Raoul and the Big Time bluesin for 27 years

"Somebody's gotta keep doin it" Raoul B

I ran into some friends outside Hugh’s Room recollecting where we were when we first heard this band (and that would be 27 years ago). I remember them when they were starting out with Cheung Liu on bass (and Raoul spoke lovingly of him tonight), then what must have been a pretty intense mentorship from the Swing Daddy himself, Terry Wilkins. They were a fresh-faced “baby band” but over the years the band really jelled and tonight they were as tight as a band who’d been playing six nights a week for the last couple of months. Then Raoul tells me they haven’t played since November and they pulled this off without so much as a rehearsal. That speaks to the caliber of musicianship that he has surrounded himself with - Darren Gallen ripping it up on with iceman-level telecaster running through one of those old school reverb tanks. Jesse Whiteley shone on that beautiful grand piano (which I think was brought in for some classical recital(s). Seems like our folky/bluesy Hugh’s Room might be reaching out to the classical music crowd, and nobody’s going to complain about that. Do what you got to do to keep that place going (they are now selling memberships) Allison Young stole the show with some sax pyrotechnics and a vocal feature - I remember billing her as “the new sax sensation” when I had her as guest at my Old Mill Campfire jam. I also remember that I had to twist her arm to get her to sing. When I said we do a “round robin” and everybody leads a song she was trying to tell me she didn’t sing and I said “surely you’ve got a couple of blues tunes you could pull out” - and she did! And look at her now - she’s a star!. The horn section (The Big Time Horns) were so solid - with interesting arrangements. Raoul said he just lifted the horn parts for some of the classic recordings that they covered. “I’m not gonna try to redo the horn charts for Little Milton!” This was a pretty damn authentic blues show. As good as it gets.

Feel free to forward this to any friend you think might enjoy my occasional ramblings (and maybe my music, too). The archives (going back to 1990) are available at www.torontobluesdiary.blogspot.com

See you out there, eventually.

BrianB, aka Butch, Nappy, Shaker, Two-Lane Blain, Colorblind Brian, Stringbuster, Buddha of the Blues

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