EricksonEricksonMcMurrinMcMurrin

Cool Issue 186 January 2010

10th Annual Chili Challenge!McMurrin & Erickson together at Kaji Japanese GrillBig Mo’s CD reviewReverend Raven at CheckersJohnny Rawls at CheckersLocal LIVE music schedulesBe sure to support our supporters with your patronage!

In this January issue —

The Publication of the Linn County Blues Society- lcbs.org

Photo by Kevin Kinney Photo by K

When’s the lasttime you saw the

Daddy-O and Craig together?

It’s a one a those a really badda sins to

missa the ChiliChallenge. I don’ta

recommend it.

share the stageshare the stageat Kajiat Kaji

The Linn County Blues Society is a way cool, non-profi t 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 Affi liated Organization in the Blues Foundation’s international network. The BLUESPAPER is a monthly publication of the LCBS.

Website: lcbs.org

LCBS Offi cersPresident - Andy DergoVice President - Evan VulichSecretary - Steve SpringerTreasurer - Sue Dergo

Directors at LargeBob De Forest, Bill Meeks, Frank Wilson

ChairsEducation: Gary GibsonPR Chair: Stephanie HeckEntertainment - Greg WestMembership - Kevin CutsforthMerchandise - David Andrews

The Bluespaper & LCBS folksEditor - Evan Vulich Photographers - Bill Ray, see bylinesStaff Writers - Bill Ray, see bylinesDistribution - Andy Dergo, Bill MeeksParliamentarian - Bill MeeksProgram - Bob De ForestWeb Admin: 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.• Being a part of the groove!

Bluespaper Contact informationSend news, band or club live entertain

-ment listings or advertising to:Evan Vulich 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 dimentia, severe cramp-ing and diarrhea. Deadline for submis-sions 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.

2 / Linn County Blues Society ©2010 ©2010 Linn County Blues Society / 3

Murali CoryellSugar Lips Murali’s Music

Release Date: Nov. 17, 2009

Son of Jazz Fusion great Larry Coryell, ‘Sugar Lips’ was in-spired by the sudden death of Murali’s mother. With help from his father, Joe Louis Walker, Reese Wyands and collabora-tor/drummer Tom Hambridge, Murali Coryell has created a CD that is a jazz/blues/rock cross-over gem. Soulful vocals, twin-kling Strats and good songs make an album that inspires a lot of thought (Mother’s Day is almost hard to listen to) but still gets you up a shaking on a few tunes. It’s a nice listen, maybe even more than once.

— John Heim (A.K.A. “Big Mo”)

2009 Chili ChallengeParrot Heads & LCBS compete for the best chili!

Steve Springer

Kaji hosts CR All-Stars with a dynamic duoDaddy-O & Craig

Article by Frank Wilson (no relation to Brian)

Hey, armchair blues fans! There is no bet-ter time to join the LCBS than now! We could use your help now. We have posi-tions open. Bluesmore 16 is now behind us, we are planning next year’s festival. Just fi ll out the application on our web site and send it in with your 20 bucks and we’ll see that you are a part of a really great or-ganization! Help us keep the blues alive! Be a part of the groove!

Skeeter Lewis and the Cedar Rapids All-Stars appeared at Kaji Japanese Grill on Saturday December 5, and it was a real treat. Skeeter brought together some of Cedar Rapids’ best musicians (of course, they are the “All Stars!)

This lineup included Daddy-O McMurrin and Craig Erickson on guitars, DJ Johnson on bass, Butch O’Connell on drums and Skeeter on sax. It was a rare treat to see Daddy-O and Craig sharing the venue and trading licks. We could all see the Daddy-O and Craig were enjoying this unique experience of playing with each other.

Lee Nguyen’s Kaji has a nice big room, and a cool vibe for watching the Blues. Lee is a musician himself, and was our enthusiastic host for the evening.

The house was packed and entranced by this rare combination of local talent. DJ directed traffi c on “Jump Jive” and everyone got their share of the licks in.

Skeeter has some more special combinations like this up his sleeve in the near future; watch the LCBS Bluespaper and LCBS e-mail Blasts for upcoming ap-pearances. By the time this goes to print, Skeeter has also played with Daddy-O and Billy Lee Janey.

Above; The Daddy-O, Dennis McMurrin, along with Craig Erickson, brought a powerful musical presence to the table at Kaji Japenese Grill. Along with Craig and the Daddy-O, below, are the rest of the Cedar Rapids All-Stars; Skeeter Lewis on sax, Butch O’Connell on drums and Dan DJ

Johnson on bass.

