Tommy Is Our Homeboy

Tom Hunnewell just gave us a disc with some of his photos from 2008. Enjoy!

Guitar Julie. She's photogenic. Whatdyagonnado?


Charles White & Guitar Julie.


Duke Robillard with Eric "Two Scoops" Moore


David Vest


Harper: everything from a didgeridoo to a damned if I don't


Harper and Big Mo


Polly O'Keary & the Rhythm Method


Mark DuFresne


Son Jack Jr. at Jam For Cans


Chris Leighton, Duffy Bishop, Rob Moitoza, & Raven at Jam For Cans


Ed Maloney asks not what his blues club can do for him, but what he can do for his blues club.


Magic Dick, tellin' tales, singin' the blues, his harmonica wails and he takes us to school.


Sean Costello


Studebaker John


Lloyd Jones Struggle


Kevin Selfe. The matter of "did he steal that axe from Judas Priest?" the authorities have said some things are best left unresolved.


The Tony Coleman Band


Peter Damann


Dennis Ellis


Alice Stuart: acoustic, electric, red hot, en fuego!

2008, What a Year!

Looking back, we’re tickled over how many truly awesome nights, days, and moments have “hit the highway” in 2008. Taking a look back…

The Jam: the house band of Justin Kausal-Hayes, Scotty Harris, Lisa Ramaglia, Andrew Cloutier, and Eric Brisson brought many of our most memorable musical moments.

Resident Artists included Lee Oskar & Friends, Brian Nova, Son Jack Jr., Purty Mouth, JD Hobson & Friends, the Dudley Taft Blues Overkill, Gertrude’s Hearse, the Satellite 4, John “Scooch” Cugno’s Delta 88 Revival, the Danny Massure Breakdown, and the Belltown Soul Band.

Purty Mouth introduced us to a bunch of new (to us) artists such as Golden Robot Army, MoZo, Zoe Muth, Jerry & the Philbillies, Southbound Union, Thornton Creek, Sourmash Stevedores, the Half Brothers, Squirrel Butter, and Strange Jerome.

CD Release Parties were thrown by Kim Field & the Mighty Titans of Tone, the James Howard Band, the Red Hot Blues Sisters, Ruby Dee & the Snakehandlers, Fiona Boyes, Tim Casey & the Bluescats, Chubby Carrier & the Bayou Swamp Band, Polly O’Keary & the Rhythm Method, and Robin Moxey.

Locally-Based Artists continued to be our backbone. If our keyboard forgets you here, our heart does not. Nick Vigarino, Becki Sue & Her Big Rockin’ Daddies, Doctorfunk, Paul Green & Straight Shot, , the Crossroads Band, Brian Butler, the Type A Band, John Stephan, Double Scotts on the Rocks, Little Bill & the Bluenotes, Robin Moxey, Buckets of Rain, Tim Casey & the Bluescats, Sam Marshall, Randy Norris, Lady A & the Baby Blues Funk Band, Alex Weed, Lonesome Shack, Roger Rogers, Michael Kahler, Ratfish Bone, David Gordon, Jevon Powell, Bump Kitchen, Kim Field & the Mighty Titans of Tone, Nearly Dan, Dirty Dale, Audio Pirati, the Fabulous Roofshakers, the Dandelion Greens, the Randy Oxford Band, Chris Stevens’ Surf Monkeys, Kim Archer Band, Chris Nelson, and Junkyard Jane.

Regional / Pacific Northwest Artists included David Vest, Robbie Laws’ Bigger Blues Band, Kevin Selfe & the Tornadoes, the Joe McMurrian Quartet, the Insomniacs, the Strangetones, Kolvane aka the Rose City Kings, Lloyd Jones Struggle, the Fat Tones, and the Essentials.

We welcomed Fiona Boyes & the Fortune Tellers to the Pacific Northwest by way of Australia, and said goodbye to Johny Broomdust as he headed east.

We shared a warm hello – and had to say a sad goodbye – to Sean Costello, as his Highway 99 debut was followed by his untimely passing just a couple months later. After his show here, Sean hung out until breakfast the next morning, bulls***ing with staff, watching movies, sharing jokes, getting to know us, and we all looked forward to his next tour. We'll miss him, a remarkable young man who represented, by our estimation, an integral part of the present and future of Blues music and a good friend.

