Rattlebrained

Although around here November is often wet & cold, not really the kind of weather one usually associates with the Blues, there were enough scorching hot guitar solos at the 5th Vully Blues Festival to make a steam bath of the local swimming pool! And I believe it can be said that the festival has found its public since when I was there Friday night all the wine cellars of Praz were well packed and grooving.

Wine cellars? The Vully is a small wine making area in Switzerland along the northwest side of the Lake of Murten/Morat and its local Blues Club had the good idea of taking advantage of the areas topography in organizing its Blues Festival. 2 days, 8 wine cellars & 13 blues bands is how it was presented this year! The wine cellars are situated throughout the village

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Updated to add:

Well, once again for whatever reasons two of these videos have been removed. :-(
One can only hope that they will become available somehow, somewhere.

Check out this one while it still up!
Nursery Rhyme Blues

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Had a great time last night at the Left Lane Cruiser gig down in Geneva! These guys delivered an amazing amount of energy, all more considering they had driven down from Paris and arrived pretty much at the time they were programed to play. Having just faced the late rush hour Geneva traffic myself I can really sympathize; and be glad that I’m not that tempted by much of what the local music scene has to offer. Driving to Geneva is long enough (about 2 hours) that no one needs the extra half hour it take just to get downtown (it’s really not that big a city).

They immediately set up their gear, did a quick sound check and even had time to come over and chat with us

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You can find most of this review, as well as other reviews of this product, over at the Clanky Dog Bottle Cap Washboard Gloves page at Bone Dry Music, where you can buy them too if you are so inclined. I admit to not being completely neutral to these gloves since I designed the Clanky Dog Logo and so of course

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Cedell Big G Davis – Slide Blues in Boston 1983

Back in the days you actually went to a store to buy music, probably as much as 20% of my favorite LPs & CDs came from the bargain bin. 1993’s “Feel like doin’ something wrong” by Cedell Davis was one of those, an incredible album if you tune in to it which, BTW, you can still get over at Fat Possum Records!

Cedell’s guitar sound is raw and some might say

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One of the songs Blaise wrote for Swamp Train (website now deleted) starts with an imaginary train leaving the station and every so often the thought of having a train whistle to start the song comes around. As often is the case however, ideas like that mostly seem come at a “bad” moment, are not caught then & there, and go on to other horizons. Fortunately this one was came along often enough that we finally met with time, and a computer, on hand so I was able to search how to make one.

I found a good tutorial at The Woodcrafter Page and went to check if I had all the necessary tools, which I didn’t. Without a drill press and the proper bit it wasn’t clear it was worth finding a good sized piece of wood since the deep holes would probably be difficult to make. Plus, that kind of equipment tends to be expensive around here…

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First is a Columbus stainless steel washboard with bells, horns and a woodblock. It has a traditional spiral crimp profile which means that the metal is shaped with a series of horizontal round ribs going across it and each rib as a spiral like pattern on it. I like this board and its profile which has a smooth feeling that is accentuated by the stainless steel. It is very loud and has a plexiglas “woodblock” that I made and stuck on it with magnets.

Next is…

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