So July 2010 was absolutely an amazing month for ole BB... Everything from boating at the Lake to playing at the Montreal Jazz Festival w/ new friend John Nemeth... You must check him out... great stuff...

I'll renew this page when I get back form California...

I've been in "The Mood Room" w/ Duke working on the next Duke Robillard Band CD which should be out in '09. He's got some new microphones for the piano which are just amazing! I've also been having fun playing with Toni Lynn Washington, The Gumbo Kings (my Tuesday night trio playing New Orleans influenced music... if you'd like to hear my bass playing technique on B3... this is your chance), Mr. Nick and The Dirty Tricks and just about everyone else that'll have me. The economy is in a ditch, so that means the blues scene should make a rebound soon! I'm counting on it and your support to make it through! So don't let me down! Come out to a show soon!!!

Also there's a new young guitarist/singer songwriter in town who you might want to check out... His name is Luke Mulholland, he hails from Toronto, but has become a transplanted Bostonian Homeyan and sounds great! You can reach his website from the button for my threadbear fynn myspace site on the main page's left hand column...

Here comes Fall 2008!

I played a lot of local shows towards the end of the summer, but as the leaves began to turn I started traveling more once again... First to Omaha Nebraska, a surprisingly nice city where I played a fun show with Junior Watson and Toni Lynn Washington... My fellow Northshorian Mike Tucker was on tenor sax with us, kicking tail as only he can... Then it was down to NYC and a show w/ Duke at BB King's... It was great to get back in the saddle with my favorite band... I miss Mark Teixeira though (he had to have shoulder surgery and has been sidelined for a bit)... Shemekia Copeland was on the bill with us. Shes' such a sweetheart! Don't forget to check the schedule for some great shows coming up in the fall... See ya later!

Summer 2008

Ahhh! Summer, crazy, hot rainy, travelisciuos summer of 2008! Started out in lovely New Jersey playing the Somers Point Beach concert series w/ Duke! Great place, great seafood! Then I flew to Puisto Blues in Jaarvenpaa Finland, where I played with both Duke and Big Jack Johnson. What a festival! The people are absolutely the best. The first night they treated me like a King, serving me some great food and treating me to some of the local drink specialties including salmonyaki (sp?), a licorice flavored vodka? Needless to say I made some new friends that night! The following night I played a set with my favorite Clarksdale MS resident Mr. Big Jack Johnson. The location in the hotel was nice, and the sound system was first rate. My fellow 'threadbearian' Jesse "Spider" Williams was in control of the low end, while Derek from Little Richards band handled the skins! What a blast! The next day I played a great set on the main stage w/ Duke and the boys. It was a fantastic setting with some 10,000 people out in a beautiful field in the Finnish woods? Just plain stunning! We were followed by headliner Delbert McClinton who was a ball to listen to and hang out with.

After flying back over the Arctic Circle to get home I played a bunch of gigs in the NE area, w/ both Duke and Toni... Highlights included The Boston Harbor Blues Barge, Johnny D's and our favorite old haunt The Grog w/ Parker and the boys.

Just last week I got to reenact my Finnish experience, this time in Kitchener Ontario, playing w/ Duke and Big Jack once again. Duke's set in the Blues Tent was outrageous! What a blast! Then it began to rain like the Great flood was imminent, and Jack's show was moved from the main stage to the tent. unfortunately at the same time as headliner Robert Cray's show, which left us w/ a smallish crowd. Still Jack kicked butt!

I also got to hang out for a quick minute with Mavis Staples! She's just such a classy and great person! I love it every time I get the chance to talk to her. A true national treasure!

More later!

Early Spring of 2008

WOW! In March and April I toured the EU with Duke... 12 countries in 5 weeks! What an amazing tour... We went as far north as Trondheim Norway... just a beautiful place! And as far South as Piozzo Italy, Also amazing... In fact perhaps the best beer I have ever had is brewed in Piozzo at the Birreria Le Baladin, www.birreria.com. In the middle of the tour we played as far afield as Belgrade Serbia. It's trully frightening to learn that its easier to get into Serbia than it is to get into Canada! What's up with that? Musically the tour was great! You can find some nice examples of our work on youtube and some great photos on my photos page as well as my myspace page for 'threadbear fynn'.

Just last week I played a special tribute show to Louis Jordan w/ Duke at The Chicago Blues Festival! What a kick that was! The City of Chicago declared June 5 "Louis Jordan Day" and presented a plaque to that effect to his widow. The show was great, with excellent horn arrangements by Scott Aruda... and some very special guest added to the band including Red Holloway, Sugar Ray Norcia and Eric Schneider. I did my best to channel Wild Bill Davis!

More great shows to come! I'll try to think of some good stories to tell....

2008

Touring with Duke and playing with the usual suspects...looks like a great year coming up! An appearance at The Chicago Blues Festival and a 5 week tour of the EU are already scheduled...

