Something in the water?

Post by **Jim Price** » Saturday Oct 01, 2005

Jules Bianchini of Amplified Heet and I have it figured out...why musicians from this area kick so much ass! It's in the water! Somewhere along the line, some chemical got dumped in the little Juniata River (probably from a derailed tank car from the old PRR days) that led to everybody in the Altoona vicinity developing greater musical ability. What else could it be?

Okay, I admit, I'm still riding the adrenaline rush high from the shows I just saw in the 'Toona on this Friday night, I gotta share! At the Hitching Post, it was Randy Jackson and friends. As any in-the-know 'Toona music fan knows, Randy "Jackson" Rutherford is a one man musical extravaganza unto himself, this guy puts on a clinic and schools the house every time he plays any instrument, 'nuff said! But add the "friends" this night - Bob Scholl on sax, Jay Arnold and Don Emery on trumpets; and later on, Backdraft's Brian Cupples on vocals, and Matt Wagner Band drummer Lisa "Woo" Fazenbaker on congas, plus backing singer/heckler Jules Bianchini from Amplified Heet, and it was off the map!!! All these folks were on the stage at the same time doing tunes from Tower Of Power ("What Is Hip?"), Ides Of March ("Vehicle"), Chicago ("Beginnings," "Make Me Smile" for the encore), Steely Dan, Santana and more. It was simply amazing; with the horn section, it felt like the freakin' Tower Of Power themselves showed up to jam! Only low point, most of the Hitching Post dinner crowd had cleared the building before the jams reached maximum crescendo!

Randy Jackson and friends' show finished just before 12:30 AM, so I decided to head to the Victory Lane Saloon to catch the latter part of Gypsy & the Crazymoon's show. Gypsy's line-up has done some more shuffling since the last time I saw them, and guess what? Gypsy has struck the motherlode with this one, this band smoked! Easily this was the strongest Crazymoon line-up I've seen to date, with Gypsy on keys and voice, lone remaining member Jud Miller on harmonica, Scott Bachman on guitar, Kevin Share on bass and Rick Moore on drums. This band was tight and together, and to quote a foot product commercial, "gellin' like a felon!" Tunes from Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Cream, Muddy Waters and more smoked! How well did it smoke, you ask? The Victory Lane crowd demanded two encores out of Gypsy and her bandmates this night! Memo to Gypsy - keep this lineup together, it's happening!

Both of these shows offered ample proof why people need to venture out and catch bands in this area on Friday nights! I just showed up at both venues to see what was up, and wound up getting blown away by both shows! Damn, musicians in this region kick ass!

bassist_25 · Post by **bassist_25** » Saturday Oct 01, 2005

I remember that I was at Tim Kelly's first backyard summer jam, and Randy Rutherford had just played bass before me. It sucked having to go up and play after him. He dug my playing though, which was a huge compliment. I learn more from watching local players than checking out the stars.

ZappasXWife · Post by **ZappasXWife** » Monday Oct 03, 2005

Only low point, most of the Hitching Post dinner crowd had cleared the building before the jams reached maximum crescendo!

Y

Yeah well as I told JP last night while witnessing the devastating performance of the Nightcrawlers at Pelly's (WOW that band has it goin on, can't wait to see them again) , unfortunately, in this town there is a DIRECT CORRELATION between quality of the music and crowd size, and not in the RIGHT WAY. It makes me embarrassed to live here. Bunch of freakin idiots...

Post by **Jim Price** » Monday Oct 03, 2005

I agree, ZappasXWife...As eluded to on another thread, it seems a lot of folks in this town can't acknowledge that there is other music beyond the Clearchannel current rock playlist. Hopefully if the original music night being talked about on another thread gets rolling, perhaps more people in this town can become enlightened about some of the other musical options out there...