the hum / By Bob Doran

Brothers

The first cut on the first Paul Butterfield Blues Band album was “Born in Chicago,” a somewhat autobiographic song written by Nick Gravenites, a major figure in the Chicago blues scene of the ’60s who was key in injecting the Chicago sound into rock. Toward the end of the ’60s Nick moved to the Bay Area and formed The Electric Flag with Butterfield guitarist Mike Bloomfield. He’s been around ever since. Friday and Saturday he’ll be up this way playing at the Riverwood Inn with a band that includes drummer Roy Blumenfeld from Blues Project and Seatrain, with special guest David LaFlamme, violinist from It’s a Beautiful Day. What will they play? The blues.

Says Nick: “The blues has its own life. It don’t need white, it don’t need black. It doesn’t need interpretation — it’s a feeling. If you’ve got that feeling, that’s what the blues is good for. It can express a lot of other things, but it’s certainly for expressing feeling. You don’t have to be a genius to play the goddamn blues — what you have to have is the feeling. If you don’t have that feeling, then it’s what you call blues-flavored music, and there’s a lot of that around.”

Also down SoHum way Saturday, Diamondback joins forces with two top local rappers, 1-Ton and UnderRated (aka Potluck) for Humboldt Hip Hop, a bash at the Mateel featuring Potluck (of course) along with Subliminal Sabotage, Dirty Rats, Republican Duck Hunters, L.C.A., Hiway, Thic Family and, the only band from out of county, Mendo Green Team. This is a rare chance to see Potluck in action. The duo that opened for Snoop Dogg has not headlined a local show for four years.

The Passion Presents crew shifts into high gear this week. First, on Thursday, Sept. 18, at Humboldt Brews, it’s jammin’ swamp blues and funk by JJ Grey and Mofro (catch them on KHUM at 12:30 p.m. that day) plus Hill Country Revue with Cody Dickinson from North Miss. Allstars and Garry Burnside (son of R.L.). Friday, Passion brings the classic reggae trio The Itals to Red Fox Tavern. Sunday, again at the Red Fox, it’s EOTO, an electro-jam duo with Michael Travis and Jason Hann from String Cheese Incident. And Tuesday, Sept. 23, it’s back to HumBrews for “high altitude” rock/bluegrass jams by Hot Buttered Rum.

Saturday night the Alibi hosts a benefit for the Humboldt Council of the Blind (HCB) featuring B-movie garage rock by The Monster Women and cuddly indie rockers Arrogant Hare, whose bass player, James Forbes, just happens to be president of HCB. The event will also serve as a CD release party for Making Blindness Fashionable, a 22-track compilation assembled by James with songs by A. Hare, M. Women and just about any Humboldt band you can think of (some no longer in operation). If you can’t make it to the benefit, stop by your local record store and buy the comp — you’ll help raise seed money for installation of a DVS (descriptive video system) in a local cinema, a device that allows visually impaired folks to “watch” movies. A worthy cause indeed.

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