Friday, January 28, 2011

Blues Bash is almost here!

Hi blues club friends -

We're all getting excited about Gary Erwin's Blues Bash, which kicks off on February 3rd and goes on until the 19th: 17 days of great music all over town! There are many all-ages shows, and 70+% of the shows are FREE admission. Where cover charges apply, most are reasonable ($3- $15). Blues starts at noon on many days and goes into the night...99% of the venues are smoke-free, and some venues are within walking distance of each other. There are way too many great shows to give you the details in this newsletter. But you can go here to easily print your own brochure: www.bluesbash.com, or pick a schedule up while they last at venues around town including Home Team BBQ... We'll see you there!!

We send all our best wishes to Dan Wright and the New Beat, Jeff Norwood, and Wyatt Garey and his band (the Heyrocco guys) as they go very soon to compete at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis Tennessee (Feb 1-5). We're proud of them, and look forward to hearing all about it when they get back...

This weekend, Friday January 28th, you can see several of our favorite young players at the Oasis for an early show, 6pm: Castle In the Air (with Sammy Derrick and Nick Mullane), Heyrocco (with Tanner Cooper, Nate Merli, and Chris Cool), and John Shafer's band, called Alone Together, among others.

The Jefferson Coker band (with Rob Lowe and Dave Jones) will be playing later on Friday January 28th at the new Village Tavern for Jefferson's CD Release party. Whiskey N' Ramblin, featuring Keith Syn Clarry (one of the bartenders at HTBBQ) will be opening. Music starts at 9pm. It is original blues/country music. You can hear the band at: http://jeffersoncoker.com/ or look for them on facebook...

Also, The Bluesonics from Savannah are playing at Home Team Barbecue at West Ashley on the 29th of January. Come check out this traditional blues band with lots of shuffles and a little funk. And Shrimp City Slim (Gary Erwin) plays at Home Team/ Sullivans Island, 10 pm -- always a great time!

Looking ahead, on Tuesday, Feb 1 there's a free Songwriters Showcase at the Pour House, 7pm doors, 8 pm show, featuring Campbell Brown of Gaslight Street, Michael Trent, Lindsay Holler, and more! You can't beat free!

And there's another chance to see Castle In the Air on Thursday, Feb 3 at the Village Tavern -- so get over there if you can...

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Reminders:

To get info in this blog, send all details of your event to lowcountrybluesclub@gmail.com, and put "Attention blog-writers" as the subject heading, please. Also, let us know if you would like to be one of our blog-writers!

Featured artists with birthdays in January are Leadbelly, Etta James, and Jonny Lang. February birthdays are Pink Anderson (1900) and Johnny Winter (1944).

Check out some of our recordings from the Wednesday jams at http://www.reverbnation.com/lowcountrybluesclub, and join us on facebook and twitter.

And of course, we hope to see you at the blues jam next Wednesday night at Home Team BBQ West Ashley!! Dan will be in Memphis, so we'll be mixing it up with a guest jam-master -- come and see for yourself who it is...

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Featured: Jonathan Robinson

This Weeks Feature: Jonathan Robinson

By: Scott Bucholtz

Today, Jonathan Robinson is Hittin’ The Note. In fact, he does every day. He is one of the lucky few who gets to spend all his days engrossed in his passion.

Born in Hamlet, NC, a little town in the middle of nowhere. His dad was a chicken farmer. He moved here in 2000 to go to Charleston Southern as an English major. He fell in love with a local girl, got married, and has been here ever since.

He had a friend in high school who had a job at the only little music store in the county. He was always bugging Jonathan to come look at the guitars and hear him play. One day, when he was almost 17, he went down to see his friend just so he'd stop bugging him. He didn't even really listen to music at the time. Jonathan was really into sports, football was a big deal at his school. They were state champions – obviously that was his focus. But when he saw the electric guitars he became enamored. He actually bought one that day before he left the store. A black and white Fender Stratocaster. Talk about love at first sight!