Photo by Kevin Kinney

Photo by Kevin Kinney

The Isle of Iowa Parrot Head Club and the Linn County Blues Society will hold their

Tenth Annual Blues ‘n’ Buffett Chili Challenge on February 28, 2-5 PM at the Marriott Hotel on Collins Road. The Chili Challenge is a friendly com-petition between the two clubs to raise money for charity. Proceeds from the event will go to H.D. Youth Center and the Free Medical Clinic of Cedar Rapids. The Parrot Heads chose the Free Medical Clinic to help support costs for those who need medical as-sistance that is not affordable. LCBS chose H.D. Youth Center which pro-vides a safe place to go as well as food to under-privileged youth. Last year, the event raised over $5,000 for these two fi ne organizations. Over $16,000 has been raised and donated to local charities in the fi rst nine years of the event’s existence. You’re invited to at-tend to taste the various chilies and vote for your favorite. Admission the day of the event is $6 which includes fi ve vote tickets and the tasting of the chilies. Children ages 6 and under will be admitted free when accompanied by an adult, and senior citizens ages 65 and older receive a $1 discount on admission. Additional vote tickets for the People’s Choice award will be available for 50 cents each. The club receiving the most votes will receive a plaque and their club’s charity will receive 51% of the proceeds from the event; the runner-up club 49% of the proceeds for their charity. Chili Chal-lenge contestants are members of the two clubs and each brings their own special chili and booth decorations to share. There will be up to 30 chilies for tasting. Celebrity Judges will be on hand to taste and vote on the Best Chili. The club receiving a majority of judge’s votes for the Best Chili will

receive a traveling trophy and bragging rights for their club. A Silent Auction will again be featured at this year’s event. All monies raised from the auc-tion will be included in the donations to charities. Thanks in advance for your support. If you have questions or you are interested in getting some tickets to sell, please contact one of the fol-lowing volunteers. Steve Petersen 395-9520, Kate Sanders 842-2393 or Steve Springer 395-9516.

Advance tickets are available for $5 through February 28 by calling; Steve Springer at 395-9516, or Keith Wright at 377-4913.

Because of the bad weather, we will be having another showing of Love and Valor at the Collins Road Theatre on Tuesday February 23

at 7:15pm. We may even call it the rescheduled premiere.

Ushers Ferry will be in charge of tickets again. We will be sending out additional notices when we

get closer to the event. Thank you! Charlie Larimer

“... I think people overemphasize the im-portance of gear in their search for tone. Your sound comes from how you pick and dampen the strings and from your attack as much as

anything...” – Eric Johnson

4 / Linn County Blues Society ©2010 ©2010 Linn County Blues Society / 5

Return to Checkers Tavern & Eatery Return to Checkers Tavern Rev. Raven & the Chain Smokin’ Altar Boys Johnny Rawls gives classy performance

photos by Bill Ray photos by Bill Ray

Reverend Raven and his Chain Smoking Altar Boys performed at Checkers in

Cedar Rapids, December 3. It was a triumphant return for the Milwaukee-based band on a Thursday night, as a large crowd was in attendance to dance and listen to the Rev preach, play and sing the blues.

“Big Al” Groth was still playing powerful saxophone riffs and solos with the band–matching and comple-menting Raven’s blues guitar mastery and vigorous vocals. P. T. Pederson was perfect on bass, and Bobby Sell-ers, Jr. kept the rhythm on drums and sang harmony vocals and some lead vocals.

Reverend Raven’s musical journey has been told before in the pages of our Bluespaper. I refer you to our re-view in the June 2009 issue. You can refresh your memory by downloading

past issues of the Bluespaper at the Linn County Blues Society web site (lcbs.org).

Thanks to P. J. and Pam Harrington at Checkers for bringing a double dose of great touring blues bands to Cedar Rapids in early December: Reverend Raven and Johnny Rawls. Nice holi-day gifts!

Reverend Raven leads the Chain Smokin’ Altar Boys at Checkers Tavern & Eatery.

P.T Pederson playing the bass

“ Big Al” Groth still playing powerful sax riff s. Bobby Sellers holding the rhythm and vocals.

Johnny Rawls, lead guitar and lead vocals

Johnny Rawls and his Blues Revue performed Sunday, December 6, at Checkers in Cedar Rapids. It was

the evening of the Little Snow and two nights before the Big Snow. The band had played the night before in Des Moines and was on its way to Chicago to perform at Buddy Guy’s Legends club.

A medium-size Checkers crowd en-thusiastically greeted each song with ap-plause and appreciation. Listeners had come from as far away as Anamosa, Iowa City, and Decorah. One patron was a young man whose trip to Colorado was interrupted by car trouble. He told Johnny he was lucky to have stumbled upon some fi rst-ratemusical entertainment to pass the time while stuck in Cedar Rapids.

