Jeff Trainor

It's unfortunate we have to start things off on a negative note here, but there's something wrong with the blues in 2008.
This isn't at all to say that there was something wrong with the blues acts Sound Check saw on Monday night. No sir-ee. In our estimation, though, there is indeed something wrong with the blues at large.
Yes sir-ee.
Call it diluted…faded…cliché. Call it co-opted by an insufficiently downtrodden, minimally grizzled generation of young Americans. In any case, when Sound Check goes to listen to some modern blues music, we tend not to expect much beyond run-of-the-mill electric guitar wailing and recycled vocal style.

Jim Stout in CPC rawkstar mode.The streets and sidewalks sparkled with the crystalline potential of
new fallen snow last Thursday night. Downtown, tourists and taxicabs
flitted about like carefree winter butterflies - many searching for the
fantastical fun-juice that is the nectar of Central Oregon's homegrown
live music scene.
The fortunate and/or savvy found their quarry
at Summit Saloon and Stage. There, the evening's entertainment began
with long-haired, bright-hearted Bill Keale setting meditative notes
adrift from the upstairs romper room.