[Harp-L] Kim Wilson in Des Moines

[Dina Janzen <dlj@xxxxxx>]

I saw Kim Wilson with the Jeweltones at Blues on Grand in Des Moines on 
Tuesday.

Blues on Grand is THE blues institution in the state of Iowa.  Friendly 
blues lovers, music most nights, small, smokey, dark, grubby.

The Jeweltones are a band from Detroit that recently has been 
performing with Fingers Taylor.  It looks like Kim and the Jeweltones 
were doing a three gig week long midwest tour with van and trailer.

Kim gave an arresting performance.  The place was packed and he 
appeared to be in a fine mood... he played Juicy Harmonica as the 
fourth song.  My wife said that he was much happier than when we last 
saw him (at the Minneapolis Harmonica Summit) and it was because he is 
married.    He performed a mix of stuff from his solo recordings, a few 
old T birds songs (She's Tuff) and a number of Little Walter and Jimmy 
Rogers songs I had not heard him do.   His room walk with acoustic 
first position high end playing was incredibly  expressive.   His 
signature riffs were played in abundance but there was enough variety 
and new stuff to keep me absorbed throughout the two long sets.  He 
sang great!

The Jeweltones consisting of mainly big box guitar, upright bass and 
drums,  did a great job.  The guitar player,  Doug Demming, is an 
energetic and imaginative blues and swing player.   The only low point 
was when "Cherry Pink" was requested -  Kim paused for a second and 
said "yeah, we'll try it", then said something like "It goes back and 
fourth in the solos" to the band and started the song.   That 
information proved insufficient to the unfamiliar, and the song 
floundered and was aborted.

Kim used an old tweed Tremolux and Astatic T3 and JT30 shells.