David Chen & the Muddy Basin Ramblers

Gig: Blues Bash 2

November 5, 2005 was a day that the management of the Breeze shopping mall will never forget. DC Rapier and the Blues Society on Taiwan brought Blues Bash 2 to Taipei. Blues Bash 1 was held in March 2005 at Tiger City mall in Taichung, and although the outdoor courtyards at both places gave the events a similar feel, the weather for BB2 was much nicer, with warm, sunny skies in contrast BB1's cold, blustery winds.

Another similarity was the music: BB2 blue everyone away. Of course, the serious blues fans knew what was in store, but the shoppers who wandered in and out had probably never seen or heard anything like the music that was on offer. The lineup of bands at BB2 featured many of the blues bands currently performing in Taiwan, as well as several international artists.

Starting off the show was BoPoMoFo, playing Chicago blues and led by DC Rapier. Up next, country/blues Beaver County Rangers, with Kevin Smith on guitar and vocals. Then it was the turn for a real local act, Black Sheep, featuring frontman Stevie Ray who is on a mission to spread the gospel of guitar god Stevie Ray Vaughn. After that came Le Chats Noir, a cool jazzy blues combo with hot guitar licks and a sultry French femme on vocals. Next were Dave Chen and the Muddy Basin Ramblers, with the longest name and sound check of any band holding the stage that day. The Ramblers were followed by Boogie Chillin', sporting snazzy dark suits and flinging insidious blues at an appreciative audience. When the sun had finally set, Argentine Gabriel Gratzer sat down to perform a sweet solo show and was joined at the end of his set by several guest musicians. Finally, Shun Kikuta, of Japan and Berklee, and backed by the members of BoPoMoFo, shook his blue Gibson at the audience and rattled the windows of the mall with an inspiring selection of blues standards. The last act of the evening was an invitation to every musician in the square to claim a space on the stage, and it was a spectacle to behold.

Okay, that is my lame attempt at a straight description of what went on. Now, here's a more personal recollection of the Blues Bash 2.

I missed the first act. Noon is just too early to start, in my opinion. It was hot when I got there, and there was no barbecue to be found, so my wife and I beat it into the mall and found a decent Chinese restaurant. Finishing that, we decided to check out the Starbucks' patio on the second floor, overlooking the courtyard where BB2 was held. I got an ice coffee, a table beneath a ceiling fan, and relaxed under the canvas roof. A couple of fans approached me a little later, and I chatted with them about the band, music tastes, and of course, what we all do in Taiwan. Scott, the one I remember more clearly, works for a patent company, writing applications and that sort of thing. It turns out his wife is an English teacher and works as a rater for the speaking and writing portion of the GEPT. Small world, yada yada.

From my perch upstairs, I saw that the rest of the band had arrived, and while I listened to the Black Sheep and Beaver County Rangers, I got my washboards sorted out. Basically this means attaching the cymbal to one of them and wrapping my fingertips up.

I made it down to the backstage area by about 3, and chatted with bandmates and friends until it was out turn to go on stage. About the stage, ohmigod! It was an all-in-one unit from a beer company, and the sides and roof were all hydraulically controlled. Opened up, it was a space-age, self-contained performance stage, with a built in sound booth, dedicated outlets for power, monitors, mics, and the like. Unfortunately, the sound guy was a little put out by Dave's sound design, and we did the best we could to whittle our microphones down to a number that he could finally deal with. That was why it took us so long too get set up, but we finally took over the stage from the emcees, a pleasently obnoxious 6 foot 6 inch tall guy in a school girl's uniform, and 4 foot 10 inch Linda, DC's wife, at about 4:20. Meaninful that.

I can't be bothered right now to look for my copy of the song list, but I remember it featured Rag Mama Rag, Friday Night Fish Fry, Dancehall Shuffle, Red River, All By Myself, Jug Band Blues, and one or two others. The set went by incredibly quickly. One stand out moment, a long moment, of musical ecstasy was Conor's wicked harmonica solo, featuring a-hooting and a-hollering, to open up Red River. The monitors on stage weren't giving us much sound, so TC and I, who depend on hearing Dave's guitar for our riddim cues, might have been rambling a little more than usual, but everyone said the sound was okay, so I guess it didn't make much difference in the long run. Dave stuck to the guitars and left the banjo at home this time, so we didn't feature quite as much tuning time between songs as we often need, and we all felt that we kept up a good pace. When you get forty minutes on stage, you don't want too many of them to be lost to incidentals. Will had his tap area miked, and Sandy had a pick up for his resonator ukelele, so we had a completely amped sound, something we don't accomplish in many of our gigs. I got All By Myself to slightly muddy start, but we got it back into line pretty quick and we finished all together on the "all by myself" vocal part at the end. The last song was Rolling and Tumbling, I think, and it brought our musical offering right back to the delta blues at the end of our set. We reluctantly surrendered the stage to the emcees and offered our encouragement to Boogie Chillin' as they climbed the stairs.

Then I started drinking, in earnest. I had thrown the tail end of the previous night's suntory into my starbucks earlier, and it was time to thin the blood in my veins. Several of us took a few strolls across the boulevard to enjoy the evening scenery. I do like the eye-scream at estrogen malls. The supermarket downstairs at the mall, aside from being another of the vastly overpriced mall markets that have sprung up in the last several years, featured an interesting selection of alcoholic libations. I enjoyed the spiked Japanese lemonade that a gentleman of locks treated me to, and I grabbed some more for myself later. Good, but maybe not worth NT$90.

The music was awesome. Playing at these shows is always great, but hearing everyone else is even better. It is wonderful to see the audience get into the music. As musicians, we can't help but be moved by the music, and to see that it has the same effect on others is satisfying, especially the very young and very old.

I was very glad to have the chance to get on stage with Gabriel. Of course, I had no idea what he wanted to play, aside from his warning that it would be ragtime. He has a great voice, wonderful hands on the guitar, and a real feel for his music. After his set, we chatted a bit and he's as nice a guy as you could for. Apparently, he comes out of a gospel tradition of music, and also has a music school in Buenos Aires. He said he was getting ready to go and do five dates in Japan after he leaves Taiwan.

Shun Kikuta was an inspiration. I have never seen a full-on blues showman before, and he was one. He made the point of mentioning that BB2 was his first chance to be the fron man. Normally, he plays as the guitarist for Koko Taylor, identified as the "Queen of the Blues." I can't vouch for Koko, but Shun is amazing. In fine blues tradition, he not only broke a string on his guitar but dropped his glass slide and watched it roll off the stage and shatter on the concrete below before finishing the set.

Continuing with my personal recollection, let me jump to the blues jam at the end of the show. I was on stage with probably 12 to 15 other people, and it was a jam I won't soon forget. I was on stage left, with two harps and a trumpet to my left and three tenor saxes to my right. Behind were the bass player and drummer, and farther down the stage to the right, a collection of guitarists that seemed to grow with each passing minute. I even saw a taxi pull up on Civic Boulevard and a guitarist jump out and run to join the guitar gang before the show ended at about 8:30 or so.

Not having done much shopping in the mall, I talked DC and Linda into selling the MBR members concert tees for half price, so my collection of Blues Bash shirts is now up to 2. A complete set, so far.

Afterwards, some of us retired to Da An park for more drinks and music under the stars. And then finally my wife and I jumped in a taxi for our ride back to the mountain. The rest of the party was headed over to the opening party of Bliss, the new reincarnation of Chocolate and Love, on Hsin-yi road.

All in all, it was a powerful immersion into the blues. I look forward to more.