A real schyster (or so says my mother)... Monday be damned, The Little Elmore Reed Blues Band is gonna have a good time. And, if you’re stopping by TC’s Lounge to join them, you don’t have a choice not to.
More than any other day of the week, Monday weighs the heaviest on every one of our souls. Whether you're a man, a woman, white, black, skinny, fat, old, young, rich, or poor, we all need to be set free from the chains that hold us down when Monday rolls around.
The Little Elmore Reed Blues band is gonna set you free.
From a back corner stage, under a loose and tangled web of strung-up Christmas lights, The Little Elmore Reed Blues Band, a collaboration of five of Austin's finest blues musicians, lay down a kick and rhythm that shakes the chairs, rattles the walls, and rolls through the hips of every lady dripping sweat on the dance floor Monday nights down at TC’s Lounge, “Austin's True Home of the Blues.”
Every weary soul that stumbled through the door of TC’s was set free. I can't tell you what it was exactly that eased our burdens, but, between the Lone Stars and the uneven floorboards, The Little Elmore Reed Blues Band cut it loose.
The band didn't appear to need a set list. They just took the room's temperature, judged the sweat of the crowd, how it was moving, and they dished out an impromptu collection of covers ranging from deep cuts from Fats Domino to the soulful classics of the likes of Willie Dixon and T Bone Walker as well as their own originals (including “2’ Left to the Ceiling”*, a poignant ode to those affected by Hurricane Katrina).
*Written by Mark Hays and recorded on Seth Walker's latest album
“We're not playing the Texas blues,” says Mark Hays, the drummer for the band and the beat behind the likes of Seth Walker and Guy Forsyth, “we're deeply rooted in the Chicago blues…this is not so much Stevie Ray Vaughn, more like Freddie King.”
And that they are. The Little Elmore Reed Blues Band are a unique, original blend of the very best ingredients of American roots music. Yes, these guys take the swing of the
And, while the songs have words - real, true, honest words about hard times, good times, two-timin’ women, good lovin’ women, unpaid bills, cheap thrills, and (yessir) the booze - it's the spine-tingling solos and toe-tappin’ rhythms between Mike Keller and Willy Pipkin on guitars; the steady rolling bass lines of J.P. “Pat” Whitefield (a living legend of the Austin blues and founder of The Leghounds); combined with the “Come ladies and let your hair down” beck and call of Dale Spalding’s blues harp; all driven home by Mark Hayes on the drums that speaks straight to the soul and sets the body moving.
Monday be damned, The Little Elmore Reed Blues Band is gonna have a good time. And, if you’re stopping by TC’s Lounge to join them, you don’t have a choice not to.
Hearing The Little Elmore Reed Blues Band on Monday night, hearing music like that in a place like TC’s Lounge, gave this weary old soul a new hope for a better life.
“My roommate brought me here for the first time three months ago and I've been coming back every Monday since!” a fan told me as she moved to the music, “…I'm addicted!”