Tribute to T-Bone Walker

At 2 p.m. on Saturday (Oct. 22), the Detroit Blues Society’s Blues Heritage Series at the Scarab Club continues with the Prez Conference Tribute to T-Bone Walker.

The Prez Conference is a 10-piece ensemble derived from the old "tenor band" that played at the legendary Soup Kitchen Saloon back in the late 1980s. Featuring guitar players George Bedard and Brian Delaney with a large horn section, Prez Conference plays swinging blues from the '40s and '50s in the style of T-Bone Walker, Charley Christian and others.  They are based in Ann Arbor and led by baritone sax man David Swain.
The Scarab Club is at 217 Farnsworth in Detroit. For information, click www.detroitbluessociety.org or www.scarabclub.org.

Larry Everhart and Larry Stevens of LL Blues

Maggie McCabe

LL Blues

Fans of folk blues will surely enjoy a performance by LL Blues at 8:15 p.m. Friday at the Live! From the Living Room Acoustic Showcase in the atrium of the Oakland Arts Building next to the Blue Note Café, 7 N. Saginaw St. in Pontiac.

LL Blues – vocalist-guitarist Larry Stevens and harmonica player Larry Everhart – call their music “a folk blues duet that you can dance to.”  Potter’s Field, a Midwest-based folk/Americana/roots duo featuring Rochelle Clark and John Natiw, is also on the bill.

Admission is $5. For information, click www.OldFrontPorch.com.


WHFR Fall Benefit Concert

The Fall Benefit Concert for WHFR (89.3 FM) will be Saturday at The New Place Lounge, 22723 Michigan Ave. in Dearborn.

Featured performers include the Flying Crowbars, Maggie McCabe and the Dale Robertson Band.

Admission to the 21-over concert is a $5 donation.

 Tedeschi Trucks Band

Also on the blues radar screen is a concert by the Tedeschi Trucks Band on Oct. 26 at the Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W. Fourth St. in Royal Oak.

The band features the Grammy nominated husband-wife team of singer-guitarist Susan Tedeschi and guitarist Derek Trucks.
Tickets are $35-$75 for the all-ages show. For information, call (248) 399-2980 or click www.royaloakmusictheatre.com.

Janiva Magness (photo by Jef Jaisun)

 
Blues Blast nominees

Mount Clemens native Janiva Magness has been nominated for a Blues Blast Magazine Award in the female blues artist of the year category. Magness is an outstanding singer currently on the Alligator Records label.

Another former Detroiter, mandolin player Rich Del Grosso, is nominated in the traditional blues CD category for his recording “Time Slips By” with Jonn Del Toro Richardson.

Last year, over 3,500 blues fans in all 50 states and 75 countries voted online for the 2010 Blues Blast Music Awards,
The winners will be announced on the Blues Blast Awards Show on Oct. 27 at Buddy Guy’s Legends in Chicago.



To contact JB Blues, please email Joe.Ballor@dailytribune.com






 

Mugg-ing it up at Callahan's

THE MUGGS

Callahan’s Music Hall is continuing to present top national and local blues acts in concert.

On Saturday (Oct. 15), Detroit’s own The Muggs will perform their unique blend of rock and blues. They’ll be joined by The Hatchetmen and The Electric Playground.

Georgia guitar slinger Tinsley Ellis takes the stage at Callahan’s on Sunday (Oct. 16). Other upcoming blues shows include Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials (Oct. 20), Deb Davies (Oct. 27), The Motor City Blues Blast featuring Carl Henry (Oct. 28), Scott Holt (Nov. 3), Roomful of Blues (Nov. 4), Duke Tumatoe (Nov. 5), Coco Montoya with special guest Mystery Train featuring Jim McCarty (Nov. 6), Jimmy Thackery (Nov. 11), Duke Robillard (Nov. 18), Ronnie Baker Brooks (Nov. 25) and Tommy Castro (Nov. 26). Wow! That’s a lot of outstanding blues!

