Blues In the Schools Fund Raiser at Snyder Park
May 23, 2004
We had a great time down in Ft. Lauderdale at Snyder
park hosting the fundraiser along with the South
Florida Blues Society for Blues
In The Schools. Snyder park is just north of Ft. Lauderdale Airport but you
don't hear the planes. It's a wooded park with lakes, boardwalks, a dog park and
a dog swim. The weather was perfect.
Blues In the Schools bar-b-q'd the food and sold soft drinks, held a raffle or
two, sold tickets to the event, helped unload equipment, and were just great
hosts. Most of the Blues In The
Schools volunteers were kids.
We did a sound check with "Good
Morning Little School Girl" off our "Hook
Water Wolf" CD; made some adjustments to the equipment and hunted down
some kinks in the system while we looked at the signup sheet and started to
figure out the jam.
We came back and did a few more tunes off the "Hook
Water Wolf" CD: "I'm Ready",
"Rock Me Baby", "I
Want To Be Loved", "Baby
Please Don't Go" and "Spoonful".
Jerry Mascaro from Albert Castiglia's
band sat in with us on keyboards. The guy is phenomenal and just a good guy. If
you have our CD, "Hook Water Wolf".
You'll notice that "I Want to
Be Loved" is the only song with keyboards. Cary Altschuler played piano
on the CD. He lives in California so has never actually performed live with King
muDDfish. Anyway, Jerry Mascaro called and asked if he could jam with us...so we
sent him a copy of "I Want to
Be Loved" so he could be prepared. Not only was Jerry prepared, but he
flat kicked serious blues butt, and he played on all the songs but "Baby
Please Don't Go". Jerry was also nice enough to let everyone else play
his keyboards throughout the jam. Thanks Jerry.
We kicked off the jam and had some pretty darn good talent. I'd mention some
names, but I'm not good remembering too many names. But Jim McBride came up and
played slide and did some originals. I didn't know who he was, but later found
out he has a CD "Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time" and is quite a
cornerstone of the blues crowd down south. By the way, he kicked butt. Check out
his CD.
Richie Goldman from the band "Blue
House" was a tremendous help. Richie played bass and sang for a few of
the jammers. But the real star of the first half of the jam was Aaron Goldman, a
serious blues drummer, singer, harmonica player who happens to be 10 years old!
Ok, Aaron is also Richie's son and has some pretty good influences from Richie
and his other well heeled blues friends...but this kid can play, sing and blow
that stinking harp!!!!! Everyone was pretty impressed with his drumming; but
when he came out front and sang "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man" and
played harp, the crowd went wild.
We also let people play our instruments when we host a jam. So guitarist could
select to play a '52 Reissue
Tele, Fotoflame
Stratocaster, Les Paul
Standard, Thinline Tele
tuned to open E, '67 Epiphone
Wilshire tuned to open D, '69
Dan Armstrong tuned to open A, a '63 Epiphone Olympic tuned to open G, or a
Paul Reed Smith Bass. The Fotoflame
Strat was the most popular by far. We really owe a heavy debt to our bass
man Joel Kobelin for managing and running the sound while also laying down the
bass-ic foundation for our band. This jam kept him quite busy.
We came back on to give everyone a preview taste of our next CD. We did
"Highway 61 Revisited" as a sound check (no, it's not on our next CD).
Stan Street played sax with us. Stan is
a real fixture in the blues scene down there and you may have seen him at the
House of Blues up in Orlando. He sings, plays a mean harp and killer tenor sax.
Stan also had a vendor's spot selling some of his art work. Stan is a well know
painter as well. He's done several festival posters
and you may have seen his work in many of the blues bars.
We did unveil "What's A Man In Love S'posed To Do?" off our next
CD. If you know our band, we don't do all that many 12 bar blues, and this one
is a tough arrangement and not a 12 bar. Stan
Street kept up and really shined even though he never heard the tune before.
Then we did "Don't Believe" with Jerry Mascaro on keys. Jerry did a
nice bluesy piano solo lead in for Dan Newman's solo. Dan is the King muDDfish
lead guitarist. Dan literally brought down the house; his solo was overwhelming
and the crowd's response was deafening.
Then we premiered another tune, "I'm Comin' Home", from our next CD.
Jerry stuck around on keys, and like Stan, had never heard the tune. And like
"What's A Man In Love S'posed To Do?", it not a 12 bar and is a
non-traditional arrangement. But Jerry did great. I love getting great blues
guys up on stage and telling them "It's a shuffle in A"; then start
the tune and watch there faces when they think "what the hell is this
tune?". The great one's keep up and really shine. Jerry's a great one. So
is Stan.
I have to thank all the people a the jam for giving our new tunes such a great
welcome response.
We started the open jam back up. Aaron Goldman was begging, "Can I play
some more mister?" So we got him back up behind Papa Joe who brought down
the house. Jason Ward got up with his friends and had a few people sit in.
All during the jam, Blues Bobby (Bobby Weinberg, President of the South
Florida Blues Society) sat in and out with people on harp. Great job Bobby!.
Dar, who hosts the blues show on WKPX
"Sunday Blues With Dar" 88.5 FM was on hand as well making
announcements, selling raffle tickets and making people feel welcome.
World famous cinematographer Richard
Tiedeman was also hanging out all day with his mini dv cam. You may know him
from his work on "Wonder Years" and all kinds of movies and other TV
shows. Who knows maybe he's making a Blues Jam documentary or something.
Stan Street is moving to Clarksdale,
Mississippi in a few days, so we got him up to sing and play harp to close out
the jam. Joel DaSilva from the Hep
Cat Boo Daddies was hanging around, but didn't have his guitar. Of course,
we offered him his pick of guitars and amps; he chose Dan's Fotoflame
Strat and a '65 Ampeg Gemini IV and joined the set with Stan. Jerry Mascaro
played bass this time, and one of the kids from Blues In the Schools played
drums for 2 songs named Nick. Then our drummer Jerry Crepeau joined Stan and
Joel for two more songs. Stan took out his washboard and he and Jerry Crepeau
did a great percussion jam in the middle of "Got My Mojo Workin'" Joel
DaSilva is a great young guitarist with his own style. Catch him when you can.
He's opened for B.B. King and other greats.
That pretty much wrapped it up. We had a great time, and we hope
everyone who showed up enjoyed the show and jam as well.