tag:bobmargolin.com,2005:/blogs/margolin-musingsMargolin Musings2017-12-31T08:49:33-07:00Bob Margolinfalsetag:bobmargolin.com,2005:Post/50007942017-12-31T08:48:33-07:002017-12-31T08:49:33-07:00Happy New Year<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/212959/f52e50d021d69ee46a672442f0e5d380321fa3d3/large/2018nye.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>A musician at the Niagara Falls Blues Festival asked me how the year was going. Put that way, I realized 2017 was actually my best year ever. Along with concerts and festivals I did a wide array of a Last Waltz 40 year celebration tour, workshops, story & music & jam “Evening With” shows, went to Europe a few times, played with my band, and guested with other bands. I played with old and new friends, young prodigies and even played with some of my musical heroes. </p>
<p>Now I’m home working harder than I do on the road: recording guitar parts for other artist’s songs, finishing an instructional book on slide guitar and creating a new album from scratch with the songs in my heart, an old mic, an older guitar and amp, and classic and modern recording equipment. </p>
<p>I enjoyed my Blues lover friends and meeting nice folks at every gig. THANK YOU for sharing our love of music in 2017. I want to do more of the same in 2018. In the next few days I’ll be posting some happy memories and I hope you’ll enjoy them too.</p>Bob Margolintag:bobmargolin.com,2005:Post/47231942017-05-26T05:26:27-07:002017-05-26T05:26:27-07:00Time Travel <p>Time travel again! On May 19th the Bob Margolin Trio played a reunion of bands and fans who used to enjoy two great clubs from the early 1980s in Washington, DC - Desperado’s and The Wax Museum. At the Birchmere in Alexandria, VA we jammed with reunions of The Good Humor Band and Skip Castro. It’s a particular thrill to be onstage with VizzTone Recording Artist Billy Price, who re-united his Keystone Rhythm Band. Billy is one of my favorite singer/entertainers ever. It is an honor to jam with him and we are conspiring to do more shows together soon.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/212959/8b047e90aac78a4209c64babab5fc9f76f014757/original/margolinprice.jpg?1495801513" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><span class="font_small">Bob Margolin and Billy Price<br>Photo: Bob Sekinger</span></p>Bob Margolintag:bobmargolin.com,2005:Post/46454462017-03-25T06:19:35-07:002017-03-25T06:19:35-07:00The Last Waltz 40 Tour - Part 2<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/212959/7239a8d016e7f548790bed454d9cbffad351b66b/medium/lastwaltz40.jpg?1488907915" class="size_m justify_left border_" /><div><p><br>I am thrilled that the next part of The Last Waltz 40 Tour will feature 2 more musicians from the 1976 original Last Waltz: Garth Hudson from The Band and Dr. John. Garth will be on the Texas and California dates. The shows we did last year at Jazzfest and Warren Haynes’ Christmas Jam and the first part of the tour in Jan.-Feb. 2017 immersed me in the music and memories of playing the original show with Muddy Waters and Pinetop Perkins, Paul Butterfield and The Band.<br><br>To share that onstage and socially with The Band’s progressive musical genius Garth Hudson and New Orleans legend Dr. John and some of today’s finest will twist time for me. I hope to see some of you on the road. <br><br><br><a contents="Schedule and Tickets" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://blackbirdpresents.com/the-last-waltz-40-tour/" target="_blank">Schedule and Tickets</a></p></div>Bob Margolintag:bobmargolin.com,2005:Post/46454352017-03-25T06:12:08-07:002017-03-25T06:12:08-07:00Hail Hail Rock n' Roll!<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/212959/56078fa9af30000ba490857e800e6ea4d03ecc62/medium/chuck-berry.jpg?1490447460" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></div>
<div>Chuck Berry passed away March 18, 2017. The loss is now, the healing and redemption is in his music. In the 1970s I saw him sit at Muddy Waters' feet playing Robert Johnson licks Chuck Berry-style. Muddy approved as though a cute puppy had done a trick. I was and remain in awe and under the spell of all 3. I took this photo of Chuck leaving the stage in triumph at the Alexandria Palace in 1979. Today he leaves in triumph again.</div>Bob Margolintag:bobmargolin.com,2005:Post/46292342017-03-14T08:19:42-07:002017-03-14T08:19:42-07:00Pinetop Perkins Foundation<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/212959/aa3f7e2d70b84b0afd42816fb473ddbcba5817ec/original/ppftulsa.jpg?1489504617" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><p>Great crew of young Tulsa musicians are heading to the Pinetop Perkins Masterclass Workshops this summer in Clarksdale, MS. Graham Pagano-harmonica, Sam Parker-piano, Gregg Pagano-guitar, Riley Groves-piano, Abbie Rose-harmonica, with musical director Bob Margolin. </p>
<p><a contents="Pinetop Perkins Foundation MasterClass Workshops" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://pinetopperkinsfoundation.org/workshop" target="_blank">Pinetop Perkins Foundation MasterClass Workshops</a> - June 13-16, 2017 - Clarksdale, MS</p>
