VELVET THUNDER

With an average age of just about 80, it’s massively impressive to see these two veteran bluesmen pulling a seventeen date tour in February, which will take them all over England. Aficionados may know Paul Jones either as the front man of 1960s popsters Manfred Mann, or as a movie and West End stage star, or even as a long-standing radio presenter. Dave Kelly may be familiar as slide guitarist from the classic John Dummer Blues Band, a member of Howlin’ Wolf’s touring outfit, or as a solo performer in his own right. For me though, they are both, and forever will be, founding members of The Blues Band, an electric rocking sensation formed in 1979, which ran for over 40 years.

For this tour, they are travelling light – a microphone each, Dave with two acoustic guitars, one with standard tuning and one tuned for slide, and Paul with his case of harmonicas. An appreciative audience is treated to 20 blues classics spread over two sets, each with its own historical anecdote. The two guys take it in turns to sing, Dave bullying off with Jesse Fuller’s fingerpicked rag number, San Francisco Bay Blues. Paul follows up with the Fats Domino song Let The Four Winds Blow, after justifying Domino’s appearance in a blues set – not that anyone would necessarily have a problem with that!

It was nice to hear an original Blues Band number next, with Dave performing his song I’m Going Home, from the band’s debut album. Paul’s response was a number by Little Johnny Taylor, who had the misfortune to be a contemporary of the more well-known soul singer Johnnie Taylor, meaning it’s impossible to mention his name without the suffix ‘not to be confused with…’

Dave breaks out his slide for a rendition of Blind Alfred Reed’s How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live? probably best known from Ry Cooder’s definitive 1970 version. Despite the fact that the guys are taking turns singing, this is the only number to feature backing vocals, with Paul signing harmony to Dave’s lead. Then we have an extended take on Manfred Mann’s thudding slow blues Without You – after all these years, Jones has added the gospel-soaked third verse he claims it always needed.

And thus the evening progresses, including a surprisingly wide variety of fare, from old ballads and stage musical numbers, to contemporary rockers and tributes, both covers and originals. Both men are steeped in the experience and history of the blues, and the anecdotes are wide-ranging, as are the colourful names of the original performers, many of them referring to some physical characteristic – Blind Willie McTell and Peg Leg Howell for example. Dave delves even further back into history, with a rendition of Hoagy Carmichael’s 1930 piece Georgia On My Mind, which is also included on his latest solo album, released in February 2024. Paul responds with a beautifully laid-back performance of George Gershwin’s Summertime from 1935, inspired by a version from Elaine Delmar.

Both men are in the happy position of being able to recount conversations they have had with some of the venerable old purveyors of the blues, such as Dave’s exchange with Son House, who had performed with the legendary Robert Johnson. A popular tale has it that Johnson gained his blues prowess by making a deal with the Devil at a mystical crossroads, a legend that House frankly doubted! Dave takes on the story with his new song Them Ole Crossroads Blues, in which he suggests that Johnson probably just went off somewhere to practise – this is combined with a grateful tribute to Dave’s friend and mentor, the late Tony McPhee, who first showed him how tune his guitar for slide.

After a relaxed intermission, during which both performers interact generously with the audience, they’re back to play a second set, kicking off with Paul’s audience sing-along Suddenly I Like It, which he has recorded both with the Blues Band and as a solo act. Highlights of the second set include the Lead Belly song Midnight Special, which unusually alternates between seven-and-eight bar blues, and the rocking Statesboro Blues, another song originally from the 1930s. Dave recalls it as a highlight of a tour in which The Blues Band supported The Allman Brothers, and members of each band would regularly sit in on each others’ sets.

Two more high points are the flowing shuffle, Memphis Slim’s Every Day I Have The Blues, in which Paul blows his harp with verve and feeling, and the final number, a slightly expurgated rendition of Muddy Waters’ I Can’t Be Satisfied, on which the two singers alternate verses. Needless to say, they return to the stage for one last hurrah, which takes the form of The Blues Band’s 1999 Paul Jones song It’s Got To Be The Blues. The audience spontaneously breaks into a fit of foot-stomping to accompany the intro, and enthusiastically join in on the choruses with some encouragement from the stage.

In many ways, this kind of gig brings the blues full circle. Ancient, fuzzy photos of the genre’s originators show lone men, or sometimes women, toting acoustic guitars or diatonic harmonicas. Sometimes they would perform solo, sometimes in pairs. Later on, they embraced electric amplification, and the genre jumped across the Atlantic, to be juiced-up and rocked-up by bands like Cream, The Bluesbreakers, and eventually pub rockers like The Blues Band. So it’s a treat to see these same guys reverting to acoustic guitars and harps, sitting on stage and jamming, for all the world like the front-porch heroes of yesteryear. Keep on rocking guys, and all the best with the tour.