifier last week. But last night I hobbled to the movies to see Cadillac Records.

It was worth the effort, especially for someone who like blues music and appreciates learning about the history. I don't think the story was 100% historically accurate, but it makes for good entertainment and is probably close enough for most people.

Chess in Chicago

Without giving away any spoilers, the story is about Muddy Waters leaving the cotton fields and traveling to Chicago to sing and record the blues with Chess Records. He runs into other blues musicians throughout the story including Little Walter, Willie Dixon, Howlin' Wolf, Hubert Sumlin, Chuck Berry, and Etta James. Leonard Chess is also central to the story.

There is some great music in the film. Lots of drama too.......including the birth of rock 'n roll. Convincing acting too. Definitely worth seeing if you are interested in the history of Chicago blues. When I got home I dug through my old 45s (which I never throw away) and found one of Muddy's records on the Chess label -I got A Rich Man's Woman backed by My Dog Can't Bark - pretty cool!

Christmas Lights and Chappy's

One of our smartest friends learned about a Christmas light display in St. Pete that was said to compete with the gaudiness of the house in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. So with Yahoo Map in hand, we planned a visit to a nearby outdoor hamburger joint to be followed by a drive-by at the Christmas house.

So last night, after burgers were consumed, everyone piled in our van and headed for the display. The streets were quiet and dark until we arrived at the "place with glowing sky" where we were greeted by someone in the road handing out religious flyers and taking a head count of visitors. We were advised to park on the street and walk through the display which we did. A half-acre lot was covered (except for the pond) with lights, inflatable Santas, a model railroad, talking Christmas trees, a large serpent right out of the Garden of Eden, a menorah, several mangers complete with plastic farm animals, and did I mention lights? There was a 60 foot TV antenna that supported strings of lights pointing heavenward and at least one 60 foot tree that was completely outlined in strings of lights. And finally, there was a blaring television featuring an evangelist reminding us what Christmas is really about - although I did not hear him mention lights or Santas.

So was it spectacular, huge, beautiful, tacky, cheap and nasty, a ploy to pass out religious messages, a way to raise money, a means of irritating the neighbors, an obsession, the hobby of a madman, something you would see in the Guinness Book of World Records? er...Yes. Does it eclipse the house in Christmas Vacation? Easily. Does it look nice in the daylight? I doubt it.

IN OTHER NEWS - The Blue Island Beer Club will play a short set at Chappy's Hurricane Alley tonight at 8 pm. A mixture of original songs and some classics you have forgotten. Be there. 247 Central Ave, St. Pete.

Doing well on OurStage

OurStage is a cool website where musician's can post their original songs and compete with others. The musician chooses a genre in which to compete and then audience members can judge pairs of songs within a chosen genre. As the month progresses, the songs all compete against each other and a chart of standings is developed from the data. There are prizes available to the winners (or so I am told!).

I have put a few songs on OurStage and have usually ended up in the middle of the pack. At the moment though, my instrumental, The Pioneer, is sitting at number 5 out of 427 entries in the instrumental genre. Towards the end of the month, the top twenty songs are moved into the finals and a lot more judging occurs with the best song rising to the top. If you would like to check it out, you can start here.....

Our Stage

The Intra-Coastal Waterway (or ICW)

We have cruised on our sailboat for almost ten years and during that time we have taken two trips to the Chesapeake Bay and back to Florida along the Intra-Coastal Waterway or ICW. The Atlantic coast ICW is roughly 1000 miles long and runs from Miami to Norfolk, Virginia. There is actually more ICW on the Gulf coast and in places north of the Chesapeake Bay, but most people think of that 1,000 mile stretch when the ICW is mentioned. The ICW is protected from bad weather for the most part.......not that the weather doesn't get bad, the water just doesn't get very rough. So you can make progress north or south even when it is too nasty outside in the ocean to sail (which is most of the time during the periods when north and south transits are made). So the benefit of the ICW is that you are protected from rough seas and there is usually a place to stop for the night every night, meaning that there are no overnight passages to deal with. The negative attributes of the ICW are legion among sailors. The channel is narrow, often not very deep, and often busy with other boat traffic. Many of the other boaters are casual weekend skippers who do not know or care about the rules of the road or courtesy. Still, the ICW is very beautiful and interesting much of the time and there are plenty of challenges when it comes to passing barges and dealing with bridges, 8 foot tides, shoals in the middle of the channel, alligators, drunk jet skiers and so on. I wrote the song The ICW Blues about our second trip along the ICW and the other songs on the CD of the same name were also inspired by our sailing adventures. The ICW Blues

The Children's Dream Fund Concert

Today in the park downtown by the pier (Spa Beach) is the Children's Dream Fund concert to raise money for children with terminal health problems. The organization is local to the west coast of Florida and is based in St. Pete.

