July 13 2006 Jam

Wow! Standing room only this night! Busy seeking more tables and chairs for folks to sit down! Our guest host jammer... “Special Ed” Christensen, everybody’s favorite HVAC/applianceman and Special electric guitar player extraordinaire!

Another night of music, fellowship and fun! This night we had 9 electric guitar players, 4 acoustic guitar players, 2 bass players, 2 keyboard players, 1 tambourine player, 1 drummer extraordinaire, 2 conga players, 1 harp player, 10 vocalists and 2 saxophone players. All in all, over 27 musicians and vocalists in the room, at my last count. We were so busy some folks didn’t get a chance to get up and jam, we flat out ran out of time before we ran out of jammers.

Set one began with the core band; Matt on vocals and acoustic guitar, Pat Rat on bass, Paul on harp, Gary Price on drums, and yours truly on background vocals. Matt went a little loony on us with John Prine’s “Crazy as a Loon” and with a trio of Prinetunes, the jam was off to a running start. John A. was back in fine style with his folk classic trio and set one came to a quick close with John breaking his G string. Oh my…

Set two began with Matt, Pat, Gary, Paul and they were joined by Guest Host, Special Ed on electric guitar and vocals, Cuba on congas, Eli and Kyle on dos saxophones, and Loren Arment on acoustic guitar and vocals. A new jammer joined the group and blew us away with his tasty electric guitar licks. A big welcome goes out to Charlie! Matt took us to “Tupelo Honey” and then turned the mic over to Mr. Arment who launched into, “It’s All Over Now”. Michelle joined the group on tambourine. The Mrs. Arment jumped to the main stage for some harmony vocals as her hubby moved jammers into “Boys of Summer,” albeit it backwards, but it worked! Wow, that was a perfect scream, Pen, and we’ve got this one on tape! Special Ed then stepped up center stage to the mike singing, “All of Me” with that Louis Armstrong voice of his, and then led jammers into, “Black Magic Woman.” Many solo moments on this one, even the drummers solo’ed…

By set 3 we were at standing room only. With a quick change of conga players, Angie wo’manned the congas, Tammy wo’maned the bass and vocals, Tom Lambert joined the gals on keyboards, Bob Parsons joined in on electric, Special Ed joined in on electric, and Gary on drums. Cuba moved to maracas while Michelle continued to wo’man the tambourine. Tammy sang a fine rendition of, “I Heard it through the Grapevine” and “Hey Bartender.” Charlie stepped back main stage and Bob led the group in a jazzy instrumental number that I believe is his own. Another new jammer, Kelly, hailing from Jam Master Hammer’s hometown of Idaho Falls, joined jammers on keyboard. Hearty welcome goes out to you, Idaho! Ed sang “Flip, Flap and Fly” as a bevy of beauties danced at the back of the room.

Set 4 began with Alaska’s own, “Texas Jimmy D” on electric, Kyle on sax, Tom Lambert returning to man the keyboards, Pat Rat back on bass and Gary on drums. The group was joined by another jammer, new to the North Slope big stage, but not to the North Slope, Mike joined the group. Mike is new to Alaska, but certainly no stranger to an electric guitar. He is known best as the “Guitar Fiddler on the Roof.” Great licks from this young man, watch for him and that beautiful white electric guitar! Smokin!

The audience yelled out, “Play something loud; and Jimmy D said, “ah, well that’s an electric guitar player’s dream!” The group launched into, “Baby what you want me to do” and then moved into Jimmy’s slow and soulful Cap Callowayish original. Sweet, sweet. Matt joined the group on flute, we had audience members on shakers, musician audience members Alex, Will, Jimmy Jammers, Phil, Terry and Kathy standing by. I slipped up for a quickie harmony as Matt led the group in “Some Things are Never Gonna Change.” Miss Penny Lee stepped main stage with Matt to sing Matt’s soulful rendition of that old classic, “Summertime,” and the night, all too soon, came to a rambunctious close.