On Oct. 29, Callahan’s will present a rockin’ Halloween Bash with the Howling Diablos. That’s sure to be a great time.

Congrats to Callahan’s for continuing to bring the blues to Detroit fans.

Callahan’s is at 2105 South Blvd., just east of Opdyke, in Auburn Hills. For ticket info, click atcallahan’s.com. 

To contact JB Blues, please email Joe.ballor@dailytribune.com

Hip replacement surgery for James Cotton

James Cotton

My friends at Alligator Records have announced that Grammy winning harmonica great James Cotton  will be postponing and rescheduling a number of appearances because of hip replacement surgery. He will be off the road from Nov. 10 through mid-January 2012.

In a message to his many fans around the world, Cotton said, "I'm sorry to have to disappoint my fans by postponing and rescheduling some dates, but I need to get this taken care of so I can be back at full force early next year. You can expect me to be dancing across the stage next time you see me."

Cotton's recent Alligator CD, "Giant," received a Grammy nomination. 

To contact JB Blues, please email Joe.Ballor@Dailytribune.com

Happy birthday wishes to Little Sonny, Johnnie Bassett

Little Sonny at the Magic Bag

At rehearsal with our band MotorCity Tones on Monday, we celebrated the birthday of singer-guitarist Mark Grablowski with a cheesecake and a rousing chorus of “Sto lat.” My birthday follows a week later.

Joe Ballor and Mark Grablowski of the MotorCity Tones

It started me thinking about the birthdays of four of my favorite Detroit blues musicians, which all fall within six days.

Johnnie Bassett

Singer-harmonica player Aaron “Little Sonny” Willis turns 79 on Oct. 6. Anyone lucky enough to attend his concert at the Magic Bag in Ferndale earlier this year will attest that he can still deliver some of the funkiest, energetic blues you’ll ever hear. Little Sonny looks and moves like a man two (or three) decades younger.

Another veteran Detroit bluesman, who is still performing regularly, is singer-guitarist Johnnie Bassett, who celebrates his 76^th birthday on Oct. 9. Detroit’s “Gentleman of the Blues” shares his birthday with singer-guitarist Luther “Badman” Keith. Another fine musician, singer-guitarist Howard Glazer, celebrates a birthday on Oct. 11.

Howard Glazer

You can catch Johnnie Bassett on Mondays at Third Bar, 701 W. Forest in Detroit. Howard Glazer and his band, the EL 34s, are joined by veteran Detroit bluesman Emmanuel Young as they host an open blues jam on  Thursdays at The Comet Bar, 128 Henry, Detroit.

Happy birthday wishes for many more years of health and happiness, my friends!

Detroit Blues Society Meeting and Jam

The Detroit Blues Society Meeting and Jam is set for Saturday, Oct. 8 at Shelly Kelly’s Pub, 18339 E. 14 Mile Road in Fraser. This month’s host is the Garfield Blues Band, featuring singer-harmonica player Garfield Angove, guitarist Paul Carey, bassist Mike Marshall, drummer RJ Spangler and special guest, guitarist Kenny Parker. The event always attracts lots of top jammers. There’s no cover charge.

To contact JB Blues, please email Joe.Ballor@dailytribune.com

Blues, Brews and Barbecue

The Boa Constrictors

Front Street Blues Band

Three of Detroit's finest blues bands will be featured at the Westland All American Blues, Brews and Barbecue festival on Saturday, Sept. 24 at Westland City Hall Grounds, 36601 Ford Road. The Front Street Blues Band opens at noon, followed by The Boa Constrictors at 2 p.m. and The Alligators at 4 p.m. The event runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and features great barbecue food, a $5 kids zone activity area, the All American Car Show, and the Brew House, with a collection of Michigan's finest craft-brewed beers.  For information, click www.cityofwestland.com.