Sept. 2007

Wow...what a whirlwind summer its been... Gig after gig!!! I've been recording again with Duke Robillard and touring all over the US and Canada with him; meeting and playing with Curtis Salgado, Guitar Ray from Holland and Charley and Rick Estrin from Little Charley and the Night Cats along the way... We also did some recording in Phoenix with Big Pete Pearson and Bob Corritore at Clark Rigsby's wonderful Tempest Studio. One of the highlights of the tour (and there were many!!!) was playing the Ocean Beach Jazz Festival w/ Duke... Joey DeFrancesco (who recorded his last CD at Clark Rigsby's Tempest Studio) was one of the other acts... Man was that a fun show!!!

Duke's CD is still getting rave reviews, Toni's new CD is out, The 'threadbear fynn' CD is out! It doesn't get much better than this!

June 2007

Well, Duke's new Double CD " World Full of Blues" has been released to rave reviews... Toni's new CD "Favorite Flower, Toni Lynn Washington Live" is coming out tomorrow, and I'm playing constantly! Life is great!

March 1

I have 4 CDs at the mastering facility... I'm playing with Duke Robillard and Toni Lynn Washington as well as 'threadbear fynn' and a bunch of my good friends all around the world. Life is GREAT! Stay tuned for more!

Jan 1 2007

Happy New Year everyone! It's been a while since I updated this news site, so there's a lot to tell!

THE DUKE ROBIllARD CD "GUITAR GOOVARAMA" THAT I PLAYED ON HAS BEEN NOMINATED FOR A 2007 GRAMMY! 

THE LIVE BIG JACK JOHNSON CD IS MIXED AND IS BEING SHOPPED BY JACK'S MANAGEMENT TEAM!

THE 'threadbear fynn' CD is at the manufacturers...

THE LIVE TONI LYNN CD IS GOING TO THE MANUFACTURERS IN 3 WEEKS...

Bruce is producung a CD for North Shore Guitarist Bob Wolfman that should be finished in January...

Bruce spent 4 days in December recording with Duke Robillard for his next Stony Plain release due out in 2007...

Bruce will be on the rd., w/ Duke in late January and early Februaury.. (check the schedule on the main page)...

More to come in the next few weeks... Stay tuned!!

Sept. 22 '06

Ahhh... It's been an exceptional couple of months... In August Toni headlined the Sakonnet R&B Festival in RI then I headed up to one of my favorite festivals The Maximum Blues Festival in Carleton Quebec... If you've never seen the Gaspe Peninsula and Bay (located North of New Brunswick and South of the St., Lawrence Seaway), you should go there next August. It's simply one of the most beautiful unspoiled places on the Eastern Seaboard. The food is great and the people are absolutely the best! I played my usual 3 shows, one with Tutu Jones out of Texas, Jackie Payne and Steve Edmonson out of CA and Diana Braithwaite out of Toronto. The band was killin', with my cohorts Gordon Beadle and Scott Aruda on tenor and trumpet and one of my favorite drummers, Mark Greenberg, kickin' it... Then it was up to Halifax Nova Scotia where I played with Tutu Jones at the Dutch Mason Blues Festival. On Friday I hung out, and sat in, with The Fabulous Thunderbirds. Gene Taylor was as much fun to hang with as James Harmon said he would be! We played some 4 handed blues on The Crawl and discussed the nature of playin' a good boogie woogie! ... It was great to hang out with Kim Wilson, fellow New Englander Nick Curran and all the great players from that band! Then Toni and I headed southwest to play at The Riverfront Blues Festival in Fort Smith Arkansas. We flew into Dallas where our friend (and Dallas area guitarist) Hash Brown picked us up, hooked us up with a killin' band, and got us to and from the festival in comfort and style. The Subdudes went on after us...what a show! And man was it hot down there! I felt like a peanut on a roasting pan! What a cool town... My friends the Cate Brothers ( who wrote "Are you Happy Now" which we put on Toni's last CD "Been so Long") were playing at the local beer garden. It was great to finally meet those guys. Man they can write. Yet another great trip! We headed back home and played an unbelievable private party with Jerry Portnoy of Muddy Waters and Eric Clapton fame. Man this place was so decked out it was almost too much to handle! They had set up a temporary outside structure and stage with a mahogony dance floor just for this party, hired one of the best chefs in New England to cook up a BBQ and hired a full sound company as well as our band and Jerry's band (with good friends Bruce Katz, Troy Gonyea and Rick Russell rounding out the lineup)! Talk about a Party! I swear to you it was like having a diner and dance party at Austin City Limits! If we had a public performance venue in New England as nice as that set-up we'd be all set! We had our good friend Deric Dyer (formerly withTina Turner's band) on saxophone.... and young lion Mauricio Zottorelli on drums! It was a kick! Then to top it all off Toni and I headed out to Lansing Michigan and played the Old Town Blues Festival with Toni and Junior Watson. Once again Gordon Beadle was on sax and midwest blues icon Steve McRay was on drums! Smokin' player.... Toni headlined the show for around 10,000 people! Yeah boy.... So needless to say I've been a little busy, and as a result I haven't had a chance to print up the 'threadbear fynn' CDs... I'm on it! I'll also finally get a chance to finish mixing the live Toni Lynn CD... So thanks for waiting and until next time... Stay out of trouble... will ya ...sheeeesh.....

