After a regular sit-in gig with these guys that's been going on for a few months now, I've been asked officially to be a band member of the Lean Mean Blues Band. Norm DeCarlo and Tom Bowers (Drums and bass) are very well respected SF BAy Area stalwarts and great musicians. Norm was chosen bay area 'blues drummer of the year' last year. Doug Stiegerwald is killer on guitar and ran the house band at the House of Blues lounge in Vegas - with a cadre of mega-pros until moving here last year.
The weekly gig is a little different - in that it's a quiet lounge in an old school Italian restaurant. There are sets when where playing for ourselves, and other times when everyone in the bar is right with us - dancers on the floor etc. The good thing about it is that playing quieter is for the most part nice (at my advanced old-fart age) - easy on the ears and and the restraint adds a certain good musical tension. It's all about the rhythm and groove. Listening well and keeping it 'tasty'. Even when few but the band are paying attention, the music is usually so good that I'm having a great time anyway - and I get paid for doing it. We get to quit at 10:00, make from $80 to $95 a night plus get dinner and drinks on the house. Our old-coot friends feel very comfortable down there too.
We will be branching out into other gigs, - recording etc. - but for now this is easy and enjoyable. Here's a few sample vid.s, Audio recorded with a Zoom H2 (all four mics).
Congratulations. You sound really happy about that. Here's wishing you all the best of good fortune. And your playing sounds real good too. ---------- Matthew
Congratulations, Noam. I've played with both Norm and Tom and have great respect for both of them. I enjoyed hearing you guys briefly last night. Hope to hear you again when you're not under the sound level restrictions you were under - but I could tell - ya got chops!
It will be interesting to see what happens when we do actually get to play at normal electric volume. Doug's Taylor is a very sweet acoustic he's routing through the PA - but he's dying to plug in his electric - and making use of my tube amp colletion and JT30 would be nice sometime too.
The pleasure was all mine Mr. Huemann. "Four Jewish ladies at a reastaurant . . ." I didn't know you knew my mom. ----------
Congrats! I really enjoyed those vids. Frankly,I'm a little jealous. I'd love to find musicians of that caliber that could play at those volume levels. (I'm an old fart,too.)
If someone asked me for a blind test (only listening to the first piece) I think I would reply it could have been John Mayall's playing, notably that "discreet but efficient presence" of the harp and something like playing by snatches. I also liked that!
congratulations, sounds like a great gig. best of all is that they know exactly what they're getting, and are good with that. so everyone's on the same page, that you belong there. no having to prove yourself or deal with any attitude about adding harp to the mix.
that's kinda what happened with my current bag. it's a nice feeling.
Good mix, good muss, refrained playing on your part. Fantastic. It's good to have both ( amped up and acoustic ). Keeps you on your game. I also enjoyed the first vid, especially the little girl who had no self consciousness at all. Nice to see. Probably something a lot of us could learn from.
Thanks all, for the nice words. Glad some of you are enjoying the videos and music.
"playing by snatches" - I like that laurent.
@ miles-no-I love the bug too. Always got my iphone camera at the ready for the cool and the weird. -No it's not me inthe hat. It's Pigpen of the early Grateful Dead. He used to do Big Boss Man - (though not NOLA style). There was a Dead Cover video project that was the excuse for putting the video together. I'm an old dead head - though Pig was never really a harmonica inspiration. He had a lot of personality but wasn't a great harp player by any means.
@LLips - that was right outside the gates of Jazzfest three years ago. A quinticential New Orleans scene, dancing to the corner brass band. Gotta love that town.
@ gary - yeah, it happened pretty organically. The first time I sat in I figured I do a number or two - but they gave me shit when I went to sit down. They encouraged me to come back and paid me the third time I came down and played most of the night with them. No big egos - shared singing duties. I just tried to compliment what they are doing - and gradually started adding a bit of my musical personality to the mix. Yeah, It is a nice feeling. Like i said, honored - and lucky that these cats ''took me in" ----------
Last Edited by on Apr 17, 2012 12:46 AM
