Scott Holt at the Tip Top Nov 8

You’re on stage and six-feet away from the most significant blues guitarist in the world. For guitarist Scott Holt, 10 years of musical lessons imparted nightly by Buddy Guy at that distance were pivotal. Sure there were other dayside life lessons with Guy that Holt found pertinent. Holt he learned how to be on time; what to do about two or three different wake up calls lined up when on the road; what to order for lunch. “I learned that if you’ve never been to a restaurant before you should always order the most expensive item on the menu because odds are that’s the best thing they’ll have,” Holt said with a laugh. “Buddy said ‘Man, order the most expensive thing because you know it’s got to be good if they got the nerve to charge that much.’” No truer words of wisdom spoken from Guy, a man with proud southern sharecropper lineage. Scott Holt appears at the Tip Top in Grand Rapids on Nov. 8. Holt is quick to point out that he’s not trying to take Buddy’s place. “I’m sure I learned a lot of of my stage mannerisms from him,” Holt said from Nashville. “He was such a profound influence. You can’t become that good of friends and not have it rub off on you.” Holt says he learned from Guy how to be an entertainer first. “The first time I saw Buddy he jumped off the stage and walked out in the street,” Holt said of Guy’s stage antics. But perhaps the most important thing Guy ever told Holt was that you have to win over a crowd--all over again--every time. “He taught me to be an entertainer; my job is to entertain people when in a live situation.” There are many blues purists who poo-poo the idea of a bluesman with the stature of Buddy Guy ever doing cover songs. But Guy had the answer for those critics. “A lot of times when an audience doesn’t know you as an artist they don’t know your material,” Holt said with a soft Tennessee drawl. “And when you try to hit them over the head with your original stuff you get blank looks. They don’t recognize that stuff anyway. So you got to shake ‘em up and play some stuff that they do know.” While that was largely Guy’s shtick, Holt admits to having a weird sense of humor of his own. “We’ll cover an Elmore James song or a Jimi Hendrix song but every once and a while a Sex Pistol or Elton John tune pops in there,” Holt said. Holt arrives in Grand Rapids as part of a trio featuring bassist Calvin Johnson, formerly of Anthony Gomes outfit. “I’ve got a great band. They can play anything.” What does that feel like anyway? “It’s like having a really nice race car,” Holt said with a chuckle. “It’ll do whatever you want to do and look good doing it.” For all his exposure to the big time world of blues, Scott Holt still sounds grounded. “I’m definitely not the guitar player Buddy is. I’m not the singer or entertainer he is. But I learned a lot of what I do from him.”

Scott Holt at the Tip Top Deluxe Bar & Grill in Grand Rapids tonight. Doors at 7.

Tickets: http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=3189744&pl=tiptop
  

