A warm welcome at The Brasenose Arms

Last night I played a solo show at The Brasenose Arms where I met up with owner and old friend Alan. It’s been about 10 years since we last had a chance to catch up as I used to play for him when he ran the Blues Room in Painswick. He never forgot my music or the songs from back then.

Alan put the word out around the area and it was a packed house with very little room to breathe.

The Brasenose is set in a beautiful village on the River Cherwell and dates back over 100 years. Back in The Blues Room days Alan used to create Pizza’s with names of famous blues singers, but this time I had a Steak & Ale stew with mash, Highly recommended.

It’s show time. Since last seeing Alan I’ve recorded several more CD’s with Armadillo, so I kicked off with a few from when he last saw me and then some of the songs they never heard. Well most of this village are seeing me for the very first time. As for me, it was so hard to decide what song to do next or when to stop for a break. It was getting so good up there. Cold and wet outside, inside was feeling about 30c.

All in all I had a wonderful time meeting everyone in between sets and after the show. If I have the chance to come back thru UK, I would love to drive back up there and see the area on my days off. I do want to say Thank You to all that came out to meet me and Thank You to Alan and Karen for making me feel at home.

EUGENE HIDEAWAY BRIDGES

Music Lesson, Farnborough School

Today I was up at 7am to teach year 8’s and 10’s at Farnborough School.

We started out with a song and talked about where blues originates from and how the location tells a lot about the sound.  We walked thru the different styles o f blues and I asked them to join me on the instruments set up piano, bass and drums.  At least one of them played horn in each of the year classes and they all had a go at the Twelve-bar blues and we ended with a Sam Cooke version of Little Red Rooster.

In the afternoon we started with songs of blues, I showed them about the gospel sound and we played the instruments and experienced hands-on how to build a song.  I ended the class with them forming groups and writing their own.

I enjoy giving back to the young who have an interest and want to be a part of the music world.  I started at age 3 and never had anyone who took time to show me about music.  I started out by myself but now have a lot of great people helping me bring my music to a wider audience.

I do hope some of the class got something out of today.

Bison Event, Hotel Schweizerhof in Lucerne

Here I asked Lurrie Bell (son of Chicago Blues Harmonica master Carey Bell) to join me on stage.  We just played how my father and I used to, as did Lurrie and his father. Man, it was a good feeling when friends can just play and have some fun with the down home blues.  We played many of my favourites including an old T-Bone Walker song Stormy Monday.

 I just received the photos from that day which I share with you. Above Photo © Achim

Thank you to Bison for hosting this event.

Lucerne Blues Festival 2009

The new tour to promote my Live in San Antonio CD got off to a good start over in Switzerland at the Lucerne Blues Festival.   The final show we performed in the Casino left us on cloud 9 from the love we received and also CD less!

It was so wonderful to see the city of Lucerne taking part in bringing the blues to a wider audience by creating days packed full of music, volunteering time, food and whatever they can to make the festival memorable for the city and to all who visited.    

Over 80 artists performed, from newcomers to old friends like Dorothy Moore, Mud Morganfield, Bob Corritore and Eddie Shaw, I was so happy to see them all again. 

I left there with new songs in my heart, a time we will never forget.

Eugene Hideaway Bridges Live In San Antonio CD

Home is wherever the next performance takes him, the USA through Europe to Australia, with many stops in between such as China and Singapore.

Since 1998 Eugene has recorded four studio CDs with a full band. His last release Eugene ‘Hideaway’ Bridges featured solos and duos with friends and fellow musicians met on the road.  This CD was nominated for two prestigious US Blues Foundation Blues Music Awards in 2008.

With numerous requests for a CD that captures the Eugene live sound, March 2009 saw Eugene and his band record a live performance at Chango’s Havana Club, San Antonio, Texas.

Joining me on this record were:

Bass Eric King | Drums Bobby Baranowski | Keyboards & Organ David Webb | Tenor Sax Seth Kibel | Trumpet Justine Miller

Album Cover Art © Nick Manske

Blog roll

I thank you for being here with me and I am looking forward to sharing updates from tours, travels and all future recordings.

There will be more to come.

So if you want to be up to date with my whereabouts add yourself on my followers widget at the top of the sidebar.

EUGENE HIDEAWAY BRIDGES