Hello John, Due to circumstances beyond our control PBS is forced to postpone Blues Blast '22. It was a mind-numbing decision but in the end skyrocketing vendor prices and sluggish ticket sales forced our hand. We will announce a new date ASAP. Hopefully you will understand and bear with us as we try to get back on track. Bob Stroger is a true living icon of Chicago Blues. If you were fortunate enough to have seen him on his last visit to the Rhythm Room, you know what I'm talking about. JC's show is next weekend in Apache Junction. This is a fun gig and he has a great lineup on board. Beautiful weather gives no one an excuse to stay home when there is music to be heard. Get out and about this weekend. Have a week!! Jim Crawford Phoenix Blues Society |
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OUR FRIENDS
COLD SHOTT and The Hurricane Horns The Sugar Thieves Gary Zak & The Outbacks Eric Ramsey
Hans Olson Rocket 88s JC& The Rockers
Smokestack Lightning Carvin Jones
Poppy Harpman & The Storm https://poppyharpman.com/ Hoodoo Casters RHYTHM ROOM WESTSIDE BLUES & JAZZ https://westsideblues.com/
Nina Curri Paris James Mother Road Trio Blues Review Band Reverbnationbluesmanmike Mike Eldred
Big Daddy D & The Dynamites Facebook www.bigdadddyd.com Cadillac Assembly Line Facebook https://cadillacassemblylineband.com/ Innocent Joe and the Hostile Witnesses Facebook
Dry Heat Chuck Hall Facebook Pop Top Facebook Tommy Grills Band Facebook Sweet Baby Ray SweetBabyRaysBlues.com Thermal Blues Express Thermal Blues Express.com Common Ground Blues Band Facebook Billy G & The Kids billgarvin.com
Backdoor Funk Facebook.com/backdoorfunk Out and About Tuesday, March 1 Carvin Jones, 6 p.m., Copper Penny, Sun City Gypsy & Hooter’s Blues JAM, 6 p.m., Pho Cao, Scottsdale Wednesday March 2 JC & The Rockers, 6:30 p.m., Fuego @ The Clarendon, Phoenix Ramsey/Roberson, 7:30 p.m., Janey’s, Cave Creek Carvin Jones, 7:30 p.m., Old Brass Rail, Phoenix Tool Shed JAM, 7 p.m, Blooze Bar, Phoenix Johnny Miller JAM, 7 p.m., Coop’s, Glendale Thursday, March 3 Rocket 88s, 6:30 p.m., Westsidee Blues & Jazz, Glendale Hans Olson, 6 p.m., Handlebar Pub, Apache Junction Friday, March 4 Cold Shott & The Hurricane Horns, 6 & 8 p.m., Desert Botanical Gardens, Phoenix Cadillac Assembly Line, 7 p.m., Desert Ridge Marketplace, Phoenix Sugar Thieves Duo, 6:30 p.m., Spokes on Southern, Tempe Blues Review Band, 6 p.m., Dillon’s BBQ, Glendale
JC & the Rockers, 5 p.m., River Bottom Bar, Florence Carvin Jones, 7 p.m., Marauders, Tempe Leon J, 12:30 p.m., DA Ranch, Cornville Saturday, March 5 Cold Shott & The Hurricane Horns, 8 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Sugar Thieves, 1:45 p.m., Short Leash Hot Dogs, Phoenix Sugar Thieves Trio, 6 p.m., Hyatt Regency, Scottsdale Carvin Jones, 8 p.m., Sedona Performing Arts Center, Sedona Leon J, 1 p.m., DA Ranch, Cornville Sunday, March 6 Dirty Red & The Soul Shakers, 6 p.m., Rhythm Room , Phoenix Carvin Jones, 4 p.m., Ground Control, Litchfield Park Leon J, 12 p.m., DA Ranch, Cornville
Monday, March 7 Hans Olson, 7 p.m., Time Out Lounge (Every Monday), Tempe Carvin Jones, 6:30 p.m., Florigino’s Pizza, Gilbert
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Note: If you did NOT request a refund for your 2020 tickets, your 2022 tickets will be available at Will Call. We'll be in touch with you to confirm.
Thank you for your support of our Annual Blues Blast and Phoenix Blues Society!
Blues Blast 2022 Saturday March 19th, 2022 Margaret T. Hance Park
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Blues Blast 2022 VOLUNTEERS NEEDED !! |
A message from the PBS Volunteer Coordinator regarding Blues Blast 2022: The volunteer sign-up is now live. Yes, LIVE! Here it is: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040E4FA4AD2FA1F85-blues
Blues Blast 2022 is being held on Saturday, 3/19/2022 at Margaret T. Hance Park in Phoenix. We start setting up at 7AM. Gates open at 10AM. The music starts at 11AM and ends at 6PM.
We need volunteers for many different fun jobs. Most shifts are two hours, but you can work more if you want to. And you know you do!
If you've volunteered at prior Blues Blasts, I will be bugging you about filling the same position at the same time again. You can also email me at PBSJamesBecker@gmail.com with questions, special need requests, compliments, monetary gifts, etc.
Looking forward to a great Blues Blast 2022!
