Trail's End Jam review

[St John]

Hiya everybody and greetingz from out here in the blues universe! Sunday nite in Oregon is a terrific night to go out to a blues jam and last night I experienced on of the best jamms in the northwest at THE TRAILS END bar and grill in Oregon city, Oregon, just a coupla blocks off the I-205 fwy! This city is historically famous as the end of the Oregon Trail where the covered wagons ended their journey west from Missouri in the 19th century, and Man, I gotta tell ya, if they were having a jam session there in those days the folks had a killer party waiting for them after a long arduous journey, and well worth the trip! This was my first time attending and I only had to travel about 35 miles to arrive ‘fashionably late’ at around 9:40pm to a 5 piece group of jammerz hosted by Jim Miller, bassist of the Robby Laws Hoodoo Nation, and after watching for several minutes I located him and introduced myself as a visiting bassist/vocalist and was invited to "sign up on the list and I 
 would be
 called later, as there were a large quantity of bassists attending this evening"! Figures, just my luck! Well,’ the blues was already ‘slammin’ against the walls’ to an audience of around 40 or so great folks that included a lotta unbelievable blues cats and chix, as I was about to realize! WOW, these cats were killin’ ‘em with 2 guitars, bass, drums, harmonica, and a keyboardist and I was glad had packed my Musicman fretless Stingray bass hoping that I would be allowed to participate! Soon after arriving, the stage group was changed and 5 different cats, and, as I learned later, included a really great guitarist/vocalist named SCOTT BOUCK, and the rest of the guys jamming in the line-up were named either TOM or DAVE, interestingly enough, and they commenced to kick-off with and old favorite of mine, Junior Wells’ "I DON’T WANT NO WOMAN(tellin’ me what to do), to the sheer delight of all present! Now at this point, ironically, I was introduced to a lovely red-headed lady nam
 ed KATHY
 ROSE, who alleged to be a pro photographer and she was showing me several folders of pictures she had taken at the Cascade Blues Association’s Muddy Awards Show the previous Wednesday nite. The pix were really nice, I was somewhat mesmerized by her ‘charming personality’, and really didn’t really pay a lot of attention to the particular order of the next few tunes, but it seems to me Mr. Bouck and cohorts just kept whackin away at the 12 bar, both slow and shuffle, that created a groove that was getting into everyone’s bloodstream and many folks were on the more than ample dancefloor ‘shakin’ it and gettin’down’!! After about 3 or 4 tunes and 35 minutes or so these extremely good players finished their jam set and Jim Miller then took the microphone and introduced yet another 4 or 5 cats that were plugged in and began jamming with barely enough time between sets to refresh your beverage at the great bar with the friendly bartender CINDY! Being a visitor I really had not had 
 the
 pleasure of meeting very many musicians in the area but THIS group of cats were interesting looking as the main guitarist and singer was a big, rotund fellow with a great leather pork-pie hat and goatee, who I learned later, was TIM ‘PAPA SALTY’ McALLISTER one of Portland’s premier blues guitarists/vocalists, and a stand-up bassist that later introduced himself to me as DEAN MUELLER, another guitarist whose name was DOUG, and a drummer and keyboardist whose name the writer doesn’t remember. These guys jammed the 12 bar, both slow and shuffle, and at one point ‘PAPA’ broke it down and they ‘traded 4s’ then ‘2s’ then ‘1s’ and that brought everyone out of their seats and back to the dancefloor to get down once more! WHOA!....by this time I was wondering if I could get up and follow that set of jammers when ‘PAPA’ brought to the stage a lady vocalist, whose name escapes the writer, that crashed into the scene w/an unbelievable rendition of "SHAKY GROUND" that funked-up the entir
 e place
 with her earth-shaking vocals! At this point I decided I was NOT going to try and ‘holler down the microphone’ if I got to participate as there was NO WAY I would try to follow that with my questionable vocal ability and wondered if anyone in attendance really could! Soon I was to learn that there WAS someone in attendance that COULD follow her...! After that Jim Miller once again took the microphone and said we were going to pull yet another set of cats up to the jam stage and soon after pointed in my direction...finally, I was going to get to ‘tickle my babys’ neck’ and retrieved her from my stash spot, tuned, and plugged in with TROY on guitar, a young man everyone called ‘D’ on guitar, a keyboardist, harmonica, and drummer who, after introducing myself proceeded to forget their names, sorry dudes, I’m old. But wait....a lady vocalist who introduced herself as 'RAE',  stepped to the microphone with really great long curly hair and the cutest dimples I think I’ve ever seen
 . I even
 asked her "if she was born with those dimples or did she sleep on a pillow with a button when she was young", and she laughed to her utter delight! At this point she called a "Shuffle in A, fellas", the drummer counted it off and I don’t even remember what song she belted out because we smacked down on the 12 bar like we were whackin’ a dog on the butt with a newspaper! And she definately could follow the aforementioned gal singer, not only with the shuffle but also on the slow blues that we did next, her rendition of the jamm session standard ‘STORMY MONDAY BLUES’, after which she called a shuffle in A once again and once again belted out a killer version of JIMMY REED’s ‘BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY’ that brought down the house and closed the jam! Jim Miller then took the stage, thanked everyone for attending and invited not only myself but everyone else too, to "come back next week and do it all over again"! During the entire evening the aforementioned photo-gal, KATHY ROSE, w
 as
 snapping pix of all the jammerz and I anticipate seeing some of the results, COOL, might even be able to post some of them somewhere on the net! I’m looking fwd to next Sunday when I will pack my baby, get into the 280Z, slip her into gear and roll the 35 miles to jam with some of the best cats I have ever boogie’d with! By the way, afterwards ‘PAPA’ came to me and ask me to do some gigs with his band on Wednesday nights at the Cascade blues bar in Vancouver, Wash., his regular weekly house gig! Might as well not waste your wed., come on down there, too, and check that out!....EXCELLENT! THANX GUYS and GALS and LET’S DO IT ALL AGAIN! Hope to see all you readers there, TOO, at the TRAIL’S END BAR & GRILL in Oregon city next Sunday 9pm-ish, and if you’re a player ‘BRING YO’ AXE ‘N’ JAM’!!


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