"King Louie" here...Well, I haven't blogged for a long time, but I thought I'd gab about KL & BJ's Waterfront Blues Festival set and overall experience. In short, it was great! We played from 5:15 to 6 pm on opening night (Thursday, 7-2-09).
Actually, there was a technical glitch right off the top--the bass (which I play on the B-3) was ringing badly. But we took a moment between the first two tunes and fixed the problem, and things went smoothly thereafter. Incidently, KL & BJ's set was featured on that evening's KGW news broadcast, and The Oregonian included three photos of the group in its on-line WBF photo essay.
One highlight of our set was "Until The Real Thing Comes Along." James sings this obscure standard beautifully on our recent CD release ("Around The World"), but having special guest pianist Janice Scroggins add her touch to the tune really put it over the top. Not typical blues festival fare, but one of the great things about the WBF is the variety you hear.
Speaking of that, on the festival's closing night, I heard a wonderful young soul singer from back East, Ryan Shaw. Ryan really channels all-time greats like Otis Redding and Donny Hathaway. If you haven't heard him, you should check him out (he's on MySpace). Too bad Ryan and Baby James didn't get a chance to hear each other. I know they'd be instant friends & admirers.
BTW, I'll post some video that my wife Tracy took of our WBF set soon. Already, you'll notice a few festival photos added at the end of the photo slideshow. [Here's one]
Well, enough blogging for now. If you've got a KL & BJ jones, check out our schedule to see where we're playing next. In addition to our usual Jimmy Mak's dates, we're going to be logging some driving miles this summer, playing at cool festivals in Ellensburg, Estacada, St Helens, etc.