rick estrin & magic dick

[Gatorharp@xxxxxxx]

got to see little charlie & the nightcats with rick estrin and bluestime 
featuring magic dick & j geils yesterday at the riverfront blues festival in 
wilmington, delaware.

although it was magic dick i really wanted to see, i came away really 
impressed with the nightcats.  i had always thought that estrin was a fine player, 
but never cared for the jokey nature of their material.  but what doesn't work 
on vinyl...oops, i mean plastic...works out great in the live context.  estrin 
is a first rate frontman (sort of a blues morris day), and the band is tight.  
they did what i guess is their usual kind of set...rick and little charlie 
switching instruments (both can more than hold their own on the others axe), the 
whole harp in the mouth thing, guitar and bass behind the head.  a lot of fun 
to watch.  plus, the musicianship was great.  i'll have to pull their albums 
out of my trade pile and give them another listen.  and how in the hell can 
they play in the hot sun in those suits?

as tight as the nighcats set was, the bluestime wasn't.  not the performances 
so much, 'cause the songs were tight, with geils and dick playing lots of 
lines together.  magic dick's many extended solos were often pretty amazing, 
although some just seemed long.  what they really lacked was a sense of cohesion, 
original material, and a better singer/frontman.  most, if not all songs, were 
followed by long pauses, even after the song had been introduced.  it was 
almost like they were trying to figure out what to do next.  the material, with 
one exception, were all blues classics, most from harp players...little walter, 
sonny boy 2, junior wells.  nothing as obvious as "hoochie coochie man", but 
nothing that most folks here wouldn't know.  and while dick has attempted to 
borrow some of former bandmate peter wolf's style of fronting a band, it just 
didn't seem natural to me.  the band did seem to collectively catch fire near 
the end of their set, with "checking on my baby", that ended up with a section 
that recalls the chorus to "treat her right"...the band was really pumping 
here.  and then "whammer jammer".  flat as the set was, magic dick was nothing 
less than great on harp.  he made everything so effortless, which i guess you 
can, when you've been playing close to forty years.

both guys were also kind enough to sign autographs, so i doubled my 
collection of signed harps.
anyway, i was glad to become a fan of rick estrin and glad, also, to see and 
hear magic dick.  there are worse things you can do on a sunny sunday 
afternoon.

steven j gatorman