"He's let his hair grow again", I notice when he comes on stage. With an energetic pace the 76-year old blueslegend walks to his keyboard. He want to play some boogie-woogie spelen before he introduces his new band. As if he has become the support band for The New Band.
The New Band is like a breath of fresh air: Rocky Athas playing lead gitaar, Greg Rzab on bass, Jay Davenport (could be Steve Jordan's father) drums and old friend Tom Canning on organ!!! The band clearly enjoys to play en the old boss has an importat role in doing so. He let every bandmember excel in turns.
Highlight for me is the old classic "California", where the qualities of bassplayer Greg Rzab are shown. Bass and harp seem to be a nice combination! John Mayall points out several times that his new cd will arrive in september. He hasn't lost his commercial feel. They play one song called Numbers Down. They played it last year also with the old bluesbreakers but it stil didn't impress me.
Ofcourse John playes his standard repertoire: Have You Heard, Room to Move, All You Love (Otish Rush) and ofcourse Congo Square. In Room to Move they let it go completely. The original vibe of the song was already gone for me but -next to a heavy drumsolo of Jay Davenport (a "powerhouse"drummer according to John), Greg Rzab suddenly playes a keyrole in this oldie. A fabelous bass-solo fires up the (on average 50 year old) audience and John Mayall on top of a soundbox. Greg sems to have takne over the role of Buddy Whittington :).
yes, he does! Und kommt im Herbst'12 sicher auch zu dir in die Gegend! Rocky Athas ist übrigens ein ganz herrvoragender Gitarrist aus Dallas. Er ist wirklich mit SRV aufgewachsen. (Wenn alles immer stimmt, was "Freunde" aussagen, dann muss "Klein-Stevie" früher mit Hunderten von Kumpanen 'rumgerannt sein...!) Rocky Athas hat auch eigene Sachen herausgebracht. Erst eine Instrumental-CD namens "That's what I know" (ich suche die CD, wenn sie jemand anbieten kann, bitte melden!) dann 2 CD's der Rocky Athas Band: "Miracle"(2003) und "Voodoo Moon"(2005). Beide produziert von Jim Gaines. 2007 dann "Lightning Strikes Twice", mit Songs seiner alten Band "Lightning". Aus der Zeit, den 70ern, stammt auch der Song "Cocky Rocky" von Thin Lizzy, gewidmet Rocky Athas! Und Rocky ist auf zwei Black Oak Arkansas Platten vertreten: "Ready as Hell" und "The Wild Bunch", sowie auf der "Tommy Bolin Tribute" CD von Glenn Hughes. Ich hoffe, ich hab' nichts vergessen!
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