Dave Woodhall sees the Dirt Road Band at Snobs.
Everyone who knows me is aware that not only do I love the Villa, but also the blues – and before anyone gets too worried that’s the musical version, rather than the other sort.
I’ve written on here many times about the music, the revived Henry’s Blueshouse in its various Broad Street guises and the Birmingham Jazz & Blues Festival, whose fortieth anniversary extravanagza is now taking place. I’ve mentioned the Dirt Road Band before now as well. But on the principle that you can never have too much of a good thing, on Tuesday night the band were playing the club as part of the festival.
Naturally Henry’s has changed venue again since I saw this particular trio last, moving back to its old haunt, the now re-named Snobs. There’s a stage, an enthisiastic crowd of punters and to give them evening a tenuous footballing connection a few Rangers supporters here to wach their team play the other Blues on the following night.
The venue may have changed but the band haven’t. Fronted by Steve Walwyn, who played with Dr Feelgood for more years than he could care to remember, and with the (very) Special Horace Panter on bass, they were exactly as you’d expect. Tighter than two coats of paint, enjoying themselves as much as the audience were and alongside the classics were a few of their own songs that showed this is a no ordinary side project.
Part of the crowd was, of course, the newly-honoured Dr Jim Simpson, who in the past week has probably heard every joke there is about bunions, flat feet and piles. Ironically Jim’s been none too well himself lately, suffering a couple of cracked ribs after a fall, but as everyone knows, a dose of the blues is the best medicine whatever the ailment. The night ended, inevitably, with the old Feelgoods set-closer Route 66 and we might well have been in a roadhouse south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
Festivals are like all live music. They aren’t about spending a fortune, corporate sponsorship and being so far from the stage you have to watch on a big screen. Here’s where the real soul of the music scene remains.
Thre’s still a few days of this one to go, so get yourself to a gig. Most of them are free and at least one is bound to be not far from you. birminghamjazzfestival.com