More of the Boogiemen

Some shots of the Boogiemen recording their demo DVD at the Beach Hotel. Go see them some time!

The Boogiemen

Last night I finally got my arse off the couch and caught Boog Roberts band, The Boogiemen at The Empire. Naturally, they rocked. I took my new camera along and took a few snaps of the boys.

If you like your blues music loud, unrestrained and with a serving of boogie rock, you can't go past these boys. They're making a demo DVD soon that I'll be helping out with.

Refreshed Website

The Dunedin Muso's club went well. Not a huge crowd, maybe 30 or so people, but definitely an enthusiastic bunch. Work's keeping me pretty busy, and everybody's got other committments over the next few weeks, so it's time for a few weeks hiatus.

The band is tightening up nicely, playing a lot more intuitively. Our sound is really defining itself as distinct from the other local blues acts like King Leo or The Boogiemen. We play very eclectic mix of high-energy, intense blues. Quite a punky London edge to it, dut to the influence of Nine Below Zero. I've loved those guys after seeing them on TV in the 80's and am a huge fan of Mark Feltham's harmonica playing as well as Dennis Greaves' guitar. After cogitating on our sound and stage style, Nik has come up with some new imagery for the band's website, which I promptly put up. Later we'll give it a thorough overhaul.

I just spent some of my gig money on a new toy: A vox AC30 Amplug. I'm loving it. Now I can practice electric guitar in the living room! I'm taking it on vacation to Wanaka next week. Looks like there's plenty of snow so the skiing should be good. I may not get to practice much guitar at all. That's okay. After the last few weeks, I'm actually looking forward to a break!

The Empire Wakes Up

I popped into The Empire Pub yesterday to chat with the owner Garth. He and his wife Kate were on vacation in the UK when they had to come back and rescue the place. The folks he left in charge hadn't had it two weeks and things were falling apart at the seams, hence them stiffing us for our fee. Good on Garth, he put things right and gave me the balance of our cash.

Last weekend we played the NHNZ winter party in their TV studio. It's a great room, we had a fun crowd and had a ball.



In other news, Nik has been working on our visual imagery and as you'll see, we had a new photo shoot in Lindsay's studio. We took a few, but the one above is my favourite. It's us alright. This Saturday we're playing the Muso's club. Not a high paying gig, but we're looking forward to it.

Empire V

Last night we got together at Lindsay's apartment for a few band photos before the gig. Now that Bluestone's sound is defining itself, it's time to look at marketing ourselves around town. Nik's come up with some new graphics, and I got myself a new suit for gigging. It might come in handy for weddings and funerals too. Hopefully Nik'll have all the new imagery for me to update our website later this week.

Anyway the gig was pretty good. There were a couple of guitar leads that didn't exactly go according to plan, but I was pretty happy about how I improvised. The other lads played out of their skins. The best part was that when I messed around with the format of songs as practiced, everyone was relaxed enough to go with it. Despite the nasty chill outside, we had a good little crowd for most of the night.

The only downer was that the new management stiffed us for half our fee, claiming some misunderstanding with Garth and Kate about the money and time we play. They say they'll sort it out and get back to me this week. If we end up not getting the rest of our whack, I'd be happy about canning our further dates there and concentrating on getting a demo recording done to get other gigs elsewhere. Stay tuned.

Empire IV - Redemption

Last Friday we played the Empire as a four piece. To say I was nervous was an understatement.
This was a make-or-break gig for Bluestone, ever since I cut Ros from the band. So I had to step up and sing a little more, as well as play a little more guitar. I'd also just been to Melbourne the weekend before and got myself a new axe. The night before the gig I found myself worrying that on top of everything else, a new instrument was adding another layer of complexity.

I'm happy to say that things went unexpectedly well from the start. One thing we all agreed on at the last practice was to make more space, and not overplay or rush ourselves through the songs. We stuck to plan, and it worked. I was happy with my harp sound, and although I didn't play exactly what I planned to on guitar, the stuff I was improvising seemed to work okay. I was pleased with the guitar. It's an epiphone dot studio, based on a gibson 335, so it's got a lovely mellow tone, in contrast to our usual Stratocaster guitar sound.

So we had the audience from the start to the finish. There was one obstreperous sheila there who had to be ejected, and a chap who'd drank too much and felt my boot a couple of times when he fell into my mike stand, but everyone else was just dancing or cheering in all the right places. Garth the publican was pleased too. We all had a great time. Finally, the band working as I want. I'm fairly sure eveyone's in it for the long haul, so - something to build on.

Top Blues Albums No. 3

It's interesting that so far, my list of favourite albums are all white boy blues. Well, this boy's as white as they come, he's an albino!

