BB King

I played the gig last night & it was real busy.

I did a warm up set at 7 pm and we had quite a few poeple come in that were early for the BB King Show.

I played until about 10 til 8 & then I was going to wait till 9:30 & do my normal show & try to make sure I was playing when the BB King Concert ended so I could get some of those folks to come in. We had the doors to the club open so they could hear the music on the way to the parking lot.

After I played my warm up set, I walked over to Grand just to check out the scene & there was dude there holding a guitar. I asked him if he was going to get BB King to sign it and he told me that they had just taken Mr. King to the hospital. I checked the news today and am hearing that he is in good condition & they are expecting him to get realeased soon.

But at that time, It was kind of a drag. A real downer.

I went ahead and decied to go ahead an play some more since all the people were there and the place got packed. I did my best to put on a good show and be professional but I had this wierd kind of feeling. I normally am pretty happy if the house is packed but in this case it was hard to be happy when knew the only reason it was so croweded was because BB King was sick.

The other thing that kind of wierded out the vibe was that the a good portion happy Hour Crowed was still hanging around & I don't think they really appreciated the club being so busy. The happy hour folks (at any bar) can be kind of lould after a couple of hours of being happy and these folks were no exception. They provided a wall of noise that was not the exact backdrop of sound that I was looking for. I don't like to play loud and it kind of takes away the part of the show where you are able to bring it down and to more intracate things or play a slowers song with feeling type of thing. Still, They were spending money so I couldn't complain.

When I first drove up to the venue BB Kings Bus was parked in front of Whisky's Pub and the door was open. I was going to ask the dude standing there if he could get Mr. King to autograph the album cover I brought (Live at Cook County Jail) but he kind of gave me a look that made me feel like he wasn't in the mood to be aproached. I realize now that if BB was sick they probably didn't want to be chatting with folks. I can understand that. I want to be clear. It wasn't anything unfriendly but he just wasn't making eye contact when I looked at him & I didn't want to bother anybody just to get an autograph. I had been secretly hoping that with me being there all afternoon setting up that the opportunity might come up.

I did get to briefly meet James the Blueshound and his lovely wife Colleen. He came up the stage and gave me sticker & I did get to say hello and shake hands but I was pretty busy trying to do the show. They are nice folks. I know them from my email contact mostly. I had talked to James on the phone before. They do the concert caledar for KPFT and list all my shows as well as anybody elses who sends them in. They are really cool about it and do a great job. In the past three years I have come to really appreciate the work that they do. You can hear thier show "Howling the Blues" every Sunday from 2-4 on 90.1 on your fm dial or 89.5 in Galveston.

I did see a couple of other famiar faces in the crowd also.

The thing that hit me the most was the guy who brought the guitar to be autographed. He had a look of real disappointment on his face when he was telling me that BB King was sick. BB King is truly a blues legend. A guy that can bring more than just a blues show. He is a salesman of the blues and also someone who can reach out to people and get through. He makes em feel good.


I know he is 82 years old but I am hoping that he is out touring the country playing blues for several more years.


I wish him well.