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.