Following Tad on stage at Buddy's was Jimmy Johnson who immediately set the tone for his set by playing a charged version of the Jimmy Rogers' tune "Out On The Road." Jimmy is a traditional Chicago electric Blues player, who also happened to be one of Dave's original teachers when he started out on his Blues career. So the two men are naturally very familiar with each others playing styles. Perhaps that explains why this set was that much more exciting, although Dave had recorded with Tad Robinson as well,
What was clear right from the moment Jimmy started playing was that he was an old friend of the Blues and knew just what to do when, to make a song work. With him on stage the band and Dave seemed to pick up the intensity and the music became a little more fun to listen to. Jimmy doesn't have the greatest of voices or play the best guitar, but he has that intangible quality that makes the Blues work. There was rawness to his sound that made the songs he performed just sound that much more "Blue."
When the show moved back in time a day to the gig at Rosa's the band opened with two of Dave's instrumentals, "The Hollywood Park Shuffle" and "Is What Is" before they were joined on stage by vocalist Sharon Lewis. Two of the songs Sharon sung were of her own composition, although I suspect the third, "Angel", was more her lyrics to an older tune as the music sounded familiar even though I didn't recognize the words.
I had never heard Sharon sing before, and in fact hadn't even heard of her before listening to this disc; as far as I'm concerned the fact that I hadn't is another example of how screwed up the music business is. Here's this amazing singer; passionate, funny, with great stage presence, and on top of which she writes her own material, still playing the bar scene in Chicago while schlock merchants like Celine Dion are making a fortune in Las Vegas. There's definitely something wrong with that picture as far as I'm concerned.
One of the things that was really amazing about Dave Specter's guitar playing was how well he was able to adjust to each of the people he was accompanying without ever once looking or sounding like he was making any adjustments at all. No matter what style of music was being played he was able to handle it effortlessly. Even more impressive was how he could be both the centre of attention and play a support role on stage with equal poise.
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