Bman's Blues Report

Yesterday the Common Ground On The Hill Music Festival began wrapping up two weeks of workshops, lessons, and jams. The prime purposes of Common Ground are cultural diversity, musical education, and promotion of the American roots art forms, particularly music and dance. Of course, at the heart of all this is blues music. Whether sawing out a hoedown on a fiddle, a zydeco two-step on accordion or ripping up a mean blues break solo on a National Steel guitar, the blues is always present while not always front and center. My day started out with a set by Scott Ainslie . He played a National Steel throughout his whole set, once using a paper napkin to use as a damper to get the sound he wanted when blending sad blues lyrics with an upbeat guitar line straight out of Nigerian Juju music! In addition to some original tunes his set was accented by Robert Johnson tunes and stories. He did Come On In My Kitchen in the David Bromberg style. And after telling the story of the "Sun...

RAFFLE ENDS SATURDAY MAY 24, 2014   Our raffle for an Epiphone Jack Casady Signature Bass ends this weekend.  Get your tickets now . . . tickets will be available online until 5PM Saturday May 24, 2014.  The drawing will be held on the Fur Peace Station stage before David Lindley begins his second set. Epiphone Guitars , the Athens Area Citizens for the Arts and Fur Peace Ranch are teaming up to raffle off one of the finest instruments to ever feature a "superb balanced electric tone and the response of an acoustic bass" - Epiphone's Jack Casady Signature Bass Guitar , signed by Jack .   Jack with bass at signing event in Psylodelic Gallery The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee worked closely with Epiphone's luthiers, designing an instrument that could fulfill his dream. The hollow, maple body fea...

 “Playing thrills me now more than ever,” says legendary bass player and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee, Jack Casady. Jack will be celebrating his 70th birthday April 13, 2014.      As a founding member of Jefferson Airplane  and  Hot Tuna , Jack Casady ’s full driving tone and innovative melodic bass work has defined the role of bass guitar in Rock and Roll for decades.     Jack’s pioneering approach has brought the instrument to the forefront, liberating the bass from its traditional role as part of the rhythm section. With sweeping chords and stormy melodic lines Jack’s bass distinguished not only Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna but also a variety of side projects and recordings with artists ncluding Jimi Hendrix, David Crosby, Warren Zevon, Country Joe and The Fish, SVT, Rusted Root and Gov’t Mule. ...

Well, Mesa to be exact. Last night Jorma, Jack and Barry weathered the heat and performed for an intimate crowd of in tune followers at the Mesa Arts Center. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Mesa Arts Center it is certainly one of the finest facilities of it's type anywhere. I have seen many shows here including Buddy Guy and Jeff Beck as well as Hot Tuna on numerous occasions. The interior aesthetic of the Virginia G. Piper Repertory Theater is matched only by it's incredible acoustic quality which brings us to the show. Hot Tuna played a 26 (to my count) song set which was broken by one short intermission. HT (Jorma Kaukonen on his signature Martin tobacco burst acoustic and vocals; Barry Mitterhoff on mandolin, ukelele, tenor guitar and octave mandolin; and Jack Casady on his signature Epiphone hollow body electric bass put together a very cohesive and interesting show. The concert began with True Religion which set the pace for what was to come all night... Ho...

An American Treasure! Epiphone Releases Limited Edition Jack Casady Silverburst Signature Bass (Austin, Tex.) July 2, 2012 – Epiphone Guitars is unveiling a new Limited Edition Jack Casady Signature Bass . An American Treasure and Epiphone’s best-selling bass, the Jack Casady Signature Bass, is universally recognized for its superb, balanced tone and responsiveness. Epiphone now offers bassists the new Jack Casady Signature Bass in a limited-edition Silverburst color finish. "My primary instrument is the one that I get the most variety of tone out of, The Epiphone JC bass. That's the one that I strive to use the most," said Casady. "And it's an instrument that I want to play, I pick it up and I'm always happy with the way it sounds. It's a great bass!" Legendary bassist Jack Casady worked closely with Epiphone to design the Jack Casady Signature Bass – an instrument with a superb...

The hot band on tour right now is Hot Tuna ! Yep, Jorma and Jack are back on the road and to kick off their road trip Fur Peace Ranch has release live footage extracted from 2 nights of concerts at the Beacon Theater in NYC on December 3&4, 2010. I don't know how many of you have seen Jorma and Hot Tuna live but I have had the pleasure many times over a number of years. The recording begins with I See The Light featuring Jorma on his J190 and Jack joined by Barry Mitterhoff on an 8 string Danelectro guitar with lipstick pickups and Skoota Warner on drums. The band is joined on stage by John Hammond for a cool version of I Can Tell with Hammond on 335 and Jorma pushing his trademark solos through a goldtop. Then the tension starts to build with Warren Haynes on 335, Bill Kirchen on Tele, Larry Campbell on fiddle and Mitterhoff changes over to an electric mandolin. Kirchen has been separated from his old tele (probably retired) but the new one can talk just fine. If you've ...

Feb. 22 Camden Opera Hse, Camden, ME Feb. 23 Infinity Hall, Norfolk, CT Feb. 24 The Colonial Thtr, Keene, NH Feb. 25 Swyer Thtr - The Egg, Albany, NY Feb. 27 Rams Head Tvrn, Annapolis, MD Feb. 29 The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA Mar. 01 Jefferson Thtr, Charlottesville, VA Mar. 02 Keswick Thtr, Glenside, PA Mar. 03 Whitaker Ctr, Harrisburg, PA Mar. 05 The German Hse, Rochester, NY Mar. 06 The Ark, Ann Arbor, MI Mar. 08 The Englert Thtr, Iowa City, IA Mar. 09 Old Town School of Folk Music, Chicago, IL Mar. 10 Cedar Cultural Ctr, Minn, MN Mar. 11 Pabst Thtr, Milwaukee, WI Mar. 15 20th Century Thtr, Cincinnati, OH April 19 Wanee Festival, Live Oak, FL (Electric) June 30 Caramoor Festival, Katonah, NY July 09 The Arts Center, Carrboro, NC July 10 Bijou Thtr, Knoxville, TN July 11 Diana Wortham Thtr @Pack Place, Asheville, NC July 13 Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA July 14 Tam...