Blues & Bar-B-Q Bash in Taiwan
With the weather turning colder, it was decided that the Joanna Connor Band, who had made the trip from Chicago to play the Bash, should jump the queue and play second to last rather than waiting to end the show. No one was thinking about the wind chill factor with Joanna Connor, Rev Lance Lewis and Sam Green heating things up, that's for sure. Talk about cookin'!? On all burners and the oven going, too. Blazing, soaring solos from Joanna and Sam Green were only part of it. Here was a band giving a clinic on just what a band should be - tight, right and in the groove.
Capping off the Bash was 'Chicken Rice', self-proclaimed psycho-billies, bringing punk sensibility(?) to a rock-a-billy-style repertoire. (Strictly speaking, not the Blues but a close first cousin, just as Jerry Lee Lewis was to Sunnyland Slim.) Chicken Rice steamed. A fitting end to the first Blues and Bar-B-Q Bash: A Taiwanese band kicking out the jams.
The spirit of 'live' music was still in full flame and refused to go quietly with the closing of the Bash. An after-jam was proposed and organized by Patrick and Roger of 'Round Midnight'. Joanna Connor and her band were invited and enthusiastically agreed to play. The beat went on. And on. Just about everybody who could, made it over to 89K for a juke joint jam into the wee hours. It seemed as if the whole of Taiwan's music community was inspired to play their 'A' game. Joanna took the lead for the first hour or so with many players contributing to the spontaneous musical milieu but the jams continued long after the Queen of the Blues Guitar had headed back to her hotel. In fact, Will of Boogie Chillin', Stevie Ray of the Black Sheep and Bonzo Radvanyi were holding an impromptu 3 am slide-guitar workshop. Very cool.
It's been asked if the Blues Bash was a success. The simple answer is 'Yes!'. The fact that it happened at all is amazing given the amount of nay-saying and trepidation that preceded the event. One very good barometer of the success of the Bash is this: Joanna Connor and Bonzo have both vowed to be back for each and every Blues Bash from here on. They loved the Taiwan audiences that much. They knew that they had been a part of music history in Taiwan and they were
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