Tag: Blues

Saturday Matinee – Tom Waits, Masa Takumi & The Nimmo Brothers

From FB: Tom Waits on Everything and Nothing
In September 1988, fresh off the release of his concert film Big Time, Waits sat down with music journalist Chris Roberts in a London recording studio. Captured on a rare cassette recording amidst ambient studio noise, Waits takes us on a journey from Stonehenge and the streets of New York to a surreal Hawaiian nightmare.

Grammy winner Masa Takumi (a.k.a. Masanori Takumi) is a Japanese artist, composer, songwriter and producer. A self-taught multi-instrumentalist, he learned trumpet at 8 years old, and by high school was playing drums, guitar, bass and piano.

In 1995 guitarists Stevie Nimmo and his brother Alan formed The Nimmo Brothers band in Glasgow. Performing here with Matt Beable on bass and Craig Bacon on drums.

Hope everyone survived the New Year’s festivities. We didn’t have as many fireworks or sirens as in previous years, and I take that as a good omen.
Porch season starts tomorrow and I plan to attend, rain or shinola.

Happy New Year’s Eve 2025 – End of Year Playlist

The end of a long year deserves a playlist to bring in the new one, so here’s a compilation of tunes that tugged on my earballs in 2025. Each set is in chronological order by date of recording.

Set 1 – January, February, March & April

Set 2 – May, June, July & August

Set 3 – September, October, November & December

I omitted seasonal tunes from the Halloween and Christmas  playlists. Last year’s playlist (2024) is here, and the 2023 EoY list is here.

And one more thing:
May You Have a Happy & Prosperous New Year!

[Caveat: I don’t own the copyrights to any of these recordings. They are presented here for entertainment purposes only.]

Saturday Matinee – The Detonics, Wolf Mail & Shinyribs

Founded in 2014, The Detonics won the Dutch Blues Challenge in 2016 and wound up representing Europe in the 2017 International Blues Challenge. That same year they were semi-finalists at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis.

Canadian-born guitarist, singer-songwriter Wolf Mail began playing at the age of fourteen and has recorded eight full-length internationally distributed albums and has toured in over twenty-six countries. Backing Wolf is John Rinkevich / bass, Alex Polovinkin / drums, and Alexei Sechkin / keyboards.

Based in Austin, Texas, and fronted by Kevin “Shinyribs” Russel,
Shinyribs “defies genres as a sonic melting pot of Texas Blues, New Orleans R&B funk, horn- driven Memphis Soul, country twang, border music, big band swing, and roots-rock.”

Whoa. What a week, and it’s not over yet. More food and visitors are on their way (along with more rain) but it’s all good. Porch might be crowded tomorrow but we’ve got spare benches. If we see you, we’ll see you.

Christmas Eve Rock


A random selection of tunes to wrap presents by.

Bonus: Previously posted Christmas tunes can be found here.

[Caveat: No copyright infringement is intended; songs posted here are for entertainment purposes only.]

Saturday Matinee – SKAyway, Krakin’ Kellys & Joe Bonamassa

SKAyway is a band from Makati, Philippines, that plays “punkSKAdelic music twisted with reggae, blues, swing and rock.”

Krakin’ Kellys is a Belgian Celtic punk pub brawl band that has generated a lot of attention since their formation in 2017 for their mix of traditional Irish tavern sounds with skate punk energy.

Joe Bonamassa‘s Merry Christmas Blues album (2013) is still free for download. Every song is a good one.

Just a few more days to get stuff wrapped and to the post office so gifts don’t arrive really late. I was thinking about doing it tomorrow, but the porch is calling. You know the drill. Noonish o’clock. There. Be.

Saturday Matinee – Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse, The Cinelli Brothers, and Mr. Sipp

Beau Gris Gris & The Apocalypse is a roots rock blues Americana country soul punk psychobilly band from California, featuring vocals by documentary filmmaker, television producer, business entrepreneur and Louisiana native Greta “Gris Gris” Valenti. (The nice lady dancing in the background is Kitten De Ville.)

Winners of the 2024 UK Blues Band of the Year, The Cinelli Brothers (Marco and Alessandro) revive 1960s – 70s vintage electric blues, R&B and soul with a modern vibe.

Castro Coleman, aka Mr. Sipp is smooth. A recipient of many prestigious awards, Castro was the first bluesman to have his handprint inducted into the Wall of Fame in Fredrikshavn, Denmark.

Another week and world news is still splattering all over the pavement and splashing in the swales. Every major story is both good news and omens of disaster depending upon the time of day and which town crier is coming through the village. The 48 hour rule is officially null and void.

My plan is to sleep in until Porch Time so I can be fashionably late. See you then and/or there.