</div>Bob Margolintag:bobmargolin.com,2005:Post/45985552017-02-20T07:43:01-07:002017-02-20T07:43:01-07:00Grammy Reflections<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/212959/70bcdd4e1d75cfacb03245213e9f2116fb0824c7/medium/william-bell.jpg?1487601549" class="size_m justify_center border_" />As the Grammy excitement was going on, I was working on recording guitar parts for an interesting project at home, deep in a world of guitar, creating original parts that complement the songs, and focused on it completely. Now I’ve come up for air to find exciting aspects of the Grammy Awards. I’m thrilled that Bobby Rush won, he’s a legend who deserves to be recognized that way too. But I have been working recently with the Last Waltz 40 Tour with musicians who are well-known in the Americana World. It’s been fun and educational to play to their audiences. It seems to me that they receive the Blues I play on the Last Waltz shows well and there should be more overlap than there is between Blues and Americana. The fans are similar soulful music lovers. Illustrating that situation is this photo from December at Blind Willie’s with me and William Bell, who was in the audience. He won the Americana Grammy this year for his fine album “This Is Where I Live.” He is also nominated for Blues Music Awards and I bet he wins some. He is a Soul Music legend with hits from the early 1960s and is revered in that world too. Could it be, should it be, that soulful music lovers can get beyond the categories and find new and exciting music that way? From my recent perspective, I think so. What do you think?Bob Margolintag:bobmargolin.com,2005:Post/45827742017-02-09T06:26:26-07:002017-02-09T06:27:11-07:00Blues Music Awards<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/212959/ec04c0efaeb954e7a8553bc3f328f399c254bcb2/medium/bma2016.jpg?1486646599" class="size_m justify_left border_" /><p>I hope you’ll join The Blues Foundation — they really do uplift and reflect the soulful Blues Music we love.<br><br>My 2017 Blues Music Award nominations are: <br><br>• Traditional Blues Album - My Road <br><br>• Traditional Blues Male Artist <br><br>• Instrumentalist - Guitar <br><br>If you are a <a contents="Blues Foundation" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.blues.org">Blues Foundation</a> member, I humbly ask you to consider voting for me. <br><br>I try to write and perform my best recording, live shows with sincere passion and feature my band. I’m honored to be nominated among so many fine musicians to consider.</p>Bob Margolintag:bobmargolin.com,2005:Post/45809592017-02-07T19:05:12-07:002017-02-07T19:11:23-07:00What Goes Around <p>A couple of years ago I sold the guitar I used in the original Last Waltz. Last night my friend Cameron Williams who bought it brought the guitar to our Last Waltz 40 show in Red Bank, New Jersey. I used it again -- deeply moved to conquer time.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/212959/6751f35db2f7ba4afca0aec539639a82d714d386/medium/margolinguitar.jpg?1486519444" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></p>Bob Margolintag:bobmargolin.com,2005:Post/45808982017-02-07T18:43:04-07:002017-03-25T06:20:15-07:00The Last Waltz 40 Tour<p><span class="font_regular"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/212959/a37c14c5620f3f37d158e81f87880a295049ec5a/large/lastwaltz2.jpg?1486517032" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br>I enjoyed experiencing the IBC by Facebook. I’m glad so many of you had a good time with the Blues we love. Thanks to those who performed and came out for the VizzTone Label Group Showcase at the Rum Boogie. <br><br>I was finishing up the first leg of the Last Waltz 40 tour. I deeply enjoyed working with Warren Haynes, Don Was, Terence Higgins, John Medeski, Mark Mullins and the Levee Horns, Michael McDonald, Ivan & Cyril Neville, Joan Osborne, Dave Malone, and Jamey Johnson. And our audiences were so inspiring. I was able to bring in my harp player friends to play on my songs 3 times — Richard “Rosy” Rosenblatt in Boston, Steve Guyger in Philly, and Chris O’Leary in Albany. Each one tore it up.<br><br>Last Thursday and Saturday, we had a very special guest at the end of the night: Garth Hudson from The Band. His musical genius and creativity have only grown. It’s a Time Travel Blessing for me to be around him 41 years after we were on The Muddy Waters Woodstock album together and 40 years after The Last Waltz. Here is Garth performing with Last Waltz 40 last Thursday, and late Saturday night when Garth & Maud Hudson & I went out for Chinese food (holding up chopsticks) after theshow. He talked to me about music and instruments and road stories for hours. Because the Last Waltz 40 band had been playing the music Garth and the original Band created, it was a deep thrill to have the man himself among us onstage and after in 2017.</span><br> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font_regular"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/212959/df757edc358d415d8a650c89fe8e8fa613c49591/medium/lastwaltzchopsticks.jpg?1486517036" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></span></p>Bob Margolin