Tom Walker Trio with Robert Lane

On Saturday 15th of February I sat in with the Tom Walker Trio for a few songs during their gig at The Gate Inn, Sutton Coldfield.

Here's a couple of videos;

Us jamming my song "Break My Heart Blues"



Me singing "Leave My Kitten Alone" and Tom leading us through "Crossroads."


Thanks to Tom, James and Jake for having me play. Special thanks also to Ian for standing in amongst a quite lively crowd to film us!

Had a lot of fun at two excellent gigs last week, one at The Crossroads Blues Club with Matty and Mick, and the other playing a duo set with Mick at The Black Boy Inn in Bridgnorth.

At the crossroads we played the main set after the night was kicked off with an open mic session hosted by the wonderful Chickenbone Blues Band Among the open mic performers was the magnificent Dave Bristow who features in this short video I filmed



Matty Pinfield offered his services to the Chickenbone Blues Band for a rollicking set that ended the first part of the evening




And then we took the stage, performing mostly blues (it's a blues club, you see)



plus originals and a few surprises, like this impromptu version (as much a surprise to us as anyone!)






Thanks to Mike Dickeson for these pictures.

Crossroads Blues Club

The Robert Lane Band (Robert lane, Mick Jeynes and Matty Pinfield) perform the headline set at The Crossroads Blues Club, Birmingham on the 16th of June.

The band will play a mix of original tracks (including some new never heard before songs) and covers of Blues songs by artists including Robert Johnson, Chuck Berry and Eric Clapton.

They will also welcome special friends as guests to jam at the end of the evening.

The night will kick of with an open mic session.

Here’s some info from the Crossroads Website

Rob is a young Birmingham-based Guitarist, Songwriter and Singer and great supporter of The Crossroads. In May 2010 he was chosen by the LG Arena to perform before concerts by both Dire Straits' front man Mark Knopfler and international superstar singer/songwriter John Mayer. Robert exudes a proudly eclectic style which touches on introverted singer songwriter and broken hearted blues journeyman.

Crossroads

Last Thursday, the 15th April I was asked to kick off the open mic session at the Crossroads Blues club. As anyone who reads this blog with any regularity will know, The Tower of Song and it's Thursday night Crossroads Blues Club are among my favourite clubs around.

Last week sums up what I love about The Crossroads. The gig was to turn up and lead the house band through a few blues songs. The fun bit is that there isn't a house band-it's formed from whoever happens to be around on the night. So the set started of with me singing Matchbox joined by Mal on snare drum and Tony on harp, and we were slowly joined by a bass player (sorry, didn't catch your name...) and finally Snake on guitar. Once I'd sang about five tunes Snake took over for two before we got off and let a whole host of musicians perform short sets. After the break the excellent Mellow Peaches played the featured set. Once again the place was full to bursting, and from the people I spoke to it seems I wasn't the only one having a very enjoyable night.

Here are some pictures taken and very kindly sent to me by Stan Newton

Living Room and The Crossroads

This week I've played two gigs in Birmingham.

On Monday I played for the first time at The 15 Minute Club, which takes place at the The Living Room in Birmingham. The basic idea is that every does a 15 minute set of original songs. The night is run by a lady called Rae, who gives it a really cool touch by giving each act a nice little intro and having a chat with them at the end of their set. The venue is really good, and I like the idea of everyone just doing four of their best songs.Also performing were Johnny Hands, a Birmingham based singer songwriter I've performed with before who I really enjoyed, a great bluesy singer called Tara Chinn, a really cool, funky band I didn't catch the name of and Cat Chinn, who unfortunately I mostly missed because I had to leave just as she started up. My set went well, and the audience were very cool. I'll be returning on the 6th of July.

Thursday I again popped along to the Blues Jam at the Crossroads Blues Club. Again I couldn't be there from the start because of teaching guitar lessons before hand, and when I arrived about half an hour into the night it was pretty much full, the busiest I've seen it there in fact. Most of the regulars I really like hearing and playing with were there, including Steve Butt, Ken Stratford, Chickenbone John, Alan Nicholls and Mark Bennett. I played lead on a Rolling Stones song led by Tower of Song owner Tom Martin, then fronted "Matchbox Blues" which seemed to go quite nicely. I was a bit disappointed not to front another song, because I'd got a couple of new ones ready, but with it being such a busy night there had to be a quick turnaround to get everyone heard. After Matchbox I was part of the backing band for a spoken word performer, and then watched while Mark Bennett jammed with a great funk band. This was really cool, and again made the jam night unlike any of the others I've been to there. This is one of the best things about these nights, last time I was there was a kind of Cajun dance feel, this time it had a funk feeling.

Finally I joined Mark Bennett, Alan Nicholls, a bass player, a sax player and the harp guys for two final jamms lead by Mark.

I really enjoy these jam nights, but I'm never sure how well I've played. I find that I play best when I just let go and don't think too much, meaning I'm almost not really listening to what I'm doing, which can be a little scary afterwards when I kind of have no idea what I've just played! To be allowed to play with and alongside these great musicians is always a thrill, and I think it's improving my performance no end.