June 8, 2013 – We’ve seen a lot of bands lately playing a lot of different styles, but Thursday night was a break from the usual rock for a chance to take in some great blues by Jerome Godboo, Eric Schenkman and Gary Craig at Monarch’s Pub in the Delta Chelsea hotel.
Jerome Godboo
Jerome Godboo is a master showman and blues harmonica virtuoso in the style of Blues Traveler meets Junior Wells, was joined by guitarist Eric Schenkman of the Spin Doctors and Gary Craig on drums who’s played with, well just about every big Canadian artist of the last thirty years, like Anne Murray, Bruce Cockburn, Colin Linden, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, Tom Cochrane, Jann Arden, Kathleen Edwards and many, many more.
Godboo played guitar on a couple songs and a tie shaped washboard on others. He carries a variety of harmonicas in different keys on his belt and often changed on the fly mid-song. He also played “bongos” in the form of hollow plastic tubes of different lengths. While it was mostly original blues songs written by Godboo some along with Schenkman, they included a reggae song towards the end of their second of three sets, which ran over an hour.
Anyone familiar with the huge Spin Doctors hits like Two Princes, Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong won’t be surprised by Schenkman’s chops or great electric blues playing which at times was reminiscent of Vaughan or Albert King. Those Spin Doctors songs back in the day were all blues based and in fact, twenty years after Pocket Full of Kryptonite, this Spring the Spin Doctors just released a great new blues album called If The River Was Whiskey.
Check out a sample of the album on Soundcloud here.
A dedicated fan told me that Godboo plays the first Thursday of every month at Monarch’s Pub in Delta Chelsea hotel at 33 Gerrard St. West and also plays regular gigs at the Rex Hotel on Queen West at St. Patrick Street (near University).
Review and photos by Steve Mallinson.
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