To send info to JB Blues, please email Joe.Ballor@dailytribune.com

‘Reverend’ Marc Falconberry still preaching the blues

Detroit native is featured performer at Jazz & Blues series at the Southfield Public Library

"Rev." Marc Falconberry (BluesPhotos by Don McGhee)

 As a teenager, musician “Reverend” Marc Falconberry learned about blues music by sneaking into nightclubs in Detroit’s black neighborhoods. On Sept. 21, Falconberry will be doing the teaching as the featured performer at the Jazz & Blues series at the Southfield Public Library.

Falconberry will perform a solo acoustic set, followed by a set of electric blues with his full band. As is standard during the library concerts, Falconberry will sprinkle in some information along with the music.

“I do a lot of slide, Robert Johnson-type stuff,” Falconberry said. “I also do some stuff from musicians who are not so well known. B.B. King’s cousin, Bukka White, is one of my biggest guitar influences. I’ll throw in some original stuff similar to what he would do that I’ve learned off records and old movies.”

“I like for people to learn about the music and its origins,” said event organizer Don McGhee. “It’s sort of a guiding principle for me that blues and jazz are really the original forms of American music and have influenced lots of other types of music. Music is not just entertainment. It’s a big part of who we were, who we are, and, probably, who we will be in the future. Who better to talk about the music than the people who do it?”

Falconberry, a Detroit native, first picked up a guitar at age 14 in 1964 and practiced for hours in the basement each day. By the next year, he was ready to perform in public and eventually played in several rock bands that were influenced by the Rolling Stones and the blues-tinged British Invasion rock bands.

“The teen shows would be over by 11 o’clock and we would be all geeked up with nothing to do,” Falconberry said. “Along with my close friends who would dare to do so, we would go to the black clubs. That’s how, basically, we learned.”

He watched and studied Detroit performers like Bobo Jenkins, Mr. Bo, Chicago Pete and even John Lee Hooker, as well as visiting performers such as Sam Lay and Paul Butterfield, all while keeping a low profile because he was underage and didn’t want to get tossed.

“A lot of those guys would save their best stuff for the end of the night.”

Falconberry, who also cites Hound Dog Taylor and Mississippi Fred McDowell as influences, will be backed up during his electric set by bandmates Joe LaBeau (baritone and tenor sax), Wesley Smith (bass) and Jon Johnson (drums).

“They’ve all been with me a long time,” Falconberry said. “Wesley has been with me for over 25 years, Joe 20-plus and Jon the same thing. When you work with guys for a long time, they automatically know what you are going to do if you have to extend a song for some reason. They follow right along. There’s a big advantage musically with that.”

Falconberry has released three CDs – “Irreverend Blues,” “Blues All Live” and “Ten X the Blues” – that will be available for purchase at the concert. Lately, he’s been performing quite a bit down south and realized that there aren’t that many performers still playing traditional slide guitar blues.

“It’s a lot more rare than I thought it was. When I talk to people, even guys that play slide guitar down south, they say, ‘I’ve never seen anybody doing what you’re doing before.’ They just don’t see that many guys doing this live.”

Falconberry received his “reverend” nickname from a representative of the old Blues Factory agency.

“I used to do a Son House version of ‘Grinning in Your Face’ (a cappella). The idea was to gather some time while the band was trying to fix something. I was doing that one night, when the guy from Blues Factory said, ‘He looks like a reverend preaching the blues.’ Without telling me about it, they put it in the flier for my next gig. I called them up madder than hell and said, ‘At least you could tell me you wanted to do this.’

“They actually did me a favor, because people thought it was pretty cool and people seem to like nicknames.”

All these years later, Falconberry is still preaching the blues.

“Somebody’s got to do it. We’re the older guys now and it’s up to us to keep it going. I promised them I would.”

Catch “Reverend” Marc Falconberry and his band in concert at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21 in the Meeting Room at the Southfield Public Library, 26300 Evergreen Road, Southfield. Admission is $3. Children ages 12-under are admitted free. The Jazz & Blues series is sponsored by the Friends of Southfield Public Library and the Detroit Blues Society. For information, call (248) 796-4200.

To send info to JB Blues, please email Joe.Ballor@dailytribune.com