Birthday, Blues and Beaches

The week leading up to my performance at The Tenby Blues Festival and four day holiday in Saundersfoot was not a great one. I was feeling rough, real rough! I won't explain what was wrong but it wasn't pleasant and I'd well and truly had enough by Friday night when I travelled with Maria down into Pembrokeshire, clutching the magic pills the Doctor had given me hours before that just about made me feel human.

By mid day on Saturday we had met up with my Uncle and Aunt who were also in the area and the four of us were enjoying beautiful Tenby. The blues festival is in it's 6th year and swinging away quite happily in the various theatres, pubs and cafes of all sizes and vintages that adorn this quintessential British holiday town.

A bit of personal history; Saundersfoot, the next village on from Tenby, was my family holiday destination throughout my childhood. I stopped going for a few years when booze and night clubs pulled me into planes and across the sea for summer holidays, and then very happily returned a few years ago. I discovered that Tenby hosts a Blues Festival every November, and was lucky enough to be invited along this year. The fact that all this was to take place on my birthday, 12th of November, just added to the very special nature of the gig.

My main performance was to take place in Caffe Vista, a place that had opened since my last visit to Tenby. I went along a few hours early to say hello and check everything was OK. This aptly names establishment boasts a stop you in your tracks view across the Tenby Harbour from it's balcony and through this amazing window...


I was greeted by the owner Yanni, and in our chat I discovered that he has created an excellent live venue through his passion and personal experiences as a musician. Some truly great names perform at Caffe Vista, if you are ever in the area it's a priority to check whether you'll be around at the time of one of these gigs. Here's the facebook page

In the early evening I performed my two hour sets at Caffe Vista. Both sets were well attended by lovely audiences, featuring both locals and Festival holiday makers. Very nice people; they even sang happy birthday to me!

I'd also been booked to perform at a late night session at The Giltar Hotel. I turned up at midnight as requested and played a short set to some very drunk musos and blues music fans. Bit of an odd one but here again people sang along and treated me well. It was also cool to see inside this posh hotel, in a part of the town I hadn't really seen before.

The next afternoon we returned to Caffe Vista to say thanks to Yanni. We also met his daughters, had some great food and generally lived it up. Here's me and Yanni. I'm windswept, he's interesting.

The next few days it was holiday time in really remarkably mild November weather. Carew Castle, Haverfodwest, Skrinkle Heaven, we did it all. Great way to spend a birthday, I love Pembrokeshire, I love playing gigs and meeting cool people.

Love life.

This week anyway!

Robert Johnson

This May was the centenary of the birth of legendary bluesman Robert Johnson. Despite recording just 29 songs before dying at the age of 27 he became one of the most influential musicians in popular music. Many of those songs became blues standards including Love In Vain, Sweet Home Chicago, Cross Road Blues, and I Believe I'll Dust My Broom.

Due to his influence on the musicians who came after him it is easy to see the role he played in the creation of Rock and Roll and later Hard Rock. Giants of music who wear his influence on their sleeves include Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Bob Dylan, Robert Plant and Jimi Hendrix.

As well as his remarkable compositions, vocal delivery and untouchable guitar skills Johnson has the ultimate enigmatic personal story to make him a legend. Very little is known about him and fact and myth appear to have become so ingrained that no one can tell which is which.

The popular legend has it that Johnson transformed from a bad guitar player to something super human after selling his soul to the devil at a crossroads. However he developed his skills the few recordings he made demonstrate an incredible ability. No one can play like him, although many have tried over the past 70 odd years. Most mere mortals can only get any where near by cheating and having two guitarists to recreate what Robert did on his own (whilst singing!)

Like many musicians of his era he was a travelling man moving from town to town, playing on street corners and in bars. From Wikipedia; "Johnson supposedly asked homely young women living in the country with their families whether he could go home with them, and in most cases the answer was 'yes'...until a boyfriend arrived or Johnson was ready to move on."

It seems likely that Johnson's reputation with ladies led to his early death. The popular story is that he was poisoned buy the jealous husband or boyfriend of a flirtatious audience member.

(This years Tenby Blues Festival is dedicated to Robert Johnson, and I've been asked to prepare some sort of tribute to him. I often play Love in Vain at gigs and at the moment I'm thinking about adding something extra for this event. It was whilst re-listening to his catalog that I decided a blog post about him was in order.)