He dove deeply into Eric Clapton, The Eagles, and eventually Jimi Hendrix. Since he was already interested in writing, writing songs seemed a natural progression. He feels that since he had never been into music, he really fell into his own style pretty easily. He remembers his mom being a little upset that he'd spent all his money on that first guitar. She was sure he would stick it in the corner and never touch it. In fact, nothing could be further from what actually happened. He became truly obsessed. He taught himself by watching others and reading every book, magazine, and whatever else he could get his hands on. Within the first year he had a band, which was even before his friend joined a band. Guitar and music has been his life ever since. For four years now, Jonathan has been teaching guitar full time and is very much in demand – he currently has 57 weekly students! He also “dabbles” with piano, bass, harmonica, mandolin, and drums. He has even experimented with the violin/fiddle a bit and as soon as he can get his hands on one again he plans to renew those efforts.

He had not played out much in the Charleston area until the King of the Blues contest this past summer. While the winner was Dan Wright, the judges revealed that it was nearly a 3-way tie between Jonathan, Charlie Kendall and Dan. As a personal witness, I can confirm that viewpoint. It was there that he found out about the Lowcountry Blues Club and its weekly jam, which he says has to be about the “coolest thing he has ever been a part of”. He has come out to the jam almost every Wednesday since. He says it is his favorite night of the week, “hands down”. I can add that being on stage with Jonathan makes me feel the same way.

As for his biggest influences/inspirations? He says that is always a hard question...There's the obvious ones; Clapton, Hendrix, the Eagles, Tom Petty, B.B. King, Santana, Robben Ford, Lynyrd Skynyrd, all the usual suspects. He is sure that the bands that were on the radio when he was growing up really influenced his songwriting and, to some degree his playing. Bands like Matchbox 20, The Counting Crows, The Goo Goo Dolls, U2 and Edwin McCain. He says: “I'm not sure how cool that is, but it's definitely the case”. His favorites? Pretty much the same as the list above. Though he says he loves the Allman Brothers. He just loves good songs...there's a new band called Mumford and Sons that he adds to the list and a local-ish band called NeedtoBreathe whose last album (The Outsiders) ranks among his favorite albums of the last 5 years. We should give those a listen.

He most enjoys getting to jam on songs that let you be really expressive. “Jams that feel organic and improvised...the kind you can add your own touch and voice to, and use to express whatever you feel at the moment, whether it's happy, desperate, hopeful or exhausted. If the song lets you do that, then I love to play it”. He adds that there's “no one I've played with at the jam who hasn't been a pleasure. I'm so impressed every week with the rhythm sections. The bass players and drummers always do such a solid job of holding everything together and keeping all of us guitarists where we need to be. I think that's what makes it so successful week after week”.

Jonathan had a couple of his own bands in North Carolina (both Christian Rock and Modern Rock). Over the last five or six years he has led worship at churches and church events as a Musical Director, and he plays with a Christian Rock band: The T Culler Band. They have had the opportunity to open for National Touring Christian Rock bands (he has even played the North Charleston Coliseum). He states that “the not playing out much is, hopefully, about to change”. He really wants to get out and play his originals as much as he can. He just put together his own trio featuring his original material that recently made their first appearance (at Awendaw Green). He adds; “playing with Scott Bucholtz and Jojo Wall is great fun, and, I think, a pretty killer line-up”. (note: gratuitous plug)

Something that many don’t know about Jonathan is that he has been going back and forth to Nashville a good bit, working on publishing and selling his original material. He feels that he has made some great contacts and feels confident that he will have a decent shot of breaking into that market as a writer. He plans to spend ever more time there this year. Though he acknowledges that this may be ambitious, he plans to record an album before this year's over. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how that pans out... Having experienced his skills on stage first hand and knowing his original material, my money will be on Jonathan!


