If you love the blues β if youΒ reallyΒ love the blues β then you wonβt want to miss KXCIβs House Rockinβ Blues Review.
Itβs slated for Friday, Aug. 4, at the El Casino Ballroom. The historic space seems perfect for a banginβ blues concert.
And thatβs not the only reason to go. The headliners are guitarist Kid Ramos and the 44s.
Kid Ramos is a dazzling electric blues guitarist. Heβs played with The Fabulous Thunderbirds, James Harman and Roomful of Blues, among others. Ramos quit music for a while (he wanted to spend more time with his family), and a bad bout with cancer sidelined him in 2012-13 (and brought a flood of support from blues musicians and fans from around the world). But the blues bug is hard to ignore. Thatβs good for us: His sometimes raucous, sometimes smooth, always dazzling guitar playing makes for a knock-βem-out concert.
The Los Angeles-based 44s are hot and getting hotter. The group’s blues-roots-rock music has won raves for its concerts and albums. “From rockabilly to an L.A.-meets-Chicago version of Piedmont slow blues, the 44s blast out of LA like the Dirty Harry namesake pistol,” gushed americanbluesscene.com about the band’s “Americana” album.
The concertβs opening act is Mike Hebert and his Prison Band, which plays songs about the rural South, Texas and Southeastern Arizona.
The concert is slated for 7:30 p.m. Friday at the El Casino Ballroom, 437 E. 26th St. Tickets are $15-$25 at all Bookmans locations and KXCI.org.
- Kathleen Allen
