Kim Wilson Show

["Steven D. Levine" <drsoul@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I saw Kim Wilson last night at Tornado Alley, in Wheaton, Maryland. It 
was an incredible show - one of the best I've seen in a long time. There 
were many, many harp players in the audience (including Charlie Williams 
and Randy Lilleston of harp-l fame :)

Charlie Sayles opened, which was a nice added treat. He really go tthe 
crowd moving with a high energy set with lots of original blues harp. He 
mostly did originals. I recognized one cover (Jr. Wells' Hoodoo Man 
Blues). Charlie seems to be doing pretty good. He's being managed by the 
same guy who manages Bobby Parker and Little Bit A Blues (the duo Jay 
Summerour plays in). I might be interviewing him someime soon for the DC 
Blues Society. If I do I'll try to get the interview published by some 
other publications and probably post it to harp-l. I picked up a copy of 
his cd "Night Ain't Right." It's pretty good, but I thik he's better 
live. The vocals are just a little weak on it.

When Kim Wilson and his band got on stage the place was completely 
packed. He was very happy to see such a large crowd and he told the 
audience so. He didn't play harp for the first two songs (a couple from 
Tigerman) but he soon got into some great, great playing. He was playing 
through an astatic mic through either a Vivroverb or Vibrolux (I forget 
which it was). The band kept the levels down to a nice level and the 
audience could realy hear everything well. They got louder as the show 
went on. Wilson didn't really play anythign flashy or overdone, which is 
one thing I really love about his playing. He has his own sound and he 
never overplays. In fact, he could've played more but he could make it 
just as a singer (which I guess is pretty much what he does with the 
T-Birds :) ). 

Most of what he played was from his two solo albums, Tigerman and That's 
Life. I don't remember him playing any chromatic, and he did one tune 
straight through a vocal mic (until his encore - more on that in a 
minute) - Sonny Boy's "Trust My Baby." Guitarist Rusty Zinn sang one tune 
and he took a break to let pianist Gene Taylor lead a boogie woogie piano 
song.

The highlight, for me, was the encore. He and Rusty Zinn came out. Wilson 
sat behind the drumset with his mic in one hand. He played drums with one 
hand and his feet and sang and played harp through his Astatic. It 
sounded like a full band. Then he got behind a vocal mic alone, stomped 
his foot and sang and played an incredible version of "Nine Below Zero." 
Up until last night I thought that Rick Estrin did the best Sonny Boy act 
but Wilson really topped it. It was a truly inspiring moment.

He just gets better and better. See him if you get a chance!

  -Steve