Tag: Blues

Saturday Matinee – BALTHVS, KALEO, and Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado

Formed in 2020, BALTHVS is a Colombian psychedelic funk surf latin jazz rock group consisting of Balthazar Aguirre / guitar; Johanna Mercuriana / bass; Santiago Lizcano /drums.

This blues rock indie band formed in 2012 in Reykjavik, Iceland, but KALEO means “the voice” in Hawaiian. After signing with Atlantic records, they relocated to Austin, Texas, in 2015. [More info on Wiki].

Since their beginnings as a Copenhagen bar band, Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado have been dubbed Scandinavia’s premier roots-rock renegades. The septet has performed in Scandinavia, Europe, Canada, the US and Asia for over two decades.

A three day weekend is upon us, with Monday being Unnamed Day due to the recent discovery of Cesar Chavez’ past indiscretions. In celebration, a lot of people nationwide will be hitting the streets, to march around waving signs, chanting Hey Hey Ho Ho mantras and disrupting traffic, all because they’re worried about the US becoming a monarchy or some nonsense. Whatever happens won’t be enough to cancel valuable porch time, so we’ll see you tomorrow at the crack of noon.

Saturday Matinee – Vintage Trouble, Toronzo Cannon & Jonathon “Boogie” Long

Soul / blues / R&B band Vintage Trouble formed in Los Angeles in 2010.  Their debut album The Bomb Shelter Sessions (2011) hit number one on Amazon‘s music charts in the UK, and they won the Best New Band prize at the 2011 Classic Rock awards. In February 2024, the group announced an indefinite break “to focus on individual and family endeavors”.

Chicago bluesman Toronzo Cannon didn’t pick up a guitar until he was 22, but he picked it up fast.
“Gary Clark, Jr. declared, ‘Toronzo is a beast. He lights the room up,’ and Joe Bonamassa rightly pronounced, ‘Toronzo’s a great guitar player, excellent vocalist and an amazing personality.’ ”

Jonathon “Boogie” Long
From his website: “He began his career at the age 18, invited by BB King to tour with him. Shortly after, he was awarded Guitar Center’s “King of the Blues”, besting over 4,000 other contestants. Since then, he’s taken the short road to Louisiana legend, already a member of the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame, and Baton Rouge officially designating January 4th as “Jonathon Long” day.”

R.I.P Chuck Norris, sorry about your legacy Cesar Chavez, nice work Nick Shirley, Gavin Newsom is still a douchebag, and tomorrow is Porch Time.
See you there.

Saturday Matinee – Samantha Martin & Delta Sugar, Larkin Poe, Selwyn Birchwood, and Boogie Beasts

Samantha Martin & Delta Sugar are a soul / gospel / R&B / blues group from Toronto, whose musical influences come from way past the Canadian border. The full band consists of 10 members plus singer / songwriter / guitarist Samantha Martin.

Multi-instrumental blues / roots rockers Rebecca & Megan Lovell, aka Larkin Poe, are amazing. Multiple Grammy Award winners from Georgia, the sisters named their group after their great-great-great-great-grandfather, a cousin of that other Poe guy.

Selwyn Birchwood is an American blues guitarist, vocalist and songwriter from Tampa, Florida. He was the winner of the Blues Foundation’s 2013 International Blues Challenge (band category), as well the winner of the Albert King Guitarist of the Year award. [Wiki]

From Boogie Beasts‘ website:
“Dirty beats, hypnotizing slide, screaming harmonica riffs and plenty of fuzz: all of these will be served by this four man band from Liège-Limburg-Namur, Belgium. […] The drive is infectious, the noise is pure filth, yet highly irresistible.”

Stuff happened this week – some good, some bad, most of it just plain absurd. It’s also the time of year where we ignore resetting the clock in the dashboard and set our sprinklers and calendars ahead instead. As always, the change doesn’t affect porch time. Be there or be somewhere else.

Saturday Matinee – Mark Hummel’s Golden State / Lone Star Revue, Henrik Freischlader & FUZZRIDER

From the website: Mark Hummel’s Golden State / Lone Star Revue is an all-star, cross-country melding of musicians from California – Mark Hummel (harp-blower, vocalist, bandleader and Grammy nominee), R.W. Grigsby (bassist) – and Texans Anson Funderburgh (guitarist and Rockets bandleader), Mike Keller (Double Trouble, Fabulous Thunderbirds) and Wes Starr (famed Austin drummer who has played with a who’s who of Texas music royalty).

