Missing Friday nights at the Southgate Club listening to the great bands playing at St Harmonica's? Well, we can't do anything about the lockdown, but we can do our best to recreate St Harmonica's in the comfort of your own home. So pour yourself a glass of beer, move the furniture aside to make yourself a dance floor, click on the first of the music videos below and start a text conversation with some of the people you usually meet up with at the club.Keith Thompson Band
Storm Warning’s Derek White put us on to the Keith Thompson Band. Derek helps promote tours and gigs for some great players and this would have been a highlight on 24th April as part of their UK tour.
Two offerings from Keith here: one from the band, and a solo performance recorded under lockdown.
Keith Thompson: Crash N Burn - Music from the lock-down No 3
David Sinclair Four - Little Rock & Roll
David kindly provided us with a terrific playlist a couple of weeks ago but didn’t include his band in that list! They should have been at St Harmonica’s on May 22nd. Can’t wait to get this classy band booked in the future
Dexter Shaw and The Wolftones - Black Angel
You may have seen Francesca Shaw with her double bass at St Harmonica’s with Eddie Angel amongst others. We were so pleased that her father, Dexter Shaw, a legend amongst those on the 60’s British Blues scene, was booked to play. His set would have taken you right back.
Sam Kelly's Station House - When Will You Be Mine?
It’s always a pleasure to host Sam Kelly and his band in whatever incarnation they may be. One of the best drummers around, Sam leads from the drum throne and always brings top drawer musicians. This is his bands version of the Average White Band’s ‘When Will You be Mine’ and features musicians who have played with Sam at St Harmonicas.
TRAIN SET
Grateful Dead - It Takes a Lot To Laugh, It Takes a Train To Cry
One without extended solos, but a lovely laconic version of Bob Dylan’s song. Many have covered this, including the St Harmonica’s House Band. Check out also Bob Dylan’s own version from the 1975 Rollin Thunder Tour.
The Band with Paul Butterfield - Mystery Train
The Band could hit a groove like no others and Butterfield’s harp sound is terrific. Complete with false start. Trains sometimes take some getting going!
Willie Nelson - Desperados Waiting For A Train
This may not satisfy the blues police, but it’s a beautiful song from the legendary Guy Clark given a special treatment by Willie Nelson and his family. There’s some great train footage too.
Billy Bragg & Joe Henry – The Midnight Special
The Midnight Special steamed out of Houston and passed the Sugarland Penitentiary. Prisoners would hold on to the belief that if the light from the train fell on them they may be next up for parole and better times. If you haven’t read Bragg’s book Roots, Radicals & Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World, then you must. Bragg pays homage to Lonnie Donegan’s influence on the early UK R&B scene.
Mad Dog Dave Barnes - Love In Vain
Dave always does a beautiful version of this very sad Robert Johnson song which uses a departing train as a metaphor for lost love. A few familiar faces in this recording of Dave in the Broomfield Park Orchard - a reminder of what we’re missing and a symbol of better times to come. Let the good times roll!
