©2008-Linn County Blues Society

Issue 169 The Publication of the Linn County Blues Society- lcbs.org August 2008

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Supportyour local

Cover: Bernard Allison headlines Bluesmore 2008!Chubby Carrier at Checkers Tavern & EateryTornadoes play at Checkers night before BluesmoreBig Mo’s CD reviewIn the spread; who is Bernard Allsion?Flood benefit jams at Checkers Tavern & EateryLocal LIVE music schedules2nd Annual New Bohemian Festival, August 29-31

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Saturday, August 2This is the 15th ayear onna the lawn atta

Brucemore! I hear, through my sources, this promises to be one of the greatest years of a this a fabulousa Blusa festival! The Posta Bluesamore Jam will be atta the Longbranch inna Marion. If I coulda be a there, I would notta missa this fes-tival notta even for a private lunch witha the pope himself. I give a this Bluesmore festival my highest ablessing!

—Father Guido Sarducci

2 / Linn County Blues Society ©2008

The Linn County Blues Society is a way cool, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of Blues music in Eastern Iowa as well as to provide charitable contributions to other commu-nity organizations. LCBS is an Affiliated Organization in the Blues Foundation’s international network. The BLUESPAPER is a monthly publication of the LCBS.

Website: lcbs.org

LCBS OfficersPresident - Andy DergoVice President - Evan VulichSecretary - Steve SpringerTreasurer - Sue Dergo

Directors at Large-Bob DeForest, Bill Meeks, Bob Dorr

ChairsEducation - OpenEntertainment - Greg WestMembership - Kevin CutsforthMerchandise - David Andrews

The Bluespaper & LCBS folksEditor - Evan Vulich Photographers - See bylines each issueStaff Writers - See bylines each issueDistribution - Andy Dergo, Bill MeeksParliamentarian - Bill MeeksProgram - Bob DeForestPublic Relations - OpenWeb Administrator - Evan Vulich

MembershipTo learn more about the Linn County

Blues Society or to join, see the member-ship form in this Bluespaper or the LCBS website. Your membership includes;

• Discount admissions to many local Blues activities.• Monthly LCBS Bluespaper.• Voting rights in the LCBS elections.• Simply being way cool.

Bluespaper Contact informationSend news, band or club live entertain-

ment listing or advertising to: Evan Vulich, 1116 Daniels St. NE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52402 or preferrably e-mail at: evulich@mchsi.com.

Bluespaper Ad Rates$15.00 - Business card size - 2” x 3.5”$25.00 - Quarter page ad - 3.5” x 4.75”$50.00 - Half page ad - 4.75” x 7.25”$100.00 - Full page - 7.5” x 10”

Submission Requirements- All ads, photos or scanned images, either color or black/white, need to be 300ppi. Native Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, JPG, TIFF, EPS, PDF, BMP accepted. Ads created in Word may cause constipation. Deadline for submissions is the 19th of the month.

Moving? Send your new address to; LCBS, PO Box 2672, Cedar Rapids, IA 52406-2672 so you won’t miss a single issue of your Bluespaper.

Chubby CarrierOnly at Checkers

Article and photos by Bill Ray

tavernCEDAR RAPIDS,IA.

checkerstavern.com

Chubby Carrier and his Bayou Swamp Band floated into Cedar Rapids on Sunday, June 29th and

performed some Zydeco magic at Check-ers.Billed as a flood relief benefit gig, Chub-

by’s music provided that and so much more. The place was packed, and you could feel the electricity of anticipation as the band took to the stage. They were smiling and eager to get going. And we in the audience needed some great music that night to forget about our flooded-city woesfor awhile.From the first notes on the accordion, the

band took emotional control of the crowd and had us whooping, hollering, clapping, and dancing. We were there to have a good time, and Chubby Carrier gave us a great time! Having endured Hurricane Katrina, the bandfrom the New Orleans area knew what the healing powers of music could do for an audience.

