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Wendy DeWitt, Joe Tate and Lonnie Walter at the No Name Bar

Posted in Bay Area Music, Night Beat, Sausalito After Dark, Sausalito night life, ukulele music with tags , , , , , , on March 28, 2011 by joetatesblog

Joe Tate and Lonnie Walter play here every Saturday from 6-8:30, usually with a guest artist. This week it’s Wendy DeWitt, the queen of boogie woogie piano. Also sitting in this week was harmonica man, Tom Barr.

Joe started the evening with singing Slipping And Sliding, the Little Richard hit of the 50s. Then some New Orleans stuff like Rockin Pneumonia, the perennial favorite from Professor  Longhair.

 

Lonnie Walter, Joe Tate and Wendy DeWitt

Wendy and Joe take turns belting out some of the good old favorites that rock and boogie. These duties are shared two songs at a time, he plays two then she plays two.

Wendy’s piano skills are amazing. Just when everyone’s jaw drops as she burns through some really hot passage, she engages the audience and gets their participation.

Lonnie Walter carries the beat on the bongos and does some showy gestures with his hands .This always gets laughs and cheers. Lonnie has his own band called Lonnie’s Eggs. They appear regularly at the Saloon in North Beach.

This worked well until some of the other local singers showed up. Tate can’t resist bringing them up to the Stage. First there was Lauralee Brown and then Donna Dacuti both of whom sang a couple of very nice songs.

Lauralee Brown

Lauralee Brown sang Moondance which was a nice break from Tate’s blues oriented theme music. This was followed by Vine Street Betty.

Donna Dacuti did Georgia while DeWitt and Tate read from her arrangement. This was ok but she really killed them with her rendition of Built For Comfort, the Howlin Wolf, Willie Dixon number. Sometimes these sit-in things pay off.

Tom Barr sat in on harmonica and added some nice riffs to a lot of the blues stuff. He also assisted on background vocals with Lonnie Walter.

Tate finished the evening with Minnie The Moocher, Cab Calloway’s story song about a poor delusional woman who doesn’t have anything but a heart of gold. Tate plays the ukulele on this song for good effect. The quick decay of the plunka plunka ukulele voice actually drives the rhythm.

This song probably goes on a little too long because he prattles on about Minnie and then thanks the No Name, the bartender, every member of the band and what ever else comes to mind. The audience chimes right in with the hi de hi de hoes until the end.

Tom Barr, Lonnie Walter and Joe Tate

To learn more about Wendy DeWitt go to

http://www.wendydewitt.com/

To learn more about Joe Tate go to

http://xrl.in/4y57

Lonnie’s Eggs on Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lonnies-Eggs/259655605911

See Joe Tate on You Tube

http://www.youtube.com/user/joebtate?feature=mhum

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Chris Goddard, Joe Tate and Lonnie Walter at the No Name Bar

Posted in Bay Area Music, Night Beat, Sausalito After Dark, Sausalito night life with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 21, 2011 by joetatesblog

L-R Lonnie Walter, Joe Tate and Chris Goddard

Chris Goddard was substituting for Johnny Nitro, who was to have played the No Name Bar this 19th of March, 2011. Unfortunately, Johnny died just four weeks ago, shortly after booking to play here. Everyone was excited that he was coming.

Myron Mu, who owns the Saloon, where Nitro has played for many years, was here that night and he told us the news. Lonnie said “We’re gonna have to cancel Johnny’s date.” It was with sadness that we marked his passing but we tried to rock out for him just as we thought he would have wished.

Joe Tate and weird guitar

Joe Tate and Chris Goddards crutches

Chris Goddard showed up on crutches himself, but still determined to entertain. It’s raining hard again tonight and the regulars are here along with a couple of Nitro’s friends

Joe Tate started off with Little Richards Slipping And Sliding then segued into a few New Orleans style tunes that were beautifully backed by Chris Goddard’s well versed guitar.

