They've got the blues
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BY LIZ STINSON / GZO
Harvey Brindell hasn’t played a gig without his fedora and Wayfarer sunglasses in years.
The bluesman, who grew up in the music-soaked town of Macon, Ga., said that back in the day when he was just a fledgling musician, he and his band would wear the get-up to feel like bona fide blues players.
“We were trying to be the guys that the Blues Brothers were imitating,” he joked.
What: Blues Orchestra
Tonight: Duggan’s Pub, 440 S. 11th St., 5-7:30 p.m.
Saturday: Haymarket Farmers Market, 9:30-11 a.m. (free)
Thursday: Stranksy Park, 17th and Perkins streets, 7 p.m. (free)
The style stuck, and now Brindell rarely leaves home without the accessories, let alone forget them for a performance.
“You’re dapper don of the blues,” said Don Holmquist, the drummer in Brindell’s most recent outfit, The Blues Orchestra.
With his frosty white hair and throaty voice that rolls over drum licks and guitar riffs, the front man of the rock and roll and blues cover band very well might be just that.
The Blues Orchestra was born last fall after Brindell left his former band, Johnny and the Jokers, because of personality conflicts.
Sometimes a band can do everything right musically, he said, but if personalities collide, it’s not going to last.
Fortunately for the four men who make up the Blues Orchestra, their band’s chemistry isn’t of the toxic breed. Stumbling into this group was a long-awaited reunion in many ways, they said.
“The threads of existence just kind of weaved,” said Holmquist.
The threads have actually been weaving since Holmquist and pianist Brian “Spanky” Hull were kids growing up in Lincoln. The two played in stage bands together while in middle school and have been relying on one another to fill in gaps in various bands ever since.
Holmquist and Brindell, who are both drug and alcohol counselors, have known each other through both their work and the music scene for years. Throw in Bill Ferleman as the bass player, and you’ve got yourself a blues orchestra.
The Blues Orchestra operates on a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants philosophy. The group doesn’t hold actual rehearsals, aside from the occasional phone call or e-mail to straighten out a chord. Instead, it uses its live gigs to perfect the sets.
“It may not be all that tight,” Holmquist said, “but by the third or fourth gig …”
Allow me to finish: They’ve got it down.
But sometimes the uncertainty of a performance is what really gives it its energy, Holmquist added.
“One of the transcendental wonders of performance art is you just don’t know what you’re going to get sometimes,” he said.
The good ole’ boys who grew up on music and mischief have been nursing their love of blues and rock and roll for years.
They have hopped from band to band, developing their skills and musical diversity, which has helped the Blues Orchestra, which plays from a set list that spans multiple genres.
Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, The Allman Brothers, Elvis. The group really does it all. And while the guys say if they had it their way they’d play their personal favorites all night, they know that they’re performing to get the crowd going.
“I could play Chicago blues all night long,” Brindell said. “But I also know if that’s all we play, we wouldn’t be doing as well as we’re doing.”
Holmquist agrees.
“You’re playing stuff that isn’t always personally satisfying, but it is when you look out and you’ve got a crowd.”
And that crowd had better be having a good time — that’s the only way this group likes it.
“We just try to create a ruckus wherever we go,” Hull said.
Reach Liz Stinson at 473-7254 or at estinson@journalstar.com.
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Blackjack Axeace wrote on September 22, 2007 9:43 pm: