September 25: What a night, what a show! Kirk Smithhart Band was on fire tonight in Blues Hall. Matt Tudor has a free weekend, so he asks Kirk if he'd like to try some rhythm guitar accompaniment... hahahahaha ha!! (that's what I thought at the time) And of course I was right. The two guitar virtuosos hit the stage together for the very first time and had Blues Hall packed in a matter of minutes. Now Matt did play some magical rhythm parts, but confident Kirk had no problem letting him step out and shine many times. In fact they stepped out together several times and blew us all away. When we got to turn it up and pour it on towards the end of the first set... aka 'the dinner set' ;) everyone wants to know...

"WHO ARE THESE GUYS?!"

Which reminds me, Vinnie DJ Goombatz from New York, motions me over to his table in Rum Boogie last Monday night and says... "Is the talent on Beale Street really so good that you guys have a band like this on Monday nights?" That's classic, Vinnie. Sure wish you coulda seen them tonight!
Also giving credit where it is definitely due, Zack "Super Cracker" Farley on bass and John Burgess beating the drums, kept the groove going strong and those two wailing guitars nicely in line. Pete Mendillo is out with Survivor, but he'll be back in October.
Hmm... I know I'm forgetting something...

September 18: I have had the absolute worst luck getting decent photos of The Boogie Blues Band! If I am running their sound I am too busy, and on weekends when Johnny May is taking care of that end it's just too crowded! The good news is that Steve Fletcher of Beale Street Blues Photos has added Rum Boogie & Blues Hall to his rounds on Beale! He also has some great shots of Arthur Williams and Anthony Gomes. Great stuff Steve, thank you very much! With both Blues Stock (Oct. 1st & 2nd) and The King Biscuit Festival (Oct. 8,9,10,11) coming up, we are anticipating some great music happenings on Beale! Carson Lamb loves to book some gems into Rum Boogie & Blues Hall at such times. Be sure to check my Entertainment Schedules, towards the end of this month for the October dates. I do know that Anthony Gomes Band will be back and in Blues Hall this time, Saturday Oct. 9th. They put on a great show in Rum Boogie earlier this month. In almost 6 years, I have never heard anything sound remotely close to a sub-woofer in Rum Boogie. (we sure don't have any... hint, hint) Well Anthony's bassist, whom I shall ask his name, I promise... has the quintessential bass rig and sound happinin', possibly only surpassed by his gifted skill with his ax. I had to comment on that because I went in there looking for our new subs, as soon as they started playing. And I was doing the sound in Blues Hall, when they came on stage in Rum Boogie even ;)

Along this same King Biscuit line... back in July I received an email from Teresa Tangen. She wrote:
I'm planning a "Highway 61 Pilgrimage" from Minnesota thru Memphis (and points south) to Helena, Ark for the King Biscuit in October. Will be checking your site for info on Beale St. happenings during that time. Thanks!
Just wanted to mention that this is one of my most favorite emails regarding my BluesSite! Looking forward to seeing Teresa on Beale Street IRL! :o Have a safe and legendary "Highway 61 Pilgrimage", Teresa! :)

September 10: Hope everyone had a great 9-9-99 day! My big news today is that I got Don Chandler a V3 link to my site... http://go.to/beale. Seems my url was a bit too long for his webtv. For those of you that don't know Don aka DC, he's our most wonderous Boogie Blues Band leader, keyboard bassman & Hammond B3 organist. His rig, dubbed 'the monster' by Billy Joel whom I did allow to play it :o (5yrs or so ago tho), affectionately known as 'the permanent fixture on stage left' & 'NO you may NOT play it OR move it!!!' ;) has been there for about as long as Rum Boogie Cafe has been open. Which by the way, Rum Boogie Cafe 2000 will be a 15 years on Beale Bash in May 2000 :) You can check out DC's sounds on both of the Boogie Blues Band CD's featured on my site!
Now I must get back to my RL nesting... aka unpacking.

September 9: What can I say except I've been moving house. So hopefully I'll be back on a more normal update schedule real soon. Oh! I sprained my ankle right after I got everything in my new place, then had to work 5 days during the Heritage Festival. Which, by the way, was a great event on Beale! Please check back real soon... just wanted to let you folks know why I've been neglecting my site ;)

August 30: It has been too long since my last update! I've got lots of info and have run out of time at the moment. I'll be back after work tonight to finish this up, so please check back soon! In the meantime check out the sample of the featured CD.
Then surf on by RumBoogie Home where you can even buy this CD, and a lotta other stuff. I think you'll agree that the essence of Rum Boogie Cafe is alive and lookin good on the internet, as well as Beale St! :o
later...

August 1: Please check out The Blues Forum! I reorganized it and hopefully you good folks will be able to respond to the 2 questions I put out, or even have your own topic, etc. to post. It is setup to where you can preview any of your comments and even go back and edit your own posts, at a later time. One of my posts, as well as my links page, has a link to what I think of as The "BIG" Blues Board... if you want to see a well established message board in action, check it out. In my online adventures I have found message boards to be a most strategic tool ;)

Without a doubt, the junkyardmen CD Release Party last night, was a smashing success! I was amazed at how well done this event was. So many of the folks behind this great blues band participated. Talk about alot of different folks in so many of the medias pulling closely in sync for a one night event, 'tight' definitely comes to mind. We are all looking forward to junkyardmen being back in Rum Boogie the 8th & 9th :)