Earl Sally was brilliant on washboard--a whirling dynamo on stage and off. Corey Duplechin gave a solid balance of bass rhythm throughout the show. Randy El-lis provided an experienced blues guitar flavor to the music mix. And Chubby’s son, A. J. Bellow, was steady and forceful on drums.But it was Chubby Carrier, with his dy-

namic enthusiasm, fabulous vocals, great accordion playing, and obvious joy in playing all kinds of music that made the evening wonderful. Choosing old Zydeco standards as well as original songs, Chub-by threw in some blues, reggae and soul

flavors to add to the gumbo. The band did a great, extended version of “The Cisco Kid” that had the joint rockin’.Up on a dry hill at Checkers Tavern and

Eatery, there was for a time, some much-needed emotional release and relief for the weary. Cedar Rapids thanks you, Chubby!

“ We were there to have a good time and

Chubby Carrier gave us a great time! ”

©2008 Linn County Blues Society / �

Jackie Payne/Steve Edmonson Band

Overnight SensationRelease Date – July 22, 2008Soul Deluxe

Blues/soul singing stalwart Jackie Payne and former Dy-natones guitarist Steve Ed-monson have combined once again on their third CD for a soul music extravaganza of the funkiest order. Thirteen smoking tunes with nine origi-nals and four covers complete with horn arrangements and girl background singers. Hats off to Jackie Payne who’s been around forever and hasn’t lost a step. Its Memphis soul at its best and you can even dance to it. I give it four purple suits and a Panama straw.

—John Heim (A.K.A. “Big Mo”)

back from Africa and ready to play August 1Tornadoes at Checkers

Checkers Tavern & Eatery– Flood Relief Benefit Jams.It will be held Saturday afternoons

August 9 & 16. These are the dates to come out at help support the local relief effort. We’re not hosting a jam August 2nd in support of the Blues-

more event.We need musicians to host & to play

and of course the music lovers to come out & help support. If available to host an afternoon jam contact me. Thank

you!P.J. Harrington

Checkers Tavern & Eatery3120 6th St SW

Cedar Rapids IA 52404319 364 9927

The Tornadoes return from Africa, summer vacation, and floodwater duty to kick off the August blues season. Catch them the night before Bluesmore, performing August 1 at Checkers, 9 PM. Shown above are band members Jacqueline Krain, Bob Goffstein, and Dan Berkowitz.

... Lightnin’ Hopkins taught us, “the rub-ber on a wheel is faster than the rubber on a heel” and Muddy Waters taught us “you don’t have to be the best one; just be a good ‘un” .. that just about says it all, always strive to be a good ‘un...”

—Billy F. Gibbons - Z.Z. Top

photos by Bill Ray

Tomaso’s Pizza

3234 Center Point Rd.

Official Pizzaof Bluesmore!

364-4313

“A jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges.” —Benny Green

� / Linn County Blues Society ©2008

IllinoisBlues.com

Bernard Allison set for 15th Anniversary Festival Celebration!Son of the Late Great Luther Allison Headlines at Bluesmore 2008

Bernard Allison totes the same smokin’ six string shooter that his late father Luther

Allison assaulted the blues with. And he is blessed with his father’s soulful voice, spiritual devotion, and a musi-cal freedom which experiments with the blues. Born in Chicago on Novem-ber 26th, 1965, the youngest of nine children Bernard was first introduced to the roots of black music and the art of the electric guitar by his father, the late great Luther Allison. Like Ken Griffey Jr. hanging out in baseball locker rooms as a youth, Luther’s son was the kid running on-stage through-out the band’s set. Experiences like that profoundly effect one’s aspira-tions. “That’s when I decided I wanted to be up there like him. I think I was seven.”“I didn’t start to play ‘til I was maybe

10 years of age” Bernard recalled “I picked up the guitar and listened to his records.” While Luther was ab-sent, his record collection played a major role in shaping the son’s direc-tion. Bernard listened to his dad’s in-fluences like Magic Sam, Otis Rush, T-Bone Walker, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and B.B. King. He also got into the next generation that followed, people like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Johnny Winter, and Jimi Hendrix.Bernard made his first appearance

on record at age 13, when he played on a live LP his father recorded in Peoria, IL. “When we moved to Peo-ria, Dad came home preparing to do his live album in Peoria, I hooked up the amplifier and guitar in the base-ment and started playing his first re-cord, Love Me Mama, note for note. He freaked out and said tonight you’re gonna record with me. That was my first recording. I played “You Don’t Love Me Know More” and “Sweet

