Tag: slo blues society

Robert Lowery & Virgil Thrasher – Atascadero, CA (05/09/93)

Robert Lowery & Virgil Thrasher
May 9, 1993
Lake Park Pavilion
Atascadero, CA

Yamaha 16 Channel Soundboard; Sony TC-D5M >CDR >FLAC
XLIIS Master Transferred: Sony TC-D5M (Original Record Deck) >HHb CDR 800 PRO
CD Masters >FLAC (Level 8) Via xACT 2.35

Recorded, Transferred, FLAC, Tags (xACT 2.53), & Front Cover Artwork By OldNeumanntapr

SLO Blues Society

  1. Come On Into My Kitchen
  2. Dust My Broom
  3. Unknown
  4. Crossroads
  5. Unknown
  6. Unknown
  7. Unknown
  8. Baby Please Don’t Go
  9. Earthquake Blues
  10. Ramblin’ On My Mind
  11. Keep On Walkin’ (Walk My Troubles Away)
  12. Unknown

Robert Lowery – guitar, vocals
Virgil Thrasher – harmonica

OldNeumanntapr Notes;
This was the only SLO Blues Society show that was held at the Atascadero Lake Pavilion in Atascadero, CA, 17 miles north of San Luis Obispo. Shows are normally held at the SLO Veterans Memorial Hall in San Luis Obispo. The Lake Park Pavilion was brand new that year, so perhaps that was the reason the show was scheduled there. or, maybe the SLO Vets’ Hall was booked by another event.

There were four bands that day, though I can’t remember the headliners because they had their own sound man traveling with them and I was pretty certain that they wouldn’t allow soundboard recording. (My friend little Jack, a dwarf, was the SLO Blues Society’s sound man and I used to work with him setting up, tearing down and recording the shows.) I always recorded through Jack’s board, if we had permission or not.

Doug MacLeod opened, playing an early afternoon set outdoors by the water’s edge of Atascadero Lake. Catfish Hodge and Freebo opened the evening’s presentation indoors at the Lake Pavilion, and Robert Lowery and Virgil Thrasher were middle billed. Their’s was the last set of the evening that Jack ran sound for, and the last set that I recorded that day. Thanks to Jack for the line out on his Yamaha mixing board and thanks especially for the stereo mix.

This was one of my favorite sets that I have recorded from the SLO Blues Society. I love the acoustic blues and this group was dynamite! I had the feeling that I was seeing one of the last true acoustic blues virtuoso players, much like Mississippi Fred McDowell, or Lightnin’ Hopkins.

Do NOT Convert To MP3.
Enjoy! Share freely, don’t sell, play nice, don’t run with scissors, etc. 😉

James Cotton – San Luis Obispo, CA (11/14/92)

James Cotton
11/14/92
SLO Vets’ Hall
San Luis Obispo, CA
SLO Blues Society

Yamaha 16 Channel Soundboard; Sony TC-D5M Cassette Master [TDK MA-X] >CDR >FLAC,
Cassette >CDR Transfer Via: Sony TC-D5M->HHb CDR 800 PRO Via Analog i/o,
CD Masters >FLAC (Level 8) Via xACT 2.28. FLAC Tags Via xACT 2.53

(Recorded, Transferred, FLAC’d, Tagged, & Front Cover Artwork By OldNeumanntapr)

I THINK that Dennis Orr worked on this but I have nothing in my notes as to what he did. I think he supplied the setlist and figured out who played on what songs. Thanks as always to him.

Set I
Disc I:

  1. Instrumental*
  2. Steamroller Blues*#
  3. James Cotton Intro >Instrumental
  4. Rocket 88
  5. You Don’t Have To Go
  6. Rock Me, Baby
  7. Got My Mojo Working
  8. Sweet Home Chicago
  9. Just a Little Bit
  10. Instrumental

Set II
Disc II:

  1. Instrumental*
  2. Everybody Knows About My Good Thing*^
  3. James Cotton Intro >Hitch Hike
  4. Take Off Your Shoes
  5. Someone Else Is Steppin’ In (Slippin’ Out, Slippin’ In)
  6. The Things That I Used To Do
  7. I’m Ready@
  8. Get On Down
  9. Blow Wind Blow
  10. My Love Don’t Mean A Thing
  11. Mannish Boy
  12. You Know I Love You
  13. Let’s Shout (Baby Work Out) >I Feel Good >Set Closing Jam*

Encore –

  1. Stop Breaking Down >
  2. Outro Jam*

James Cotton – Harmonica & Vocals
Russ Williams – Keyboards & Vocals#
Quince ? – guitar, vocals^
??? – Bass
??? – Drums

*Band Only, No James
@Unknown Woman From The Crowd – Backing Vocals

‘The Forecasters’ Opened

OldNeumanntapr Notes;
This was the first time that I’d seen ‘Mr. Super’, James Cotton. He blew a great harp but I thought his vocals were really raspy. I’ve seen a few harmonica players at the Blues Society over the years and thought that James Cotton was one of the better ones. I liked his playing better than say, Charlie Musselwhite, but their styles aren’t quite the same so maybe that’s not a fair comparison. Some drunk woman from the audience got up onstage and ‘performed’ with the band. I don’t know if you’d call it singing or just moaning but people laughed and the band seemed to find it amusing. This might have been the first time that I used my Sony D5 to record one of the SLO Blues Society shows. I had recently purchased it from my friend Jack in Salt Lake City when he made the transition to DAT. Thanks, as always, to my friend Little Jack, the house soundman for the Blues Society, for allowing me to plug into his Yamaha soundboard. His gear was old but had good sound. (He told me once that the mixing board came out of a club in Los Angeles that was being torn down and he bought it from a pro-audio recycler.) I was a volunteer on the sound crew for the SLO Blues Society for most of the 1990s until Jack retired in the very early 2000s. Some shows we had permission for and some we did not, though Bob, the President of the Blues Society would always ask for a copy of the tapes!

Do NOT Convert To MP3.
Enjoy! Share freely, don’t sell, play nice, don’t run with scissors, etc. 😉