Blues harmonica player headlines Tucson's 11th annual House Rockin' Blues Review

Tucson blues fans might recognize a face or two among SoCal blues harmonica player R.J. Mischo’s Red Hot Blues Band at Friday’s 11th annual KXCI House Rockin’ Blues Review concert.

There’s Arizona Blues Hall of Fame guitar player Mike Eldred from Phoenix and bass player Bobby Abarca, who was in the late Candye Kane’s band for her final shows, including in Tucson. Anchoring the band is The Paladins drummer Brian Fahey and, for special measure, his Paladins’ bandmate Dave Gonzalez on guitar.

“I haven’t had a regular lineup of musicians for decades, but I tour all the time and I play with, for lack of a better word, pickup musicians, regional guys,” Mischo explained during a phone call late last week from home. “It’s like the Chuck Berry philosophy: ‘Just give me guys who can play blues.’”

Mischo’s Red Hot Blues Band is in name only; there is no band until he pulls into whatever city or town he’s playing and meets the musicians handpicked to share his stage.

Sounds kinda risky, right?

“There was days where I walked on the bandstand with guys that just had no idea how to approach it,” said Mischo, who hasn’t played a Tucson show in a number of years. “At this point, I’m usually at least knowing by reputation the musicians I am working with. ...These guys are the best of the best.”

The concert on Friday, Aug. 2, will be the first time Mischo will perform with Gonzalez, although the pair have known each other for years.

“I’ve been a Paladins fan for a long, long time,” Mischo said. “I’m very excited to play with Dave.”

The feeling is mutual, said Gonzalez, whose connection to Tucson goes back to his California childhood when he would visit relatives here. In the early 1980s, when his rockabilly band The Paladins was just getting started, he played a show with Tucson’s independent community radio station KXCI that was arranged by its then promotions director Jeb Schoonover.

Gonzalez and Schoonover became lifelong friends and Shoonover, who organizes the annual KXCI House Rockin’ Blues Review with longtime blues promoter Marty Kool, became the band’s agent.

Schoonover also brought Gonzalez together with Tucson vocalist Chris Gaffney in 2002 for the Western soul band Hacienda Brothers. The band recorded four albums in the six years it was together before Gaffney died in 2008.

Gonzalez has never thought of himself as a blues guitarist, but “I always loved blues music,” he said.

“When I grew up and was a kid, my other grandmother was a jazzer and I had a cousin … who actually got me going on electric guitar and he turned me onto (blues guitar great) Freddy King,” Gonzalez recalled in a phone call last week from his home in Austin, Texas.

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When he and The Paladins were starting out in the early 1980s, they played a show at Hollywood’s famed Cathay de Grande. After their set, the then little-known Texas blues guitar player Stevie Ray Vaughan took the stage.

Gonzalez said he was blown away by what he saw. Vaughan, who went on to become a consequential figure in the blues scene, played a handful of shows with The Paladins.

“He was one of the guys that brought Buddy Guy back and brought so many great blues bands that are playing now,” said Gonzalez, whose playing style has long been compared to Vaughan’s. “We all benefited from the great Stevie Ray Vaughan.”

Gonzalez will pull double-duty at Friday’s concert. In addition to playing in Mischo’s band, he will be part of the Arizona Blues Hall of Fame Guitar Rumble ensemble alongside Eldred, Mike Blommer and Danny Krieger.

“It’s going to be great,” he said. “I think we’re going to really have a good time. There’s going to be a bunch of great guitar players there so I’m going to be looking forward to that.”

Mischo said he’s ready to bring Friday’s audience to its feet at Tucson’s storied El Casino Ballroom.

“I haven’t been to the El Casino, but Dave has been telling me it’s a really great venue,” he said. “So we’re going to try to keep everybody smiling and dancing on that big dance floor.”

“When you get an R.J. Mischo show, they are one-of-a-kind,” he said, adding that because they haven’t spent hours together rehearsing, each show is spontaneous and original. “There’s a lot of excitement and a whole lot of energy to these performances. It’s just not phoned in this way. It’s exciting. It’s a conversation; you get real conversant with the other musicians because they don’t know what to expect.”

At the end of these shows, someone will inevitably come up to Mischo and remark about how good the band sounded. Then they will ask: How long have you been together?

“Oh, 45 minutes,” he responds.

Friday’s show at El Casino Ballroom, 437 E. 26th St., starts at 7:30 p.m.; doors open at 6:30. Tickets are $30 in advance, $25 for KXCI members through KXCI.org. It’s $35 at the door. Proceeds benefit KXCI.

The Parish will have food available for sale.