Home Chicago.”Luther brought Bernard my first gui-

tar, a Fender Stratocaster, and told him to first get an education. At 18, Ber-nard joined his father on-stage at the 1983 Chicago Blues Festival. Then, one week he graduated from high school, Bernard got a call from Koko Taylor asking to be her lead guitar player.He joined Koko Taylor’s Blues Ma-

chine for three years. “Koko and Pops Taylor taught mew the do’s and don’t’s of the road. Bein’ really careful and watching people. They were like my mom and pops. It was a great educa-tion, I was able to tour the world and see different cultures. We backed Wil-lie Dixon, Koko was the only group I played in besides my father.”The 1980’s became Bernard’s class-

room as both learner and teacher. Rela-tionships in the 80’s with Johnny Win-ter and Stevie Ray Vaughan expanded Bernard’s guitar foundation. For a year and a half, Bernard lived and played in London, Ontario. Then, in 1989, Bernard flew to Europe to record with his father, was asked to lead the band, and, like his father, adopted permanent residence in Europe. A recording of the furious collaboration between Luther and Bernard at the 1989 Chicago Blues Festival can be heard on the Luther Al-lison album Let’s Try It Again, on RUF Records.One year later, Bernard released his

first solo album in 1990 with the signif-icant title The Next Generation. Allison followed that in 1993 with Hang On, then Funkifino, No Mercy. Bernard’s other titles during the 1990’s included Born With The Blues, Keepin’ The Blues Alive, and Times Are Chang-ing. In the new millennium, Bernard’s recordings include Across The Water, Storms Of Life, Kentucky Fried Blues, the highly personal Higher Power, and

Energized, a live recording and DVD from a 2005 show.One look at that DVD and it’s obvi-

ous that Bernard has inherited Lu-ther’s knack for igniting audiences; but he’s no clone of his famous father. He is definitely blazing his own path with a style that reflects a unique mix of traditional and modern influences. The Allison torch has been passed, and it’s clear that Bernard takes his role as its bearer very seriously. He’s assumed the challenge of keeping the blues alive and growing - a commit-ment he renews every time he takes the stage.“I’m gonna try my best to pick up

where he left off, but I can’t be Luther Allison, I can only be myself. In the beginning everyone expects me to be exactly like him, but we are two dif-ferent musicians.”As a true “son of the blues,” Bernard

possesses the requisite guitar feel and vocal intonations necessary to push his blues into the next century. He knows the energy level necessary to hold audiences and combines a enough showmanship and spontaneity to push the performance in fresh, innovative directions each night.“In order for anything to expand,

you have to take a risk,” says Bernard. “Blues is about experimenting and getting your feelings across to some-one else. And if you want to keep it going, people are going to have to give it all a chance because we’re losing all our creators. Because I’ve been taking risks on every album I’ve recorded, this record is just a logical progres-sion from everything else I’ve done. Instead of playing rippin’ 12 bar blues guitar over and over, there are bluesy songs, soul, funk, R&B songs and a couple of rock things which shows the overall musician-

©2008 Linn County Blues Society / �

Son of the Late Great Luther Allison Headlines at Bluesmore 2008

ship of Bernard Allison.”That musicianship is no clearer than on

his current record, Chills And Thrills. After 17 years of recording experience, Bernard has perfected his sound. In-stead of just u s i n g his guitar, Ber na rd has be-c o m e mature the artist who uses the full palate of musical colors in his

band to paint his stories.If there ever was a CD for all occa-

sions, this is it. It’s got the chill songs to curl up with on a rainy day, or the thrill music you’ll blast when you’re driving late at night. By adding the rhythm gui-tar of Bernard’s guitar soulmate Eric Gales, every song explodes into a guitar

player’s head trip. The title cut opens the record with Bernard’s trade-mark funk meets blues sound. that

signature sound permeates other tunes like “Compromising For Your Need,” “Heart of St. Paul,” and “Groove With Me,” Bernard’s treatise on the mod-

ernesque blues he’ll continue to play around the world. But Ber-

nard’s got so much more. On “So Devine” Bruce McCabe’s piano and Jose James’

alto sax steals the show. On “Just Me And My Guitar,” Bernard shows off

the frantic slide tech-niques he learned in the

1980’s from Johnny Winter. For slow blues, Bernard and pianist Rusty Hall turn in a first rate guitar and piano performance on “That’s

