Blues for a cause, a helping hand

Blues legend and guitar virtuoso Jimmy Thackery was the Saturday headliner for the second annual Blues for a Cause Blues Benefit and Music Festival in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

Blues fans were regaled with seven, count-em — seven blues bands for two, count-em — two days of their preferred music at the second annual Blues for a Cause, A Helping Hand Blues Benefit and Music Festival.

See Reba Russell and four other blues concert pictures.

Second is true, annual may be a slight misnomer in this case since the organization’s first event was in March of this year. An opportunity to partner with Smoke on the Water, a barbeque event, came up, so the organizers, Joe and Tracey Powell, and Sandra Sallings made the move.

Get the background on Blues for a Cause and see four additional concert pictures on the Photo of the Week page at Corndancer dot com. We’ll wait here while you look.

Jimmy Thackery and the Drivers, the Saturday night headliners did not disappoint their fans and probably made a few new ones to boot. They came on the stage and cranked out everything from dirt-under-the -finger-nails blues to a closing Jimi Hendrix rendition of the National Anthem which brought the audience to their feet. What few smokers that are still surviving hefted their Bics as Thackery and his sidemen did the deed.

See more concert pictures in our Weekly Grist Gallery.

Amy Lee and the Second Line from Oklahoma City were the opening act for Friday night. Bass player Matt Kemp is in the background.

Adam Varnell, vocalist and harmonica player for The Saints of Yesterday, the opening act for Saturday festivities. The band composed 12 new songs first heard at Blues for a Cause.

See 33 concert pictures in our Weekly Grist Gallery.

Josh Roberts, lead guitarist for the Reba Russell band. Josh has been playing studio recording dates and concerts since his teens. One friend who used him in a recording session said his mother had to bring him to the session because he was too young to drive. Now in his northern twenties, he continues to get even better. I have photographed him before at the Memphis Blues Society Battle of the Bands and the Blues Music Awards.

Billy Jones Bluez. The Little Rock native performs nation wide. He has a quiet demeanor which disappears when his performance starts. Then he transmogrifies into an animated music machine. A great musician and a gifted performer. And a nice guy.

Blues for a Cause, A Helping Hand Blues Benefit and Music Festival organizes and presents blues concerts to benefit persons suffering from catastrophic illnesses and have no insurance. All proceeds past expenses to for that purpose alone. Management and staff are volunteers as are all event workers. Nice folks. Great cause. Fine music.

Click on Tullie Brae for more concert pictues

See 33 blues concert pictures in our Weekly Grist gallery

See more of Jimmy Thackery, Reba Russell, Tullie Brae, Billy Jones Bluez, The Joe Pitts Band, The Saints of Yesterday, and Amy Lee and the Second Line shot on stage and from the amphitheater floor during the two day concert. See this blues concert from angles you don’t expect to see, with close ups and cool shots you’ll like. Click and see.

Thanks for dropping by,

Joe Dempsey
Weekly Grist for the Eyes and Mind

http://www.joedempseyphoto.com/
http://www.joedempseycommunications.com/
http://www.corndancer.com/joephoto/photohome.html

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Blues in the Night

An impromptu band at a recent Memphis Blues Society jam session bears a resemblance to the Lil' Ol' Band from Texas, ZZ Top. Their music, vintage blues, played with primordial passion, crawled into my person. I welcomed the visitation. Musicians, left to right: Greg Gumpel, guitar; Brian Wells, drums, "Evil," bass; and Josh Roberts, guitar.

Blues, one of the few unique American art forms, according to numerous denizens of Memphis, got its start in their fair city. Nearby, their Mississippi brethren will probably argue that the birthplace was a few miles further south. Most of the rest of us acknowledge that the beginnings were in the neighborhood of both. Thank goodness I don’t have a dog in that fight. I just love the music and could care less about the geography thereof.

Before we venture further, this treatise got its start on the Photo of the Week page at Corndancer dot com. Click here to go there and see a couple of blues pictures and read about the blues experience.

Memphis blues singer Red Velvet is accompanied by bass virtuoso Leo Goff in the soon to be legendary September 16 Jam Session of the Memphis Blues Society.

Speaking of which, the September 16  Memphis Blues Society  jam session which I attended was one of those rare events for which the stars, the moon, asteroids, the shifting winds, the Mississippi River flow, the smog level, the mosquito reproduction rate, and the ghost of W. C. Handy all come together and sprinkle Neil’s Bar and Grille with blues pixie dust. Having breathed deeply of these unseen cosmic colloids, a hastily assembled, impromptu band held forth with a toe-tingling music session to remember. The audience, similarly entranced swayed with the tunes and lyrics. Especially the one couple on the dance floor clinging to each other and moving as one.

At the ripe old age of 13, Josh Roberts first laid his hot little hands on a guitar. It was like bacon and eggs, 'taters and gravy and, or coffee and a cup. They were simply meant to be together. As his fingers negotiate the fretboard like a spider and he plucks the strings with frenetic energy, the blues spew forth and wing their way around the room.

The Blues Society holds these sessions twice monthly at 7:30 – 11:00 p.m. on the first and third Thursdays. There is an open invitation for blues musicians to perform. A Blues Society band starts the action for one set and then the volunteers come forth to wail. Normally, at about 9:00 p.m. any professional musicians present are invited to come forth and do their thing. And on the 16th, did they ever. Like McArthur, ” . . . I shall return.”

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

Every week we shoot more pictures than we can post, so we put those suckers up in a high resolution galleries, one for folks with a PC and one for folks with Macs and I-Phones. This week there are 19 bigger and better pictures from this event. PC, click here. Mac, I-Phone or PC, click here.

Thanks for dropping by,

Joe Dempsey
Weekly Grist for the Eyes and Mind
http://www.joedempseycommunications.com/
http://www.joedempseyphoto.com/
http://www.corndancer.com/joephoto/photohome.html