This page is dedicated to the various blues bands I've heard in their classic venues--blues clubs!

On Labor Day Weekend, 2001, I visited Blue Chicago in Chicagoland where the Gloria Shannon Blues Band was playing all sorts of blues music from electrified to slow blues to Chicago-style blues.  Here's a picture of what it's like there (Gloria and her band are there every Saturday).

This band is different than most--they have a jam hour at 11 pm where anyone who is a vocalist or a musician can jam with the band right up on stage!  I've seen Gloria's group perform here on many occasions and they are great....  From left to right above are Gloria Shannon on vocals, Pete Shannon (her son) on drums, Leo Crowe on lead guitar, and Andy Stephens, on bass guitar who played with Muddy Waters in the 60s and 70s! Stop by Blue Chicago's web site for more information.

A few weeks ago, I stopped by Taffy's Main Street Coffee in Eaton, Ohio which has to be one of the most different music venues in the world.  No booze, no smoking, just good coffee in a rustic coffee house!  I kid you not!  This is about the closest to rural blues as you can get--a bluesman,  his guitar, a stage, nothing else and you're sitting at a table in the first row!

A bluesman from Chicagoland, Eric Lambert, performed some of his original blues songs as well as his renditions of classics by Elmore James and Howlin' Wolf.   Great show, Eric ! (Click on the Taffy's link to see when Eric is returning there for another show.)