This is another album I'm sure that one day I'm going to get around to covering all the songs from: Johnny Winter's White Hot and Blue. It's got everything a JW album should have: Solid blues tunes including some classic cover versions, Johnny's over-the-top guitar playing, and his heartfelt howls and growls, but there's one other thing that makes this album a must for me, and it's Pat Ramsey's harmonica playing. On "Last Night" it never fails to blow me away. Ramsey's style is very guitar-like, and he's a robust match for Mr Winter. If it came down to it, I think I'd probably put this album somewhere in my top 3.

Empire III - The Nadir

OK, another gig at the Empire. A pretty quiet night, small crowd, and considering the goal we've set ourselves, we didn't play up to our potential, although it was nice to get some good feedback on small portions of my performance. But it's not about me - we're a band, not just some jammers. Considering the small crowd and the band not delivering, Garth the publican was reluctant to pay us the agreed sum and I found it hard to press for the amount originally agreed on. Damn.

While it was disappointing, Ros, Nik and Lindsay seemed to be especially unhappy and discouraged. There was more at work just some performance boo-boos. Mike's uncomfortable with the non-blues material I've been introducing, I had an internal clash of personalities to deal with. Now that kills good bands, and has come close to killing this one, which is a shame, because I belive Bluestone has great potential. Maybe by trying to take us down a pop and covers path so we can get more gigs, I've been trying to make one great little blues band do too much - So I've got a commitment from the gang to play one more Empire gig. Pure blues this time and without Ros.

In due course I'll take a look at reviving Dry Martini as a cocktail event/smaller venue combo.

Stay tuned.

Empire II

On Friday Bluestone played its first full night at the Empire Pub's downstairs band bar. There was a moderate-sized crowd that seemed to stay all night, and the first two sets went really well. I was really pleased with how my guitar sounded, without much effect other than the odd bit of gain. Big fat fender tone. A few little boo-boos crept into the third set, but nothing we can't fix - and we will fix them! Feedback after the gig was great from the punters. Feedback from the band indicates a high motivation to sound nothing less than excellent.

The biggest downer of the night was that some idiot stole one of my new harps in the first break. I think it was one of the guys who'd been so effrusive in their applause during our set. What a low trick. Loser. Anyway, we all stayed for a few drinks and I got home around 3:00. Long hours, but boy it's good to be gigging again.

I hear Graham Dooley is playing with Boog Roberts again in The Boogiemen. Watch out! When they were with Mike and I in White Hot and Blue, they were a formidable combination. I expect they'll get some good gigs soon.

Live At Last

Okay, it's taken a little while, but we're live at last. There's a permanent link to the Bluestone website on the right. Check us out! Better yet, book us!

We're playing the Empire Pub this Friday night. Been hard to rehearse as much as we've wanted, what with some of us being out of town and such. Should be a lot of fun though.

The Logo

Courtesy of Nik our drummer who's a design and marketing genius, here's our mug shot with our corporate logo incorporated. What an asset everyone's day jobs are turning out to be to this band! Next I'll have to produce a video, Ros (who's an accomplished TV cameraman) will can shoot it, her husband and our sound man Warren can edit it, and Mike can... well I'm not exactly sure how Mike's expertise in fisheries stock assessment is going to help us, but there's bound to be a way!

The Big Picture

At last! A decent band photo, courtesy of our bass player Lindsay (http://www.thebigpicture.co.nz/). We took a few shots in his studio last night before getting down to learning a few new tunes.

So, right to left: Clive Copeman, Ros Saunders, Mike Beentjes, Lindsay Somerville, Nik Sweeney.

Top Blues Albums No.2

Continuing our series on the recordings that have made me the muso I am, I have to say this would have to be in my top 3. And like all good things, there's a story behind it.

As a grad student just learning to play harp, I used to crash parties with a couple of friends, Mike and Arthur. Arthur used to carry this battered tape around. Usually in a pretty trolleyed state, Arthur would accost the owner of the stereo and persuade them to put his tape on. If there was no-one in attendance, he'd just put it on anyway. You know the usual howls this kind of action elicits, especially if you're a party crasher. But that seldom happened. The grooves on that tape seemed to cast their spell immediately. There was little protest, and the party usually amped up by a couple of orders of intoxication and turn into a wild debauch. Or maybe that was just Arthur, Mike and I. Anyway, The Fabulous Thunderbirds - Girls Go Wild was on one side of that tape.

I eventually got a copy of the album and began practicing whichever Kim Wilson harp chops I could figure out. Every band I've been in has done at least two or three tunes from that album. You just can't go past it for 12-bar blues efficiency. Kim's powerful vocals and harp, Jimmy Vaughn's oh-so frugal guitar licks. Notes and chords placed so carefully, you'd think they're gold. To me they are. Don't be fooled by the cheesy cover. If you're a blues fan and don't have this album, get it. It could change your life, or at the very least, your party.