It’s a groovy sound, based not on having full band, but more like a coffee house thing with the bongos and guitars. It’s good listening mixed with some get up and dance numbers.

Chris Goddard also sang a few songs. Even though he’s not dancing around, he has still got it going on.

Tom Barr and lonnie Walter

Tom Barr and Lonnie Walter

Tom Barr showed up with his harmonicas and hammered out some nice solos on many of the blues renditions.

Tom regularly plays with the UFOs in San Rafael at a secret location known as Area 51. Joe joins in the fun there too, playing stuff you never get to hear at the No Name Bar.

Tom and Lonnie did some nice backup vocals on some of Joe’s songs and at times sounded like an old fashioned gospel quartet.

At intermission Lonnie talked about Johnny Nitro and in between the sentences you could here the rain coming down hard. Lonnie let us all know how much it hurt him. They knew each other well and both had been living above the Saloon on Grant Ave.

Jane Koestel, who was also a friend of Johnny, was there, but declined to speak.

Joe Tate will be back next Saturday with Wendy DeWitt and Lonnie Walter. Wendy, who was playing with us when Myron told us about Nitro, is a terrific pianist who has the boogie woogie in her soul. Her and Joe have done this gig a few times and it always smokes. It starts at 6. Check it out. http://www.localmusicvibe.com/event/wendy-dewitt-joe-tate-and-lonnie-walter

Johhny Nitro's final booking

To Learn more about Johnny Nitro go to

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/02/21/BAN81HR1FE.DTL

or  http://www.facebook.com/johnnynitrotribute

To learn more about Joe Tate go to

http://www.theredlegs.com/JoeTate.html

or

http://xrl.in/4y57

For this weeks show go to

http://www.localmusicvibe.com/event/wendy-dewitt-joe-tate-and-lonnie-walter

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March 14 Blue Monday at the Sausalito Cruising Club

Posted in Bay Area Music, Night Beat, Sausalito After Dark, Sausalito night life, ukulele music with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 16, 2011 by joetatesblog

Well whaddya know? Monday night was frittered away playin the blues and more. The house band, with Joe Tate, Willie Rizer and Donny Kountz did the opening set with “Blue Monday” and some other simple stuff to get the evening started.

Debra Clawson,Tom Barr, Joe Tate, Jeff Suits and Oz

We had a couple of surprise visits. First was Mike Adams who, as a young teenager, played drums occasionally with the Redlegs. Everyone was amazed at how good could he play when just a boy. Tonight, he took over the drums after Andy Mendell, who was the first jamer of the evening. Andy came up before the end of the set so Donny got some quick downtime. Suzie Olsen also assisted on vocals during the set.

As soon as Tate took a break, John “Coyote” Egan took up the guitar like a menacing weapon. The Flying V is just a little scary. At his request, Tate hung on to his old bat guitar and assisted with Coyote’s set.

Jamers: Mike adams, David Kemp, Coyote and Jim Presta

There were generous portions of wailing harmonica with Tom Barr, Scott Sherman and Diver Dave taking turns. Paul Seaward got in on the action too.

There was also some good horn action too. Ray DeFazio had his baritone sax and his friend, Bruce, played a really melodic trumpet. These guys came in real handy during “I Got A Woman.”

The second surprise was that four members of the Tickets showed up. Lead singer Debra Clawson dragged her crew down to the club after Monday Night rehearsal. Apparently they hadn’t had enough howling at the moon yet.

They had some new songs they had been working and we got to hear some of the stuff. Some of it was high energy rock with a kind of swing beat. Their drummer, Peter Herbert, has a certain touch that sets these rhythms off.

Some Tickets: Will Leidenthal,Peter Herbert, Debra Clawson and Oz.

Debra Clawson and guitarist Will Leidenthal do some really nice duets and of course she can belt of the blues like nobodies business. They were joined by their regular bassist, Jeff Suits and  drop in guitarist, John “Oz” Gordon.