Marti Brom & Rosie Flores at the Tip Top Nov 4

Photo by Rodney Bursiel

Renowned rockabilly vixen Rosie Flores only knows how to do things one way. “I like to do things right. I don’t like to do things half-ass,” Flores said. “I don’t let any recordings out until they are 100 percent Rosie approved.” This is just part of the reason Flores finds herself currently on tour promoting two new releases: her own Working Girls Guitar and the late Janis Martin's The Blanco Sessions. Marti Brom & Rosie Flores make a stop at the Tip Top Deluxe Bar & Grill on Nov 4. Flores recently wrapped up the Janis Martin project which had consumed her life for 4 years. In 2011 she finished the recordings she produced with rockabilly pioneer Martin in 2007. Of course, the process couldn't go smoothly. The disc idea had to be turned down by numerous labels at first. “Most record labels are resistant to taking the risk on an artist who has passed on and who didn't have a name since the 1950s," Flores said while waiting on last minute repairs to her touring van. She recounted how she worked tirelessly with no money and then had to raise more money to see it done. She said she had to get Cow Island Music involved so she could actually do things the right way. In the end, Flores friends were there to help. "A lot of people put their time in for free on this project," Flores said. "A lot of my good friends donated time and money because they saw how difficult it was because I had to do a lot of it by myself." She was able to get the recordings done with the help of Kickstarter. "I'm just glad this whole thing didn't kill me," Flores said wryly. "Now I can get out there and tour." Sticking together with the girls in her life is more than just a motto for Flores. She talks fondly of the friendship she shared with both the late Martin and Wanda Jackson. After all it was Flores who brought back Martin and Jackson from the brink of obscurity in the 90s. Now with the release of Martin's CD The Blanco Sessions she is able to spread the gospel word about Janis Martin, who died 4 months after the tapes rolled. "We’re promoting this record for her and getting her name out there,” Flores said. “Part of it is for her to have a voice on the radio now. It’s also for the Kickstarter people who pitched in to see the record completed. I just wish I could call Janis now and let her know how well we're doing." In between all this she recorded and produced Working Girls Guitar, the first one on which she plays all of the guitar parts. The Rockabilly Filly has a twang of her own and—among a crowded field of guitarists all chasing the same thing--that’s saying something. Her notable Texas vibrato comes courtesy of her latest custom turquoise guitar: a Telecaster body with a metal plate on top called a SteeltopCaster. "It looks like it's ready for battle," she said laughing. Ever modest she finds the whole experience a big privilege. “I get to play behind Marti who is a great singer," Flores said adding that she feels they're pretty unique. "There’s nothing like us out there at all." And with a finger on a dimple and one heel up, she might be right. "This ain’t the Judds," she said with a laugh."There's a little bit of naughtiness involved. It’s not clean country." Once a rockabilly kitten, always a rockabilly kitten; this wouldn't be true rockabilly if it didn't have a little dissenting attitude about it. "We’re bringing that rebellious flavor back," Flores said. "It’s rock n roll. It’s sexy. And it’s really great to dance to." Rosie Flores, a true American original, seems to have her heart in the right place. "We really just want to show how much we care about what Janis did in the past and what she did recently before she died," Flores said. "And to show what we have in our back pocket today.”

Marti Brom & Rosie Flores and band wsg Delilah DeWylde and the Lost Boys at the Tip Top Deluxe Bar & Grill on Nov 4. Doors at 6 pm.

Ticket information: http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=4884305&pl=tiptop

Click here purchase and listen to samples of The Blanco Sessions at the Cow Island Music website:
http://www.cowislandmusic.com/

Pete Anderson at the Tip Top Deluxe Bar & Grill Oct 17

About 4 years ago Pete Anderson heard the call for a new challenge. The Detroit-born blues guitarist and record label owner had accomplished just about every goal set in his varied musical career. For instance, he was a member of Dwight Yoakam's touring band during the frenzy of their 1990s popularity. The work served him well on many levels but he knew his future would dead-end as a touring musician. “I didn’t want to be in anybody’s band any more even if they were on my label,” Anderson said in a recent interview. “I didn’t want to work behind a singer again. I didn’t want to be in a situation where anybody could stop me.” Already the process of taking over his destiny had begun. The Tip Top Deluxe Bar & Grill in Grand Rapids welcomes the return of guitarist Pete Anderson on Oct 17. Anderson says that even if you have a signed contract you can’t force people to do things. “A singer could say ‘I don’t want to go. I’m sick. I want more money. I don’t want to do this anymore.’ There’s nothing you can do about it.” Pete Anderson says he puts a lot work into forming a band and creating a record. If he can get things going his way, he stands a better chance of cutting down on the inherent flakey human element. “I didn’t want anyone to even have the potential to say ‘I don’t want to play tonight.’” So he and his wife downsized their recording operations in Los Angeles and set up shop in his 4-car garage at home. By this time he had become a noted producer by working with Buck Owens, Roy Orbison, and the Meat Puppets. “I used to think I’d like to work with a bunch of different people but I look around now and I have worked with a bunch of different people,” Anderson said with a laugh. “I’ve had a pretty broad career working with William Norman Edwards, Rosie Flores, and k.d. Lang. I’ve got a long legacy of stuff I’ve produced and I’m proud of the majority of it.” But what he’s focused on now hits a little closer to home. “I told my wife I’m going to start my own band,” Anderson said. “I’ll work on my singing. I just want to play guitar. I’ve always been a producer who played guitar. Now I want to be a guitar player who makes his own records and tours. During time off I’ll produce other artist’s records. I’ve flipped the paradigm from producer-guitarist to guitarist-producer.” Amid all this productivity he found time to establish a demand for himself as a studio session guitarist (Michelle Shocked, Tanya Tucker, Flaco Jimenez). Of all the success achieved so far Anderson sounds most proud of running his own label. The story of Little Dog Records best illustrates his hands-on, from-the-ground-up approach to things in general. “In 1992 it was pre-internet, pre-No Depression magazine, and we had an 800 number telephone line in the office,” Anderson said. “I started it in the spawn of the infancy of independent record companies.” His method of going it alone but not solo seems to have paid off. “I always wanted to do my own thing,” Anderson said. “I love to play live. Left to my own devices as an artist where I am singing and writing, the blues is where I stand.”

