Joe Kwon on SideDish + Papa Mojo’s + Blue Note Grill + Music for Making Gingerbread + Foodimentary

Joe Kwon - Taste on Tour: Food on the Road blogger & cellist for The Avett Bros.

Joe Kwon/SideDish – Click to listen
Yes, I’m feeling full of myself right now.  Don’t get me wrong, I love all my SideDish guests … there’s something that happens in that studio every time that almost always amazes and tickles me.  But having Joe Kwon, cellist for The Avett Brothers and fellow food blogger with Taste on Tour: Food on the Road sitting across from me felt … well … double, triple, quadruple wondermous.  This is a gentle classically trained musician who becomes a bow-shredding fireball on stage. 

Raise your hand if you don’t know that The Avett Bros. are up there at the top of my favorite list. If you aren’t raising your hand, you clearly don’t know me well enough.  Give me an afternoon and I’ll convert you.  

Stay tuned for air dates!  And thank you, Joe, for being that guy that I imagined you to be and letting me behave like the huge fan that I am.  Enjoy that travel pepper grinder! 
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Delta Moon at Papa Mojo's Roadhouse

Papa Mojo’s Roadhouse/ Delta Moon
Follow me down this circuitous path for a sec. I promise it will make sense.  

Even though they met in Atlanta (not exactly the Mississippi delta), a pilgrimage to visit the home of Muddy Waters down yonder in Clarksdale, MS inspired Tom Gray and Mark Johnson to name their newly formed band Delta Moon.  Somewhere around 2007 they bring in a new bassist, Franher Joseph, who just happens to be from Haiti … again, not exactly a hotbed of blues. So how the hell did this unlikely crew morph into a hot rockin’ blues band with two … yep … two slide guitar players?  They just did and, I for one, am damn glad.

Anyway, I’ve been trying to see these guys for a good while … pretty much ever since my good friend Dwight sent me “Goin’ Down South,” an album from 2004.  So, color me frisky with excitement to see them on the schedule at Papa Mojo’s Roadhouse on Dec. 10.   What a show they put on!  Chef and Papa Mojo’s owner Mel Melton offered up his own wicked  mojo as he stepped in to jam from time to time on harp.

The bass

The bass.  I couldn’t take my eyes off the bass  … it looked like an Eminence upright acoustic, but what do I know?

It was one gorgeous instrument. All marled and shiny. With a beautiful sound. And the  guy playing wasn’t bad either! 

Plan to see these guys next time they criss-cross into the area. You’ll enjoy. Would I lie to you?___________________________________________________________

Will McFarlane at The Blue Note Grill

The Blue Note Grill
Second Tuesday in December.  Temps are dropping.  All the more reason to warm up with a sizzling blues jam, right?  Something’s going on inside … you can tell even before you open the door. As if static electricity is in hiding just waitin’ to surprise you with a crackling zing.

 

We’ve hit the blues jam motherlode!  Will McFarlane is in the house, guitar, kilt and all.   Think you don’t know him?  Ever heard of Bonnie Raitt?  The Pointer Sisters?  Jackson Browne?  Then you’ve heard Will. And for a good while, he’s been right here living quietly among us.

 

He’s a regular at TBNG and just his presence brings everyone jamming with him up about 30 notches.  All I can do is stand there marveling with TBNG owners Bill and Andrea … something along the lines of “I wonder what the unfortunate people are doing tonight while we get to sit here and listen to this?” 

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Music for making gingerbread
Sugar, Sugar (Wilson Pickett)
If (Bread)
Ginger Baker Drum Solo
Stir It Up (Bob Marley)
You Send Me (Sam Cooke)
Brown Sugar (Rolling Stones)

 

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Foodimentary:   Did I hear correctly that Dec. 20th is National Sangria Day?  Very odd, if I may say so myself.