mid week floating blues

Random Thoughts from The Big Blues Boat



Monday

Weather seems to be the pervasive topic of conversation, what? It isn’t 90 degrees and removing the top three layers of your epidermis? Let it rain a little. Speaking of rain, Millie Jackson, seasick from her stint in The Vista Lounge earlier in the day took to the wind swept pool and kicked the weather’s ass live on XM radio. Her tear jerking heart pounding horn heavy finale? Let It Rain, of course. As Millie explained, she wanted the audience to believe she had “mystical powers”. She pointed to three corners of the compass challenging the clouds to dare rain on her, then looked behind the stage at one mean looking thunderhead and said,”Oh, Shit”. Her performance was magnificent and her band overpowered the elements for her.



Tuesday

The trip to shore at Montego Bay will remain a secret till someone else blows the whistle. Let’s just say Mougli and his crew reached supernova “Bob Marley” state in just a matter of moments while I got soaked, ………….. and then it rained, you feel me? I informed my spirit guide if he would have brokered a better deal for the jewelry he wouldn’t need to go back there to get his reward. I would have tipped him. As it stood I only had cab fare left to get me back to the boat.



Speaking of my return, on to the pool deck just in time for the resurging drum solos as Anthony Gomes put on a “for ladies only” vaudevillian act with some music thrown in. I hope he sticks to playing next time I see him this week. Serious guitar shredding going on this year, which brings me to Joe Bonamassa and his shred with substance approach in the Vista Lounge.



Highlights of that show found Joe mining the Jeff Beck Group’s catalog again, this time for a righteous version of “Don’t Know Much About love”. His show really never lets you take a deep breath as one song flows into another, then sometimes back again. Case in point, Blind faith’s “Had To Cry Today” which had the aforementioned obligatory drum solo (a very good one this time with extraordinary footwork), a drop in sonic pressure as Joe showed of some nice volume knob riding ( he even looked back at the band at one point and smilingly said, “I like that!”) and some YES riffing ala Steve Howe that us old heads still haven’t identified, but if you heard it you’d know it.



Whiskey Store with a melding of Thackery and Benoit bands took the stage next for tunes from The Whiskey store CD and some of Jimmy and Tab’s solo stuff. Their version of Tab’s “Nice and Warm” had one of the best solo’s I’ve heard from Jimmy on this trip. He gave the assembly a tip of his leopard spotted fez to acknowledge their applause.



Top that off with a jam session hosted by Rod And Honey Piazza that started around 1:30 AM in a rainstorm they promptly shoed away and you have a typical day in the life of a blues cruiser.



Beardo, your Blues pirate