Saturday Matinee – The Heavy, Big Guitars From Texas, Eric Johnson and Booker T. & The MG’s

Formed in 2007, The Heavy are a rock / soul / R&B band from Bath, Somerset, England. Kelvin Swaby / lead vocals, Dan Taylor / guitar, Spencer Page /bass, Chris Ellul / drums.

Big Guitars From Texas ca. 1985: Evan Johns, Don Leady, Denny Freeman, Frankie Camaro, Keith Ferguson and Mike Buck. Buck / drums and Ferguson /bass were original members of The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Leady & Ferguson were also members of The Tailgators, Leady, Buck & Johns were with The LeRoi Brothers.

From Wikipedia:
Eric Johnson (born August 17, 1954) is an American guitarist, vocalist and composer. His 1990 album Ah Via Musicom was certified platinum by the RIAA, and the single “Cliffs of Dover” won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.

R.I.P. Steve Cropper (1941-2025)
Booker T. & The MG’s opened this Creedence Clearwater Revival concert at the Oakland Coliseum, 1/31/70. Seen offstage are John Fogerty, Doug Clifford (w/beard), and Stu Cook (w/glasses).

Thanksgiving leftovers are almost gone, Christmas is just around the corner, and I’m still on Halloween. Guess I’ll have to reset the calendar one of these days, but not tomorrow. I plan to have some QPT (Quality Porch Time) at precisely sometime o’clock. See you then.

Saturday Matinee – Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials, Grace Bowers & The Hodge Podge w/ Petar Janjic, and The Riccardo Grosso Blues Band

Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials are killer.
Lil’ Ed Wiiliams (vocals, slide guitar), Ed’s half-brother James “Pookie” Young (bass), guitarist Mike Garrett (guitar) and drummer Kelly Littleton (drums) have been jamming for over 30 years. Lil’ Ed & Pookie learned from their uncle,  J. B. Hutto.

Grace Bowers & The Hodge Podge (with Serbian drummer Petar Janjic). Bowers is an amazing powerhouse jammer. Born in 2006, she was only 18 at the time of this performance from 2024, and she looks like she’s having fun.

“Blues is my foundation, but I don’t want to be the next copycat. My goal is to deliver the missing soundtrack of your life – and mine.” R. Grosso
Riccardo Grosso Blues Band‘s cover of Slim Harpo’s Shake Your Hips is a steady driver. There’s an interesting interview with Grosso on Bluesmoose Radio here, and it includes more examples of his excellent harp shredding.

It’s finally here – my favorite week. Yep, we gots a lotsa LEFTOVERS!
See you on the porch tomorrow and I’ll tell you all about them.

Saturday Matinee – Eddie 9V, RelaxTrio, Altered Five Blues Band & Bywater Call

“A shot rang out in the name of love” is one hell of a lyric.
Brooks Mason was born in Georgia in 1996, focuses on classic southern soul, blues, rock and funk. “A lot of people wanted me to be the Brooks Mason Blues Band, but that’s been done. I wanted to start from scratch, and I ain’t never heard of no bluesman named Eddie 9V.”

The girl pounds bass. Finnish band RelaxTrio is
Linda Teränen (Vocals & double bass)
Oskari Nieminen (Vocals & guitar)
Vilho Voutilainen (Drums & backing vocals)

Award winning group from Milwaukee, Altered Five Blues Band features frontman Jeff Taylor with Jeff Schroedl / guitar, Mark Solveson / bass, Alan Arber / drums and Steve Huebler / keyboard.

Bywater Call is a Toronto-based group formed by singer Meghan Parnell and guitar player Dave Barnes. They were nominees for the Southern Rock & Soul Independent Blues Awards in 2021. In 2024 they were nominated for International Blues Artist of the year (UK Blues Awards).

Lotta weather this past week, but it didn’t freeze, didn’t flood and nothing important fell over. Thought about getting a hair cut, but I filled up the tank instead and fed the cat a few times. Life is good. See you tomorrow, some time around porch o’clock.

Saturday Matinee – Alastair Greene, Eric Johanson & Katarina Pejak; Nikki Hill Band, Anthony Rosano & The Conqueroos, and Cam Cole

Ruf’s Blues Caravan 2024 featured Alastair Greene, Eric Johanson & Katarina Pejak. 

Nikki Hill Band:
“If Tina Turner and Little Richard had a daughter and raised her with the help of uncles James Brown and Chuck Berry, she’d be like Nikki Hill.”
— Minneapolis Star Tribune

Anthony Rosano & The Conqueroos mixes Delta blues, NOLA  second line funk and 60’s jams with classic rock. No self-indulgent wheedly-wheedly solos with these guys.

Cam Cole, busker, bluesman, rocker, recording artist, and the most impressive one-man band you will ever see.

Looks like the west coast is in for rain, the midwest is in for winter, and the porch has a roof with a live weather watch. See you tomorrow, rain, mud, sleet or snow.