Kinda neglected Rod after seeing him perform two nights in a row and realizing that every "oh baby", motion, tabletop dance is strictly choreographed. As a matter of fact, Alex Schlutz told me that is why he left the group - too much control.
Anyways, found a few old Rod cassettes and listened. He sure plays harmonica with no nonsense force. I noticed he has a consistent hard attack on his individual notes which give a real punchy sound.
One of the tapes was "Undercover", an attempt of the Mighty Flyers to go commercial. Although the songs are a bit weak, the harmonica playing is still great.
This was my favorite line up - w/Jimmy Bott, Alex Schultz and Bill Stuve. ---------- The Iceman
well, it's Rod's gig and after almost 50 years of playing, I think he might have a good idea what works for him. As for Alex, he's an excellent guitarist, but there has always been an excellent guitarist in that chair. There is a whole lot of excellent guitarist out there, but very very few bad ass harmonica players like Rod.
I also prefer the Schultz/Stuve/Bott lineup over all of the others, even though I revere both Junior Watson and Rick Holmstrom.
I might be in the minority, but I really like at lot of their earlier non-blues songs like "Shot From The Saddle" and "Queenie". I think most of those are from the Junior Watson days.
Rod is a legend and is really cool and I listen to him a bit, but I couldn't have him as a steady diet.
The Blues - like anything else - has a lot of room at the dinner table and there's room for everyone. There's a definite place for RP's tight, slick kind of approach, and he's about the best at that.
At the other end of the table things are looser and that's great too.
But everyone at the table can teach us something, and we're richer for it.
---------- My YouTube Channel - Any Likes or Comments appreciated. :)
I've known about Rod Piazza since his tenure as front man for the Dirty Blues Band in the 60s, and have always thought him to be the Whole Package with chops, finesse, tone, taste. Caught him a couple of times a couple of times at the Belly Up Tavern in San Diego's North County and he was reliably impressive.tburke4@san.rr.com
Anyone who has ever started a band especially the trad/west coast blues thing will know it can be difficult even if everyone is a disciple of those styles. So being in complete control, having a vision getting everyone on the same page but at the same time as Rod does/did also letting everyone have their 15 minutes as well can't be too wrong plus after 23 or is it 24 albums, years and years as a headliner on big stages worldwide and a major harmonica and harmonica amp/mic influence all over the world I agree Rod is without doubt a bad ass harmonica player!
Should add as well, that (although this is subjective) Rod has great feeling in his playing barring all else it is one of the most elusive quality's and hard to quantify among a lot of top players and his songwriting ability and I know there are some on here who would say it's derivative, has that same feeling as his playing although I think having a great piano player as your wife/bandmate probably allows you to work out good songs/arrangements and let's not forget that Rod learnt his stage craft from the originals and George Smith how could all of that NOT be an influence.
Also, I think as well Jimmy Bott, Alex Schultz and Bill Stuve was the classic line up.
Listen to Junior at about 0.40-0.50....
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"Those British boys want to play the blues real bad, and they do"
Last Edited by marine1896 on Jun 26, 2015 4:22 AM
