Bandstand – July 2016

Patrick Haley

Hi Blues Fans,

We all enjoy seeing our favorite blues acts in the Portland Metro area. So much talent, so many venues. Truly a hotbed of the blues. But y’all need to know that there’s a great blues and roots music scene out in the Columbia River Gorge, too.

A lot of local musicians out there are keeping the flame burning, and performing at small local venues playing original blues and inspired interpretations of our favorites.  Hood River, White Salmon, Bingen and The Dalles have embraced the truth and basic simplicity of roots and blues music.

I just completed a performance at Cathedral Ridge Winery in Hood River with a side project band called Bluesbridge.  Next I’ll be performing at Growlerz Pub in Bingen and at the White Salmon Farmers’ Market.  Come on out to the Gorge and sample our style of blues music. Look for other great artists out there like Eddie Corduroy, Ben Bonham, Mark Daly, Polly Norris, Kerry Williams, and Willy and Nelson.  And listen to Squrl’s Blues Review on Friday nights on 92.7 KMSW.   Hope to see you soon.

Patrick Haley
www.reverbnation.com/patrickhaley

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Randy Oxford’s All-Star Slam

Since I started my own Band back in 2003 I have always enjoyed featuring a variety of singers and instrumentalists at each and every show. Having no less than a 6 piece Band with at least 3 vocalists at all times has been a successful formula for the Randy Oxford Band.

Knowing so many fantastic Musicians here in the pacific NW and all around north America has inspired me to present a series of All-Star shows in 2016. I started testing this concept last December at shows in Alberta, Canada and Montana, then more recently at the Walla Walla Guitar Festival in April. Festival director Robin Barrett suggested I call this show “Randy Oxford’s All-Star Slam” and the name stuck for the 2016 Festival season.

In July we are bringing in Legendary Soul/Blues singer (from Minneapolis) Wee Willie Walker for shows at the Highway 99 Club on July 15, Jazzbones on July 16 and the Winthrop Rhythm & Blues festival on July 17. Wee Willie was nominated this year for 3 Blues music awards through the Blues foundation out of Memphis, TN. His latest release “If nothing ever changes” is highly acclaimed and we’ll be featuring songs from this CD and much more.

The All-Star Slam Band for these shows will be bursting with talent with the likes of CD Woodbury, Willy Straub, Eddie Mendoza, Patrick McDanel, and a 3 piece horn section reunited from my days with Little Bill & the Blue Notes with Brian Kent and Hadi Al-Saadoon. Joining this ensemble for the Winthrop show will be Peter Dammann, Jim Pugh and Angelo Ortiz making it a 10 piece All-Star Slam Band! OH THE HUMANITY!

More All-Star Slam shows can be seen at The Rockcut Blues festival, Jazz in the Valley, the Seattle waterfront concert series, the Rendezvous festival, the Everett Waterfront concert series, the Flathead Valley Blues festival, the Poverty Bay Blues festival, Pig out in the Park and many more dates TBA. In addition to the above lineup we will add even more Musicians for these shows that include Aury Moore, Lissa Ramaglia, Geoffrey Castle, Robin Barrett, Tiphony Dames and several surprise guests too.

As a Band leader I am in heaven having this opportunity to feature so much talent. I have future plans to feature a variety of more Musicians from around the country and from my past Randy Oxford Band lineups as well. More information on all of these shows at therandyoxfordband.com and oxfordentertainment.com.

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Bottleneck Blues Band

The summer has be moving fast for the Bottleneck Blues Band!  Ben Rougeou, the bass player, developed an illness and had to leave the group, he is going to be fine.  Seth Zowader, keyboards, obtained a new job that would not allow him enough time to fulfill our dates so the band decided it was time for a big change.

Randy Monroe from the Linda Hornbuckle Band was recruited for the bass.  Franklin Spicer from Return Flight was added to play keys and Pete Moss, on sax who has been jamming with the band since Spring, was made a full time member.

The new lineup of veteran performers is ready for a summer full of shows in the Northwest.  The band has a long list of festivals they will be appearing at The Taste of Tacoma, The Waterfront Blues Festival, The Wallace, ID Blues Fest, Cathedral Park Jazz Fest, Illwaco Seafood and Blues Fest, The Crawdad Festival on Mt. Hood, and The White Salmon Concert Series. The Bottleneck boys have also added several new clubs to their rotation in the area.

They are hoping to get into the studio soon to begin working on their 2nd album.  The songs are written, now it’s time to arrange them and get them ready to record.  Bottleneck is also working on a new website to be released this summer so keep a look out for that!

You can always find us at bottleneckbluesband.com  Come out and dance and hear us again for the first time.  Thank you CBA!

