Cafe Drummonds

Thanks to all of you that joined us for our debut inside the city walls at Drummonds on Monday. It was great to see the gang from the blindman forum, and Alfie and son Chris. And big Chris. Big Chris was no surprise, I owed
him money.

Man I love that stage and that room. Great sound system and room to move. Les and Mike played their butts off, and I got to turn it up a bit too.

If you noticed me laughing whenever I played slide, here's the inside story- I broke my regular slide guitar on saturday and didn't get a chance to fix it. On Monday I grabbed that old silvertone and put some heavy strings on it, tuned it up. sounded great, off to the gig. It wasn't till I got there that I remembered the guitar has those really dark position markers that fade to nothing under red stage lights. So it was like playing blind. Which is funny because most of the time I play with my eyes closed. What tripped me up was actually *thinking* about it. I won't make that mistake again

Well, we're off to Dundee next. I've got about 10 new songs that I've
written since arriving. I'll try out some of them on Saturday at the
Balcony. Hope to see you there!

Looking for a Vox AC-30

How can I *not* be looking, after all. I mean, I'm living in the UK, and some of the best musicians that ever were played an AC-30. It's the home-town tone. Think about it? Rory Gallagher, the Beatles, U2- all AC30. Gotta have that tone.



Well, it'd be easier if I wasn't broke. That'll pass. And I'll find that AC30 too.

Ok, enough day-dreaming about gear. Coming back to reality......

Well Chris, you missed a great gig.

My new band made it's debut performance at the Northern Lights Pub in Hatton of Fintray last night to a small but spirited crowd of new freinds that really know how to party. Thanks to all of you for such a great time. And to Eric the social worker and his friend Doug for making the drive. And Dave 'Barrelhouse' Blair, who was there for a bit.

So, my friend Chris was supposed to be there too. He's been instrumental (no pun intended) in helping me get started here, and he's planned on being there to celebrate with us- and spare himself the drive home by crashing at his friend Big Al's. Well Big Al was there, but no Chris. Must have been good, because Chris wasn't home when Big Al called to give him a review well after midnight.

For all my Alaskan friends it'd be no surprise, for my new Scottish buds this was a typical Son Henry show- start early, end late and loud. Almost 3 hours with only a 5 minute water break. The big surprise of the night was little Al the Hammond player. He slipped a note to the band stand reading "need a Hammond player?". "Sure", I said, thinking this was a long-term request. Five minutes later in came the gear, and man could little Al ever play. So, we ended a little later than planned, but we had a great time. My only regret is that Mike is just filling in for us on bass after our other bass player left us flat. We'll find those magic 'other' players I'm sure. For now we rock.

So, Cafe Drummond's on Monday night and then it's off to Dundee. Hope we'll see you there! If you're reading this and would like to sit in on Sunday afternoon send me an email. Let's make it a party!

Dundee Blues Bonanza

Just to let you know, I'll be at the Dundee Blues Bonanza- the largest free blues festival in Europe. So cool.

On Friday night I'm part of the show opening. I'll have my new band at the Marquee, opening to Tam White (who among other things was in the movie Braveheart), and Bob Hall, an amazing boogie-woogie style piano player and a legend here.

On Saturday I'll run down an hours worth of Acoustic Blues, including several new songs that I've written in the last couple of weeks. Probably have the lap steel and the acoustic lap guitars there as well.

Finally, on Sunday afternoon the band will be back in the saddle. This'll be a fun way to get a few drinks in before you head off to see Otis Grand. Save me a seat...

Details are on my schedule page.

Just an observation- some of you know how much I love to have fellow musicians sit in. If you're reading this and also on the bill at Dundee send me an email. Let's have some fun on Sunday!

Now, for my Alaskan buddies- I don't have a Suburban anymore. I've got a small truck to move kids, but there's not much room for gear. Somehow I need to fit me, my wife and 2 of the kids, my PA, an amp and a couple of guitars in a vehicle about the size of one of those Subaru Station-wagons. I may just need to strap things on the roof, or, (gasp) not take too many guitars. It's going to be a real problem. Am I stressed? Yes. First big gig and you know I've got to have the National, my strat, a silvertone, a lap steel as a minimum. But that leaves me with no backup. I'll let you know how this works out. Either way it's going to be a great gig.

Peace all. More later as the world develops, no doubt as it should.

June Gigs.....

OK, the new band will be making it's first appearance in town on Monday the 27th of June at Drummonds. We'll be at the Northern Lights (how ironic is that name for an Alaskan) on June 25, but that's a few clicks out of town.

So, come on to Drummonds, and expect a set much like SRV at El Mocambo- raw, loud and full of energy. See you there!

The Free Buster tour -or- September 23/24 at the Fly-By-Night club

Some of you that know me well know that not long ago I adopted a sled dog named Buster from the animal shelter. He's an incredible dog, and was great company while I was down from back surgery. He never did quite master changing DVD's for me, but he did learn to fetch the remote control.

To make a long story short, he's still in Alaska in the care of some very good friends. I had to leave him because our vet was totally confused about the UK's regulations for importing a dog. But, his time of exile is soon to end, and I can go get him in September.

So, what a great excuse to play music! So, for 2, count them 2 nights only, you'll get a reunion of my world-class band at the Fly-By-Night club, along with some very special guests. Show starts at 9:30, and if it were me, I'd go see Mr. Whitekey's show first, have dinner and then change into some dancing shows.

But wait, there's more. It's also going to be a CD release party. I'll have copies of the new CD "Live on the Atomic Mama Show" ready to go.

I can't wait. Halibut Taco's. A pizza from the Mooses Tooth. Get to see the dog. And some live blues with a great band. We'll be playing some new songs that I've written in the last few weeks that will be on the next CD.

So, there you go. Plenty of reasons to come out. Oh, and the weekend before? If you happen to be in Orkney, I'm on the bill with Peter Green. Not bad for a kid from the sticks huh?

Lemon Tree, June 3

Well it's now official. We're gigging again and it feels great to be back at work.

Thanks to all of you that came out over lunch to listen. It was a fun show for me, great sound and no broken strings (this is odd actually). Funny looking back on it, it felt like taking a huge risk breaking out the lap steel and blasting out some old Blind Lemon Jefferson. It felt ok, but I'm never sure how people are going to react. And the general reaction was the complete opposite- one of curiosity and fascination. One of you even told me it felt "hair raising" (in a good way). Ok then, we'll do more of that.....

Still feels like I'm settling in to the rhythm of shows here. An hour is fine, sound dis great, but there's huge differences in language that really become obvious when you tell stories or joke and sometimes they just don't translate. So I'll work on that.

But watch this space. I've got a good trio coming together, and that'll feature more electric things that I can't play solo. Oh, and lots of lap steel.

Cheers all. If you're reading this and you're not on my mailing list why not send me an email at

info@sonhenry.com

and I'll keep you up to date.

Cheers!

Son