Well we at LittleRockLiveMusic.net got split up Friday Night. I knew Big Smith was in town but I decided to keep things local, and in the family, with Kat Hood and The Good Time Ramblers. Read about G's night out on the opposite side of town with Big Smith in his blog above.
My night started with Kat Hood and Chuck Gilbert, putting on an awesome show at Studio Joe's at 7pm. The place was packed and definitely filled out well over the venue's 65 person capacity. That morning, Kat played "Back Home Again" on Good Morning Arkansas. That song along with "Fences" and "Back When" are my three personal favorites she both wrote and recorded with Chuck Gilbert and Eric Nolen as the Kat Hood Trio. "Back Home Again" has been featured on a promotional spot on AETN and also helped earn the band top honors at 2002's Arkansas Acoustic Festival. Never a bad thing, Kat and Chuck played many John Prine songs scattered throughout the show. Her and Chuck did an especially great job covering Prine's "Killing The Blues" recently made popular by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant. I would highly recommend downloading the free music available on her web site and buying her cd. Her and Chuck have decided to branch off as a duo and continue to make new music together. She is an incredibly gifted songwriter and vocalist. Her and Chuck are both incredibly nice people and are going to try and schedule a concert somewhere in town each month. We will keep you posted with when and where. I was bummed that I had to leave at the start of their second set but The Good Time Ramblers were about to take the stage at Grumpy's at 9pm.
Grumpy's was absolutely packed and GTR rocked three sets for almost four hours. The band played through all the songs off their current cd and many more off their new one due out in the Fall. From the sampling of new songs I have heard at the band's last two shows, "Bigelow Strange" is going to be every bit as incredible as "Sinners Welcome". Gillian Welch, Springsteen, Skynyrd, The Band, Haggard and Willie Nelson were all covered expertly throughout the band's performance and kept people shouting out the familiar lyrics and the waitresses and bartender's very busy.
After completely amping up the hardly dispersed group of loyal fans, still singing and tapping their feet to "Maggie's Farm" at 1:30 am, Jeff Coleman came up to do his instantly classic song, "All The Whisky In Texas". It was encouraging to see the Mother of lead singer John Lefler, and for my second time of the night, Kat Hood show up with her family and make it out to support her son and his band. She came up earlier in the night to do a few songs and sang John Prine's "Angel From Montgomery" with her son and his band. The band added a great new song to their incredibly long list of live music, "Seminole Wind". I just started listening to Donna the Buffalo over the past few months and the song was instantly recognizable from their album "Rockin' In The Weary Land". I really can't emphasize enough how good these guys are live. They have been playing all over town for the past three years and have recently gained some new found momentum. Everytime I see them they are more and more solid. No matter the venue, they always draw a huge crowd and never fail to impress. If you have not seen them live, or bought their cd, you are truly missing out on one of Little Rock's great local acts.
For me, even more than the music, I could not be more impressed by the sincerity and humbleness of both Kat Hood and Chuck Gilbert, the members of GTR, and their incredibly large group of friends, family and fans. They are truly some of the nicest people I have met since moving out here two years ago and Little Rock could not be more lucky to have them.
http://www.myspace.com/goodtimeramblers
http://www.kathood.com
-T
I had never been to Studio Joes, much less heard about it before last Wednesday night. I used to work at Barnes and Noble and do remember seeing it several times. During big store events all of the employees were required to park in the lot right next to the place off of Autumn and Chenal. I always thought that it was a hair salon. When Mike Dollins messaged me on Myspace a month ago he asked if our web page (at the time Street Scene Little Rock) had anything to do with San Diego's annual Street Scene Music Festival. Well yea, in fact it did. I used to live out in San Diego and got the name from it. But how would someone in Little Rock know about that?? It turns out Mike grew up out in San Diego and moved out to Arkansas after college. Sound familiar? In San Diego I worked at a popular music store for most of high school and all of college. Turns out Mike knows many of the same people and places I do. He started a local Blues Newsletter in the area and jammed with many of the bigger blues musicians of the area. Long story short our conversation was one of those "Wow what a small world" scenarios. He told me about a musician named Len Rainey that would be playing through town on June 18th.
Apparently Len Rainey has toured with all kinds of bands and lived in Chicago for a while. Mike has his own band that tours quite frequently around the Central Arkansas area. Mike shared the stage with another predominant local blues musician, Joe Pitts of the Joe Pitts Band fame. I had meant to see the Joe Pitts Band play at Cornerstone in NLR a month or two ago but didn't get a chance. I could write up a whole blog on just what these 3 people have contributed to the blues scene but I will let you do your own research.
G and I headed over to the show just after it got started. Len played bass and sang some of his own own stuff as well as some more popular blues standards. I really didn't know anything about Len other than he currently lives in San Diego, and plays bass. When he took the stage he completely blew me away. He had a an awesome voice and completely ripped it up on the bass. Between Mike Dollins and Joe Pitts trading licks there was never a dull moment. Most of the members of the Mike Dollins band took the stage in the second half and added a keyboard and harp player. Another phenomenal blues musician, Essie the Blues Lady, came up for one song with Mike, Len and Joe. Another guy from Austin came up and played some lead with Len and Joe backing him up. The surprise of the night came when Ginny Becton took the stage in the second half. I knew Ginny was in the Mike Dollins band but had never heard her sing. G and I were completely floored! Her singing was worth the trip out to the show alone. I saw Aretha Franklin in Memphis a couple months ago and Ginny's singing kept bringing me back. Unfortunately I forget the drummers name but he really held his own. He jammed several drum solos and kept a solid beat throughout the night. All in all the event was a great opportunity for me and G to get exposed to the local blues scene here in Arkansas. And folks, the scene here is alive and well.
It was odd that almost everyone in the audience either played at some point during the night or was married or friends with someone on stage. G and I kind of felt out of place at first but everyone was extremely welcoming. Studio Joe's is a real interesting place and we will definitely be back. Apparently they are open for open mics Tuesday and Thursday. They are also open Fridays and at other times when there is an event going on. Part recording studio, coffee shop and lounge, and right next to a doctor's office, it is obviously an interesting place. I really was blown away with the amount of talent in the room that night. I was even more blown away that G and I were hearing all this right off of Chenal. We drove all the way to Helena's blues festival last year and didn't see anything as good. I really wish more people could have made it. Apparently Studio Joe's has a maximum capacity of 65 people and I would say they were pretty close that night. I highly recommend going to the 24th Arkansas River Blues Society event at Juanitas this Tuesday night. Most of the same people will be there I am sure. Thanks to Mike Dollins for inviting us out, you rock.
http://www.myspace.com/lenraineyandthemidnightplayers
http://www.myspace.com/mikedollinsband
http://www.myspace.com/essietheblueslady
http://www.myspace.com/joepittsband
http://www.myspace.com/ginnybecton
-T
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