Gig Report (kinda) June 16, 2019

[Spidey2112]

Nice, @Koog! I actually thought the stage was fine, and I love the backdrop! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Koog]

I call us, The First Time Thru Band.

Before we came up with the name, "Bluesdawgs", we called ourselves the "We Never Rehearse Blues Band". LOL!

 

[foolforthecity]

Sweet report - and I especially liked the gourmet popcorn setup! Pass the salt and butter please...

Thanks for sharing, Koog

 

[filmtex]

Nice report. I help host two, sometimes three, R & B Jam/Open mics a week and have done so for years. Guess it's time for me to take the time to do a gig report myself. I thought yours was great. You set a high standard for us "jammers"!

 

[rjake007]

Cool report @Koog. Great rig! Thank you for sharing. That place looks like a fun place to play.

 

[alaskaleftybass]

Nice report, can't see the videos still!

 

[Ggeorges]

A couple months ago BassCliff filed one of his great reports, albeit in a smaller venue he referred to as a dive bar. Cliff and I exchanged a few humorous private messages about dives and our experiences playing them. The one in his report looked "Cadillac" to me and I promised to soon file a report on a play date in my neck of the woods.

So, Cliff....here is a promise kept.

Background: Des Moines, Iowa has a very robust music community, rich in sharing and fellowship among musicians. Part of the result of this is there is a very active jam session scene, with two weekly sessions dominating the scene on Tuesday and Sunday evenings. There is a handful of internationally touring artists that call this area home. Most of them are at least semi regular on the jam scene when they are not touring.

One of my great musician friends, Kim Mason, and I began hosting the Sunday session in February of 2016 at a venue that had experienced declines in attendance over the couple of years before we began. The, idea was to rebuild interest, perpetuate the jam and, of course, sell adult beverages. So we got started. The venue has a capacity of about 85 souls and the majority of Sundays we fill it with music lovers. Many nights we will have 25 - 35 jammers take the stage. Many are experienced, some are novice, but everyone gets stage time with 3 - 4 songs in their set. Kim and I also endeavor to mentor those that welcome that from us.

in the spirit of good disclosure, I took a break from hosting beginning in November of 2018 to have some corrective surgeries to my hands, wrists and one elbow, so am just now getting back into the swing. This past Sunday was my second host slot since my hand fixin' began.

An aside....Kim and I also work with several other wonderful musicians to play at the Central Iowa Homeless Shelter to entertain constituents there every other Saturday, late December through the end of June. This is most rewarding work (volunteer for us all) as it helps give these folks a sense of humanity and really brightens the day for them. The smiles are wonderful, they are incredibly thankful, and we have even discovered some pretty good musicians among their ranks to make some music with us.

The Report: I don't have photos from the road, but take a 55 mile drive through rolling Iowa, agricultural ground to arrive at the venue.

The Hull Avenue Tavern, in operation since 1910, the longest continuous operating venue in Central and Southern Iowa. We say it is one of the top 10 dive bars in the universe....and damned proud of it!

View attachment 3449566

The stage as set up begins....my buddy Kim in the photo....great guy....great blues guitarist.

View attachment 3449567

Their poster.

View attachment 3449574

Our poster.

View attachment 3449576

You can order about any domestic beer you like, as long as it's Bud, PBR, Coors, or Miller. A few well drinks too, if one prefers something harder.

View attachment 3449584

Just like Cliff's gigs we are always offered a mouth watering gourmet meal.

View attachment 3449585

My rig for the evening. Bergantino Forte with an HG 410. The bass is a Drake Custom 33" fretless PJ.

View attachment 3449587

My little corner of the stage.

View attachment 3449588

We had several musicians join us for our opening set.

View attachment 3449590

Kim on guitar.

View attachment 3449599

Jason on Drums.

View attachment 3449594

Rob on keys.

View attachment 3449595

Kathryn plays a mean blues fiddle.

View attachment 3449596

Jere on Mississippi saxophone.

View attachment 3449597

Josh on guitar....a real up and coming young player.

View attachment 3449598

And, yours truly....everyone's favorite septuagenarian on bass.

View attachment 3449600

My photos are blurry because I always seem to be moving!

I mentioned earlier that we get touring musicians joining us from time to time. This past Sunday, we were joined by Kent Burnside, grandson of Mississippi Hill Country Blues pioneer, R.L. Burnside. Kent is in off the road for a short time, and it's always fun to have him as a part of our show. He's a great traditional blues singer and one hot guitarist. He asked me to play bass for him at our session, as he did last Tuesday in the other Des Moines blues jam. Kent is a warm and gregarious guy and it's always my privilege and pleasure to play bass for him.