Why I’m Crying.” But any fan of Bernard Allison knows

that every show or record comes with one of his father’s songs.

Here, Bernard reprises Luther’s 1980’s tune “Serious,” played with Bernard’s errie, Luther-like vocal attack. In addition, Bernard strips

“Serious” down to just piano and guitar in his after hours styled clos-er.Amid all the daily pop culture pres-

sures to be the next American Idol why does Bernard stay rooted in the blues? “The blues is my roots. Regardless of

how far outside of the blues I reach for tones, I can’t ever leave the blues. Whenever I play, all those guitar parts are Luther Allison coming through me. My dad was the same way, he wasn’t all blues. He loved Otis Red-ding or Chuck Berry. I’m just showing where my influences come from. And respecting the people who got me to this point.” To learn more about Bernard Alli-

son visit his website: bernardallison.com.

� / Linn County Blues Society ©2008

• LCBS Members SAVE 10% off meals atLeo’s Italian Restaurant!

29 South Frederick Avenue, Oelwein.

• SAVE at - Tic Toc RestaurantBuy one, get one ½ price

on any regular breakfast entrée or sand-wich!

• SAVE at - Genghis Grill10% off entire ticket ANYTIME!

SAVE at Hamilton Mortgage$2�0 off closing costs (ask for Jessica)

Local MusicNow’s the time to Support LIVE Music!

Sun.- Checkers Tavern-Blue Sunday-6PMSun.- Mahoney’s - Various artists-Never a Cover, 6pmSun.- Charlie’s, Coralville-Blues JamWed.- Checkers Tavern-Kevin BF Burt solo 6-9Wed.- Mahoney’s-D-Licious Vinyl w/ Bobby D 8-12Thurs.-J.M.O’Malley’s-T-Bone Giblin Jam FestEV

ERY

Specializing inRIBS, STEAK, PRIME RIB, LOBSTER & CRAB

Featuring our award winningBBQ Pork Ribs!

Seafood • 30 item salad barKids menus • Specialty desserts

The LCBS meets the 1st Monday of each month.See you at the Longbranch on August 4, 6:30PM for

the LCBS Board & Member meeting. Guests are welcome!

90 Twixt Town Rd., Marion • 377-6386

August Blues CalendarFri. 1 Checkers Tavern & Eatery The Tornadoes, 9-1

Sat. 2 BLUESMORE 15!The Yacht Club, Iowa CityFirehouse Jam

Brucemore, 4-10PM PostJam-LongbranchMcMurrin & Johnson, The Demo Band 10PSkeeter Lewis & Dan Johnson, 4-8PM