The weather for the concert should be good.....sunny and a bit cool with some wind. Better wear a jacket.

The performers are some of the best area musicians. I have heard most of them (all except for the drum circle) and I recommend them. Here is the schedule.

Jak Kelly and Kevin Thomas 3-3:20

John Kelly 3:30-3:50

Raiford Starke 4-4:20

Jules 4:30-4:50

King James and the Sun Drummers Treasure Island Drum Circle Sunset Jam 5:00-5:30

Sandy Atkinson 5:40-6:00

Scotty Lee Rexroat 6-6:20

Ronny Elliott 6:30-6:50

Steve Arvey 7-7:30

Steve Arvey has been active in organizing this concert. He is a very talented bluesy musician who has toured extensively both in the US and overseas. Please give him and the Fund your support!

Maggie and Chappy's

The Blue Island Beer Club played at Jolli Mons on Wednesday before Maggie Council took the stage. We played all originals until the last song, an Otis Redding number called Dreams to Remember - a great old soul song from the Stax catalog - wow Otis has been dead over 40 years. Most of the originals we sang are on our CD Lone Palm Tree.

Lone Palm Tree

Maggie performed solo with her beautiful Buscarino guitar. She also did originals from her CD Not In The House. She is an accomplished guitarist as well as a great singer and songwriter.

Last night I went to a a new venue in St Pete. to check it out. It is called Chappy's and there is a cool bar where the music takes place. The bar is in what looks like a tunnel between Central Avenue and Jannus Landing. A nice stage and friendly people should make their Thursday night jam a success. I played a few songs solo, mostly from the ICW Blues CD, The ICW Blues, and then jammed a little with some other musicians. It is a cool place and a lot of fun. Check it out on a Thursday evening.

Blue Island Beer Club at Jolli Mons

On Wednesday, we will play a short set at Jolli Mons in Dunedin, FL. We will be preceding Maggie Council who has an excellent new CD out (http://cdbaby.com/cd/maggiecouncil) called Not In The House. I have not heard Maggie in person yet but Bruce has known her for a number of years and reports that her live performances live up to the promise of her CD.

Jolli Mons is a cool place with an indoor restaurant/bar and a similar outdoor section with a nice covered stage and lots of tables. There are strategically placed heaters for cooler nights and the food we have tried has lived up to the description on the menu.

The BIBC will definitely play Lone Palm Tree since it has been requested by Scotty Rexroat, the organizer of this event.

Florida Sunshine

Believe it or not, one of the reasons we head off to the Bahamas on our boat in November is that Florida gets chilly.....at least in the Tampa Bay area and north. There is a ten degree temperature difference between Tampa Bay and Miami and the Keys in the winter. It's much more comfortable in the Keys. In the Bahamas, we go to George Town where it is another 5 - 10 degrees warmer. It rarely gets below 70 at night in George Town and gets into the eighties almost every day except right after a cold front......that's my kind of weather.

The good news is that Florida is sunny in the winter and the sun warms the daytime temperatures up nicely. I am about to go and play tennis and there is a real chill in the air. But the sun is coming up and I know it will be clear and bright and the temperature will soon be acceptable, at least for tennis if not laying in the beach.

I know some of you are in snowy, cloudy places and I feel sorry for you......I cannot take long stretches of cloudy days any more. I did time in Ohio, West Virginia and Chicago and could not go back there now.

The ICW Blues is mostly about sunny places!

The ICW Blues is Here!!!!

The new CD The ICW Blues is now available on CD Baby! I am excited that it is ready and I am pleased with the way it turned out. You can hear samples at the CD Baby site and order a CD or download the digital version for your iPod or computer.