Jerome Phillips

Near the end we were treated to some excellent funk led by pianist, Jerome Phillips. It is always a pleasure to hear Jerome play. He has been playing at Seahorse on Monday nights and showing up here near the end. He also plays with Joe Tate at the No Name Bar and will be there with him on the 2nd and 30th of april. Joe Tate plays the No Name every Saturday with various other artists. You can check out his show there in the early evening, starting at 6 PM.

To Learn more about the happenings go to

http://www.theredlegs.com/JoeTate.html

Video is at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS1ZOiyK06o

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Blue Monday at the Sausalito Cruising Club

Posted in Bay Area Music, Night Beat, Sausalito After Dark, Sausalito night life, ukulele music with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 8, 2011 by joetatesblog

Your regular host, Joe Tate, took the night off due the laryngitis. Jesse Kincaid ably took over for the evening with happening results.

There were over 15 musicians who signed up to play and everyone got a turn on stage. There were guitarists, pianists, drummers, bassists, vocalists and a couple of good harmonicas. Larry Seeger was also there with his “bones” which, surprisingly, can be heard above all the electric guitars and stuff. He holds two bones in each hand and, with a deft wrist motion, a staccato rhythm is produced.

The house band, consisting of Jesse Kincaid, Donny Kountz and Willie Riser, was joined by Gary Berger and Jim Presta on piano, Gabe Navarre, Ken Markowitz, Craig Caffal, Paul Bowan and Swanee on guitar, Ron Rosano and Ian Lee on drums, Linda Seabright, Gloria Lopez, Sana Hoffer, David Kemp, Suzie Olsen, Donna Dacuti and Sheila McEnary on vocals, Diver Dave and Scott Sherman on harmonicas all sometimes accompanied by David Kemp on bass.

Craig Caffal, Ron Rosano, Linda Seabright, Willie Riser and Gabe Navarre

Jesse performed a very nice set including some R&B standards like “Midnight Hour” as well as some good blues from Jimmy Reed to Chuck Berry. Gabe Navarre was first to join the jam and gave us some renditions of Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jimmy Hendrix.

Kempers and Sana rock out

Gary Berger and Jim Presta took turns on the piano while Scott Sherman and Diver Dave did harmonic harmonicas. That’s two harmonicas at once for a powerful blues motif. Suzie Olsen gave us a number of old rockers and also assisted on vocals for Jesse and Gabe.

Ron Rosano took over drums for a while and there were some great vocals from Donna Dacuti. We also heard from Sheila McEnary  and Linda Seabright. Linda dedicated her performance to her friend Herman, a drummer for Dr. John who had just died.

There were also excellent performances by guitarists Paul Bowan and Craig Caffal. These guys are great singers too so they were give a little extra time to unload.

Dueling harps, Scott Sherman, Ian Lee, Paul Bowan, Gabe Navarre, Diver Dave, Suzie Olsen and Gary Berger

The highlight of the evening was the singing trio “Daylight Again” with David Kemp, Sana Hoffer and Gloria Lopez. They sang three songs in perfect harmony starting with Eric Clapton’s “Lay Down Sally”  featuring Kemp on lead Vocal. This was followed by the fifties rocker “Don’t Say Nothin’ Bad About My Baby” and finally a soulful “Long Time Coming” in which Miss Lopez stretched out her voice.

Center, Daylight Again, L, Jesse Kincaid, R, Gabe Navarre

The last performer of the evening was Swanee who gave us some swamp blues overlaid with grunge guitar with some extra nice backing from Jesse, Ken, Gabe and Ian.

The Sausalito Cruising Club is such a great venue for this stuff and the best deal in Marin for Musicians. If you play at the Blue Monday Jam you can have buffet dinner for a mere 5 bucks. It has a great deck area overlooking the bay where the smokers can usually be found. SCC also has a full bar with a wisecracking Quito mixing the drinks.

