Our little weekly Blues Letter is but a few months old and now entering its first New Year.   I feel a little weepy.   They grow up so fast. 

The Outlook’s Skinny Jay’s hosted a notable number of talented acts in 2007, and has built even more relationships with more musicians to ensure my “theme” for the New Year is prescient:  Two Thousand and Great (or just ‘0Great for short).

‘OGreat’s first month is off to a great (ha!) start tonight with the Randall Dubis Band.  Dubis is a wonderful guitarist who’s played with some real giants, including touring much of the globe for a couple of years with Sonny Rhodes, and playing clubs and festivals with the late Son Seals. Along with his own band, he also plays a lot with Willie Houston and the Blues Prowlers, one of Denver’s finest blues bands. 

Zebra Junction is back on Friday, and I’ve typed it before and I’ll type it again, hit their site and get to this gig!  I’m getting tired of repeating myself.  http://www.zebrajunction.com/

Tuesdays 1/8 and 1/22 are Blues Jams with African Wind and Sundays 1/13 and 1/27 with Lionel Young and Mark Diamond and players are always welcome.  Is this the year you decide to play in front of an audience?  If not, make that resolution!  You’ll have four chances a month to screw up the courage and do it.

The week of 1/6 has Mary Russell on the 10^th, McCumberland Gap on the 11^th, and Eddie Turner on the 12^th.  To hear music samples for these bands, go to the “upcoming shows” link on our homepage, and click on the dancing note under the names (thanks for that, Paul!). 

The 17^th, 18^th, and 19^th have three of my favorites:  Johnny O. for an acoustic solo, Tempa and the Tantrums (well, I’ve heard Tempa, but have yet to experience any Tantrums), and Mojambus, about whom we all know I’m pretty crazy.  Obviously, if anyone knows of any reason someone might want to serve me legal papers, it’s a pretty safe bet where a process server will be able to find me that weekend.  I should probably just book a room. 

So, certainly the first half of this first month looks illustrious, which bears plenty of evidence that I’m going to continue being very busy, which might be exacerbating a rare but manageable condition which was diagnosed the day after my recent birthday party with the Delta Sonics and loads of friends.  I’ll get to that condition in a minute.

My birthday.  Wow!  It snowed most of the day, so I knew the roads were going to be tough and some folks from Denver and beyond wouldn’t be able to make it.  However, the first wonderful face I saw when I arrived was none other than John Catt from the Grand County Blues Society who miraculously made the drive down from Winter Park!  I couldn’t and still can’t believe he made it. 

Other blues lovers who made it included Jim Primrock, Tempa, and Jerry Deall. Jerry and Tempa both sat in with the Delta Sonics (Tempa can totally rock “Happy Birthday!”) and I still can’t remember ever having a more fun birthday (my 30^th in Amsterdam was pretty great, but I think I’ll skip the recap on that one). 

The GCBS has a program call Blue Star Connection, and in a disorganized, last-minute manner (I sent out an email), I decided to turn the party into a mini-fundraiser for BSC.  Well, we raised nearly $700 and gave it to Mr. Catt on the spot!  Not bad.  Now, just imagine what I could do with some time and organization…

My friends were there and obviously very generous.  Thank you for your generosity, but most importantly for being in my life, which is made all the more wonderful by great friends.  I’m a very lucky girl, indeed. 

Well, then there’s that little condition.  And when I wrote that I was “diagnosed,” understand that it was a self-diagnosis.  I’m not stupid, and when I really put together all the symptoms and analyzed it, I could figure it out for myself and save a trip to the doctor.  You see, for the last few months, I’ve been forgetting things that I would normally never forget.  Ok, I haven’t forgotten to eat yet, but I’m hoping that’s next.  I’m forgetting appointments, to pay my utilities, friends’ birthdays, my phone number, names, etc.  It’s very unlike me and worthy of investigation.  Well, during a nice long sunrise walk, I figured it out.  With all the live music I’ve been experiencing, all the CDs I’m reviewing and enjoying, the musicians I’ve interviewed, the friends I’ve been making, this weekly Blues Letter, etc., I’ve been stricken with a rare condition affecting very few:  Bluesheimers.  There isn’t a viable cure, but can be managed with sticky notes and list-making.  Oh crap, I forgot where I put my list again!  Well, there is a cure, but it’s too extreme and potentially perilous as the patient has to go cold turkey.  Absolutely no blues allowed.  I’d rather forget stuff.

Next week we’ll discuss the rest of January and the end-of-the-month appearance by George Whitesell and His All Stars featuring Jill Watkins, one of the most delightful women I know.  I’ll be interviewing George and Jill separately and that should be fun. 

Happy Two Thousand and Great, and I want to thank everyone at the Outlook, everyone who’s ever played at the Outlook (ok, except that one band, and you know who you are), all the fans of the blues who make going to the Outlook so much fun, and everyone who subscribes to the Blues Letter (by the way, that’s now the official name of this weekly; it needed a name), for making 2007 such a tremendous year for me.  Really, I had a truly magnificent year, and wake up daily counting my blues blessings and looking forward to another year of great music and friends.