Road Trip: Destination Chicago!

 When a buddy of mine, and fellow blues fan, moved to Chicago a road trip to the windy city was a no brainer. The game plan was simple- catch as much blues as was possible in five days and make sure to check out some of the blues joints people told me were too dangerous to go in. Mission accomplished!

 A short time after landing in Chicago we wasted no time hitting the clubs. After a couple of false starts we wound up on the Southside at Club Malcom a cozy neighborhood joint where veteran L.V. Banks and band were cranking out some tough blues. Banks isn't too well known outside of Chicago but has a couple of solid releases on the Wolf label. He did a fine set featuring his best known tunes "Ruby" and "Teddy Bear." It was at Club Malcom that I would hear the same refrain in every joint we went into on the Southside- "You play?"

 Speaking of places off the beaten path I doubt most tourists find their way to the Cotton Lover's Lounge. Again another comfortable neighborhood bar where most people are regulars. Our mission that night was to check out Elmore James Jr. and of course to find out if he was a real relation to you know who. Well after talking to Elmore before his set he claimed to be really be the son of Elmore James and told me he had papers to backup his claim. Well I took his word on it although after seeing his set maybe I should have seen those papers. Let's just say he's not going to make anybody forget about his dad. Still the night wasn't a total loss since we got to soak up two dollar beers and free fried chicken before heading out.

 Another great club was Lee's Unleaded which we hit up twice. Lee's is a great joint and seems to be the place a lot of musicians hang out and more often than not find their way on stage. Over two nights we caught Johnny Drummer who holds court regularly at Lee's and some very good singers including Nellie Travis, Pat Scott and Jesse Tolbert who popped on stage for a few tunes.

 We did hit a couple of the more touristy places including Famous Dave's and both Blue Chicago venues. Regardless of being a tourist spot Blue Chicago featured some first rate blues including a tough as nails set by Johnny B. Moore fronted by singer Mary Lane. Lane sings in a powerful down-home style and it's not surprising that she sang down South with such legends as Howlin' Wolf and Robert Nighthawk. In the other Blue Chicago club we caught an equally tough set by Willie Kent fronted by Bonnie Lee.

 Another a hot show was catching harp man Little Arthur Duncan's record release party at Smokedaddy's. The club was wall to wall and there' were plenty of local musicians in the crowd. Little Al Thomas jumped on stage first and got the crowd warmed up with his powerful vocals including a devastating version of B.B.'s "Sweet Sixteen." The crowd was more than ready when Little Arthur bounded on stage laying down a rocking set of tunes off his recent Random chance and Delmark releases. Lending a helping hand on vocals (from a wheelchair no less!) was the legendary Johnnie Mae Dunson.

 It wasn't all blues joints and cocktails however and we had a couple of other interesting blues experiences. I abused my radio contacts by arranging to meet Craig Bonnell from Alligator Records and Michael Frank from Earwig Records. After a tour of Alligator Records and a few free CD's later we wrapped it up with lunch discussing all mater of blues topics.

 Hooking up with Michael Frank was a big move. Not only has he run Earwig Records for the past 20 years but he also happens to be manager fro the legendary Honeyboy Edwards. I'm not sure how it actually happened but before we knew it we found ourselves sitting in Honeyboy's house. At 85 Honeyboy is an encyclopedia of the blues having run with the likes of Robert Johnson and Big Joe Williams and meeting first hand people like Charlie Patton, Tommy Johnson and Robert Nighthawk. Honeyboy was very friendly and his memory is dead on. We sat for over an hour soaking up some amazing blues history.

 Another worthwhile endeavor was riding all around the Southside with Michael Frank as he showed us all the famous blues clubs of the past (sadly all closed now) like Theresa's where Junior Wells made his home, the 708 club where big names like Muddy Water played, Turner's Blue Lounge and a slew of others I can't seem to recall.

 All in all a highly successful blues trip. Obviously there's a certain touristy element to some of Chicago's blues club but if your not afraid to take a trip off the beaten path you can't help but find the real deal blues.