This weekend look for Lowcountry Blues Club member around town:

Last week's feature, Captain Kirk, will be with The Starling band at Fat Boys in Monks Corner. Sarah Cole and The Hawkes will be at the Kickin’ Chicken (WA) on Friday. Castle In The Air and Heyrocco will be at the Music Farm on Saturday. Plane Jane will be rockin’ Halligan’s in West Ashley Saturday as will Whiskey ‘n’ Ramblin’ at The Griffon downtown. Monday night, Shovels and Rope will be at The Pour House. Don’t forget, yours truly will be with The Mason Dixon Band Friday at Hanahan’s and Saturday at Famous Joe’s in West Ashley.

On a larger scale, try JJ Grey & Mofro Friday night at the Music Farm.

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Looking ahead, some members and friends have sent us info to share:

The Jefferson Coker band (with Rob Lowe and Dave Jones) will be playing Friday January 28th at the new Village Tavern for Jefferson's CD Release party. Whiskey N' Ramblin, featuring Keith Syn Clarry (one of the bartenders at HTBBQ) will be opening. Music starts at 9pm. It is original blues/country music. You can hear the band at: http://jeffersoncoker.com/ or look for them on facebook...

Also, The Bluesonics from Savannah are playing at HomeTeam Barbecue at West Ashley on the 29th of January. Come check out this traditional blues band with lots of shuffles and a little funk.

And be sure to put this on your calendar - an amazing upcoming blues festival right here in Charleston, organized by blues godfather Gary Erwin:

21st annual LOWCOUNTRY BLUES BASH, February 3-19

A blues 'venue crawl' (clubs, bars, pubs, restaurants, art galleries, a church, a rec center, a community center, a hotel, and a boat!)

The best & most enduring blues festival in the Southeast USA with many all-ages shows, 70+% of the shows are FREE admission. Where cover charges apply, most are reasonable ($3-15). Blues starts at noon on many days and goes into the night...

50 great national, regional, local blues acts
25 intimate venues (the way the blues was MEANT to be experienced!)
93 shows
17 action-packed days & nights

99% of the venues are smoke-free, some venues are within walking distance of each other. Go here to easily print your own brochure: www.bluesbash.com or pick one up while they last at venues around town including Home Team BBQ... We'll see you there!!

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Reminders:

To get info in this blog, send all details of your event to lowcountrybluesclub@gmail.com, and put "Attention blog-writers" as the subject heading, please. Also, let us know if you would like to be one of our blog-writers!

Featured artists with birthdays in January are Leadbelly, Etta James, and Jonny Lang.

Check out some of our recordings from the Wednesday jams at http://www.reverbnation.com/lowcountrybluesclub, and join us on facebook and twitter.

And of course, we hope to see you at the blues jam next Wednesday night at Home Team BBQ West Ashley!!

LMW, January 20, 2011

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Benefit this Sunday!

Blues Club friends -- Don't forget: This Sunday, January 16, starting at 2:00 at Home Team BBQ/West Ashley, is the Lowcountry Blues Club's "Send the Bands to Memphis" benefit show. You'll want to get there early to have a good seat because it's bound to get crowded. Jeff Norwood plays at 2:00, Wyatt Garey with Heyrocco at 3, OE3 at 4pm, and The Dan Wright Band at 5:00. It's a free show, but a donation of $5 is encouraged, with the money going to send our good friends to Memphis to perform in the International Blues Challenge in February.

Now on to the blog, written this week by Scott Bucholtz:

This Week's Feature is “Captain” James Kirk

While it would be easy to start off a BIO of Captain Kirk with a Star Trek reference, I think that would short-change the man. “Captain” is a real Southern Gentlemen. As a transplanted Michigander, I am very aware of the Southern Stereotypes but with him, it’s the truth.

After 42 years of playing drums, his resume is quite impressive. But, with everyone that I meet, the first comment is always something like “he’d give you the shirt off his back” or “he’s the nicest guy you’ll ever meet”.

