Tag: Blues

Saturday Matinee – Luna Lee, Bywater Call, Alastair Greene & Danny Bryant

Born in Seoul and trained in traditional Korean music, expert Gayageum rocker Luna Lee became interested in western music while still in college. More about her here.

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).

Born in Santa Barbara, CA, and now in Austin, TX, Alastair Greene was inspired to pursue a career in music by his grandfather, Chico Alvarez, a trumpeter in the Stan Kenton Orchestra in the 1940s-50s.

Danny Bryant was born in Hertfordshire, England, was playing professionally by 18, formed Danny Bryant’s RedEyeBand with his father, Ken Bryant, on bass. His dad retired in 2013, but the band continues on.

Hope you’re all hunkered down for the Winter Wallop – a big white frozen nasty from what I can tell. As a former Buckeye, it looks like beer and Euchre weather. As a now-spoiled west coaster, it looks more like porch time to me. I’ll be thinking about ya.

Saturday Matinee – The Molotovs, Platinum Moon & One Rusty Band

The Molotovs are teenage siblings Mathew and Issey Cartlidge who play in the style of 70s-80s British Mod rock mixed with punk and ska.
“When [the covid] lockdown ended we just started busking all over London and doing covers of the bands we liked and that allowed us to become a really well rehearsed unit. So when the doors opened again, we flooded into venues and got onto the gigging circuit.”

Based in Katonah, NY, Platinum Moon was formed in 2018 by classically-trained brothers Anton (guitar, violin) and Joseph Klettner (keyboards, guitar). They recruited AvA Anduze after they saw her in a YouTube video, and are backed by drummer Ethan Grosman / drums and Toby Dorfman /bass. Another group that benefitted from the Covid-19 lockdowns, they tour the eastern U.S. and Canada.

One Rusty Band is French duo Grégory Garghentini and Léa Barbier. They started out as buskers in France with Grég on electric radiator guitar and Léa on taps(!) and decided to head for the recording studio. Their third album Line After Line was listed in RollingStone Magazine‘s Top 10 Albums of 2025.

Got some big ol’ honkin’ plans for tomorrow. I call it Porch Time. See you there.

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 – 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.