Below are a couple of his songs from Sunday. Please excuse the quality, they are cell phone videos taken late in the evening...but you'll sorta get the idea. In the first, he told me to lay down a groove in C and we'd figure it out from there. The second is a take off on Muddy Waters' Catfish Blues. Rather than being like Muddy's version, it is more like the Gary Clark, Jr. version recorded in concert a few years ago.

Kent is the tall guy to the left of the video. I'm the old guy playing bass on the opposite side of the stage.

And, before any of you comment on Kent's guitar being a toy....it isn't. It's one of Kim's St. Blues guitars about the size of a Gibson Les Paul. Yup, Kent is that big, about 6' 8" and powerfully built.

The vids:





You can see the videos by clicking on the "Watch on Facebook" choice in the black box for the link. This seems to work on laptops, but does not work on Android devices.

Hope you all enjoy the report. We sure had a fun night of music.

And, Cliff, this is what the dives are like in my neck of the woods. LOL!

Best to all.....

Koog

I would love to be there....but i am 10000 miles and 1 continent away.....thanks for sharing

 

[Koog]

Nice report, can't see the videos still!

Yup....sorry, the videos aren't going to happen on this post. Just too difficult to interface with Facebook embedded videos. If anyone wants to send me a FB friend request and message me about the videos, I'll accept your request and you will be able to access them on my FB page.

Search for me as Fred Koogler. The photo next to my name in the search should be about the same as my Avatar here on TB.

 

[vvvmmm]

Ver' cool, but I must say, Cuervo, Jack, Stoli, Bacardi, Capt. Morgan, et al. are not well drinks.

I had to say that see = compulsion.

 

[JRA]

great gig report! and fun(ny), too. thanks for sharing your gig experience!

 

[bherman]

Great post - and a true dive! I used to play in one like that, it was dog-friendly and one of the bartenders had a big black lab that would sit on one of the bar-stools. Only difference (not a good one) was that the stage was carpeted. Probably not been vacuumed since the beginning of time. It was so nasty that dogs wouldn't lay down on it (the whole place was dog friendly, which added to its vibe).

 

[Rogatien]

Cool report!! I just love dive bars, and also tiki bars!!

It sure looked like a lot of fun, thx for sharing!!!

 

[Ostie]

I want to create a dive bar called "The Holy Diver" .
Great stuff -looked like fun- albeit a bunch of people were drankin buds
ALSO
You know you could play in Tx since you "got a fiddle in the band"
Thanks for posting!

I played mandolin at a jam in Marquette, MI one time with a cellist. That lady could play! Sounded great with the mandolin/cello thing going on.

 

[Koog]

Great post - and a true dive! I used to play in one like that, it was dog-friendly. Only difference (not a good one) was that the stage was carpeted. Probably not been vacuumed since the beginning of time. It was so nasty that dogs wouldn't lay down on it (the whole place was dog friendly, which added to its vibe).

This place is dog friendly too. Interestingly enough, most dogs that have been there are better behaved than some of the patrons.

I swept the stage before setting up, but would not touch the carpet for the drummer without a tetnus booster.

 

[growlypants]

KOOG??!! What the heck kind of name is THAT?!! (Just kidding - don't even ask me about "growlypants"!). VERY cool shots of the band in action, and nice rig, too! I considered Bergs, but ended up with the G-K, and I'm not unhappy at all. Nice bass too, while I'm at it. Fretless is my next endeavor. (Maybe in the next life!)

 

[MichelD]

Sounds wonderful. Except for the beer.

 

[Koog]

KOOG??!! What the heck kind of name is THAT?!!

Short for my last name. As a military kids, we were often referred to by our last names. Folks been callin' me, "Koog" since I was about 13, and it's been a long time since 1961.

Thanks for the kind words in your post, GP. We have a lot of fun doing the jams despite the frustrations that anyone who hosts jams knows about. And, I know you are a connoisseur of the gig reports here on TB, so it means a lot to get positive feedback about what we're doing from you.

Best to ya.

Koog

 

[mc900ftj]

Awesome! Thanks for the report...looks like my kinda' place! I particularly like the handwritten sign behind the bar, "WE DO NOT ACCEPT CREDIT CARDS. CASH ONLY!" Perfect.