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BLUES COVER BAND
DEBUTS FINE NEW ORIGINALS
Back Alley, an exceptional blues band hailing from the west
suburbs of Chicago, brought their talents to Belloumini’s Tavern
in Hinsdale, Illinois on
Saturday, May 10th. The tavern is a somewhat diminutive venue, but
intimate, and Back Alley filled the place with authoritative sounds.
Back Alley consists of members Jay Johnson -lead guitar,
Roger Legel - lead
vocals and harmonica, Bobb Nagel - bass, Eric Ryson - drums, and
Don Meldon - keyboards.
Joining them Saturday night was guest conga player, Mark Riordan.
Back
Alley originally started in 1989 as Frankie and the White Boys with
originators Ryson, Nagel and Legel. Eric Ryson is the band’s founder. He’s
the youngest member of the band, yet he’s been in the band longer than any
other member. Jay Johnson joined the band in 1991 and is a power force on
lead guitar. Johnson began as sound mixer, but when guitarist Scott
Marshall left the band, he went from behind the board to on the stage.
Johnson and Nagel have known each other since their garage-band high
school days.
The crowd was a little sparse at first, but started filling in right
before kick-off, which was a little late, waiting for one band member to
finish dinner. Also, I was christened with an accidental beer spilled by
one of the band members before the first note was even played. When the
band did start playing though, they started with a bang with the Deep
Purple tune Lazy, followed by a
Robert Cray cover Labor of Love. The tight
back-beat of Ryson and Nagel carried The Paul Butterfield Blues Band’s
Get Out Of My Life Woman and the potent guitar playing of Johnson combined
with the powerful, chest-pounding congas by Riordan were like a jet
airplane taking off on the Ides of March’s
Vehicle.
The debut original, The Old Ways
came across sweetly and was well accepted by the crowd, even though it was so new that
Legel was forced to read the lyrics from paper. I was blown away by both
Tom Petty’s
Breakdown and
Robin Trower’s
Too Rolling Stoned. I hadn’t heard
either of those tunes in quite some time, so it was a real treat. The blues artistry of Back Alley really shined on
Born Under a Bad Sign and
Paul Butterfield’s
Buried Alive, which was easy to tell is Johnson’s sister
Katie’s favorite. This was followed by another Back Alley original,
Put Down the Phone, a light-hearted song about talking on a cell phone while driving a car. Another of Johnson’s sister’s,
Chris, was treated to one of her favorites, Kenny Wayne Sheppard’s
Some How, Some Where, Some Way, ending an outstanding, crowd pleasing first set.
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The second set began with some stunning harmonica
work by Legel on One Bad Stud,
followed by the Stevie Ray Vaughn cover,
Tight Rope, which brought the crowd
to dancing. Back Alley showed its intimacy with its supporters by playing
Happy Birthday
to someone named Jenny. Then, they ripped into a
sweet yet smoking rendition of Santana’s
Smooth,
followed by the swinging momentum of the Beatle’s
Can’t Do That.
A melodious cover of Jimi Hendrix'
The Wind Cries Mary, with the only
lead vocals that night by Jay Johnson (which were fabulous might I add)
had half the audience slow dancing check-to-cheek.
Legel left the stage, and reappeared smoking a
spliff and donning a rasta hat with dreadlocks. The rock/blues experience
was transfixed into one big Jamaican Rastafarian house party. We were,
however, brought back into jamming blues with James Cotton Blues Band’s
No Cuttin’ Loose,
followed by one of the band’s old staples, Wilson Pickett’s
Mustang Sally,
which had the crowd movin’ and groovin’.
The band made me feel right at home. All of the members were very friendly
and outgoing and were quite helpful when it came to answering any of my
questions or giving me background information. In fact, a different band
member even spilled another drink on me (Captain Morgan and Diet Coke this
time) before the beginning of the last set. I was having too much fun to
be concerned about it though. And a rocking version of Jeff Beck’s
Freeway Jam made it all worth while!
The well-balanced combination of cover tunes and
originals make Back Alley a band to be enjoyed by almost any audience. You
can bet that I will be attending as many shows as I can in the future.
Thanks, guys, for a great night!
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