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Bobby
Rush at Nacho
Mama’s (7/14/99)
How many times have you heard this
statement "man I wish I had seen some of
the legends in a small club." You know Muddy and Wolf at Peppers,
Buddy Guy at the Checker Board Lounge, Jr. Wells at
Theresa’s or Professor Longhair at the
Maple Leaf . Well those good ole days were here
again, for at least one night.
One a hot summer night the legendary blues
performer, and one cannot stress performer
enough, the great Bobby Rush played to small but totally
enthusiastic crowd at Nacho’s Mama’s in Geneva. Bobby,
backed by a band of veteran musicians which consisted of Housecat (Melvin
Hendrix) on keyboards, Bruce "Hitman" Howard on drums and
Bobby’s son on bass, opened up with Jimmy Reeds
"Big Boss Man" set up to Michael
Jackson "Billie Jean" beat. Totally jook joint stuff, the crowd
was bouncin’ already. Bobby then joined the band
on its small wooden stage and began what was
to be a great 3 hour show. Along the way Bobby performed
many of his classics tunes, there was "Booga Bear" from his
Waldoxy release "Lovin A Big Fat Woman",
"Hen Pecked" and "She’s So Fine"
from his latest effort "One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show" and his
classic tune from his 1971 Galaxy single
"Chicken Heads". He also covered
Muddy’s "Nineteen Years Old", Big Joe Turners "Flip Flop
& Fly" and Percy Mayfield’s
"Highway Is Like A Woman". Oh yes, Bobby had his legendary
shake dancers with him. What would be a Bobby Rush show without
his dancers.
I had only seen Bobby once before as a
headliner at the Pocono’s Blues Festival
and was wondering how he would pull his act of in a smaller environment.
Well that was a mistake as Bobby pulled it out, full force. So
the next time I hear somebody reminiscing about he good old days I’ll
remind them that those good old days are still here,
you just need to dig from them ,but the
formula is still the same, great talent and a great
joint.
It was an unbelievable night of music and
entertainment as the owner of Nacho’s Mama’s
,Carmen West , created an atmosphere of legendary proportioned
as the night Bobby Rushed played Nacho Mama’s will go down in
my book as one of the great concerts I’ve ever witnessed. Thanks Bobby,
thanks Carmen.
Review
by
Dave
Moskal
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