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Sunday, August 16, 2009

Heavenly Hot August Jam



Wow! I almost hate to tell you about the Hot August Blues after party at Hightops Backstage Grille last night- you'll be kicking yourself that you missed it!

I can't tell you how happy I am that Old Man Brown opened the festival and served as the house band for the late night shindig. I've been watching Adam and the boys play their jam-based blues and funk to a growing following at bars around Baltimore for a few years now, and they never fail to deliver. But, last night may have been their most shining moment.

After a laying down a sweet, horn-kissed groove for a few songs, they got the great Tom Principato to trade leads. A few more friends did a little round-robin instrument swapping and as the rivets started to unfasten, a couple of guitar legends waltzed in and completely blew the roof off!

Imagine this: Jason Isbell and Derek Trucks trading leads on The Meter's "Cissy Strut." ARE YOU KIDDING? Man, (Baltimore Unsigned producer) Nick Jackson and I were inches away from rock and roll greatness and a jam that couldn't be scripted any better. It was in a word: blissful.

Jason told me afterwards that he had never met Derek, but always wanted to.....and was stoked at the chance. The two hung out at Hot August which then led to this impromptu guitar get together. And they both looked like two giddy boys who pulled off the greatest prank in school history.

Trucks, Isbel and Old Man Brown laying it down: as that beer commercial used to say, the one with satisfied dudes sitting around the fire eating their catch, "It doesn't get any better than this."

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