Topic: Mamie Minch, Mr O'muck and the Little Brothers at Jalopy, 6-Feb

[Mike Brosnan]

Ditto Johnm....  Wish I coulda been there, but this is the next best thing.  Excellent stuff!  Some time this year I'm gonna try to make it home to NY (for the first freakin' time in 5 years!).  I hope I can time it right with one of these all star Jalopy shows.

[uncle bud]

Love it. Nice recovery on the guitjo collapse.

[eagle rockin daddy]

Really nice O'muck.  I hope to catch the next show.

Mike

[onewent]

Good stuff!  ..thanks for posting..Tom

[Pan]

Great fun, thanks for sharing! 

Cheers

Pan

[Mr.OMuck]

[Parlor Picker]

It's a supergroup!

[Slack]

Looks like a ton of fun!  Congrats on the fine show!

[Mr.OMuck]

Tenking you I em John

[Mr.OMuck]

Just wanted to add how wonderful The Little Brothers sounded that night, though Frank, ever the relentless self critic demurs. I wish I had tape of him doing Charlie Patton's Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues (?). Believe me when I tells ya' you're not going to hear anybody do it better in this lifetime! Of course Pat had to give him an authenticity razz about using a National instead of a wood bodied guitar..........oy. Kim sang Bumble Bee jest like..well a bumble bee and supplied the usual, dependably great fiddle work only she seems capable of doing. Mike Hoffman on Mandolin was really terrific, solid and rhythmically on target with just the right amount of mandoloony chaos theory thrown in. He used a particularly fine sounding Bowl back mandolin which I'm beginning to think are severely underrated instruments.

Mamie Minch has about as winning a stage presence as you could ever hope to see. She employs a wood brown colored metal bodied National which she can really play and a fine mellow alto voice and knowing singing style.
She's also smart as a whip, witty as hell and an impressive songwriter. Her rendition of Bessie Smith's Sing Sing Blues was really haunting in the way that an old cartoon sometimes is. Very impressive. Though she made several comments during the evening about being slightly intimidated by all the guitar playing chops in the audience she really had nothing to apologize for. Her playing is damn fine.

For me playing with Pat & Joe on stage again after thirty years was really a thrill. Each is a master of this music in his own right and though we could certainly refine what we did together that night, it didn't take much more than establishing what key we were going to be in to get things going.

Here's our take on Sleepy John Estes' Floating Bridge, one of my favorite of all Blues songs. This is the first time I ever sang it through. Note the lyric reading in progress.

[Parlor Picker]

O'Muck: many thanks for an interesting, informative report. You really convey the facts well and give a great impression of the night. "Floating Bridge" is superb as well.

[Prof Scratchy]

That's a great performance. Not many people doing Sleepy John songs, and not many people able to get that vocal delivery nailed!

[uncle bud]

O'Muck, that's great to see and hear. I agree, one of the top numbers in the blues. Done justice!

I've watched numerous Mamie Minch clips on Yo'Tube and I think the phrase you might be looking for is completely freakin' charming. A wonderful voice and fine picking as well. For those interested, Eli Smith does a two-part segment with her there, for Downhome Radio Show - TV edition.

[frankie]

more on this later (been struggling to find the time to put my thoughts together), but this was an amazing night of music.  Hearing O'muck, Joe and Pat together was as close to getting to hear the old originals as many of us are likely to get in this lifetime...  they bring such depth to what they do...  great songs, funky, loose playing, amazing singing.  And what a rare treat to get a glimpse of the experience of being around Rev. Davis through Mr. O'muck - worth the price of admission alone!

Re:  Mamie - what can you say?  She has it all - a natural stage presence, great singing, great guitar playing - nice mix of original and vintage material.  Fantastic!

[Michael Cardenas]

I did the Google search on Blues Members Only Cowbook

nuthin' no Ebay, nuthin. Figure gotta be a Blues member