Give it a listen......if you are a sailor, cruiser, or just someone who likes that kind of music, I think you will like it!

Cheers,

Colin

In Good Company at Beaks

The Blue Island Beer Club played at Beaks Old Florida last night. We had a tough act to follow and were followed by another tough act. In fact, the acts we saw were all very good. My wife came along with some old friends who were visiting from Texas. Colleen had a great time (a good thing!) and enjoyed all the performers........and she leans toward the discriminating side!

I don't know the name of every musician who was there so I will do my best. John Kelly was there to support a couple of his friends and they were all good. J Kolb did a nice job solo laying some good harmonica parts down on Tupelo Honey and singing a fun Dan Hicks song. Steve Murr and Jay Kiernan started playing together and by the time they were finished they had Kevin Thomas, the owner Jamie, and a singer named Bob on stage with them doing some very good covers of James Taylor songs among others.

We followed that bunch and did three originals and two covers. Three of our songs had not been performed in public before so we thought we had put a lot of pressure on ourselves. Colleen gave us a good review but I recognize that she is biased. I had fun on While My Guitar Gently Weeps which Bruce did an excellent job of singing while I wailed away. Bruce also sang his original Spent which is a song about being a mature employee who is cut from the workforce abruptly......unfortunately a timely song.

Pete Merrigan and TC Carr followed us. Pete is an area mainstay and did an excellent job. TC is a harmonica player par excellence who reminded me of Fingers Taylor, Jimmy Buffett's outstanding harpist. They will be playing at the St Pete Saturday Morning Market.

Jerry Jakala played some of his bluesy originals and was accompanied by Kevin Thomas and Douglas Lichterman. Jerry is the chapter coordinator of the Just Plain Folks chapter and can be heard at lots of local events, some of which he organizes. Good job by Jerry.

There were a couple more acts but it was time for us to go home. A fun St Pete evening.

My solo sailing CD is finished and is in the hands of CD Baby where it will soon be for sale on the internet both in CD and digital download form. It will also be available on iTunes and Amazon.com although that will take a little longer. The album will also be playing on Latitudes and Attitudes Magazine radio and will be available in their download store, along with the Blue Island Beer Club CD. I am happy with the results and look forward to getting the CD in the hands of some sailing enthusiasts for some feedback. Standby..........

GAS (or Guitar Acquisition Syndrome)

With the proliferation of acronyms and syndromes in our modern society, you will not be surprised to learn that GAS stand for Guitar Acquisition Syndrome and that most guitar players suffer from it. Every guitar player needs a variety of guitars to do the various jobs that need doing (or so I tell my wife). There are of course acoustic guitars, electric guitars, bass guitars, 12-string guitars (acoustic and electric), guitars with single coil pickups, guitars with humbucking pickups, fat ones, thin ones, tall ones, short ones, etc. etc......and various combinations and permutations of the above.

Like so many things today, there are way too many choices to be made. If you go to a big box music store like the Guitar Center or Sam Ash, the choices can be so overwhelming that it is just easier to go home empty handed (which is one reason the economy sucks IMHO). My guess is that Fender makes at least a hundred variations of the Stratocaster alone......maybe more if you count all the color choices. Add to that Telecasters, acoustics, basses, etc. and I bet they are manufacturing several hundred different guitars.

I have recently acquired a couple of used guitars that are nice additions to the stable (see a previous blog for photos of my Ventura acoustic). I am starting to feel that I need to pare the collection down a bit though. Actually, I do play and use nearly all of the guitars pretty regularly. I know I used at least six guitars recording the new ICW Blues CD. In my circle of guitar playing friends, I cannot think of anybody who has less than three guitars.

So call it an obsession, call it an inventory of tools in the toolbox, or call it GAS.

On another subject, I went to the Katiki last night to play in the blues jam. I was milling around with some acquaintances when I saw a guy walk in who looked exactly like a face from my past......my boss in Chicago in 1978 and again in Texas in 1989. He retired from the company in 1990 or so. I asked the guy who walked into the Katiki if I knew him and he recognized me at once. Sure enough it was Don and he had his lovely wife with him. Turns out he still lives in the Chicago area but he also has a condo in Seminole. What are the odds of him wandering into a local beach bar and being recognized I wonder? Very interesting.