Topic: Del Rey, Ernie Hawkins on an Island in Penobscot Bay

[Mr.OMuck]

Coming off of their week long teaching intensive on another nearby Island Ernie, Del & Mike Dowling(?)
gave an outstanding concert tonight.
Ernie Hawkins was brilliant on Gary Davis instrumentals, Slow Drag & Maple Leaf Rag which can break your phucking hands with their demand for sheer physical effort. He also did an affectingly poetic African tune translated from Swahili which might have sprung from the same aesthetic universe as something by Libba Cotton and was well suited to his warm, genuine sounding voice. He also did a swell version of Calling Dr. Jazz with the other two guitarists.
This was my first time hearing let alone seeing Del Rey extensively and she was killer. I pity the fool who has to follow her onto the stage! Her playing is as fast as greased lightning, and beautifully fluid. Dead on time, near perfect attack and expressive feel, and all happening while exuding uber professional stage presence (could be a negative for some I suppose) replete with warmth, humor & wit. If more people liked this music she'd be a gazillionaire by now. Her melding of two thirties Jazz tunes (Uptown, Lowdown something or other) was swingin'. Her arrangements are complex, smart and funny. Her singing is OK, pretty good really, but the whole package is pretty remarkable, awesome if you prefer. She wrote a tribute song to Memphis Minnie that I found quite moving, and performed MM's "Sailing" about as well as I can imagine it being done by anyone but MM or maybe Kim & Frank Basile.
Third up, Mike Dowling(I may not have the name right) is a Jazz-country style player with a sound reminiscent  of a slightly hipper Chet Atkins. Technically brilliant with some interesting ideas and some witty self authored songs. He seems to have a particular sensitivity to the variety and quality of sounds he can extract from the instrument, and many of them are quite beautiful. Its that quality that appealed most to me about his playing.
All in all a damn fine evening of fancy picking and good songs.

[unezrider]

hey omuck,
sounds like a cool evening! & yes you have dowling's name right. i don't know too much about him, but i have heard a few of his tunes & have enjoyed them all. here's one that sounds like a willie song to me, but i'm not sure.


& i think i need to check up more on del's music. the little bit i have heard of her has been really enjoyable, as well.
chris

[eagle rockin daddy]

What can you say about these three?  Just great. Del is amazing.

But still O'Muck, I look forward to a concert review ABOUT you, not BY you.

hint hint.

Mike

[Mr.OMuck]

Well stay tuned Mike i did my first playing out in some years a week ago at a small cafe here on the Maine coast, and was well received. I've begun to resolve some voice issues that have been plaguing me for decades so performing seems like a more possible thing to do. Thanks fer the vote of confidence buddy.

[CF]

Nice version of 'Face in the Crowd.' Don't know who wrote it but Brownie & Sonny did it.

[Carlos Funk]

I studied with Del Ray in 1994....learned the Big Road Blues from her.  Mike Dowling played here in Guatemala at my place last year.  He's the best....just ask Del Ray.

[jtbrown]

If more people liked this music she'd be a gazillionaire by now.

In a properly ordered society, all three of them would be gazillionaires, and Reverend Gary Davis's portrait would be on the ten-dollar bill.

Speaking of Ernie Hawkins, his new CD, Whinin' Boy is now available from his website.  My copy hasn't arrived yet, but judging from the tracklist and the videos he has been posting on Facebook over the last few months, I'm pretty sure it's going to be amazing.  Unfortunately, it doesn't include "Dr. Jazz," but it does have several of Ernie's other new arrangements of old jazz tunes and standards. And Del Rey's latest, Hen Party, is excellent.  It's a joint project with Suzy Thompson, who I believe posts on Weenie Campbell occasionally, and you can order it from Del's website.

[Parlor Picker]

And according to their own publicity blurb, Del & Suzy's Hen Party is a "Pullet Surprise Winner"!