Little Bill led a memorial and benefit concert for Hans Ipsen that only those who were there will ever know about. Hans was a central part of the rhythm & blues scene in the Puget Sound for many years, and we are humbled to have hosted the occasions which honored his impact on the music community.

Musicians rallied behind Mark Whitman, threw a marathon show to kick in for his hospital bills, and our club was graced with his return to the concert stage just a few weeks later.

Roots/Americana/Rockabilly music Hit the Highway in the form of Billy Duane & the Creepers, the Juke Joint Gamblers, the Rainieros, the Souvenirs, Johnny Mercury, Dragstrip Riot, James Hunnicutt & the Revolvers, Hard Money Saints, the Load Levelers, Dr. Hellno & the Yesmen, Hot Roddin’ Romeos, Marshall Scott Warner, Wired, Little Ray & the Uppercuts, the Busted Downs, the Haul Off And Smack Somebodys, the Black Crabs, and the Whiskey Wailers.

Burlesque: Miss Indigo Blue and Kitten LaRue of the Atomic Bombsheels rang in 2008 at the stroke of midnight, and throughout the year our stage was graced with such lovely ladies as the Heavenly Spies, the Can Can Castaways, Sinner Saint Burlesque, the Shanghai Pearl, Ravenna Black, Meghan Mayhem, Drew Blood, and members of the Sockit Wenches.

2008 also saw the club debut of belly dancing as Bella Jovan performed interactively for the Lee Oskar & the Living Dead Halloween Show, and we had calendar girls hoop dancing for the NW Pin-Ups 4 Troops benefit.

From the theatre community, hostesses Rebecca M. Davis and Anita Goodmann held things together on some our zanier nights, including our annual “A Celebration of Pride” benefit for the Dunshee House.

Zydeco – we kicked it NOLA style with the Pine Leaf Boys, Dikki Du & the Zydeco Krew, Chubby Carrier & the Bayou Swamp Band, Mark St. Mary, Curley Taylor & Zydeco Trouble, Leroy Thomas & the Zydeco Roadrunners, Captain LeRoy & the Zydeco Locals, the Zydeco Flames, Motordude Zydeco…

Raven’s 8th Annual Jam For Cans was, as always, a huge success for Northwest Harvest and one of the most memorable nights of music all year. This venerable Who’s Who of PNW rhythm & blues produces truckloads of food and thousands of dollars for Northwest Harvest every year and we’re honored to host the occasion.

Our fundraising partnerships with Home Alive and the King County Coalition Against Domestic Violence continued to raise money, awareness, and entertain the hell out of everyone in attendance.

The Delta Roadhouse Showcase featured Alice Stuart, Orville Johnson, Terry Robb, JD Hobson and Mark DuFresne in a down-home, front porch Sunday afternoon.

Seattle N.O.W. Benefit - the Red Hot Blues Sisters, Polly O’Keary & the Rhythm Method, Lady A & the Baby Blues Funk Band, LJ Porter, Stacy Jones, and Paula Maya raised money for the Women’s Voter Project.

The Harmonica Houseparty brought the mind-boggling collective of Lee Oskar, Magic Dick, Tim Gonzales, and Jay Maybin in a once-in-a-lifetime harp extravaganza.

The Road to Memphis helped send Alice Stuart to Memphis for the International Blues Challenge. The Bluez Dawgz, Becki Sue & Her Big Rockin’ Daddies, Curley Cooke & Annette Taborn, Teri Wilson & Suze Sims, and of course the Formerlys played all day and raised some dough to send Alice to Beale Street.

The West Coast Guitar Killers Showcase featured Nick Vigarino, Robbie Laws, Tom “T-Boy” Boyle, and Tim Sherman

Slide Guitar Beyond the Blues featured Dan Tyak, Orville Johnson w/ Unsanctified Gospel Quartet, Eric Madis w/ Hawaiian slack key, Kinney Alverz on pedal steel and host, Nick doing slop jar delta funk with Rob Moitoza and Chris Leighton on rhythm.


