The Bluescoast Sessions

If you dig the blues, you're gonna get your money's worth from this one (and if you don't, might as well split right now). 15 songs, 25 musicians and almost 80 minutes of music - within seconds of the maximum you can put on a CD.

I got the idea for the Bluescoast Sessions while playing at Dean Germain's long-running jam at the Green Iguana. Great players used to stop in, and we made some magical music. What if I could record some of that stuff? Better yet, what if I just had my own little jam session, and invited all my favorite players?

Over the next ten years, as time and cash permitted, we'd stop into the legendary Panda Studio, pull out a couple of tunes or make some up on the spot, and see what happened - accompanied by plenty of food and drink, of course.

The old Panda was a glorious mess, every flat surface covered with tottering piles of tapes, CDs, mags, books, memorabilia from a thousand forgotten bands, guitar gadgets, penguins...and that was just the control room. There were several other rooms that had been reclaimed by the jungle long ago. Things are much neater and tidier now, but a bit of the fun was lost the day all that stuff got shoveled into the dumpster.

This album is not all about me - I wanted it to be a showcase for my guests, so that's why I put everyone's name on the front, in alphabetical order. Even more important, I wanted it to capture some of the spontaneous jams that are the essence of the blues, and the most satisfying aspect of music for me. None of the guests here are playing their usual material with their usual bands - I mixed and matched and watched to see what would happen. Stars played sidemen's roles and sidemen got to step out front and solo.

Some of these songs I brought into the studio more or less ready to play, and for others I just said "do a 12-bar with a shuffle/funky/train beat," and left a space for lyrics to be added later.

Except for vocals and one of the guitar solos, everything was recorded live on the spot with no rehearsals or charts - and sometimes no idea what the words were going to be or who was going to end up singing. Lori Cherry and Sandy Atkinson each wrote a new song to fit one of these jams (What Your Mama Done Did; Make Her Little Heart Sing), and Betty Fox and I wrote the duet Lucky Money together.

A few of these I've now been playing live for several years (13 Little Bluesmen; My Baby Don't Cook; Kick It, Lick It; Buckle Up Baby), but they were new then, and they all appear here on a recording for the first time. Only one song (Tell Me the Truth), is recycled. This one was on my first album, Bluer Than Thou, but I was never really happy with that version, because it didn't capture the gospel feel that I had envisioned. Well, I don't know anybody more gospel than Shawn Brown, so his B-3 playing was just what the preacher ordered - and his vocals, along with Betty Fox and the rest of us canaries, provided precisely the raggedy church choir that song was hollering for!

I had a blast on all of these sessions, and every guest got right into the spirit of things, bringing their own creative juices to the gumbo. Speaking of which, one of the highlights was Fly Gumbo, which we all made up on the spot.

The album contains a 12-page booklet with photos and information about all of the guests, which shall not be reproduced here (buy the darn thing already), including not only renowned artists like Damon Fowler, Betty Fox and TC Carr, but valued and respected sidemen like Benny Sudano, Dave Reinhardt and Tim Heding.

No list of Bluescoast musicians would be complete without a mention of the late great Rock Bottom (1948-2001). Rock was an inspiration and a mentor to several generations of Florida blues players. Benny, Dave, Dean, George, Jeff, Jimmy, Lucky, Mike, Rob, Sandy, TC, Tim, Tom - they all played with Rock at one time or another.

The Bluescoast Sessions were held at Panda Studios in Clearwater, except for one session (#12 and #13), which took place at The Springs in Tampa.
Overdubs, mixing and mastering occurred at Creative World in Largo.
George Harris was the engineer.
Brian Seachrist assisted on a few sessions.
Photos: Charlie, Bridget Burke, Max Dolder, Kyler Ragsdale, Michael Cerone, Jim Tizzano