Swanee closes the show

The next Blue Monday is scheduled for March 14. Please call Joe Tate at 415 385 1606 if you would like to play or attend. If you play guitar or bass all you need is your instrument. You can bring your amp if you like though.

The Department Of Inhalation Therapy

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Jesse Kincaid, Joe Tate and Lonnie Walter at the No Name Bar

Posted in Bay Area Music, Night Beat, Sausalito After Dark, Sausalito night life, ukulele music with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 7, 2011 by joetatesblog

It had been a nice Saturday in Sausalito and by 6:00 PM it was starting to mist. Joe Tate, Lonnie Walter and special guest Jesse Kincaid started on time as usual but Joe wasn’t singing. His voice had gone out Friday for no apparent reason.

The doctor had given him some Codeine cough medicine but this didn’t do any good. He was able to make the evenings introductions in a broken Jimmy Durante voice but, singing was out of the question.

Jesse knew all this before arriving and he dutifully took over the vocals for most of the evening. Fortunately, he brought his books and Joe was able to follow all of Jesse’s songs with only minor failures.

Lonnie Walter helped out plenty with numerous bongo solos. His ability t0 do this is astounding, with dozens of intricate patterns flowing effortlessly from his hands.

Lonnie Walter, Joe Tate and Jesse Kincaid

The usual crowd was there along with a few tourists. The bar wasn’t as full as usual and this could have been because of the weather. It could also because Joe Tate wasn’t screaming at the folks outside on the sidewalk to come in. This has been known to work in the past.

Miss Suzie Olsen was there to lend her voice. Having her there gives the whole affair some Sausalito waterfront cred. She belted out “Love Potion Number Nine” and “Louie Louie.”

Suzie Olsen lends her voice.

Paul Seaward also helped out on a number of songs with some harmonicas he just happened to have with him.

Jesse Kincaid does a lot of Beatles, Elvis and regular old Jimmy Reed. Joe skipped around between guitar and ukulele though he didn’t do any of the Hawaiian stuff, probably something to do with the voice issue. His guitar is unusual and has a distinctive sound. It’s one of those new fangled carbon fiber things with a small hollow body and a real old fashioned delta blues tone.

Paul Seaward joins on harmonica

They played on continuous set for the whole evening. The gig only lasts from 6-8:30 so it only makes sense. Though the blues was in the minority, the songs that Jesse sang were all old favorites along with one new original song that he had just written called “Runaway train.”

Near the end of the evening, Chad Brown showed up sang a couple country songs. He was there with his dad and Frank Simpson who is married to Maggie Catfish, a regular performer with Joe Tate at the No Name bar and also Chad’s mother in-law.

Twas a very nice closing after Chad finished. With everyone milling around and chatting, the next performers arrived, namely Wendy DeWitt and her band. Wendy forgot to bring a mic stand so she borrowed one from Jesse. At least he didn’t have as much stuff to bring home.

Chad and Dad

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Saturday Evening At The No Name Bar

Posted in Bay Area Music, Night Beat, Sausalito After Dark, Sausalito night life, ukulele music, Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 27, 2011 by joetatesblog

This Saturday we welcomed Jerome Phillips to the No Name bar for the first time. Jerome is a first class pianist who can play bass with his left hand while doing all the other stuff like melody and vocals. With Joe Tate on guitar, the sounds of New Orleans rang out like the French Quarter for the first set. Lot’s of blues and rock followed and Jerome sang some nice country stuff.

It was one of the coldest nights this year and the Irish Coffees were moving. Joe’s usual friends were there along with some new people who showed up to see Jerome. Also in attendance were numerous unsuspecting passers-by who stopped in for the warmth and grog.

Unfortunately, Lonnie Walter of the bongos, didn’t show. He has been pretty down since Johnny Nitro died and we can only hope that he can get over the hump soon. We missed his wonderful rhythms though. But we made do with what we had. Fortunately, our audience didn’t care and we sailed through it all with jovial ease.