Nationally Touring Artists included our friends Bobby Rush, Duke Robillard, Lil’ Dave Thompson, Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash, Harper, Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne, Mem Shannon & the Membership, Nathan James & Ben Hernandez, Smokin’ Joe Kubek & Bnois King, Delta Moon, Kelly Richey, Debbie Davies, Maria Muldaur, Moreland & Arbuckle, the Terry Evans Band, Eddie “Devil Boy” Turner, Phil Berkowitz & the Dirty Cats, Jason Ricci & New Blood, Sonny Rhodes, Janiva Magness, the Chris Bergson Band, the Craig Caffall Band, Mingo Fishtrap, the Tony Coleman Band, Lydia Pense & Cold Blood, Delta Highway, Studebaker John & the Hawks, Charles van Zandt…

Whew! All we can do is THANK YOU and THE ARTISTS who make all this possible. We provide a place for this stuff to happen, we work hard to schedule a well-rounded palate of American Music with an emphasis on rhythm & blues, trying to balance the traditional comfort of the familiar with the fresh energy of the new. We try to offer an environment that’s just the right balance of cozy and gritty, uptown luster sprinkled with juke joint sawdust. The menu, we hope, uses traditional ingredients to bring a mix of stand-by dishes with ones that are new and inventive. Anyway, without an audience of music lovers who are willing to keep coming out for music they know and don’t know, and without the artists and musicians who hit the road and play it on our stage, we wouldn’t have the pleasure of doing this thing.

THANKS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hayride Hangover

Thanks to EVERYONE involved with the 3rd Annual Hayride to Hell New Year's Eve Bash! More Show For Less Dough - that's how we roll on New Year's Eve. We take pride in keeping the ticket price down while offering an enhanced bill of entertainment, and this year we kicked it up a notch by hosting Seattle's first Happy Hour of 2009, offering all our Happy Hour prices and deals from midnight til close. The bands were great: the The Wages of Sin, Ruby Dee & the Snakehandlers, Purty Mouth. The burlesque performers were great: Drew Blood, the Shanghai Pearl, Miss Ravenna Black, and Meghan Mayhem. The crowd was great: after a couple weeks of being hunkered down with the most snow Seattle has seen in more than a century, one of the biggest crowds we've ever seen showed up en masse to ring in the New Year. The economy is tough, more than 20,000 jobs have been lost in the Seattle metro area in the last six months, and we know you think more carefully about how and where you spend your discretionary dough because so do we. As such, from the bottom of our hearts, we're tickled over every one of you who chose to ring in the new year with us. You could have played it safe and conservative by kicking back on the couch with Ryan Seacrest, Kathy Griffin, Dick's Rockin' Eve, some Domino's and a box of Mallomars. Instead, you spent it with us.

RIP, Eartha Kitt and Rick Darnell

Eartha Kitt, a sultry singer, dancer and actress who rose from South Carolina cotton fields to become an international symbol of elegance and sensuality, has died, a family spokesman said. She was 81.

Andrew Freedman said Kitt, who was recently treated at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, died Thursday in Connecticut of colon cancer.

Kitt, a self-proclaimed "sex kitten" famous for her catlike purr, was one of America's most versatile performers, winning two Emmys and nabbing a third nomination. She also was nominated for several Tonys and two Grammys.

Her career spanned six decades, from her start as a dancer with the famed Katherine Dunham troupe to cabarets and acting and singing on stage, in movies and on television. She persevered through an unhappy childhood as a mixed-race daughter of the South and made headlines in the 1960s for denouncing the Vietnam War during a visit to the White House.

Through the years, Kitt remained a picture of vitality and attracted fans less than half her age even as she neared 80.

When her book "Rejuvenate," a guide to staying physically fit, was published in 2001, Kitt was featured on the cover in a long, curve-hugging black dress with a figure that some 20-year-old women would envy. Kitt also wrote three autobiographies.

Once dubbed the "most exciting woman in the world" by Orson Welles, she spent much of her life single, though brief romances with the rich and famous peppered her younger years.

