November 2 2006 Jam

Where’s Doc’o? …on the road again, it’s good to be back on the road again, burning up the road between Chico, Seattle and vicea-versia, again my friends, it’s good to be on the road again…eta Sunday via Alaska Airlines’ “Midnight Special”…

The pre-anniversary Thursday night began with the core band + three; Jimmy D on electric, Cuba on congas, and featuring Michelle on tambourine. Michelle looked Pocahontas’ prettier than all of those boys put together in her white fringed leather dress and her half moon tambourine.

Matt sang “Devils and Dust.” Great tune, great lyric, gives me chills every time I hear this tune!

Matt then lunched into…excuse me launched into a buffet of Buffett…well, not quite a buffet, but certainly an entrée’ or two. Then, for a change of pace he challenged jammers to keep up with him on the new little Bobby Zimmerman tune (aka Bob Dylan) entitled “Someday Baby” and this wasn’t just the Reader’s Digest version featured on the Ipod commercials, but the whole eight verse noveletter.

And then, for the couple in the back booth who wanted some Georgia, we took a trip to “Atlanta” and I got to belt out one of my favorite tunes.

John, our perennial worried man, who was none too worried this night and sang, “Worried Man,” perhaps in honor of Tony Knowles, and then in honor of our special guest host jammer, Texas Jimmy D, sang “Abilene.” Oh Texas… we then set sail on the “Sloop John B” and all too soon set one came to a close.

Set two began with guest host Texas Jimmy D upfront and center stage. Jimmy was joined by D’mitri on electric, Butch on drums, Matt, Pat, Paul and Cuba.

A little “T-Bone Shuffle” adding young Kyle on sax and some background vocal for a tinge of color. “Steamroller Blues” featured the velvety voice of Jam Master Hammer and superb hot licks from the “boys” who were smoking’ all night long! For those of you who missed them…well you missed a goodie! Superb licks this evening.

Stepping up to his “sucky” mic Jimmy D brought up some Veco boys to join him. Big welcomes go out to Andy on drums and Mike on bass. Jimmy D. then launched into a “jumpy, swingy, 6-8 chord number ‘cause he didn’t want to work ‘em too hard.” Another quick-change brought D’mitri to the stage on electric and Mike Johnson to the stage on electric launching into a snappy instrumental number. Wow, we had screamers…and dancers…and just almost a full moon… Jimmy then sang “Since My Baby Can’t be Found” with Jam Master Hammer joining in on flute. A Freddy King tune had Jimmy working hard and looking for a towel. Then he launched into what he calls a “short five-five tune” that was “kind of a nasty song I wrote for a nasty girl,” he told us, entitled “Time Will Get You.” What a great tune! Wow! Mike Johnson had some magic electric moments this night… then Jimmy launched into “If You Loved Me Like You Say”… and half the crowd got up to dance. Wow, this night was a night of wild women howling at the moon… In their honor Jimmy slid into a little Grand Funk Railroad tune, “Some Kind of Wonderful,” telling the crowd, “If you remember the 70’s, you didn’t have enough fun!” And then I had a first, the first sighting of the “Freedom Writer Dancer!” What an amazing night this turned out to be!

Changing it up yet again brought D’mitri to the stage, young Kyle on sax, Butch on electric, Pat on bass, Tom Lambert on the Hammond B-3, and Cuba on congas. D’mitri sang “Red Rooster,” “Change Your Evil Ways,” and “Long Time Since I’ve Seen Your Face” and a couple of other upbeat tempo dance tunes. Dancers galore and then a second, first sighting, I had my first sighting of the “Schlomer Dancer” cutting up a rug. A quick-change with Gary Price moving back on drums, Allan of Full Tilt moving in on electric, Jam Master Hammer with Hammer in tow stepping up to the mic singing “Tupelo Honey” with Miss Rachel Ray sitting on-deck. Rachel then led jammers in “Give Me One More Reason” and then Sandy from Full Tilt snugged in behind the drums and Rachel led jammers into a Stray Cats’ song and her tried and true Bobby McGee and she ended the night with “Stormy Monday” and all too soon another night of jamming came to a close.

Big welcomes go out to new jammers Paul, Mike, Sandy and Allan. Great job, guys, loved having you there, please out and play in our sandbox again! Big thank yous go out to our superb audience…thank you, thank you, thank you. And a big thank you to Dan, our super soundman and Jessica, our most excellent bartendress!

Live well, love much, laugh often… and play music!

Featuring.... Dan!

Dan Hinrichs is our ever-present and first rate sound guy; you don't see him often as his consoles are clear in the back, but without him there is no Jam. And the quality of the sound that you hear on Jam night is Dan's business, and he doesn't mess around.

Matt had realized that the Jam Blog had almost no pictures of Dan because of his location in the back, and decided to fix this situation.

Matt called Dan to the stage on the pretext of a loose wire. Dan quickly figured out that he'd been 'had', but in this picture below he had located only one of the two photographers that captured this moment!

You know Matt - he does 'go on' about the professionals he works with on Jam Night. Has he here embarrassed Dan with one too many compliments?