01 Killin' Floor $ 02 Sugar Sweet 03 Got Me Running - My Babe 04 Unchain My Heart 05 Jealous Man $ 06 Little Bit 07 Movin' On 08 Stormy Monday 09 MOJO 10 Rock Me Baby 11 Kansas City 12 Intro - Scratch My Back 13 I Got a Woman 14 Little Runaround 15 Reputation 16 Next Time You See Me 17 Shake Rattle Roll 18 That's Alright & 19 Everyday I Have the Blues 20 Intros Matt & RC 21 Blues Is Alright 22 Night Time Is the Right Time 23 Little Bit of Love 24 Thrill Is Gone 25 All Around the World 26 If Trouble Was Money $ 27 Flip Flop Fly 28 Thank You Pretty Baby 29 Sun Rises In The East 30 Keeping The Blues Alive @ 31 I Need A Break 32 Green Grass
Players:
Charles Atkins - keyboards and vocals
The Blues Boys
Larry Laseur - harmonica, backup vocals, vocals &
Harty Wiedemann - guitar, vocals $
Tom Henning - guitar
w/ Matt Thibeault - bass
RC Leonard - drums
Andy Cornett - vocals @
Well Alright - hope there is enuff here to satisfy all ya blues. Guess this is our last gig at the Grand Finale. They probably closed that year or so, as did a lot of places we played, that cycle of bloom, endure & bust. The "stage" was really a 20 foot square of flat bare walls, maybe a 12' ceiling, fronting a deep narrow room; bar along the right wall; the other side heading down steep stairs to the restaurant. The front door (back of the room) opens right onto 4-lane Tennessee Ave & the strip of relentless college bars.
We used the PA mostly to support Charles in a small room like this, so I mixed whatever the boys wanted to mic, whatever I heard in the room, and the recording gets whatever. We didn't need to push the guitars in the skinny room so they are low in this mix. Sometimes that is not a bad thing - ya get to hear a lot of keyboards. RC on drums is coming thru ok via vocal mics, maybe had a snare mic; Matt on bass is picked up some but I wish we had more definition. Some of the slower tracks like Stormy Monday or Sun Rises In The East get a better mix; but it's cool getting a recording where you can hear Charles work thru fills and rythyms and counter rythyms and feeds and saves, as well as the solos. Larry floats his harp in and around all this - real good on backup vocals.
So this was the usual set of songs at this time. As you'll see the next night at Bullwinkles, the same old songs but different order so they get different emphasis or roles. Tonight closes with an extended Green Grass, the next night it's Lovelight pounding it out. Harty sings his usual tunes to give Charles a rest (don't remember him doing Killin' Floor before); Larry steps up with That's Alright; and Andy Cornett belts out his signature tune Keeping the Blues Alive. But mostly this is about Charles and the blues - and boy, how he delivers.
Memorial Day 2009 and it kept on raining.... Later on - I may find a way to upload someday after terminating the home connection. Maybe Hometown Coffee which has free easy connects (College & Duval by the IMAX, Kleman Plaza, City hall and all). And since starting this series (54 so far), looks like 50,000 downloads/listens for Charles and the Boys - way cool. Enjoy! SCopeland