After becoming a hit singing "Monotonous" in the Broadway revue "New Faces of 1952," Kitt appeared in "Mrs. Patterson" in 1954-55. (Some references say she earned a Tony nomination for "Mrs. Patterson," but only winners were publicly announced at that time.) She also made appearances in "Shinbone Alley" and "The Owl and the Pussycat."

Her first album, "RCA Victor Presents Eartha Kitt," came out in 1954, featuring such songs as "I Want to Be Evil," "C'est Si Bon" and the saucy gold digger's theme song "Santa Baby," which is revived on radio each Christmas.

The next year, the record company released follow-up album "That Bad Eartha," which featured "Let's Do It," "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and "My Heart Belongs to Daddy."

In 1996, she was nominated for a Grammy in the category of traditional pop vocal performance for her album "Back in Business." She also had been nominated in the children's recording category for the 1969 record "Folk Tales of the Tribes of Africa."

Kitt also acted in movies, playing the lead female role opposite Nat King Cole in "St. Louis Blues" in 1958 and more recently appearing in "Boomerang" and "Harriet the Spy" in the 1990s.

On television, she was the sexy Catwoman on the popular "Batman" series in 1967-68, replacing Julie Newmar who originated the role. A guest appearance on an episode of "I Spy" brought Kitt an Emmy nomination in 1966.

"Generally the whole entertainment business now is bland," she said in a 1996 Associated Press interview. "It depends so much on gadgetry and flash now. You don't have to have talent to be in the business today.

"I think we had to have something to offer, if you wanted to be recognized as worth paying for."

Kitt was plainspoken about causes she believed in. Her anti-war comments at the White House came as she attended a White House luncheon hosted by Lady Bird Johnson.

"You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed," she told the group of about 50 women. "They rebel in the street. They don't want to go to school because they're going to be snatched off from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam."

For four years afterward, Kitt performed almost exclusively overseas. She was investigated by the FBI and CIA, which allegedly found her to be foul-mouthed and promiscuous.

"The thing that hurts, that became anger, was when I realized that if you tell the truth — in a country that says you're entitled to tell the truth — you get your face slapped and you get put out of work," Kitt told Essence magazine two decades later.

In 1978, Kitt returned to Broadway in the musical "Timbuktu!" — which brought her a Tony nomination — and was invited back to the White House by President Jimmy Carter.

In 2000, Kitt earned another Tony nod for "The Wild Party." She played the fairy godmother in Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella" in 2002.

As recently as October 2003, she was on Broadway after replacing Chita Rivera in a revival of "Nine."

She also gained new fans as the voice of Yzma in the 2000 Disney animated feature "The Emperor's New Groove.'"

In an online discussion at Washingtonpost.com in March 2005, shortly after Jamie Foxx and Morgan Freeman won Oscars, she expressed satisfaction that black performers "have more of a chance now than we did then to play larger parts."

But she also said: "I don't carry myself as a black person but as a woman that belongs to everybody. After all, it's the general public that made (me) — not any one particular group. So I don't think of myself as belonging to any particular group and never have."

Kitt was born in North, S.C., and her road to fame was the stuff of storybooks. In her autobiography, she wrote that her mother was black and Cherokee while her father was white, and she was left to live with relatives after her mother's new husband objected to taking in a mixed-race girl.

An aunt eventually brought her to live in New York, where she attended the High School of Performing Arts, later dropping out to take various odd jobs.

By chance, she dropped by an audition for the dance group run by Dunham, a pioneering African-American dancer. In 1946, Kitt was one of the Sans-Souci Singers in Dunham's Broadway production "Bal Negre."

Kitt's travels with the Dunham troupe landed her a gig in a Paris nightclub in the early 1950s. Kitt was spotted by Welles, who cast her in his Paris stage production of "Faust."

That led to a role in "New Faces of 1952," which featured such other stars-to-be as Carol Lawrence, Paul Lynde and, as a writer, Mel Brooks.

While traveling the world as a dancer and singer in the 1950s, Kitt learned to perform in nearly a dozen languages and, over time, added songs in French, Spanish and even Turkish to her repertoire.

