I'm posting today to give you all a heads-up on a cool blues duo that plays in the NYC and Long Island area... Likho Duo.
My friend Rob Europe and I competed against them in the Long Island Blues Society's qualifying event for the IBC and they won. Likho Duo had the whole place mesmerized and I became a fan after about the fifth or sixth note of their first song. After both our duos played we got to talking and we struck up a friendship.
Likho Duo is Cliff Schmitt on upright bass and foot tambourine (you may have seen him backing Jason Ricci & JJ Appleton in the "BluesBroad" videos on YouTube) and Noe Socha, who plays guitar and rack harmonica. Likho is a figure in Slavic mythology that has one eye; Noe is legally blind and Cliff has vision problems with one eye, so between them they have one good eye -- hence the name.
Noe will often play the vocal line -- they don't sing -- on the harp, while doubling it on the guitar. I think a lot of you will really dig what he can do. He's a great player with a unique style.
I've embedded a clip of me jamming with Likho Duo at the 89 North club in Patchogue, NY. Here it is. We start trading licks about halfway through and I'm throwing out kind of fast lines, using the whole harp, and Noe is repeating them back almost note-for-note in a rack. And we've never played together before, this is the first time we've jammed. He really blew my mind so I figured I'd try to give them a little publicity and maybe introduce them to some new people (all of you !).
Yeah JBone, his strumming technique is out of this world. Noe has these long skinny fingers and they hyperextend as he flicks his fingers to strum chords. Plus he is so fast with them! Glad you liked Likho Duo, I'm trying to get the word out on them.