The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Celebrate the season with great music
This week also includes Halloween. Many venues that host blues music are doing some spooky partying. If you plan to go out, check out the doings. Some are holding costume contests and other special activities;
The Tipping Chair Tavern is hosting Ted D's Homecoming. His band, Coyote Motel, will hit the stage Sunday. Some artists just play music — Ted Drozdowski lives it. With many years as the leader of the band The Scissormen, he is often described as playing psychedelic blues. He has toured around the US and internationally.
After one song, you know Drozdowski plays with all his heart and soul. His highenergy performances often find him playing on his audience’s tables and in their laps. Through a decade and five albums, he’s led his band Scissormen through the US and Europe, playing everything from Mississippi juke joints to major festivals including Bonnaroo and France’s Cognac Blues Passions. Now he brings Coyote Motel to Connecticut.
Drozdowski has been on the American roots music scene for 30 years. He began writing about the music in the early 1980s, and received the Blues Foundation’s Keeping the Blues Alive Award for Journalism in 1998, among other honors. Besides writing, he kept active as a musician. Along the way, he developed a command of slide guitar playing, with an approach that brings together bluesman Muddy Waters and the late jazz guitarist Sonny Sharrock.
You can expect high energy and a lot of activity when he plays. He keeps his feet planted firmly in tradition, while at the same time keeping his eyes on the future. Drozdowski says his music is vital, contemporary and brimming with power, passion and beauty. Saturday, he will be bringing Coyote Motel to The Stomping Ground at 1 p.m.
Saturday, Jr Krauss and the Shakes are celebrating their 20th anniversary, with the festivities kicking off at Maple Tree Café on Saturday. The band came together in 1999, forged out of an appreciation for roots rock, blues, swing, jump, and rockabilly. The friends and band mates have been going strong ever since. Over the years, their contribution to thestate’s blues scene have been many. From clubs to the Connecticut, they have made fans happy.
Saturday, the Connecticut Blues Society adds another event to its list of activities by hosting a Fall Harvest Party at the Hannon Hatch VFW. Doors open at 5 p.m. and bands start to 6 p.m. The lineup includes Sweet Daddy Cool Breeze, Paul Gabriel Band, Cobalt Express, and Brandt Taylor Band. Sweet Daddy Cool Breeze will be representing Connecticut in the Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge, held in January in Memphis. They’ll be joined there by the Balkun Brothers, winners of the 2019 Connecticut Blues Society Solo/Duo Challege.
BlackEyed Sally's has an entertaining weekend planned. Friday, The Mambo Sons take the stage.
They are recognized as one of New England’s top original bluesbased rock and roll bands. Led by Tom Guerra on guitar and bassist Scott Lawson Pomeroy, they also feature drummer Joe “The Cat” Lemieux and guitarist Russ Waesche. The Sons will be playing their unique brand of blues and rock and roll classics.
Saturday, Harper & the Midwest Kind are in town. Awardwinning Australian singer/songwriter Peter D. Harper, known as “Harper,” creates a mix of roots music through his creative use of the harmonica and the haunting drone of the didgeridoo. He possesses a powerful, soulful voice and a deep, almost mystical approach to music that some might say has evolved into its own genre. Harper calls it “World Blues” a rich musical stew of ‘50s rhythm and blues, a ‘60s message of love and unity, and ‘70s funky soul, stirred up with masterful, virtuoso harmonica and the deep, woody, percussive tones of the didgeridoo, an instrument from his native Australia.
Saturday, the Tic Toc Lounge Blues Jam Reunion will be at the El Cid Bar and Lounge. Join Samuel Impionbato and friends for some fun.
Don Odell’s Legends in Palmer, Mass., are doing a video shoot and interview with Sweet Daddy Cool Breeze on Sunday. Edward Stack will host the afternoon event.
Friday, the Falcon with Host and organizer, Joe Louis Walker presents a Bahamas Relief Concert. This is in response to critical needs in the Bahamas following Hurricane Dorian's landfall as one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes on record.
Sunday, Murali Coryell holds a 50th B’Day Bash at The Falcon Underground. The party starts at 1 p.m.
The Falcon has the Chris O Leary Band on Saturday. The O'Leary Band's music is rooted in the blues and steeped in the tradition of Memphis, Chicago and New Orleans with shades of New Orleans, rockabilly and big, highenergy sound.