Pete Anderson live at the Tip Top on Oct 17. Doors at 7:00 pm.

Ticket info:  http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=4813175&pl=tiptop

Listen to 3 full-length songs at Pete Anderson.com

Wayne "The Train" Hancock at the Tip Top

Wayne Hancock looks and sounds like he wears a throw-back jersey with a GPS in the pocket. That's how in touch he is with the tradition of yesteryear and the vibe of today. He can tell what it feels like to get sweat and dirt in your eye at the same time. Feeling overwhelmed with life? Hancock's got just the thing for that. Call it caring the country & western sort of way. To get yourself on the road to recovery grab your wig-hat and find a live set of Hancock’s signature hillbilly jazz sound; then pick out a spot on the adjacent dance floor. Now you've got it. Let it move you by the soul. “Dancing is the best expression to release that bad energy,” Hancock said. Just what the folks have been grooving to, in particular, for the past 17 years is Hancock’s version of Texas dance hall and jump blues. “Whether it was the hand clapping or what, the originals played jump blues so people could dance,” Hancock said on his way to a sold out gig Urbana, IL. “I like it upbeat. If you can swing your blues then you’re there.” Ever the humanitarian Hancock has everybody's interest in mind but his own. “When people leave my shows I want them to feel like they got a leg up on some of their worst times.” Wayne Hancock, appearing at the Tip Top on Oct 9, presents a roots music experience as it was first intended. He cites Bob Wills as a contributor of some of the best blues he’s heard. “He conveyed the down side of how he was feeling,” Hancock said. “But he put a swing to his music that made it seem like that no matter how bad things got, you still had the upper hand.” He writes the lyrics of a laborer but delivers with a vocal style that's more uppity big city. Hancock admits to an affinity for vocalists like Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra. He has a penchant for gems from the American song book. Thus he records a version of “Midnight, the Stars, and You” (Ray Noble) on his disc Viper of Melody (2009). “My parents were born in the 1920s," Hancock said. "I grew up listening to “Stardust” and Hoagy Carmichael. No matter what they had on the radio I never was happy with it.” He says he thinks the blues ain’t nothing you need to be afraid of. “Blues are expressions of life,” Hancock said. “They’re like feeling good and having sex. It’s just another emotion.” The hillbilly portion of hillbilly jazz is all Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams, perhaps Hancock's most handy comparison. Hancock is putting out new disc in early 2013 called Ride. Songs topics are expected to include a new found love of riding motorcycles and the ever trusty murder ballad. Hancock recently hired a manager after many years without one. He is reported to be very pleased so far with a new booking agency. If things are looking up for Wayne The Train then the rest of us might have a chance. “I’ve gone through some changes in the past two years,” Hancock said. “But now I feel like I’ve got my yodel back.” 

Wayne "The Train" Hancock wsg The True Falsettos at the Tip Top Deluxe Bar & Grill tonight. Show at 8 pm.  