The missing Lonnie Walter, Joe Tate and Jerome Phillips

Learn more about Joe Tate at  http://xrl.in/4y57

Check out Joe Tate’s “Ukulele Baby Songbook” at  http://www.theredlegs.com/JoeTate.html

For booking call Joe Tate at 415 385 1606 or write to joebtate@gmail.com

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Curtis Lawson at the Sausalito Seahorse

Posted in Bay Area Music, Night Beat, Sausalito After Dark, Sausalito night life with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 25, 2011 by joetatesblog

Curtis Lawson celebrates 55 years of singing the blues in the Bay Area on this occasion. It’s also his 77th birthday and the man is still going strong.

He has a tight quartet backing him tonight. With Nick Otis, son of Johnny Otis, on drums, Matt Silver on guitar, Kevin white on bass and the great Bobby Webb on saxophone, the evening starts out with some solid instrumentals including “Sissy Strut” and “Night Train.”

Matt Silver, Nick Otis, Kevin White and Bobby Webb

Curtis, dressed in his snazzy red suit, takes the stage and pumps out “Turnin Point,” a song made famous by Tyrone Davis back in the 70’s. This is followed by the hearfelt “My Woman,”  Curtis’ own poignant song about his wife, Linda.  After covering a few Jimmy Reed numbers, he moves on to James Brown, Wilson Picket and Otis Redding.

It was raining so hard that the noise on the roof could be heard over the music. Curtis thanked everyone for coming out in such rotten weather, of course.

He invites Jay Johnston of KPOO Radio to the stage who recounts the history of Curtis Lawson and reminds us to tune in to 89.5 FM to hear his regular broadcast, Blue House Party every Monday. Bobby Webb also has a blues show on KPOO every Tuesday at 9:00. Before taking the stage Jay showed us some of his really cool moves on the dance floor. Just sitting there at his table, you have no idea how agile he is.

Curtis Lawson turns 77

Curtis Lawson turns 77

Anyway, when Curtis comes back, he starts inviting his friends to the stage starting with Joe Tate who belts out a couple of rockers, “High Heeled Sneakers” and “Down Home Girl.” Gail Muldrow followed with some high powered vocals and superb guitar shredding. After some various artists sat in on drums and bass, Curtis came back and sang James Brown’s “Please please please” with Tate and Muldrow backing the vocals. Before they could step down it was “The Night Time Is The Right Time,” the Ray Charles classic.

Curtis Lawson has to be one of our greatest local artists. He can be heard at the Saloon in San Francisco, the Sausalito Art Festival, the Marin City Festival and occasionally at the No Name Bar in Sausalito.

Her’s a nice You Tube clip of Curtis at the Art and Soul Festival in Oakland

A recent show at the Seahorse

All in all, it was a great show. If you get a chance to see Curtis, don’t miss out.

Obedie William,Linda Lawson, Curtis Lawson, Joe Tate and Jay Johnston

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Wendy DeWitt and Joe Tate at the No Name Bar

Posted in Bay Area Music, Night Beat, Sausalito After Dark, Sausalito night life, Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , , , , on February 21, 2011 by joetatesblog

Wendy DeWitt has an unbelievable left hand for the piano. While the left is playing a driving bass line, the right is drawing out a melody. All the while, the voice is singing and sometimes shouting. With Joe Tate laying down some guitar riffs, Lonnie Walter mends it all together with a rhythmic tattoo. Also sitting in was Kurt Harwood who brought his congo drums. These added a nice bass spectrum to the percussion. He also doubled on tamborine and some other small gadgets.

Wendy and Joe took turns on vocals every two songs. Starting off with some New Orleans sounds, the genre drifts to rock, country and a little Hawaiian. Joe sang “Over The Rainbow” while Wendy peeked over his shoulder at the chart. For this, Betty the bartender came out and stuffed money in the tip jar. Others followed her, though it’s not clear why except it’s clear people love this song.