Gesellen

Something to add about the gig last night: There was this mob if strangely dressed chaps there last night, Germans by the sound of them. You may have seen some around. They dress in black bell-bottom pants, white shirts, double breasted black waistcoats and black floppy hats. You could mistake them for Amish missionaries - without the beards.

So who are these strange young men? The beer drinking is a clue. They're young German carpenters, travelling the world getting experience before they settle down and become master craftsmen. It's part of an old German tradition, and a lovely one. They're called Gesellen and their whole travelling bit is a last vestige of European craft guild culture and where we get the word journeyman from. Be nice to them when you see them. Next time I do, I'll buy them a beer, maybe they'll help replace some of the weatherboards on my house. They were drinking heroic amounts of beer last night and maintained impeccable manners and a happy countenance. You can read a little more about them here: http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,416564,00.html

The Empire Strikes Three

Last night we played at the grand reopening of the Empire Pub's historic third bar - the band bar. Quite a night. Rather than sharing the bill with just one other band, there were five bands through the course of the night. I asked for a reasonably early spot for us - 10 pm. Actually, that's as late as I want to start playing these days. But I only just made it in time.

I'd been out shooting video at a friend's wedding on the beach at Doctors' Point. Leo and the Growling Dogs were there and it was good to play some harp and sing a tune with them. They're such a great bunch of guys. We've got to do some kind of Blues Summit gig with them this year.

Anyway, I got to the Empire bang on 10 and my band mates had my gear all set up and ready to go for me. Thanks to SMS messaging on the drive into town, there was no "Where is he?" "When will he get here?" "Where the $#@% have you been?" They have my enduring love and respect. I just had to strap on my guitar and we ripped into our set...

...Which seemed to go rather well. OK, the stage sound wasn't perfect, my harp setup wasn't ideal, and coming in from the cold straight onto the stage meant it really took me a little while to warm into it. I even made my share of boo-boos, but none of that mattered. Bluestone, which Garth the publican introduced as the renamed Dark Horse, played tight. All the others played out of their skins, and Lindsay has this infectious on-stage fun thing going on. We had so much fun on stage it spilled onto the floor. There was a lively and enthusiastic crowd, and it was great fun to work them, get them shouting back etc. Personally, I could have done without the smoke machine, but there you go. A great start to real gigging again, and Garth even offered us a regular monthly spot. We'll see about that.

We all hung around to see Boog Roberts and The Boogiemen, catch up with old muso mates like Graham Dooley and Mark Reeves, and enjoy a beer or two. Mike even said it was one of his best gigs ever. We'll see about that too. I've got a feeling that now we've got this great little lineup, the best may be yet to come.

Name This Band!

So we've been vacillating over our name again. Seems like Dark Horse hasn't struck a chord with everyone, or the saddle got loose. Anyway, for a while it seemed we were back to square one, unhappy with the name we'd picked and unable to find one that we all felt good about. While I kind of believe the name becomes the band, whatever that name is, your name is still your calling card, and that first impression counts in peoples minds.

So, after practice the other night, we hopped down to the Muso's club to road test a set in front of a small live audience. The music went down well, but more significantly, the handful of members there got into a great game of "Name that Band". Lloyd even pulled out a tattered list of band names from his wallet. He'd been compiling it for years. We almost went for one of them: "INTERIM NAME SUPRESSION". After a brief dalliance with BEDROCK, Mike suggested BLUESTONE, and that stuck. Works not only because of the Blues/Tone factor, but because so many significant local buildings are constructed from Otago Bluestone. Bluesy, simple, and local flavour - big ticks in my workbook. Nik immediately started thinking graphic concepts, which is a great sign. Sure there are a few bands around the world with that name, and a record label, but I think the world's big enough for now for us all to coexist peacefully.

So we'll see if this one sticks!

Gigs Ahoy!

On the strength of our jam a few weeks ago, Garth from the Empire Pub (aka The Garthness) texted to offer us a gig the other day. Looks like we'll all be back from vacations in time for a practice beforehand, so why not? We'll be sharing the night with with another band anyway, so it's more for the practice than the money. Mike has also fielded an enquiry from a mate in Wellington who's interested in flying us up there to play at his 60th birthday in April some time.

We used to play backyard parties for twentysomethings, now it's 50th and 60th parties. Scary.

Ipod, Newpod

So the very next day, I went back to Dick Smith Electronics and they gave me another new 80 gig ipod Classic. It's been two weeks with this one. So far, so good. Nice screens on these little machines. So I've been ripping DVD's and Youtube videos to it for Georgia to watch over the Summer vacation. I've also got my Fabulous Thunderbirds live DVD in there. Very cool.