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San Luis Obispo Blues Society Check out these upcoming events! James Solberg Band Saturday, May
20, 2000
Saturday, July
22, 2000
SLO Vets Hall,
Grand Avenue at Monterey Street,
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NOW SHOWING
Saturday, April 8, 2000
James Solberg
Band
On
Saturday, April 8 the SLO Blues Society presents the James Solberg Band.
Local blues band Jacob’s Well will be opening the show. The show
starts at 8:00 PM at the SLO Vets Hall. Tickets are $10 for members
and $12 for non-members. You can buy a membership for $10 at the door and
get $2 off for this show.
James Solberg Band
“I knew to play from the heart. When I feel something, my fingertips are just tools to express what’s in my heart, not the other way around.” James Solberg
As a Midwest teenager in the 1960’s, James Solberg played in rock ‘n roll bands. The Rolling Stones led him to Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and the Chicago Blues scene. During the 1970’s, he joined with fellow guitarist Luther Allison and for five years was Allison's bandleader. During this time, he recorded “Night Life” and “Live in Paris” with Luther. By the early 1980’s, Solberg headed into retirement due to drugs and burnout, and worked as a motorcycle mechanic.
Solberg re-emerged in 1985 and toured with the Legendary Blues Band, which contained the former members of the Muddy Waters Band. In 1987, he toured with the Nighthawks. For the next five years, he settled down in Wisconsin as the owner and house band for the “Stones Throw” blues nightclub.
In early 1993, his old partner Luther Allison, who had been living in Paris, asked him to reunite. They recorded “Soul Fixin’ Man” together and Solberg recorded his first solo CD, “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean”. This was the start of a powerful blues partnership, with Solberg as the bandleader for Allison’s triumphant return to the U.S. They produced the CD “Reckless” and received a W.C. Handy Award for Best Blues Band of the Year in 1997. However, by the end of the year Allison was dead from cancer.
Two months after Allison died, Solberg recorded “LA Blues”, one of the most poignant blues CDs ever recorded. It was his farewell and tribute to Luther Allison. In 1998, the James Solberg Band won the W.C. Handy Award for Best Blues Band of the Year, and Solberg won two W.C. Handy Awards for best Album and Song of the Year. The James Solberg Band continues to tour throughout the U.S., playing the Chicago style blues made famous by the collaboration of Luther Allison and James Solberg.
“Solberg’s gravelly vocals and never-say-die rhythm playing is a rare treat for modern blues lovers. Solberg hone his lost art skills of playing behind such greats as Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, and Sam Lay. Judging by his performance, his years of playing with the masters have paid off.” (M. Swanger, Live Wired).
CD REVIEW OF SOLBERG'S LA BLUES
When Luther Allison made his triumphant return to the United States in 1993, he united with his former partner James Solberg to form a new band. By the time Luther died in 1997, they had won several W.C. Handy Awards for the music they created. The band continues under Solberg’s leadership and it has already garnered a W.C. Handy award for the Band of the Year in 1998.
LA Blues (Atomic Theory Records) by the James Solberg Band is their tribute to Luther Allison. It is an aching good bye to one of the great blues performers of our time. “LA Blues”, “Must Be a Reason”, and “Say Goodbye” are songs that deal with the loss of one’s friend. This is a CD with several poignant moments that explore unfamiliar territory for blues lyrics, but it also contains some great, hard-edged blues.
This is a tough but tender journey into the blues.
Solberg’s guitar work, like his former partner’s, has a raw quality that
is filled with emotion. In the midst of this questioning blues tribute,
lies Bob Dylan’s “Ballad of a Thin Man”. Although not often viewed
as blues song, it conveys the sense of dislocation when your world is disrupted.
The CD ends with “Happy Snails”, a blues parody of a cowboy classic.
This is not your usual blues CD, but it is blues from the heart.
