Ethan Tucker

Had the opportunity to see Ethan Tucker at Jazzbones on 03-19-11 when he played with the Northwest Sons.  Ethan’s hometown is Olympia Washington but is currently residing in Twin Falls Idaho and made the long trip out to put on a few shows for us.

Currently playing as a one man band; his acoustic strumming, shoeless dancing and vocal style that reminds me of John Mayer makes you wonder if he needs any more instruments with him.  Ethan’s influences are Bob Marley, Ben Harper, Jah Roots and Robert Johnson; however, he can incorporate multiple genres such as jazz, blues, folk and reggae effortlessly.  Tucker’s energy on stage and heart filled songs got the people of Jazzbones out of their seats to dance and within one song increased his fan base by a few hundred more.

Ethan took some time to meet and greet his fans after his set and stayed the rest of the night to listen to “Rise and Shine’ and the ‘Northwest Sons’.  He is a very approachable individual and is willing to take timeout to talk with his fans.  I strongly suggest you taking time to listen to Ethan Tucker by going to his page here or you can find some songs on youtube here. My Favorite ‘I Need You’

The only disappointment I really had was learning that he sold out of his CD’s the night before! 

The Northwest Sons

Saturday night we hit up Jazzbones in Tacoma Saturday March 19, 2011 to grab some local Reggae music.  On the bill for the night was Northwest Sons, now I have seen them play once before and was blown away by them that I had to see them again and capture it on film.

The Sons busted out with a lineup that makes you want to dance and groove, and as you know I am not one that tends to wonder too far from the rock scene so grooving is really not my thing.  However, when the Sons are playing you just can’t sit there!  Their music is infectious, it’s alive and it moves you.  From ‘Boundary Line’, ‘Paradise’, to my favorite ‘Mystifire’ you will find yourself in the slow roll motion of the music waves.

The Sons have only been on the music scene for about 2 years now but have a great following of people and I believe Chris said it best while we were talking that ‘sometimes we have to change things up’ speaking of their new Bass player, ‘it’s not always about the money; which is nice, but it’s about sharing the love of the music and that’s why we like to play’.   Well, there was a lot of love at Jazzbones and the Sons know how the lift the spirits of everyone in the room.

The Sons were also a featured guest of ‘The Northwest Convergence Zone’ (NWCZradio.com) Sunday March 20, 2011 episode 96 and they are about 51 minutes into the show.  Chris and Ian talk about their influences, the local reggae scene and about the release of their upcoming ‘digital’ CD release party on…yep 4-20-11…

If you have yet to check out The Northwest Sons, I would suggest heading over to their site here to listen to some of their songs, but believe me when I say there is nothing like listening to them live.  Check them out and let me know how you feel about them.

If you have a local band that is going to be playing in the Olympia, Tacoma or Seattle area and you like to have a quick review, please get in touch with me and I will check out the calendar to see if we can make it happen.

Thanks,

Paul

The Humptulips

I had a great opportunity this past Saturday (03-12-11) to attend the Humptulips in Montesano Washington to listen to their country music style and photograph the event.  I just to let you know that I am not much of a country listener as I lean more towards the ROCK side of things.  However, this was a show worth going to!!

The event was held at Gepetto's which is like a Mom and Pop pizza place in the middle of the town, or one would think.  Not too far from the freeway, but a drive from Olympia (about an hour).  Now I was coming from the MMA fights where Rikk Beatty played the National Anthem which would be another story all together and rushed to Gepetto's to see the show start at 9:20pm.

The first thing I noticed and the band was they liked to shout-out the names of people they know at the show.  So if you know the band, be ready to have the spot light placed on you for a little while.  To me that brought in to thinking that this may be a good band.  Getting people involved or interacting with the crowd is one of the hardest things to do for a band and this group had it down. Something else I learned it was the Bass Guitar player's (Doug George) first time playing live with the band.  And as I have been told by many Bass players, "the Bass is the backbone of the group".

The band Opened the night with ‘Honky Tonk Stomp’ (whatever that means), ‘It’s All About Tonight’, ‘Johnny Cash’ and they began making fun of people and their shirts…The group ended up passing out about 60 'Humptulips' shirts they had made to both the guys and gals at Gepetto's and reeled them in on their next song ‘You Look Good in my Shirt’.

As the night progressed I found myself placing down my water and looking for a ‘Coors Light’ and started to feel a little out of place as I wasn’t wearing skinny jeans and cowboy boots!  But then the Humptulips threw another curveball…They started playing some Rock n’ Roll and even took requests from the crowd!  Now that’s a little, how can we say it politely, CrAzY... But they pulled it off.

By the end of the third set and approximately 30 songs in three and a half hours I am proud to say that I am a fan of the Humptulips!  If you are ever in Washington State around the Olympia area see if you can find a show.  If you want more information about the band, I have placed there Facebook page here  

Please leave comments as this is how I know people are looking at this site and let me know your questions, comments and concerns.  Without them I can't get better!!

Thank you,

Paul