Dicky Neely and Guy LeRoux at Port Aransas Community Theater,
Monday Night, Feb. 20, 2012


Photo: Murray Judson






Photo: Ronnie Narmour

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Below: Review of the performance by Ronnie Narmour, North Padre Moon newspaper

March 2, 2012 Island Moon A 11

Three Chords and the Truth
By Ronnie Narmour

Dicky Neely (Flour Bluff, TX) and Guy LeRoux (Corpus Christi, TX) played the Port Aransas Community Theater on February 20, as part of the Port A Parks and Rec’s Winter Sounds series. Neely is a longtime island fixture who plays a tasty blues harmonica and sings. He was accompanied on guitar by LeRoux. The audience at the PACT was 99% Winter Texans and half dozen locals (who all sat in the front row). The duo ran through a set of blues standards by the likes of Jimmy Reed, Sonny Boy Williamson. Robert Johnson, Big Bill Broonzy, Little Walter, John Lee Hooker, Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Dixon, Paul Butterfield, John Mayall and Muddy Waters… that’s the good stuff, people. I thought both artists played exceptionally clean with soulful, uncluttered passages. LeRoux is quite good and has a nice finger picking style. He also played a few originals and even a Cole Porter song.

Hubert Sumlin Dies At 80

By Rolling Stone
December 4, 2011 7:09 PM ET
Hubert Sumlin, the longtime collaborator with Howlin' Wolf whose unique playing on such songs as "Wang Dang Doodle," "Spoonful" and "Back Door Man" influenced generations of guitarists, died Sunday of heart failure in New Jersey. He was 80.
Sumlin, a mainstay of the Chicago blues scene, was ranked number 43 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. He was nominated for four Grammy awards and was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 2008.
"He always played the right thing at the right time," Jimmy Page, one of Sumlin's many admirers, once said. Sumlin, who played his beloved 1955 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop guitar without a pick, was a key inspiration for Keith Richards (who reportedly helped Sumlin with his medical bills in recent years), Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa, among others. Inspired by Sumlin's piercing lead guitar on Wolf's "Killing Floor," Hendrix sat in with fellow guitar icon Eric Clapton in 1967, the only time the two performed together.

Fred Jarmon Passes

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Fred Jarmon died this week after a tough battle with a liver disease. Fred was one of the best and most talented musicians I have ever known. His loss is a huge one for his friends, family and the music community.
Vaya con Dios amigo!

Playing The Blues At The Progressive Center

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Briefcase Full O' Blues

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Fred Jarmon Looks Like Jeff Bridges!

My friend and many times musical partner Fred    Jarmon sure has a resemblance to Jeff Bridges, oscar winner in Crazy Heart.

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Norton Buffalo Passes At 58
I just heard about the death of Norton Buffalo.
Below is an obit from the San Francicisco Chronicle:
Harmonica maestro Norton Buffalo dies at 58 Joel Selvin, Chronicle Senior Pop Music Correspondent
Monday, November 2, 2009
Norton Buffalo, harmonica virtuoso, one-of-a-kind performer and consummate
accompanist to the stars, died Friday night from cancer in Feather River Hospital, near his home in Paradise (Butte County). He was 58.
Mr. Buffalo, who appeared on more than 180 albums and spent 33 years as a member of the Steve Miller Band, was diagnosed with cancer in September.
His life will be celebrated Jan. 23 at the Fox Theater in Oakland in a benefit concert starring the Steve Miller Band and the Doobie Brothers, with special guests Huey Lewis, George Thorogood, Charlie Musselwhite and Bonnie Raitt.
"He was the antithesis of East Coast cynical," said Raitt, who spent Sunday morning
watching Buffalo videos on YouTube. "He was always in funny mode without being too
gooey about it. He's been that guy all this time. In one guy, you got all the hope and optimism of the '70s."
Mr. Buffalo played on the Grammy-winning Doobie Brothers album "Minute by Minute,"
and the recent children's music CD by Kenny Loggins. With Bette Midler, he played in
the band and acted in the film "The Rose." He collaborated on tours and a series of
recordings for more than 20 years with blues guitarist Roy Rogers. One of their songs, "Ain't No Bread in the Breadbox," was a cornerstone in the '90s live repertoire of the Jerry Garcia Band.
"Norton Buffalo was a character and a half," Rogers said. "He had a sense of humor. He liked to have a good time, and the joy of his playing came out."
Miller said: "He was a complete original. He worked with all kinds of people. He did tons and tons of projects. Everybody who worked with him loved him, really enjoyed working with him."
Mr. Buffalo joined the Steve Miller Band in 1976 at the beginning of the "Fly Like an Eagle" tour and has remained a constant presence in Miller's music ever since. Miller invariably introduced Mr. Buffalo to concert audiences as "my partner in harmony."
"He had way more music in him than I could use," Miller said. "I just had more work for him than everybody else."
Mr. Buffalo's own recordings include his 1977 Capitol Records release, "Lovin' in the Valley of the Moon," an album that maintains a strong cult following, and a 2000 blues-based release, "King of the Highway." He recently released a joint CD with Hawaiian slack key guitarist George Kahumoku Jr. He was a virtuosic and technically accomplished chromatic harmonica player who could play anything - blues, rock, pop, country, folk, show tunes.
Born in Oakland and raised in Richmond, Mr. Buffalo was raised in a musical family. His father played harmonica, and his mother sang in '40s San Francisco nightclubs. His great-uncle, Herbert Stothart, was a Hollywood soundtrack composer who won an Academy Award for his work on "The Wizard of Oz."
"His harp could become the valley of the moon, Krakatoa, a storm out at sea, then the sweetest sound this side of heaven," said Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, who
played with Mr. Buffalo in a project called High Noon in the '70s and '80s.
Mr. Buffalo joined one of the final editions of Commander Cody and his Lost Planet
Airmen on a 1976 European tour, before returning to the Bay Area and forming the
Norton Buffalo Stampede, a band that headlined Bay Area clubs for several years. In
between tours with Miller and Rogers, Mr. Buffalo had been appearing recently with the Norton Buffalo Trio with his third wife, Lisa Flores.
He is survived by his wife; children, Aisah of Lake Tahoe and Elias of Sonoma;
stepchildren, Sierra Ruelas of Sonoma and Bo Winterburn of San Diego; father, Ken
Jackson of Paradise; and five brothers and sisters.
Roy Rogers and the Delta Rhythm Kings, Tom Rigney and Flambeau and the Carlos
Reyes Band will appear Nov. 22 in a benefit and memorial at the Paradise Performing Arts Center in Paradise.