The opportunity to write a piece about our IBC experience in Memphis takes me back to Mojo’s in October of 2008, - to the delicious moment when The Megan Boyer Band was pronounced winners of the MO Blues Society regional challenge.  How cool that our hard work in putting a killer set together paid off, and that Tim and Johnny and I would be headin’ off to Memphis with Megan leading the way as our fearless front-woman.

 

We continued to work on our set right up till leaving for Memphis in early February, adding one original song, “My Heart Is Gonna Pay”, written by our good friend, Norman Merritt.  And I’ll admit with some chagrin that we, - particularly Megan, Tim and I – probably had one too many excited, heartfelt conversations in the meantime involving our “wish/fulfillments” for the contest.  But in hindsight, that probably comes with the territory; particularly for first-time contestants.  Chomping at the bit, then, we hit Memphis with wide-eyed enthusiasm on the evening of Wednesday, 2-4-09.  We caught some immediate Memphis musical flavor listening to a house band over supper and a coupla beers at Alfred’s.  Then we headed on over to the New Daisy Theater’s showcase event.  There we were pleased to catch up with MO Blues friends Joyce, Cass, Laurie, Will, Arlen and Gloria Gauss, and MO Blues’ solo/duo contestant, the talented Ben Green.  One of the featured acts at the showcase was last year’s IBC winners, Kansas City’s Trampled Under Foot.  I’d never seen them before and I enjoyed their set; bassist/vocalist Danielle’s red heels/foot-stompin’ showmanship, in particular.  When we crashed out at the close-to-Beale Street King’s Court Motel, I’m sure that all four Boyer Band-members could hardly believe that our moment to strut our own stuff was finally just a few short hours away.

 

On Thursday we “did Beale Street”, where I bought a few souvenirs for the folks back home, - along with a few girlie decals to dress up my guitar case.  It was quite moving to just walk the venerable avenue, taking pics in front of the W. C. Handy Statue and checking out legendary Memphis greats’ stars on the sidewalks and their plaques.  Earlier in the day, Megan started us off officially at the mandatory orientation session. Then it was down to musical business when we checked in at our venue, The Old Daisy Theater at five.  What a cool old hall it is, and I wondered idly about rockin’ good times that the venue had seen in its glory days.  Just before we went onstage,  I remembered the humorous advice given to us by the Doghouse Daddies Bill Morlan a coupla months back, “Just go there, don’t take it too seriously, enjoy yourselves, - and kick some butt!”  We ended up playing third that night, but I must admit that, somewhat ironically, I felt about as nervous as a one-legged man entering an ass-kicking contest.  We started out pretty strong, it seemed, and we were gratified that our MO Blues Society friends were there to root us on, including Bill Burnham, who had been extremely supportive of our participation.  But then after our second song, we “struck a Titanic-sized iceberg” in the form of the stage monitors dropping out on us, leaving Megan with no idea of what her vocals sounded like.  Then, the amp that I was provided lost about three-fourths of its power.  We soldiered on the best that we could, though, and somehow we got through the set.  But it did feel wonderful, especially under the circumstances, when I got a nice round of applause for my solo on the quintessentially slow “Empty Bedroom Blues”. We also seemed to get our share of crowd-approval after our set, as well.  And when my band-mates gave me a pat on the back for suffering the amp melt-down gladly, I joked, “Hey, – I was just relieved it wasn’t me that screwed up!”

 

What else can novice contestants do after such a harrowing set than make a beeline to the bar for a stiff shot of whiskey and an ice-cold beer?  So that’s what we did.  (Thanks to Bill Burnham and Arlen Gauss for sponsoring said “nerves-medicine”, too.)  With adrenaline and a modicum of chagrin still coming on strong, us four Boyer-band’rs opted to head out with our friends Erin and Sara to burn off the fumes; checkin’ out other contestants at various Beale Street watering holes.  We had a bite and another round of beers at the popular Rum Boogie and enjoyed very much the contest set of Cincinnati’s Ricky Nye Inc.;  a sharp, New Orleans-style “second line” outfit that featured piano, saxophone, stand-up bass and drums.  On our way into the club we ran into Sirrius Blues DJ, Bill Wax, who, back in the 1970’s was the program director for Columbia’s KOPN radio station.  He still remembered the old Columbia scene fondly, told me to say hello to any of the local musicians still around, and gave Megan his card, - with the offer to send him some tracks to check out sometime.  We ended up making it over to “the blues promised land” that is B. B. King’s club where we danced to the blues-rock sounds of Baton Rouge’s Jonathon Long & Blues Revolution.  By the time we all repaired to our rooms back at King’s Court, after a full day in Memphis, - including our technical train wreck of a set – and a late evening full of rambunctious cavorting, I was more than ready for a night of inebriated, dreamless sleep. 

