The guy at the Baltic said its going to be pretty much a full house.

Lap steel guitar lives!

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Mark

[This message was edited by Mark Eaton on 05 January 2006 at 04:27 PM.]

Come see the 67 year-old Lapsteel legend Freddie Roulette perform his unique style of funky blues with The Andre DeVito Band.
Live at "The Saloon" in North Beach from 4pm-8pm for FREE!!!! http://highwaysoul.tripod.com/

The Saloon
1232 Grant Ave. @ Columbus
North Beach, SF

Well, my wife and I really enjoyed the show. First, for you locals, about the Baltic. Apparently it was closed for a couple of years, and these folks reopened it not long ago. An historic building with a great looking old bar, and the story is that Jack London used to hang out there. Respectable food, the service we got was lousy-I think the staff was overwhelmed-a couple of them declared that this was by far the busiest they have ever been since the place reopened.

Along with Harvey Mandel, another long-time Bay Area guitar ace, Henry Kaiser, showed up to sit in, and Freddie has recorded with Henry. I should say Henry "stood" in, there wasn't enough room in the area along the wall they cleared out for the band-there's no bandstand in this place. Henry had to setup off to the side in the middle of the dancers. And speaking of that, they rocked the joint! As expected, mostly middle-aged folks, but the dance floor was full most songs.

Freddie flat blew me away. I'm not saying I necessarily would like to play just like him-there are some combinations of notes and chords he produces that are a little esoteric for my ears. I really like those jangly , cascading licks he plays though. It reminds me of running your hands along an eve that has icsicles (sp?) hanging off and you are cracking them, but each one is assigned a note. But what technique! The thing I came away with most of all was how he used the whole neck of his National, and the bar is truly like an extension of his hand. You know how with pedal steel the bar is quite large and it spends very little time lifted off the strings, along with not going up and down the neck too much? Well, Freddie's approach to lap steel is sort of on the other end of the spectrum from that of a pedal player, who produces so much of what he plays with the pedals and knee levers. Freddie's left hand is the epitome of dexterity. And those custom bars he uses are fairly small. I have an old small-sized Nick Manaloff bar for 6 string lap that I rarely use anymore-I'm going to get that out and practice with it-Freddie's approach is that the hand dominates the bar so that you can really be quick on the neck. I think a small bar that really fits in the pocket of the palm is one of his secrets.

Harvey Mandel showed me his Brian Parker guitar-$5,000-one of the most gorgeous things I have ever seen in my life.

Great blues and rock playing, and I like Freddie's singing-but his vocal mic wasn't loud enough.

There were several guys there that were hard core Freddie fans, and they were snapping photos of him. I think because of his connection to the Hookers and a number of other blues greats, he's sort of seen as a link to those guys and a living blues museum.

After only hearing Mr. Roulette on recordings in the past, and now seeing him live-well he's the real deal, that's for sure. Taking in a Freddie gig should be required of all lap steel players that are within a semi-reasonable distance of a venue where he plays...shoot, it doesn't matter where you live-if you have never seen him play, you really need to! He ain't getting any younger.

Andy Volk: I said hi to Freddie for you-he smiled at that. A real classy and soft spoken gentleman.

Also they have a cd out with Freddie playing on it...it's only $10.99 and can be ordered on the web site using paypal. They also sell them at gigs. I believe there are some sound files of the cd on the web site.

[This message was edited by Michael Winslow on 20 January 2006 at 05:42 PM.]