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SRBD on tour!
Sir Rod & The Blues Doctors will be rampaging up the East Coast, starting this Monday. It is entirely possible that we will be coming to a venue near you. Our six gigs will see us playing Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania (twice) and New York (twice).
It takes a lot of work to create a tour, and whether they are profitable or not depends on dedicated blues fans like YOU. The pandemic hasn't helped, obviously. But vaccines have--we're all vaxxed--and so the tour is taking place. Please think about coming out, having a couple of drinks, and supporting the dynamic, unstoppable, wildly entertaining trio that we are.
Here's the tour:
7/6/21: Richmond, VA - The Camel (SRBD, 8-11 PM)
7/11/21: Harlem, NY - busking by the Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. State Office Building (SRBD, TBA)
Here are a few tour notes:
1) It's always a good idea to call the venue on day-of, just to make sure there haven't been any last minute changes or modifications
2) The gigs on 7/7 and 7/10 are outdoors, if you're leery of indoor crowds.
3) The gig on 7/6 at The Camel in Richmond has a curious ticket policy, a holdover from "high COVID" days, that seems to require you to purchase an entire table's worth of $7 tickets--five to seven at a shot--so that tables can be distanced. But I've been assured that you'll be able to purchase individual tickets. Please call the venue and clarify this.
4) The 7/9 gig in Lansdowne, PA will be streamed live in HD. The ticket price is the same as if you were attending in person, but this is a great option for anybody who lives outside the region we'll be touring, which is most of the people receiving this email. You, too, can be a part of the fun. And the sound (and video), I've been assured, will be spectacularly good, thanks to the fact that the owner is a legendary sound engineer. To stream, scroll down on the Jamey's homepage to find our photo, then click "pay per view."
5) The 7/13 gig at Terra Blues, which ends the tour, is an exciting return to Manhattan Island for this particular long-time resident. If you discount a one-off with Robert Ross at the Cornelia Street Cafe in 2009 and a private-party appearance with Sterling Magee at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2018, this is my first Manhattan gig since 2007, when Satan & Adam played....yes, Terra Blues. So I'm coming home, with my new band in tow. And I'll hope to see a few of you there.
Here's a video preview of the tour combined with some pre-tour amp action. The amp tests start at 6:44:
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Blues Blast award nomination
I'm delighted to report that our debut album, Come Together, has been nominated for a "New Artist Debut Recording" by Blues Blast magazine. Although the nominees are selected by the magazine's editors, the winners are determined by a straight-up popularity contest. The winners are those who accumulate the most votes in each category, and the votes come from friends and fans: YOU, in a word.
Voting starts on July 5th. On that date, apparently, you'll be able to cast your vote somewhere on the Blues Blast website. I'll send out another email from the road later this week with info about that.
Meanwhile: yay! It's great to tour behind good news like this.
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Little Red Rooster
Here's some live video from our last tour.
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Channels, Books, Music, Lessons
YOUTUBE CHANNELS:
BOOKS:
MUSIC:
HARMONICA LESSONS:
Modern Blues Harmonica Advanced Beginner's Special
For beginning players who have completed the first handful of lessons on my website (most of which can be found in the "Beginner's Special" and "Beginner's Deluxe") and are ready to commit to the next step, here is a bargain: six video tutorials with the tab sheets thrown in for free. The lessons in this collection continue your education into the world of blues harmonica by teaching you a range of ways of moving through the 12-bar changes--the "blues progression." These include a boogie-woogie (Bittersweet Boogie), a melody drawn from a vocal line (Same Old Blues), a jazzy melody that deliberately breaks across the bar lines (Whistlin' the Blues), a two-beat stomp that uses double stops and chords (Red Dress), a simplified version of a Chicago blues standard (Mojo 1.0), and a rock classic (Rock Around the Clock). There is a method in Gussow's madness! These songs socialize you into the wide and wonderful world of blues musicianship, even as they develop your lip-strength, coordination, and reflexes.
PLEASE NOTE: All these songs are demonstrated using a key of C harmonica, except for Mojo 1.0, which uses a key of A harmonica.
ADDITIONAL NOTE: You do NOT need to know how to bend notes in order to play these songs. This is why they are appropriate for beginners and advanced beginners.
Chicago Blues Classics
For INTERMEDIATES and ADVANCED INTERMEDIATES who want a selection of the best that the Chicago blues tradition has to offer, I've bundled five video tutorials into an easy-to-download zip file, with the tab sheets thrown in for free. Included in this package are Sonny Boy Williamson/Junior Wells ("Checking Up on my Baby"), Junior Wells ("Messing With the Kid"), Big Walter Horton ("Easy"), Paul Butterfield ("Born in Chicago"), and Little Walter/Kim Wilson ("Got My Mojo Working"), all for only $25, a savings of $10 off the item-by-item price.
"Bending the 3 Draw": NOT just for BEGINNERS and ADVANCED BEGINNERS, but for INTERMEDIATES as well. The 3 draw bend--several different bends, actually--is more challenging than 4 draw and 2 draw. I help you extract the deep bluesy sound that lies buried in the harp; I use a guitar to explain exactly which pitches you're trying for and where they're located.
"Harmony for Improvisation": For blues harmonica students in the BEGINNER and ADVANCED BEGINNER category who seek some basic grounding in harmony that will strengthen their understanding of the instrument and improve their abilities as improvisers. INTERMEDIATE players who have neglected this element of their musical education may also find this lesson useful. This zip file includes one QuickTime video plus one jam track in the key of G. There is NO tab sheet with this lesson.
Harp: C
"Upper Octave Boogie": INTERMEDIATE / ADVANCED INTERMEDIATE, although ADVANCED BEGINNERS will be able to get most of it. An original composition that breaks open the upper octave and make it available for further exploration. Please check out the free preview available on either Tradebit page below!
Harp: C
"Buford Chapel Breakdown": a gospel-flavored original blues, with three complete choruses. For ADVANCED INTERMEDIATE and fearless INTERMEDIAT players. This is an exact transcription of what I play on the recording, which can be purchased on iTunes and it part of my debut solo CD, KICK AND STOMP. (Note: This lesson includes a three-chorus extract from the original recording, so you can hear exactly what I do in the studio.)
harp: Bb
"Help Me": This is arguably Sonny Boy Williamson's best-known song--a harmonica blues staple of blues bands and jam sessions the world over. An amazing amount of harmonica knowledge is packed into this 12-bar solo: warbles, angular triplets, chuck-chuck accents. For INTERMEDIATE and ADVANCED INTERMEDIATE players.
"St. Louis Blues": This is the most famous blues song in the world, bar none. W.C. Handy's 1914 hit deserves a serious blues harp arrangement; this is it. An incredible value, this lesson focuses on a four-page tab (the longest currently offered at MBH): three 12-bar verses with that distinctive, Latin-flavored, 16-bar, minor-key bridge thrown in. This is a really cool solo performance piece. (NOTE: The second verse contains several 6 hole overblows. If you're not an overblower, you can simply repeat the first verse.)
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We're off to the races! If you come to a gig, btw, please come up and say Hi. I'll be bumping elbows rather than shaking hands--my one concession to the presence of COVID--but I'll be happy to chat for a moment or two.
--Adam
Oxford, Mississippi
Fourth of July weekend 2021
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