As we approach a spanking new year, let’s evaluate how this one’s going to conclude.  Magnificently! 

Starting with Thursday the 6^th, BluesSchool hails Sammy Dee Morton back to Skinny Jay’s stage for more of his Louisiana and Texas style blues.  This guy has toured and played with the best, including B.B., Doug Kershaw, Al Green, Anson Funderburgh, and opened in front of 100,000 for Steppenwolf.  I’d say he has some stage experience.

http://www.sammydeemorton.com/Home.asp

Saturday, 12/8 is Blumeadows, a Jimi Hendrix tribute band with a loud energy and fun presence.  12/9 is a blues jam with our very own Lionel Young and Mark Diamond with players welcome as always.  The 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th bring, respectively, Felonious Smith, The Shamans, and Zebra Junction for a nice triple threat of a weekend.

On the 18^th, another blues jam with African Wind, followed by Rex Peoples and the X Factr on the 20^th.  See last week’s review for more on The Voice.  The Delta Sonics are back on the 22^nd.  The night before that, however, Jason Ricci and New Blood return to thrill Boulder!  Can’t wait!  This will be my 4^th occasion to hear this great band.  The last time, I got an interview.

So, now on to that infamous (by now) one-on-one I was privileged to have with Jason Ricci.  In light of a tremendous amount of background noise, we can’t post the audio, but I can synopsize our conversation, most of which was about Rocket Number 9, Jason Ricci and New Blood’s latest CD offering.

First of all, we shall discuss the dethroning of Prince.  A few years ago, I accompanied an old friend to a Prince concert.  Front row.  Now, not being a fan, per se, I was merely going along for the ride.  At the end of the three-hour extravaganza, I couldn’t help but appreciate that it had been the best overall show I’d ever seen.  Prince held that standing until May 5, 2007.  Prince was dethroned by JR&NB on that fateful night at the Outlook (I’m considering a crowning ceremony upon their 12/21 return).  In informing Ricci of the above (adding that I would advise anyone faced with the choice between a Prince show and a JR&NB show to go with the latter), he stated, with genuine modesty, “You can’t tell people to choose us over Prince.”  My reply was simply, “Yes I can.”  And I just did. 

After the aforementioned crowning ceremony, the boys will hit the Outlook stage for their only Boulder CD release party, even though it’s a CD worthy of nightly parties (although I’m not entirely certain my neighbors agree). For a comprehensive review of said CD, please see Dan King’s review at

http://www.bouldershomeoftheblues.com/News12point5-DansReviewOfRicci.html

As for the logistics of this remarkable CD, it was produced by John Porter, a Grammy® award winning producer, who, in Ricci’s estimation, became a fifth member of the band.  It was recorded over five days at Tito Jackson’s studio, where brother Michael recorded Thriller (we are blues fans, so for us the more important artist who recorded there was Stevie Ray Vaughan).    

Ricci talked about the unmistakable difference between this and their preceding recordings, and that being the regrettable necessity of money and lots of it; five days versus the approximate six hours for each of the others (not to say that the raw quality of their prior recordings is in any manner unenthusiastic or undeserving of purchase).  He also spoke of the industry’s aspirations to define both the band and the CD, and the unachievable nature of that pursuit.  As he said, “This may sound trite [it didn’t], but it’s hard to define us; we are just us.”  “Just?”  Such an underestimation. He is correct that this band cannot be placed into compartmentalized differentiations.

That said, we discussed the state of the blues and other styles of music that may be unconventional to the general public and the dramatic disparity between the paychecks of a Britney Spears and, well, a good band.  Ricci responded simply, “If you want to play great music, you’re not going to make much money and you’re not going to have as broad an audience.”  How many things are wrong with that tragically true statement? 

It is this point in the conversation I began to grasp how generous and munificent Ricci is as both an artist and human being, when he said, “’Oops I did it Again’ might mean as much to someone else as one of our songs does to you, so I don’t want to dis that.  Art is subjective.”  Too kind, Jason, too kind. 

When I brought up all the available information and reviews on what he has done to change the course of how people hear the harmonica, his response was “I don’t really know if that’s true, and I don’t want to say that.  I want to be around for a long time and try lots of different things.”

Then we got political, and although once again Ricci demonstrates his superior intellect, the realities of what he faces as an openly gay performer are just too depressing to repeat, even though he has a very practical and realistic approach to the subject without any perceptible bitterness.  So instead, I’ll end this with the antidote to the rampant intolerance he sometimes encounters:  I happened to be standing right in front of the main stage at the Greeley Blues Festival when JR&NB were performing, and directly behind my right shoulder was a stereotypical looking Greeley rancher in overalls, beard, and, well, republican-looking.  The more he watched Ricci, the more stern his expression became, until I was certain he was a raging homophobe.  After about the third number, as the applause died down, he cups his hand to his face and yells, “Tell the rest of the bands to go on home.  You boys just keep on playing.”   Bravo.

So, Jason, Shawn, Weed, and Ron, you boys just keep on playing.  See you in a couple of weeks.