It was a cold and rainy night and the tourists came in shivering. Quite a few Irish Coffees disappeared and there was quite a bit of merriment. There may have been some intoxication too. In spite of this the mood was upbeat with plenty of laughter.

DeWitt’s playing was spectacular as usual. Lonnie Walter played a few bongo solos that were extraordinary. Tate held the middle together as well as possible between the staccato drums and the piano orchestrations.

The evening ended with Joe’s rendition of Minnie The Moocher to which the audience sang along.

Myron Mu was there to pick up Lonnie and he told us that Johnny Nitro had died about an hour earlier. Lonnie, who was really upset, told us we would have to find someone else for March 19 when Nitro was schedule to play at the No Name bar.

Check out Joe Tate’s “Ukulele Baby Songbook” at

http://www.theredlegs.com/JoeTate.html

You can also download a PDF of “Last Voyage Of The Redlegs” from this site.

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The Gaters at the No Name Bar

Posted in Bay Area Music, Night Beat, Sausalito After Dark, Sausalito night life, ukulele music with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 13, 2011 by joetatesblog

NIGHT BEAT on Rhythm Street

The Gaters consist of some left over Redlegs including Joe Tate,  Maggie Catfish and Jeff Costello. They are joined by Lonnie Walter on Bongos. The name has nothing to do with alligators but rather with the fact they are all from the Gates, an area of the  Sausalito  waterfront where Liberty ships were built in WWII. There still exists three distinct areas that still have their WWII names; Gate 3, Gate 5 and Gate 6. There is also another section referred to as Gate 6 1/2 but, this is not historic nomenclature, just a convenient name for what would be an extension of Gate 6.

Anyway, Joe Tate plays the No Name Bar every Saturday with various artists. The Gaters are a special feature for Joe because of their long history together with the Redlegs.

On this night, they played some of the old Redlegs numbers along with some standard rock and blues. Maggie did a wonderful rendition of “What A Difference A Day Makes” as well as some very appealing songs like “Smokey Places.”

Jeff Costello maintained excellent work on the guitar, providing brilliant solos as needed. Jeff also helped out with some vocals and, as always, Lonnie Walter held it all together with the bongos.

Joe covered all his usual basses, singing in a strong baritone voice. While narrating the early history of the No Name bar, he does a little Name dropping about the various celebrities who have hung out there over the years.

There was a nice crowd of friends who attended along with many unsuspecting passersby who just popped in when they heard the music.

The flyer features a picture of Maggie and Joe taken at the drydocks of Richardson Bay many years ago.

For more information about Maggie and Joe go to

http://www.theredlegs.com/JoeTate.html

or

http://xrl.in/4y57

There is also a nice clip of the Redlegs playing at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS1ZOiyK06o


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Blue Monday at the Sausalito Cruising Club

Posted in Bay Area Music, Night Beat, Sausalito After Dark, Sausalito night life, Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 10, 2011 by joetatesblog

NIGHT BEAT on Rhythm Street

With Joe Tate on guitar, Willie Riser on Bass and Donny Kountz on drums, the Monday night jam session kicked of with Joe’s rendition of Blue Monday.

After delivering a one hour set, Joe Tate, who hosts the session, began calling up the various musicians who had come to play. First up was Craig Caffall and a couple of his friends who burned through a few standard blues numbers. They were then joined by Ken Markowitz who delivered up Stormy Monday along with some others in that bag.

Wendy Fitz came with her bassist Tim and performed some very fine old favorite tunes which got the people up off  their seats.

Jessie Kincaid followed with a fetching rap number that filled the dance floor. This was followed by Gabe Navarre and his smokin hot rock n roll.

A very nice trio of singers consisting of David Kemp, Susan Hoffer and Gloria Lopez did some very nice Fleetwood Mac songs followed by Susan Scott singing Fever. Joe Tate finished the night out with some old gospel songs with the trio backing him up.

It was a delightful evening filled with friendship, music and good vibes.

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