What you missed at the jam

Ronnie Shellist and Todd "Buckweed" Edmunds at Ziggies Famous Sunday Blues Jam last night. I put them up on stage with two members of my band, the Blues Allstars: Steve Mignano on guitar and Billy Hoke on drums.

Ronnie is playing through my harp rig: Front and Center cystal mic and Mission Chicago 32-20 amp.

Al Chesis & The Delta Sonics are on their way to Memphis

Here is video of Al Chesis and his band The Delta Sonics winning the finals of the Colorado Blues Society International Blues Challenge event. They advanced to the world finals in Memphis in February.

Al is playing Hohner harps with a vintage JT-30 ceramic mic into a 1958 Fender Bassman.

The Emotional Value of Note Relationships

Ronnie Shellist explores an outstanding topic.

"Bumkin" at the IBC in Boulder Colorado

The band "Bumkin" competes in the International Blues Challenge prelims at Boulder Colorado, Sept 11, 2011. Bill Walsh on harp.

Bill is using a custom bullet mic with Shure CM, into a Harpgear HG35 amp.

Al plays Fat Chrome

Al Chesis & The Delta Sonics at the Boulder Outlook in Colorado, Sept 13, 2011. Jeremy Vasquez on guitar, Willie Panker on drums, John Butler on bass.

Al is playing through his vintage ceramic JT-30 microphone into his Bandmaster tweed clone from Mission Amps. His collection of cool vintage harp amps is sweet. But this is his normal gig rig.

Reverbnation

Please check out our Reverbnation band page: Updated pics, songs, gigs and more. Thanks!

Power Harp

A fan at our gig last night called me "Power Harp." LOL... I think it fits. With this band (The Blues Allstars), I tend to play hard and imitate the guitar tone and lines. We trade a lot of riffs. It gets pretty far from your strict old-school blues harp style. Blues harp Nazis get the vapors at our gigs. They think I'm doing it "wrong."

Some of the Power Harp thing might be about the tone I'm getting now. I've gone back to a minimalist philosophy: harp, mic, cable, and amp. No effects, not even reverb or delay. I bought a cheapie tilt-back amp stand at Guitar Center for $19.99 to point the amp more toward my ears so I can hear myself even when I'm not in the monitors.

I'm still loving the Mission Chicago 32-20 amp. It's tone is wonderful: warm, crunchy, punchy, and responsive. The amp is relatively small and light (a 1x12 amp in a tweed Deluxe cab, 35 lbs. and 35 loud watts). It pretty much keeps up with the guitar player's Fender Super Reverb.

Power harp!