Vacaville Represents at Sac IBC
Northern California Blues Festival
Bodega Seafood, Art & Wine Festival - 8/23/08
B.B. is still the King of the Blues
Mr. December at Marilyns On K
Okay, okay, I know I just did a review on Mr. December a couple of weeks ago. Sometimes, however, I see a performance that just cannot go without mentioning. Such was the case on this night for this incredible band.
After spending all day Friday and Saturday checking out the amazing talent northern California has to offer at the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, the blues girl and I planned to finish off Saturday night by stopping by to see Dana and the boys at the after hours show at Marilyn's on K in downtown Sacramento. Man, am I glad we did. The whole band was hitting full throttle but Dana Moret and Jim Papastathis took it to a whole new level on this night.
Dana was fantastic. She has a stage presence that is remarkable and her vocal skills are superb. Dana has great range and depth but her true talent is how she blasts out the vocal tracks, putting every ounce of her soul into her singing, feeling every line, all the while sharing the experience with the audience. Dana is definitely the premiere lady of blues and rock in northern California. She is an amazing talent and exciting to watch. At one point Dana and Jimmy Papastathis teamed up on a reggae-influenced cover of the Hendrix classic, 'All Along the Watchtower' and brought the house down. Keep it up Dana, I can't get enough!
As a guitar player and fan myself, the beauty of a band with this much talent is that on different nights you may see very different shows. When we last saw Mr. December Chris Martinez took the alpha dog position on the guitar, throwing his skills all over the stage and lighting the place on fire. Jimmy Papastathis played plenty but it seemed Chris was 'on' that night. Well, let me tell you at Marilyn's on K on this night there was no stopping Mr. Papastathis. Talk about 'on'. Jim put on a phenomenal display of guitar mastery that was in that class they call, 'crazy good'! Jim took to the stage and literally blew the place apart from the beginning to the end. On cut after cut, he took control of the stage and had the audience in awe. Jim is an excellent rock-blues guitar purist, is incredibly fast on the fretwork as well as being a great slide player. Heck, he's even good with his teeth! As I mentioned, I am a bit of a guitar man myself with a deep appreciation for guitar excellence and when he played, 'Little Wing', the Def Leppard classic I honestly got goose bumps watching him on the awesome guitar solos. It was truly an amazing performance.
I certainly don't mean to take anything away from the rest of the band. As I mentioned in my previous review, this is a band with deep experience and talent. It's just that Dana and Jimmy were riding a rocket that night. As always, Billy Roberts was great, singing and playing the drums. I love his cover of Joe Cocker's, 'The Letter'. He's a great songwriter also and writes much of the original material for the band. Steve Schofer on bass is always great and is an extreme talent in his own right. Steve sets the beat and beyond while on stage. Chris Martinez, the other guitar whiz is always great and has raw talent. His Texas style guitar work is always fun to watch, with his head down and him rollin' up and down the frets.
If you can't tell by now, I really like this band. I see two or three bands every weekend and know how hard it is to get a good band together, then to stay together long enough to make it work. Well, this is working. Dana told me they are going to be hitting the studio soon to lay down some tracks so they can get out there out there to be heard. All I can add to that is to give you my sincere recommendation that if you want to see a talented, fun, hot, rockin� band, then get your fanny in the seat at the next Mr. December show. Maybe we'll even see you there!
"Keep your eyes and ears open, the Blues are alive in northern California!"
Mr. December at Constable Jack's - 5/9/08
Cole Fonseca at the Torch Club - 3/28/08
Blues Blowout at Cache Creek - 2/1/08
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