Ticket information at:  

http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=3118264&pl=tiptop



Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys at the Tip Top

Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys core rockabilly sound is full of truthfulness.  Attendees for any show are likely to feel transported back in time as if witnessing the evolution of country boogie into rock-n-roll. Some might feel as though they’re listening to guitar-driven surf from a beach movie on the TCM channel. Their brand of authentic western swing has few equivalents. The Tip Top Deluxe Bar & Grill welcomes for the first time a genuine Rockabilly Hall of Fame inductee in Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys on Sept 30. As accomplished and identifiable as their sound has been for 25 years now, the act wouldn’t be the same without Big Sandy’s front man presence. There are only so many ways to describe the onstage chutzpah of Big Sandy (aka Robert Williams). One of them is to say that Big Sandy the entertainer looks to invigorate a fading show biz tradition every night: the one where laughs are earned the old fashioned way with lively stage banter and wit. “I do like the entertainment aspect,” Big Sandy said. “Some artists just play as in ‘we let the music do the talking.’ I like the entertainment side of the business and the way you present it. It’s kind of a lost art, the whole show business part of it.” Here’s the tip to that success: he got jokes. A little wit in between songs can go a long way. Improvisation helps makes songs sound fresh a little longer; Big Sandy says he tries to keep it interesting by mixing up the set list and doing songs just a little bit different from night to night. Between the music and the stage show it’s safe to say Big Sandy is left to carry on tradition to the unwashed masses. “It becomes second nature after all these years,” Big Sandy said. “We try not to think too hard about it. We don’t want it to be just an old fashioned retro thing but still relevant to now.” Early next year in celebration of their 25th anniversary in show business Big Sandy plans on releasing a new album. “We’ve just finished recording it and we’ll be mixing it when we get back home,” Big Sandy said. “We’ve taken songs off of each our albums and reworked some of them with acoustic versions.” If they were ever to bestow a Country Boogie Entertainer of the Year, Big Sandy  would be a favorite to win. Although currently on tour with Los Straitjackets, BS&FRB Grand Rapids show is theirs to mess up all alone. “This will be first show on this trip without Los Straitjackets,” Big Sandy said. “That’s not the good part. It just means we’ll get to play a little longer.”

 

Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys wsg Delilah DeWlyde & the Lost Boys at the Tip Top Deluxe Bar & Grill in Grand Rapids today at 6:00pm.

 

Ticket information at http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=4811895&pl=tiptop

 

 

TMGR Publisher Wins Award

Taste Makers Grand Rapids publisher Chet Eagleman Jr. was recently recognized for work in multimedia journalism. The news slideshow "Art Prize 2011," featured on the website of The Collegiate newspaper at GRCC, won a MCCPA award for reporting.

Interview with Doug Deming: Remembering Gary Primich

When jump blues guitarist Doug Deming's band was hired in 2006 to back up harmonica master Gary Primich, Deming was already an admirer of Primich's music. "I liked his approach," Deming said. "We shared a musical vision. It was a pleasure to meet him and an honor to play with him." After that it didn't take long for Deming to become an equally ardent fan of the man himself. "He was one of the guys. It wasn't about any ego or star time. Gary was about getting the job done." Continuing a longstanding connection to Primich and his music Doug Deming and his band the Jewel Tones take part in the First Annual Grand Rapids Harmonica Summit, a Tribute to Gary Primich, on Sept 6 in Grand Rapids. Deming will play the original songs of  Primich and then back some of the brightest names in the blues harmonica world today. The harp players expected to descend on the St Cecilia Music Society for this one day event include Dennis Gruenling, Peter Madcat Ruth, and Hank Mowery. Deming and Primich shared a musical camaraderie before they ever met. Deming's buoyant, bouncy hollow-body guitar turned into a perfect match for the Tiny Grimes side of Primich, who passed away in 2007. Deming's dart tip emotion-loaded solid body guitar had pinpoint accuracy on the slow blues. "Within the blues genre Gary did a real variety of traditional styles," Deming said on the way to a tour stop in Springfield IL. "That's kind of where I live as well. I'm a fan of all the early American music which is largely blues based. It has a jump blues feel and we throw in a little jazz with a touch of rockabilly. It all filters into to a style we've developed." Deming, who ended up being the last guitar player for Gary Primich, has fond memories of their time together. "I was his last guitar player for his last few tours. We did a Midwest tour up into Canada in the spring before he passed. He was a great guy, always fun to be around. He liked nothing more than to hang out, listen or play some good music, and watch a football game." 

The First Annual Grand Rapids Harmonica Summit, Sept 6, St. Cecilia Music Society, 7 pm. $10 at the door.