MANY THANKS!! James Becker, Volunteer Coordinator Phoenix Blues Society |
| Timeless
by Don Wilcock
At 91 years old, Bob Stroger is ubiquitous in the blues scene and immediately recognizable for his broad smile and fastidious clothes, but here he opens up about himself as never before “Number one, I try not to think about age. When I think about age, I think, hell, I got no business out here playing, you know? But I feel good, and I don’t think about my age. I think about the music and the people who enjoy me. I just keep on going. “Daddy used to say, ‘Age is nothing but a number, and as long as you feel good, and you felt like you wanted to do something, go and do it ’cause there are some people 30 years old that can’t do what you’re doing.’ “I’m truly blessed, so I just try and keep age out of my mind and just try and have fun doing it.” Stroger lived in Mississippi until he was 16 and moved to Chicago. He didn’t start playing music until he was 21. “Down south in the olden days, blues was the devil’s music. So, we kind of stayed away from that. You know I was up in Chicago at 16 years old before I knowed my father even played. “My father used to play when we were down south at house parties, but he never let us know he played music. So, he was a guitar player, yeah. I found that out when I was around 16 years old. I was – the kids couldn’t be around too much. “Alley music they used to call it down there. That’s where the gambling joints were back in the alley in the south. Kids wasn’t allowed in the alley. That’s where the gambling joints and the pool halls were. So, we couldn’t go back there.” Stroger wanted to play jazz, but blues was where the money was. “I didn’t actually start playing until I was an old man. I was 21 years old when I started playing. I had a little band and when you ’re ambitious as a musician, I wanted to be sophisticated. I played jazz with Rufus Foreman who was a horn player, and he did a lot of rehearsing but couldn’t hardly get no gigs. So, to get gigs, we had to play blues. That’s when I got with Eddie King. We added Eddie King to the band. He was doing B. B. King stuff, and Johnny Taylor stuff, so we could get some jobs. “I thought I could play Jimmy Reed, and that’s all I needed to learn about music. When I first started to play, that’s what was playing. I thought once you could do that – I wasn’t into music – didn’t reach any further than that. And he (first name?) Smith gave me a job out in West Chicago, a place called Argo. Most of the music we was playing was Jimmy Reed. So, I got fired on the spot. I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life. So, I sat this one out and learned more about music.” In the 1950s if you wanted a paying gig, you had to wear a uniform. Today, Stroger is still known for his fancy dress. “I like to look the part because I feel better. I represent the blues, something everybody can’t say, something doing a little special. A lawyer wouldn’t go into court representing his client dressed in jeans. I feel you kinda look the part, and it comes from the old days.” Stroger’s first band of any note was called The Red Tops. He explains where the name came from. “Well, back in the day, everybody played in uniform. You couldn’t get no job unless you were in some kind of unform. Music was really profitable, so everybody dressed up. We were too poor to buy uniforms So, my brother his girlfriend sewed some red bows on top of the tams (black tams with red circles scrawled on the top) and that’s why we were called the Red Tops. We couldn’t afford no uniforms. “Sunnyland (Slim) wanted me to dress up. He would always tell me, ‘Your appearance is 50% of the battle, you know? People look at your appearance.’ Anyone else could dress the way they wanted, but he always wanted me to dress appropriately. So, it just came from a long line. That’s my style. I just think that’s the way I’m representing something I love. “I’m proud of my music. I’m proud of doing a profession. I’m a professional musician, and I think I should look the part because I feel better. I represent the blues, something everybody can’t say, something doing a little special. “I feel you kinda look the part, and it comes from the old days. Back in the day, you couldn’t play if you didn’t have a suit, a white shirt and tie. You couldn’t get no gigs because music was really respected back then. I caught on to Howlin’ Wolf, and Muddy Waters used to come to the club. Everybody was dressed up. Everybody was looking good. The other guys may be wearing jeans, but once the musician walked into the club, they knowed he was a musician by the way he dressed.” Stoger’s gold and diamond pin are fixtures of his “uniform.” “A friend gave me my guitar pin 50 years ago, had it made down in Mexico, and I treasure that. It was a gift, and my key chain that was (when I was with) Otis Rush. A lady came up to the bandstand, put the key chain around my neck, and then all my friends every Christmas they would add another piece to it.” It was The King Biscuit Blues Festival that brought Stroger back down south several years ago. He often plays a set of Muddy Waters songs with Bob Margolin and Bob Corritore. “These are my friends, we’re the three Bobs. We do a lot of stuff down there together. But yeah, the Headcutters (the Brazilian band on the new album) came down once, and I told them the whole history of it, but you really don’t enjoy it until you go there and see it. Then, you can feel it.” Bobby Rush once told this reporter when he was young and under age that he would paint a mustache on his lips so he could play, and when he was in some clubs, they made him turn round and put a curtain in front of him because they didn’t want to see that he was black. “Oh, yeah. Well, I came up in those days, too. There’s a place like that when I first started playing. We had to play behind the curtain. They would bring us food, and I would drink behind the curtain. I came up in those days, and I came up right here in Chicago on 47th Street years ago. We played a place on 47th and Western. We played a Friday night, and the people loved it so well, we came back Thursday night.
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