Indeed, Johnny Rawls always gives a classy, pleasing show as he sings and plays blues and soul-fl avored tunes. His Fender Stratocaster guitar licks are un-derstated, crisp and precise. His voice is smooth and articulate as he sings about love gone right and wrong, relationships between men and women, unfulfi lled dreams, and all the classic topics of any blues repertoire.

On this Midwest tour, Rawls was joined by his long-time drummer, Allen Kirk, who also does great harmony vocals. On rhythm guitar was James Cosey who did some excellent solo work. Rejoining the band after some years absence was James “House Cat” Carson on bass. Carson and Cosey were sporting long, black and

brown outrider coats and hats that gave a very polished dressy appearance to the whole stage show.

Rawls has two excellent CD’s currently selling well. “Red Cadillac” was released in 2008, and “Ace of Spades” in 2009. Many songs from these recordings were written by Johnny himself, such as “Wish It Would Rain,” “Can I Get It?” “Good Lovin’ Going On,” “Hard Times,” “I Want To Thank You,” and “Going Back Home.”

Rawls also relies on contributions from Texas songwriter Bobby Trenchardt who has penned “Moment of Weakness,” “My Broken Heart,” “Ameri-can Blues,” and “Falling For You.” The band played many of these originals as well as excellent covers of “Farther Up the Road,” “Pride and Joy,” “It’s All Right,” “Green On-ions,” and Jimmy Reed’s “Baby, What You Want Me To Do?” Go-ing from a sub-lime slow ballad like “I Would Be Nothing (With-out You, Girl)” to the bawdy “Lucy, Get Juicy” is all within easy reach of the silky smooth singing of Johnny Rawls.

Sitting at the CD sales table, I had ample opportunity to talk with Johnny about his life, music, and wisdom learned on the road. Rawls was born and raised in Missis-sippi. His mother did domestic work. His father did some truck farming, hired farm work, and bootlegging. In essence, he grew up within all the limitations of most Afri-can- American families living in a Deep South state.

Music was a way out and his chosen

profession. A guitar-playing grandfather encouraged him. Other musical infl u-ences in his youth were Jackie Wilson, Bobby Bland, B. B. King, and his mentor, O. V. Wright, whose band Rawls joined and played in several years until Wright’s death. In fact, his latest CD, “Ace of Spades” is dedicated to the memory of this infl uential mentor.

At age 58, Johnny Rawls is at the peak of his musical career and in good health. He has done it all---from songwriting, performing, arranging, touring, encour-aging younger musicians, and even start-

ing up his own recording label.The Blues Revue still does about 200

tour dates a year and played at ten blues festivals in 2009. Three festivals were in California, one each in Montana, Ver-mont, Pennsylvania, and one close-by in Wisconsin (the Prairie Dog Blues Fest.) Unfortunately for Rawls’ Iowa fans, a cal-endar anomaly had his Prairie du Chien festival appearance on the same day as Bluesmore in Cedar Rapids.

Continued on page 7

6 / Linn County Blues Society ©2010 ©2010 Linn County Blues Society / 7

Local Music Sat. - The Firehouse- Jam with various players 4-8PMSun.- Mahoney’s - Various artists-Never a Cover, 6pmSun.- Charlie’s, Coralville-Blues JamTues. Gibby’s Lab Jam, Chrome Horse, 8-11PMWed.- Checkers Tavern-Kevin BF Burt solo 6-9Thurs.-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 January 4, 6:30PM for

the LCBS general meeting. Guests are welcome!90 Twixt Town Rd., Marion • 377-6386.

January CalendarFri 1 Chrome Horse

Screaming EagleElectric Mule, 9-14Box O Rocks, Waterloo, 9:30PM

Sat. 2 Firehouse- JAMYacht Club

Various players, 4-8PMThe Demolition Band

Sun. 3 Mahoney’s Irish Pub Dick Prall (pending)

Tue. 5 Chrome Horse Gibby’s Lab Jam, 8PM

Thur. 7 J.M. O’Malley’sNext Door

Bryce Janey Group w/ DJ, 9-1The Mike & Rob Show, 8-11PM

Fri. 8 Beaver Creek, CRThe Hub, Cedar FallsErnie’s

Mike Williams solo, 9-1Blue Band, 6-9PMMcMurrin & Johnson, 6-9PM

Sat. 9 Firehouse- JAMThe Mill, Iowa CityMulligans

Various players, 4-8PMBlue Band, 9PM4Box O Rocks, 9PM

Sun. 10 Mahoney’s Irish Pub Billy Janey w/ Dan Johnson, 6-10PM

Tue. 12 Chrome Horse Gibby’s Lab Jam, 8PM

Wed. 13 Electric Park BallroomSammy’s Lounge, CRNext Door

The Tornadoes w/ Janiva Magness, KUNI BBThe Mike & Rob Show, 8-1McMurrin & Johnson, 7-10PM

