A Ton Of Blues have just moved their weekly Sunday afternoon jam to The Black Sheep Tavern in Sterling, Massachusetts. Yesterday’s Black Sheep debut was a full house affair with exciting guest stars. Teenage guitar sensation Desiree Bassett, New England harpist-singer James Montgomery, and south shore guitarist Gil Correia were on hand to help usher in the new location.
The band behind the jam, A Ton Of Blues, not only function as the house band for this Sunday jam. They also play out as a respected force in their own right. Front man Mike “Spud” Kelly sings and plays harp. Scott LeBlanc is their guitarist. Jeff Lorenzen plays bass. Al Clark plays drums. A Ton Of Blues can be found in Worcester area rooms like Gilreins in Worcester, The Black Moon Music Lounge in Belchertown, and Chili Head BBQ in Bridgewater. They’re also scheduled to play Precinct in Somerville, Massachusetts soon. They band formed in July 2010.
The number of people in the house and the number of musicians lined up to play in a backstage nook made it difficult to keep up with who was playing which instruments here and there. Let’s see how much can be sorted out in retrospect.
The Ton Of Blues band came out of the gate with “Ain’t No Midnight Train” and a few other numbers that played to their strengths. Ton Of Blues has a hearty rhythm section and front man Kelly has a sturdy, raspy vocal. Punchy bass lines, swinging Chicago blues harmonica, and guitar riffs reminiscent of rockabilly sounded great in the intimate, packed setting.
By the time Gil Correia came up with his axe, there was already excitement in the room. An organist was swirling bluesy chords, moving his deep, soulful chords around the groove from the thumping rhythm section. Correia went into “Red House” and showed the Worcester county crowd what he was made of, making the song come to life with dazzling fretwork. The guitarist also knows how to build an arc in a song with his multitude of high energy notes, and his phrasing was full of treasured notes.
Correia and that organist made their blues melodies dance around each other, weaving a fabric of mountainous sound. When Correia went into a slow burner blues number, he paid out that really cool, down and dirty, heart-aching, high-pitched cry in his guitar. He is also a sly vocalist, sliding his croon around the beat on “Have You Ever Been Mistreated?”
Next on was up and coming teenage guitar queen Desiree Bassett, a petite girl who can play a monster sound on her six string. Bassett played a wild, frenetic lead, and her phrasing went over the top. From her first notes to her last, her guitar simply screams. The rhythm guys behind her, fortunately, were also powerhouse players and could build something huge she could play off of.
Shredding like a demon, finger tapping and wringing all of the spark out of her axe possible, Bassett was an inescapable presence on stage. She ended her set with Cream’s “Sunshine Of Your Love” and she and her two rhythm boys pumped it out like pros. Propulsive bass, driving drums, and greasy lead guitar let the trio finish with an explosion of energetic flash.
James Montgomery came up and showed he’s still a master of the harp. You can hear the quality of his playing style even when he’s just warming up at the microphone. He sang “Good Time Charlie” and he sang it with a “whole lot of soul.” His harp playing is whistle clean and full of sweet blues notes. Montgomery still has his silken golden tonsils that ooze past the large sound of organ and saxophone that was going on around him. “Hey Hey, Mona” had that shuffling backbeat going on and Montgomery slid around it, and he architected the song with his vocal charm. He’s James Montgomery, and there really isn’t much left to say about a living legend.
There was a woman singer belting the blues when I left at five o’ clock, and I was surprised I had never seen her on the blues scene before. She had the tough mama belt that grabs the ears and doesn’t ever let go until she’s finished with you. A saxophone player was also on hand at this point in the jam, and he was amply entertaining. The whole afternoon was above and beyond what one would expect for an informal jam. Things can only get better for these Sunday jams in Sterling. There was a lot of star power and diverse talent on stage and more than enough feisty enthusiasm in the room.
www.ReverbNation.com/atonofblues