Sun. 3 Iron Horse, Savanna, ILMahoney’s Irish Pub

Billy Lee Janey Trio. 4-8PMAphrodesia, 6-10PM

Wed. 6 Checkers Tavern & Eatery Billy Lee Janey, 7PM

Thur. 7 Checkers Tavern & Eatery Karl Hudson, 7PM

Fri. 8 Checkers Tavern & Eatery Full Circle Band, 9PM

Sat. 9 Checkers Tavern & EateryScreaming Eagle, Waterloo

Benefit Jam, hosted by DNA, 3-6PMThe Janeys w/ DJ & Eric Douglas, 9-1

Sun. 10 Mahoney’s Irish PubCheckers Tavern & Eatery

Blue Moon Revue, 6-10PMPerry Weber & The DeVilles, 7PM

Wed. 13 Sammy’sCheckers Tavern & Eatery

Dan Johnson w/ Tom Bruner, 9-1Jason Ray Brown, 6PM

Thur. 14 J.M. O’Malley’sCheckers Tavern & Eatery

4Box O Rocks, 9-1Maddie’s Farm, 7PM

Fri. 15 Riverside CasinoNext DoorCheckers Tavern & Eatery

The Tornadoes, 5-8PMBilly Janey Trio, 9-1Strangely Familiar w/ Cathy Hart, 9PM

Sat. 16 Checkers Tavern & EateryCheckers Tavern & Eatery

Benefit Jam, McMurrin & Johnson, 3-6PMMcMurrin & Johnson Band, Bob Thompson

on sax & Eric Douglas on drums.

Sun. 17 Mahoney’s Irish PubCheckers Tavern & Eatery

Shawn Kellerman, 6-10PMScott Ellison Band, 7PM

Fri. 22 Java House, Iowa CityNext Door

The Blue Midnight Trio, 8-10PMMcMurrin & Johnson Band, 9-1

Sat. 23 Washington Soup Kitchen The Tornadoes, 9-11PM

Sun. 24 Mahoney’s Irish Pub Daddy-O’s Funky Posse, 6-10PM

Wed. 27 Checkers Tavern & Eatery McMurrin & Johnson, 6-10PM

Thur. 28 Mulligan’s McMurrin & Johnson, 8-11PM

Fri. 29 Checkers Tavern & Eatery Johnny Kilowatt Band, 9-1

Sat. 30 2 New Bohemian FestivalScreaming Eagle, Waterloo

McMurrin & Johnson, 2:30-3:15PM4 Box O Rocks, 9-1

Sun. 31 Mahoney’s Irish Pub Bill Smith, 6-10PM

This publication of the LCBS is dedicated to the support of LIVE music and is guaranteed to be heart-healthy, low in fat, low in sodium and completely Karaoke FREE! Also, Karaoke can cause severe whining among its supporters if publicly denigrated in this publication.

A very special THANK YOU to these business-es who have signed up to help us

Keep the Blues Alive!

• C.R. Bank & Trust• Chappy’s Safari• Chrome Horse• Longbranch• Dudley Bros. Co.• Cocktails & Co.• Ron Schantz Const.• J.M. O’Malley’s

• The Fifth Gear• 1�th Avenue Prod.• KCCK 88.�• Checkers Tavern• Home Town Restyling• Next Door• Tomaso’s Pizza• Mahoney’s Irish Pub

4651 1st Ave SECedar Rapids, IA 319.378.1720guitarcenter.com

Helping peoplemake great music and

pursue their dreams for over

43 years.

©2008 Linn County Blues Society / �

BLUE SUNDAY at Checkers Tavern & Eatery– We are in our 13th straight season of supporting the best live blues

in Cedar Rapids on Sunday evenings.

Regional, national & international acts are featured with No Cover Charge!

“...regardless of what you play, the big-gest thing is keeping the feel going ...”

— Wes Montgomery

2008 BluesmoreAugust 2BrucemoreBE THERE!Gates open at 3PM. Festival kicks off at 4PM.Advance tickets available at; Brucemore, Tic Toc, Music Loft, West Music (CR), J.M. O’Malley’s, Chappy’s, The Longbranch, Brewed Awakenings,Checkers Tavern, Music Go Around. Post Bluesmore Jam at The Longbranch right after the festival!

Tickets:$13.00 Advance$12.00 with coupon$15.00 at the gateChildren under 10 FREE with an adult.

©2008-Linn County Blues Society

Linn County Blues SocietyPO Box 2��2Cedar Rapids, IA�2�0�-2��2

Friday Blues-• 6-10 PM - Da Friday Blues• 10-11 PM - Backstage Blues• 11 PM to midnight - KCCK Jams• Midnight Blues CDSaturday Blues -• 6-10 PM - Da Blues with Bobby D• 10-11 PM - The Crawfish Circuit• 11 PM -midnight - The Melting Pot• Midnight Blues CD

kcck

.org

BOYCOTT KARAOKE!