Big Boy Bloater at Twinwood

This is the first time I’ve seen Big Boy Bloater in his own right, every time I’ve seen him he’s been leading the Rhythm Riot house-band. I expected him to be great and he didn’t disappoint. His six piece band are all quality musicians with two saxes giving a few solos to augment Bloaters’ own guitar breaks. He kicked off with They Call Me Big Boy Bloater and You Better Believe It. His vocals are strong and he has a good stage presence but it’s unquestionably his guitar picking that steals the limelight.

One More Time and I Ain’t Done Nothin’ Wrong were good but his brilliant version of Bobby Blands’ You Got Me was the pick of the whole show. The title song from his latest CD, That Ain’t My Name was strong and with his guitar sound is so reminiscent of Johnny Guitar Watson, Gangster of Love just had to be superb – and it was. His misses, Lil Liza took the lead on three numbers the best of which was Man Or Monkey.



He rounded an excellent set off with both sides of his 7 incher, Whammy and Double Whammy. I missed the encore but judging by the rest I’d say it was a hot blues with stinging guitar – just a hunch!

Going away for a few days

I'm off to the Twinwood Festival, so i won't be back online until Tuesday 1st September. I'm hoping to see Bill Crittenden sing Runnin' Around, Big Boy Bloater play Whammy, Metrotones sing Trickle Trickle and Mike Sanchez do Blue Boy. I'll let you know.

Rockin' Song of the Week No.63 - Big Boy Bloater – Whammy!

Big Boy Bloater – Whammy!

Although he’s been fronting his own rockin’ blues and for fifteen years, I’ve only seen Big Boy Bloater leading the Rhythm Riot backing band. He’s bloody good at it, and has enhanced the performance of a load of acts from Nappy Brown to Big jay McNeely. According to his website he’s heavily influenced by the early sounds of Ike Turner, Johnny 'Guitar’ Watson, Mickey Baker and BB King. The two CD’s I’ve got of his lay testament to that. The song I’m freakin’ to at the moment is Whammy! from his 2008 release, That Ain’t My Name. High profile rocker Mark Lamarr was such a fan of the song that he produced a 7” vinyl single with Whammy! on the top side and Double Whammy!! on the flip. Perhaps a tad biased, Lamarr enthused “"Both sides are as good as the best 50's releases!". Whammy! is a guitar instrumental that is as aptly titled as Jerry lee calling a song “piano” or King Curtis to record a two minute blast of honkin’ sax and call it “two minute blast of honkin’ sax”. Bloater sounds like Ike Turner on Cobra. Like his hero he certainly knows his way around the whammy bar and it’s a hot, slashing slice of blues. I’m seeing Big boy Bloater and his Southside Stompers at the Twinwood Festival in a week or two and on this evidence it should be fun.