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Ashbolt Stewart

Hello Portland Bluesters! I just returned from a successful mini-tour of the Bay Area where I headlined the Club Fox Blues Jam. I had the same fellows from Greaseland Studios that played on my latest CD, Beats Workin’, which included Kid Andersenm, Steve Ehrmann, Terry Hiatt and Aki Kumar, with additional drummer Dennis Dove. I was upfront as the lead vocalist, doing the same show we did at last year’s Waterfront Blues Fest. Local diva Rae Gordon was in the crowd and came up and lit the place on fire during the jam part of the evening. I also headlined at Lil Lou’s BBQ. It’s great to be back in my home town Portland, Oregon. You can catch me doing massage at the massage booth at this year’s WFBF, noon-3:30pm on July 1, and 11am-3pm on July 4. Also, Kid, Aki and Steve will be playing at this year’s WFBF. Check ’em out and please continue to support live Portland blues. You can purchase my CD’s at CD Baby and Music Millennium and at my local gigs. Keep the Peace!

Ashbolt Stewart

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Michael Hawkeye Herman

I’m happy to report that the Samuel French Publishing Co. has licensed for publishing and production the play “El Paso Blue,” by Octavio Solis/with music by Michael “Hawkeye” Herman. The play, with music, is now offered in the Samuel French Publishing catalog for both sales of scripts for classroom use, as well as for productions.

The first offering of the play via the Samuel French Publishing agreement is currently running at the Gala Hispanic Theatre in Wash. D.C.  The play premiered in San Francisco at The Intersection Theater in 1994, and has seen successful runs in major theaters around the United States over the past 22 years, including in Chicago, Seattle, Portland, San Diego, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York City/off-Broadway, Washington, DC, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the University of Northern Arizona.

Solis’ riff on the Oedipus Rex classic is a wild and comic tale of lust, revenge, identity and the Blues.  Al leaves his wife Sylvie in the care of his father before serving a prison sentence. Upon release, he discovers that his beloved and the old man have fallen in-love and run away.  The epic chase that ensues across El Paso pits together the funniest cast of characters ever assembled on a sprawling manhunt.

For more information about “El Paso Blue” check out the following links: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/a-winningly-intense-el-paso-blue-at-gala-hispanic-theatre/2016/06/07/158e41c0-2cd2-11e6-9de3-6e6e7a14000c_story.html

http://www.galatheatre.org/Event.php?cmd=loadEvent&id=225

Cheers and Best,
MHH

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Ben Rice

Hey Everyone! It is finally Blues Fest time again! It is definitely my favorite part of the summer A GIANT BLUES FESTIVAL with great music all day in our backyard! This year has been a bombardment of fun and exciting musical adventures! Traveling all over the world to play music and meet new people. Rather than talk about all that, I want to talk briefly about a couple sets I am excited for! On Sunday I’ll be on stage with vocal powerhouse Karen Lovely and the crazy band she’ll have with her which consists of Lisa Mann (2x Blues Music Award for Bassist of the Year), Mark Bowden, and Dave Melyan. We’ve all played together in other festivals around the US but we have never had the opportunity to perform together in Portland, it will be awesome!

I am really excited that on July 4 I’ll be performing with my band for the Cascade Blues Association Journey To Memphis at 1:30pm. This band will consist of my normal trio that I play with around town and out on the road, Calen Uhlig on bass and Dave Melyan on drums. In addition to my usual lineup I asked my friends Mac Potts to join us on keys and Jim Vermilya to join us on Saxophone. We have a lot of fun and are sounding killer, these guys seriously bring it! The Journey to Memphis is a contest put on by the Cascade Blues Association to select who will represent them in the International Blues Challenge a blues festival held in Beale Street in February. This year four bands will be bringing their all to the competition and every year it is a great chance to see what new acts are coming up in the Portland Blues scene.  Shout out to my friends in the other bands Rae Gordon, The Thunder Brothers, and Beacon Street Titans, Good luck ya’ll!

I also HIGHLY recommend stopping by the Hotel Rose either before the fest for their brunch sessions with United By Music, they’ve got Happy Hour Music going too 4-6pm with sets by the very funky Lloyd Jones, in town from Austin Ty Curtis, and Leo “Bud” Welch. Hotel Rose is my favorite after hours spot too with some epic late night jams going!

Anyways, Bandstand, I guess I should talk about more than just the festival. Portland has music every night of the week and I am lucky to host Tuesday nights out in Gresham at a place called Spud Monkeys (1716 NW Fairview Dr.)… It’s a potato place! There on Tuesdays you can catch me with a house band tearing it up from 8pm to Midnight. The first set is a house band with a rotating special guest then we open it up to jamming. Towards the end of July we’ll have my blues buddy from SoCal Mike Hammer as a guest! On Wednesdays out in Newberg OR there’s a weekly jam session I host at a funky bar called Voodoo Martini which is pretty fun and relaxed! The first and fourth Thursdays of every month you can catch me with some friends in the Roy Rice Band. Melanie Roy and I decided to get together to play some funky up-tempo dance music at Clyde’s a couple times a month. It has been really fun and a great way to play songs I normally wouldn’t get to play!

Thanks for supporting live music and checking out Blues Notes! This is a great way to keep track of who’s playing where and where because we are blessed to live in a city where music is everywhere all the time! For more info on myself and my musical endeavors visit www.BenRiceLive.com, if you send me an email I’ll send you a song or two! Thanks!