German blues guitarist, singer-songwriter, producer and self-taught multi-instrumentalist from Wuppertal, Germany, Henrik Freischlader plays all flavors of the blues.

FUZZRIDER is a relatively new heavy blues super trio from Athens Greece: Jim Lord / guitars and vocals, Nick Giannoulis /  bass and Brian Velentzas / drums.

Lotta news flying around and splattering all over the pavement. No point in listing it all here, you’ve heard most of the official contradictory reports by now. Seems like tomorrow might be a good time to watch dogs from the porch and let things sort themselves out. See you there.

Saturday Matinee – Eric Johnson (w/ Kyle Brock & Tommy Taylor), Ana Popović, and The Sonics

Eric Johnson with Kyle Brock and Tommy Taylor in 1988. Lot of technique packed into a pretty instrumental.

Born in Serbia and now residing in the US, Ana Popović has earned seven Blues Music Award nominations and performed as the only female guitarist of the 2014 -2018 all-star Experience Hendrix lineup, a nationwide tour celebrating the music and legacy of Jimi Hendrix.

In 2015, The Sonics  performed at the KEXP studio to record a set of their proto-punk garage band classics (along with some covers). Four of the five original members were there: Gerry Roslie / vocals, keyboard; Larry Parypa / Guitar; Andy Parypa / Bass; and Rob Lind / Saxophone. The entire session can be heard here and it’s pure awesome.

We had some actual weather this past week, with high winds, thunder and lightning, sheets of rain, avalanches, starvation, disease, pestilance. Now I hear that there are extra terrestrials on the way so we’ll have a surplus if we don’t waste them. I think there’s room in the shed.
See you porchtime-ish.

Saturday Matinee – Shaggy Dogs, Monster Mike Welch & The Black Keys

Shaggy Dogs play a blues/R&B/rock/soul mix they call Fiesta Blues ‘n’ Roll. Performing and recording since the late 1990s, their album  Pinball Boomers was “the most streamed French album in 2025 on the blues radio collective.”

Monster Mike Welch has been performing and recording for over 25 years. The bluesman from Boston was only 13 when Dan Akroyd gave him the nickname.

The Black Keys (Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney) have recorded their 14th studio album Peaches, due to be released in May. It was written while Auerbach was caring for his (late) father on the basis that “it would be good for Dan to have something to do.”

Lotta things we’re supposed to be outraged about these days, but most of them sound like little stampy feets and made up cuss words to me, while the real monsters are pounding on the door trying to get out of the basement. I’m not worried. I’ve got more important things to do, like getting the Superbowl Chili burbling and the corn breading. See you tomorrow, same porch time, same porch channel.

Saturday Matinee – The True Loves, Joe Louis Walker & The Blues Rebels, and Brass Against

The True Loves are an Afro-beat funk and soul group out of Seattle. Formed in 2014 by Jabrille “Jimmy James” Williams / guitar, Bryant Moore / bass) and David McGraw / drums, they’re backed by Iván Galvez / congas, aux percussion, Gordon Brown / tenor sax, Greg Kramer / trombone, and Skerik / baritone sax. [h/t Chuck S.]

Supergroup Joe Louis Walker & The Blues Rebels, live at Zappa Tel Aviv (2013) featured Blues Hall of Fame member Joe Louis Walker / guitar & vocals, Andy Watts / guitar, Dov Hammer / harp, Ilan Hillel / bass and Alon Hillel / drums. Walker passed away in April 2025, age 75.

An amazing version of Motörhead’s classic by Brass Against, a collective led  by guitarist Brad Hammonds for purposes of protesting everything you can imagine with song covers. (Fun Fact: They are banned from playing at NASCAR events and Daytona Speedway’s Rockville Festivals because of an “incident” in 2021.)

I see that the winter storm isn’t done messing with you folks east of the Mississippi and south of everything. I don’t envy you – I did my time long ago. Remember to steer in the direction of the skid, and we’ll see you on the other side. For the rest of us, heavy porchtime is expected to blow in by noon o’clock tomorrow. See you then.

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.