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April 29, 2007
R.J. Mischo at the Saloon 4-25-07
Ripping myself out of the shower after a workout, I motorvated fast for Mo’s house and dived into the roadtrip van. I nodded for a while and woke at Marinwood. Making sure we had the right exit, we zipped into the wilds of Santa Venetia while Mo worked the cell phone in the best Buck Rogers style contacting Jack and getting his address. Touch down was accomplished on the darkened street with great pilot care, and Jack in black came out of the shadows. A fast trip across the bridge with stories by Jack, and through the City brought us to a magically open legal parking space on the corner of Vallejo and Grant directly in front of the Café Trieste and 30 feet from the Saloon. God’s love is manifested in many ways, for Mo it’s magically open parking spaces.
I’d come hoping that Kid Andersen would be sitting in. Walking in I found he was the guitarist for R. J. Mischo that night and I was very pleased. Especially when I saw it was Johnny Ace of bass and Walter Shufflesworth on drums. Yessss! A crew of present day veterans on a weeknight with an open house! There were several musicians in the house and more would show up over the night. Kid was running his fingers over a Fender Jaguar, not one of the most common guitars. He looked ready wearing safari clothes and a Kanga beret over his thick Norwegian hair.
For some reason the Saloon’s lights were on very low and it was impossible to get photos. I gave up trying after a while and just went for the fun. R. J. had a blue tinted flashlight and he’d whip it out and illuminate the band members during their solos. Johnny Ace was doing his full showman act and the knee bends and soul flourishes were laid on hot and heavy. The audience was sparse and mostly knowing and the guys cut loose and played for themselves. Kid kept pulling licks out of his trick bag and then playing top quality rhythm guitar behind RJ. It was a feast for a guitar nut like me.
R. J. had just gotten off a plane from his new home in the Ozarks for a tight schedule of gigs in the Bay Area. The band was playing together for the first time—sort of. They’d all played together with each other some where some time and they were comfortable with each other working out songs right on the band stand. I had the feelings of being privileged to watch a tight dress rehearsal that was going really good. Crazy things kept happening and the band would go with it. R.J. would call out a less common song and Kid would look at him while the encyclopedia of songs whirred in his head, he would then nod and say, “Oh Yeah,” hitch his guitar and break into the intro. I didn’t make notes of the songs, but they didn’t do too many of the most common ones, they dug into the song bag. Several times over the show Kid appeared to be channeling Freddy King and did several of Freddie's less commonly done instrumentals. A guitar junkie's dream.
R.J.’s tone was simply outstanding and he really showed why he has such a following. I’m not particularly a harp fan, but I really dig what R.J. does. He’s got a ton of chops and he really makes music beyond his instrument. His singing was fun too. He seemed to feel the hilarious juke joint vibe of the night and fed it right back to us.
His witty stage personality was full on and the crazed hits just kept coming. “Did I mention that we have CDs for sale? Yes, that’s right, actual CDs! With music on them! The best kind! And these are really great ones! Come up and buy one right now! Did I mention that we have CDs?”
Along about the middle of the third set the day caught up with me and I faded and had to nap in the van. I’m told I missed Kid bar walking and playing to the Saloon mascot, the vertically challenged “Millie.” I’m sorry I missed it, however it’s cool, this was one of those great slightly unpolished nights of the real blues by four modern masters in a classic blues bar. Although I faded, I’m glad I made the trip. It was the Blues.
Sorry, no photo of drummer Walter Shufflesworth as no photo of him has ever been successfully developed.
Posted by Rolfyboy6 at April 29, 2007 10:41 AM