A Navy veteran, he purchased his first set of drums for $300 back in 1969 upon his return from Vietnam. He saw it as something constructive to do and he still remembers the first song that he performed: “Buckaroo” by Buck Owens. His first serious band was “Carolina Charlie and the Hairy Cowboys” in Norfolk, VA. This led to a 10 month gig in the Mel Street Show Band that lasted until Mel’s untimely death in Oct ’78. Mel had a string of Top 40 Country Albums and Top 20 hits back in the 70’s (Google him). While with Mel, he had the opportunity to back many of the days’ big Country stars like Emmylou Harris. After several other local bands in WV, he signed up with a local Southern Rock band by the name of “Little Skynyrd” which opened for the likes of The Righteous Brothers and Link Wray among others of note.

In 1986, he moved to Charleston. Following a few more local bands he formed “The Joint Effort Band” that featured Linda Johnson and lasted nearly 15 years. After that he signed on with The Mason Dixon Band and kept them in time for two years. Currently, he is playing with “Starling” and can be seen throughout the Lowcountry on weekends. He continues to study the blues and is a regular fixture at the Wednesday night Jams as a valued member of the Lowcountry Blues Club.

He considers himself a “groove” drummer and loves to play anything with a good groove. We all know that he is rock-solid as a drummer, I’m certainly envious of his timekeeping abilities. What many don’t get to see often enough is his ability as a vocalist. (Note to Blues Club members: bring him up with you to sing!)

He started singing in garage bands back in High School and has come to the realization that a teacher was a large influence on him. He grew up loving early Country music but after the death of Mel Street, he dove into Lynyrd Skynyrd and caught the Southern Rock bug. In fact, he notes that Hall of Fame Skynyrd drummer Artimus Pyle is a major influence. Another noted influence is Bob Seger.

He is definitely a kindred spirit!

Being the gentleman that he is, I can’t get him to name any of his favorite jammers for the record. He’ll say that they are all favorites. But, when you get to know him, you find that what he truly appreciates the most is the camaraderie of jam night, the Human element. Isn’t that the true essence of music anyway?

Another little know fact about James Kirk: he plays bass. Why? Many years ago, he was playing drums in a gospel group when he found out that another guy wanted to play drums. What did he do? He taught himself bass so that other guy could play drums!

Didn’t I say he was a “gentlemen”?


This coming weekend, look for Lowcountry Blues Club members around town: The Wyatt Garey Band will be at Iacofano’s Italian Bar & Grill Fri., Jan. 14. The Jeff Bateman Trio will be at Art’s Bar & Grill Saturday. Sunday night look for Plane Jane at Wild Wing on N. Market. Both Friday and Saturday, yours truly will be playing with The Mason Dixon Band at Birdie & Sharon’s in Walterboro. Sarah Cole and the Hawkes will be at The Pour House next Tuesday. Next Wednesday look for J.R. Getches at the College Of Charleston Veg Fest from 6 – 7:30. You can catch J.R. with the Louie D Project later that night at the Red Drum Gastropub in Mount Pleasant.

Other appearances of note this week include Cary Ann Hearst w/ Jamie Resch, Shrimp Records Family Band @ The Pour House Fri., Jan. 14. The Shaniqua Brown w/ Megan Jean & the KFB @ The Pour House Sat., Jan. 15. Also on Saturday, friends of mine, Fowler’s Mustache will be at Wet Willie’s downtown. Also Saturday night, Heyrocco plays at the Music Farm with The Makeshift, doors at 8, show at 9.

Enjoy as much ear candy as you can!

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Reminders:

To get info in this blog, send all details of your event to lowcountrybluesclub@gmail.com, and put "Attention blog-writers" as the subject heading, please. Also, let us know if you would like to be one of our blog-writers!

Featured artists with birthdays in January are Leadbelly, Etta James, and Jonny Lang.

Check out some of our recordings from the Wednesday jams at http://www.reverbnation.com/lowcountrybluesclub, and join us on facebook and twitter.

And of course, we hope to see you at the blues jam next Wednesday night at Home Team BBQ West Ashley!!

LMW, January 13, 2011