B

July 26th...

Just got the Toni Lynn recordings back from the Ryles show. Better than last time, and definitely some usable tracks for our live CD, but I think we're going to keep recording that club until we really nail a night!

This Sunday we play the Sakonnet R&B Festival in RI.... That should be a blast!

I'll be up with Tutu Jones, Jackie Payne and Steve Edmundson and other artists in my favorite place Carleton Quebec next week... The Maximum Blues Fest., is a show not to be missed...

See you soon,

Bruce

June/July '06

Switzerland!!! Now that was fun. 3 shows with Toni Lynn Washington and some of the best bands to play in the EU this year. First up I played in Vallemaggia, which translates into The Magic Valley, and let me tell ya, it really is. What a beautiful place! Then Toni and I went to Raperswill in the German speaking part of Switzerland where we had a blast with Sharrie Williams. This was a pretty big festival on the shores of Lake Zurich, with over 100,000 people in attendance over the course of the weekend. Then we wound up in Zoefingen Switzerland, which reminded me more of a typical Bavarian small city... It was another beutiful show with around 2000 in attendance and our friend Sax Gordon Beadle climbing the scaffolding of the stage!!!! Big FUN!!!!

Don't forget to come to Ryle's on July 22nd for another live recording!!! The last one had some technical glitches so we're going to give it another shot! Come on down and you might hear yourself on a Toni Lynn CD!

April '06

Come join Boston's Queen of Soul and Blues April 29th at Ryle's Jazz Club http://www.rylesjazz.com/ as we celebrate Toni Lynn Washington's long and storied career by recording live (courtesy of our most beloved benefactor and excellent recording engineer Bill Smith of Club 39, who's work was featured prominently on Toni's latest CD "Been so Long")! Over 40 years in the Music Industry, 18 years with her own band!!!

The 'threadbear fynn' CD "Sneaky Child" is mixed and ready for mastering... I should have them for sale in the next 2 months or so...watch this space for more!!

OK so here it is the end of March and the threadbear fynn CD is finally done! I'll be looking for a label now so if anyone has any ideas please let me know! In other news the new Duke Robillard CD that I'm on just came out, and the Big Jack Johnson live CD should be done soon! I also have to say how much fun I had playing with Mavis Staples and also how much I'm looking forward to a killin' summer of shows!!!! One more note, I headed up to Montreal today to pick up a Leslie 147 to go with my new A102 Hammond (same as a B3)! It's absolutely beautiful and I should be using it on a show soon!!!

HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!!!!
Today is January 25 '06...

A lot is happening around here lately: I've just about finished work on the first threadbear fynn CD and will be shopping it around to various labels over the next months. The Toni Lynn Washington and Big Jack Johnson Live CDs are also getting closer to fruition every day...

On Feb 12th I'll be playing with the amazing Ms., Mavis Staples at Colby College in ME.,. This is one show I'm really looking forward to playing...

I've also come into a bit of luck and have finally gotten my own B3!!!

Stay tuned for more as the summer approachs ....!!!!

Today is November 24th 2005

It's been an eventful couple of weeks here in New England... Starting a week ago this past Monday I've been working a lot at Bill Smith's Club 39 Recording Studio in Sudbury MA. First recording some B3 and Wurlitzer Electric Piano tracks for Duke Robillard's upcoming release, followed this past Monday by mixing the live Big Jack Johnson audio tracks recorded this past August 10th at Ground Zero in Clarksdale Mississippi for the Mississippi Public Television production "Native Sons". "Native Sons" will be broadcast by PBS in February or March of '06. It's OUTSTANDING!!! With Big Jack on guitar and vocals, Marty Ballou on Bass, Warren Grant on drums and me on B3, the band was absolutely crackin'! This is some of the best Blues music I've ever been involved with! I can't wait for everyone to hear this recording, Jack is just smokin' on it!! Look for a Big Jack Johnson CD of it tentatively entitled "This Goes Out To The House" Big Jack Johnson Live From Clarksdale, to come out around the same time as the PBS DVD, and check out the backstage photo from "Native Sons" on the Bruce's photos page .

I'll be heading back into Club 39 in December to record some more tracks for my personal project 'threadbear fynn'.

On Wednesday I played the Wildhorse Café with Nicole Nelson, Warren Grant, Greg Paraskos and Dwight Ritcher (Toni Lynn Washington was also in attendance). As usual when I play with Nicole and Co., fun was had by all.

Next on the list, I'm planning to acquire a 24 track hard disk copy of Toni Lynn's live show from Winthrop Washington last year. The roughs of that show are so good that Toni and I are planning on mixing it and releasing it on CD some time in '06.

Keep an eye out for these recordings! And an ear to the tracks for any of my live performances!!!