 

On Friday, it was more of the same, but perhaps at a bit of a slower pace; more Beale Street, some sushi for lunch, reflections on the day before and on the night ahead, and, of course, an obligatory power nap before heading back to the Old Daisy.  For our second performance we were slated near the end, which gave us a good chance to check out some of the other competing bands.  On the previous evening we bonded some with members of the Johnny O. Band and Ten Dollar Thrill. They’re a great bunch of dudes, and it was nice to check out their fine sets.  We all got a big kick out of Asian guitarist, Rick Lee’s (“Why Should A Chinese Man Sing The  Blues”) show-stopping antics during his band’s set; playing with his teeth on top of a table in the middle of the crowd and, amazingly enough, playing slide guitar with a big ol’ bar chair.  Then, after playing with his tongue back onstage (ewww!) he even had the courage to jump off of the stage and into the full splits as a capper.  (Better him than me . . . ) Other bands that played before us were the hard-rocking and super-professional Quebec band, Racine, and the humorous, down-home, self-described “rednecks” from the Southern Fried Blues Society, WSNB.  The evening seemed to peak with the latter band’s performance and I wondered if that might bode ill for the late-playing Boyer crew.

 

 

Our second performance at the International Blues Challenge 2009 seemed to go off without a hitch.  We all seemed to be a lot more relaxed, and I felt the usual mellow, cool calm ‘n collected rush that comes with a typical barroom gig (for the most part, anyway).  It seemed like the crowd approval was more muted than on the previous evening, but what the heck, – we gave it our all and, thankfully, the gear held up, so there was nothing left but for the chips to fall where they may.  I was particularly happy to have shared this experience with Megan, who performed admirably, and who did the somewhat thankless job of making sure

that all contest-business was attended to, - and making sure in the process that her “wayward bad boys” were present, accounted for, and updated on an hourly basis!  After dwelling on the contest pretty much non-stop since our win at Mojo’s, I think that we were all relieved to finally “put it into the books” and to get on with our next thing (whatever that might be), except for one all-important detail: whether or not we made it into the finals.   After running around Beale Street with our friends, clownin’ around, hittin’ a few venues, - including a drop-in of a prurient nature at Coyote Ugly by bassist Tim Shields and I – and, certainly, having a few more beers, we found out through Joyce and company. later on at the Rum Boogie that, well, it just wasn’t meant to be for the Megan Boyer Band this year.  We didn’t make the finals.  So the band ended up convening back in one of our rooms for an useful commiseration-session, where we soon accepted our fates with a certain amount of magnanimousness; not to mention curiosity about the nine or ten lucky finalists.

 

When Saturday rolled around we were probably feelin’ a bit “low-watt” after all of the “BTU’s” burned over the past few days.  I don’t remember much about our day, except for having a mouth-watering barbeque lunch at the legendary Rendezvous restaurant downtown, until Tim and I ventured on over to the beautiful Orphium Theater to check out the finals.  The place was packed, but we found a couple of choice seats at the back of the second balcony.  So, with six dollar Heinekins in hand, we settled in for five solid hours of “contest blues”.  The event was hosted in a goofy, but somewhat entertaining way by harmonica-man Jason Ricci and by bluesman Otis Taylor’s lovely daughter, Carrie.   Suffice to say, some acts I enjoyed more than others and I did my level best to try not dwell at times on, “Why them and not us?!”  (But then, that’s only human nature . . . right?)  The finalists from our venue, Santa Barbara’s Pryor Baird & The Deacons, who performed with power and ease at the Old Daisy, seemed to have a rough go on Saturday, complete with guitar tuning problems which prompted a frustrated comment on-mic by Baird.   But it soon became obvious that the top-tier contestants were supremely deserving of making it to the third day.

