Tag: Billy Branch

Saturday Matinee – Curtis Salgado, Mike Benjamin & The Bend In The Road Band, and Billy Branch & The Sons Of Blues

Curtis Salgado began with The Nighthawks, later joined The Robert Cray Band, led Roomful of Blues, inspired the Blues Brothers and formed Curtis Salgado & The Stilettos.

Mike Benjamin & The Bend In The Road Band perform a blend of Americana, New Orleans funk, Delta blues and classic rock. Benjamin began as a Boston busker, moved to the New York club scene, became a session musician (vocals/guitar), and recorded hundreds of national commercials from Coca-Cola and Clorox to Budweiser.

Billy Branch & The Sons Of Blues
A three-time Grammy nominee, Branch is a roots blues promoter and historian with a direct link to Willie Dixon. He’s considered to be a member of the “New Generation of Chicago Blues”.

Seems we’ve entered dropping jaw season early this year. It’s more than just a clean up on Aisle 3 – the whole damn parking lot is a mess and the two lane is backed up all the way to Paducah. On the plus side, our stray tom likes his new box on the stoop, and the porch will be open by the time you show up. See you then.

Saturday Matinee – Mike Zito & Albert Castiglia, John Primer & Billy Branch, and Mad Guz & the Mojos

Guitar rippers Mike Zito and Albert Castiglia took their powerhouse bands, crammed them together to form Blood Brothers.

John Primer with Billy Branch (harp), Johnny Iguana (keyboards), Felton Crews (bass), Billy Flynn (rhythm guitar). Unfortunately the drummer got no credit.

Mad Guz & the Mojos is a heavy rockabilly-influenced blues band from somewhere in Germany, and consists of Mad Guz (vocals, sax, guitar), Isi Mojo (double bass), Tim Mojo (drums, vocals) and Spike Mojo (lead guitar, vocals).

Not sure if hilarious, laughable or pitiful is the best way to describe the feces flying around on social media and elsewhere. Maybe we could schedule a National Day of STFU and STFD. Everyone to the time out chair.
Except for us porch sitters. See you tomorrow, porchheads.

Saturday Matinee – Lurrie Bell & Billy Branch, Omar & The Howlers, The Andreas Diehlmann Band, and Playing For Change

Lurrie Bell and Billy Branch are two modern day blues masters. Branch is a roots blues promoter and historian with  a direct link to Willie Dixon, while Bell is the son of harpslinger and Blues Hall of Fame inductee Carey Bell. In 1977, Bell and Branch were considered members of the “New Generation of Chicago Blues” and both have made significant contributions to the genre.

Omar and The Howlers features Kent “Omar” Dykes:
“He hails from McComb, MS, a town with the distinction of being home turf for Bo Diddley. Omar started playing guitar at twelve where he took to hanging out in edge-of-town juke joints playing with Wakefield Coney and other authentic blues greats in the middle of the night when his parents were asleep.”

The Andreas Diehlmann Band is a German power trio who crank out Texas blues ala ZZ Top, with vocals to match. Diehlmann is backed by Jörg Sebald on bass and Tom Bonn on drums.

Playing For Change: Legendary multi-instrumentalist John Paul Jones, accompanied by Stephen Perkins, Susan Tedeschi & Derek Trucks, and over 20 musicians and dancers from seven different countries perform a rework of the 1929 original release by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy about the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the most destructive river flooding in U.S. history.

Prayers to those who lost loved ones and were otherwise affected by Hurricane Helene, one of the largest to hit the US in recent history.  The cleanup effort required is mind boggling.

Porch time begins at porch time. See you tomorrow.