"Usku Dara," a song Kitt said was taught to her by the wife of a Turkish admiral, was one of her first hits, though Kitt says her record company feared it too remote for American audiences to appreciate.

Song titles such as "I Want to be Evil" and "Just an Old Fashioned Girl" seem to reflect the paradoxes in Kitt's private life.

Over the years, Kitt had liaisons with wealthy men, including Revlon founder Charles Revson, who showered her with lavish gifts.

In 1960, she married Bill McDonald but divorced him after the birth of their daughter, Kitt.

While on stage, she was daringly sexy and always flirtatious. Offstage, however, Kitt described herself as shy and almost reclusive, remnants of feeling unwanted and unloved as a child. She referred to herself as "that little urchin cotton-picker from the South, Eartha Mae."

For years, Kitt was unsure of her birthplace or birth date. In 1997, a group of students at historically black Benedict College in Columbia, S.C., located her birth certificate, which verified her birth date as Jan. 17, 1927. Kitt had previously celebrated on Jan. 26.

The research into her background also showed Kitt was the daughter of a white man, a poor cotton farmer.

"I'm an orphan. But the public has adopted me and that has been my only family," she told the Post online. "The biggest family in the world is my fans."

**************


Blues anthem writer Rick Darnell dies - Published: December 27, 2008

A bad breakup for Rick Darnell led to a great song.

The end of a relationship would prompt Mr. Darnell to co-write one of the best-known blues songs, the B.B. King standard "The Thrill is Gone," said Carl Eggleston, a friend of Mr. Darnell's and owner of a Farmville funeral home.

Mr. Darnell died Christmas Eve after a brief illness. The family will receive visitors from 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Carl U. Eggleston Funeral Home.

Mr. Darnell co-wrote "The Thrill is Gone" with Roy Hawkins in 1951. Hawkins' release became a minor hit. After King released his version in 1970, it became a classic and turned into King's signature song.

The song has since been performed by the likes of country musician Willie Nelson, R&B artist Roberta Flack and opera legend Luciano Pavarotti, said Alicia Darnell of Mechanicsville, one of Mr. Darnell's three daughters.

The song has also been sampled by rappers 50 Cent and Lil' Kim, she said.

Alicia Darnell said her father never tired of his association with the song or being asked about it, but he continued to collaborate with various artists.

Mr. Darnell was born in Galveston, Texas, but his involvement in music prompted him to live in places across the country. He moved to Farmville in 1987 after purchasing radio station WPAK-AM, Alicia Darnell said. Mr. Darnell sold the station in recent years, his daughter said.

In addition to his daughter, Mr. Darnell is survived by his wife, Lula Mae Darnell of Richmond; and two other daughters, Pearlina Cockran of Williamsport, Pa., and Tanya Rachels of Farmville.

Tom Hunnewell Photo Gallery

Among the many marvelous folks who do a lot of nice things for us and the blues community, is our friend Tom Hunnewell. He's a fantastic photographer and a true supporter of blues music and culture. He keeps a low profile while amassing an impressive collection of photos which capture the look, feel, and essence of being inside a blues club. Here are just some of the shots recently given to us by Tom:

Becki Sue & Her Big Rockin' Daddies, Nov. '07


Tommy Castro, November '07


Devon Allman & Honeytribe, August '07


Duffy Bishop, June '07


G.C. Cameron (Spinners, Temptations), December '07


Hans Ipsen Benefit, December '07



The Insomniacs, October '07



John Nemeth, March '07


Charlene, Debbie Davies, & Ed Maloney, August '07


Junkyard Jane, December '07


Kevin Selfe, January '08


Lady A & the Baby Blues Funk Band backstage, June '07


Lady A on stage, June '07


Larry McCray, February '07



Little Bill & the Blue Notes, October '07


Lloyd Jones Struggle, December '07




Lydia Pense & Cold Blood, September '07


Maria Muldaur & Craig Caffall, February '07


Mark DuFresne, March '07


Mem Shannon & the Membership, September '07


Patti Allen, Raven, Randy Oxford @ Jam For Cans '07


Terry Evans, May '07



Tim Sherman, October '07