Thur. 14 J.M. O’Malley’sCheckers TavernShuey’s, Shueyville

DDog & The BBits, 9-1Joe & Vicki Price, 7PMThe Mike & Rob Show, 9-1

Fri. 15 Java House, Iowa CityTornadosNext Door

The Blue Midnight Trio, 8-12McMurrin & Johnson, 5-7PMBilly Janey Trio w/ Dan Johnson, 9PM

Sat. 16 Firehouse- JAMChrome HorseShuey’s

Various players, 4-8PMJeff Bruner4Box O Rocks, 9PM

Sun. 17 Mahoney’s Irish PubParlor City Pub

Slip Silo, 6-10PMDemolition Band, 6-10PM

Tue. Chrome Horse Gibby’s Lab Jam, 8PM

Thur. 21 J.M. O’Malley’sCedar LandingShuey’s

Gibby & friends, 9-1The Mike & Rob Show, 9-1McMurrin & Johnson, 7-10PM

Fri. 22 TornadosThe Hub, Cedar FallsKaji Japanese Grill

Tom Bruner & Dan Johnson, 5-8PMHamilton Loomis, 6:30-PMSkeeter Louis All Stars, 9:30-1

Sat. 23 Firehouse- JAMShawn Ryans, CRShuey’s

Various players, 4-8PMMike Williams solo, 8-12Gov. of Funk Stew w/ Skeeter Louis, 9PM

Sun. 24 Mahoney’s Irish Pub The Werks, 6-10PM

Tue. 26 Chrome Horse Gibby’s Lab Jam, 8PM

Thur. 28 J.M. O’Malley’sDublin City PubCR Landing

Gibby & friends, 9-1The Mike & Rob Show, 8-11PMMcMurrin & Johnson, 8-11PM

Fri. 29 5th GearErnie’s

Electric Mule, 9-1Bryce Janey w/ Dan Johnson, 6-9PM

Sat. 30 Firehouse-JAMCR Landing

Various players, 4-8PMBilly Janey Band w/ Dan Johnson, 9PM

Sun. 31 Mahoney’s Irish Pub Chili Cookoff, No band.

“Guitarists should be able to pick up the guitar and play music on it for an hour, without a rhythm section or anything.” — Joe Pass

Johnny Rawls continued from page 5

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Married, with six children, Johnny has learned to take care of his musical business seriously. He has homes in Mississippi, California, and Milwaukee, where his wife and children reside. When I looked surprised at his owning three homes, Rawls explained that he does not smoke, drink, use drugs or waste money. He works hard, enjoys being a successful musician, and invests wisely. Enough said.

Other bits of wisdom I learned from this easy-going, friendly blues performer: Always spend Thanksgiving and Christmas at home with your family, choose reliable and talented band members who understand and support your musical style and it’s more eco-nomical to use rental cars (two months at a time) while on tour than to own your vehicles and pay for repairs and maintenance.

After his Cedar Rapids gig, Johnny was going to spend a couple of days at home in Milwaukee with his wife and kids before driving to Chicago for his show at Buddy Guy’s Legends. He said one of his older daughters sometimes joins the band to sing a few songs. With obvious paternal pride, he said, “She has a really good voice!”

After the Christmas holidays with his family, Johnny Rawls will be on the road again with a scheduled New Year’s Eve show in Rockland, Maine. I kind of wish I could be there. There’s going to be some great dancing and some great soulful blues going on.

Above: James Cosey, rhythm guitar, James “House Cat” Carson, bass. Below: Allen Kirk, drums and harmony vocals

Andy & Sue Dergo, Bob Dorr, James Ferry, Don & Diann Barrigar, Dale Cooley, Jill Handley, Bryce Janey, Bev & Ian Philpott, Ron Schantz & Christine Everhart, Phillip Smith, The “Rev-erend” Frank & Diane Wilson, Bill Keating, Tim Loynachan, William Ray, Nick Barp, Alan Evan-Schwartz, Evan Vulich and Daryl G. Wear.

LCBS membership renewals. Thank you!

©2010 January-Linn County Blues Society

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 Crawfi sh Circuit• 11 PM -midnight - The Melting Pot• Midnight Blues CD

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3535 1st Ave SE319-286-1111Ask for Chris

2160 Edgewood RD SW319-654-8405Ask for Darin

$5.00 OFFoil changes!

10% OFF all other servicesfor all LCBS members and family!

Linn County Blues SocietyPO Box 2672Cedar Rapids, IA52406-2672