 

The finals seemed to just simmer along, IMHO, until Portland’s Ty Curtis Band hit the stage.  These young pups put on a tremendous set that featured a super-strong group sound, marvelous, kickin’ arrangements, fine musicianship and solid vocals.  They seemed like a fresh new take on, say, the 1960’s Paul Butterfield Blues Band.  But my favorite group that evening, hands down, was Boston’s Delta Generators.  Bein’ a big fan of superior vocalists, their singer fit my bill to a “T”, - powerful stuff coming out of that young man’s pipes, Y’all!   His bouncy, exuberant showmanship was much appreciated, too.  Their guitarist played mostly slide guitar, but on one song, he played one of the best-crafted single note solos I’d heard in a long, long time.  One might describe them as a “rootsy/bluesy outfit”, and their original material was both musically and lyrically fulfilling to these ears.  I was also impressed tremendously when the guitarist/vocalist for Ontario’s Monkey Junk laid down his six-string and launched into his own masterful take on a Little Walter-type instrumental harmonica shuffle.  Megan ended up joinin’ us in the balcony toward the end of the finals. But we were so musically saturated when the last act came on that we only listened to the first couple of songs by the eventual contest winners, South Florida’s J. P. Soars & The Red Hots.  Ricci raved them up to no end before their performance, - which I didn’t think was particularly called for, given the contest environment – so perhaps it was “the year” for this solid great-guitar-driven trio to take it all; including the coveted best guitarist award.  Nice, in retrospect, that an “authenic blues band” playing the tried and true “1-4-5 progressions” ended up representing the best that 2009 had to offer at the Challenge. (Monkey Junk and the Ty Curtis Band placed second and third, but I don’t recall in which order.)

 

Megan and Tim and I palled around for the rest of the evening.  Stopping off for legendary tamales at the legendary Blues City Café, we ran into a fellow that Megan had met after our Thursday night performance.  That night he claimed to be a representative of Alligator Records, complimented Megan on her vocals, and took her card. We’d wondered if this cat was for real, and darned if he didn’t sit right down next to us at the Cafe with none other than the label’s president, the legendary Mr. Bruce Iglaur.  Megan visited with them for a minute or two, during which time Bruce responded to his associate’s assertion that Megan was a wonderful singer with, “That’s nice”.(But only Megan’s band-mates know just how nice – and sweet – it is!)

 

So, we weary MBB-blues warriors crashed out one more night at the cool King’s Court and made our “one eye open” departure out of rockin’ Memphis after a gas stop, which happened to be in full view of legendary Sun Studios (photo op!), and some Mickey D’s to go.  On our way back home through the winter-bleak Arkansas lowlands-country I waxed perhaps too fast and furiously about my take on the finals, and on the contest in general, until Megan suggested that I cool it, - which after a few more volleys of opinionating, I did.  By the time we were back in the bosom of Columbia MO early that Sunday evening, everything seemed to fall into perspective:  we took the trip, took on the challenge to the best of our first-timer abilities, took it all in, - took some aspirin after beer-soaked nights – took a heckuva cool “blues vacation” – and, most importantly, made it there and back all safe and sound.

 

One thing that we took away from the 2009 International Blues Challenge in Memphis which we might not have anticipated before experiencing it ourselves, is that like most creative endeavors, there’s an art to “blues contesting” as well.  Now that we’ve checked out a DVD of our Friday night’s performance and measured it against the more seasoned, “higher-tiered” contestants’ efforts, we can see our strengths and our weaknesses clearly and how we might improve upon the latter.  In my opinion, our greatest strength is that in Megan, we have a significantly talented and magnetic lead vocalist who boasts a winning personality, who has a strong work ethic, who “dresses sharp”, and who happens to be rather good-looking!  Secondarily, I think that our strong points are in the area of how well we play together as a band, and in our individual levels of talent and experience (humble, aren’t I?).  Where we might improve seems to be in the area of showmanship and in song-selection, - in terms of more original material, in particular.  At any rate, I do believe that we’re a better and more seasoned band now for having participated in this “trial by blue fire”.  In fact, we’ve joked on several occasions since the contest how “After the Blues Challenge, nothing seems too hard to handle at our hometown gigs.”  And it goes without saying that we’d love to have another “shot at Memphis” here in the next couple of years, if we should be so fortunate. 

 

Guess all that’s left for me to say is “Thanks, MO Blues Society, for allowing us the opportunity to represent y’all.  It was fun hangin’ out with you fine blue friends down there, – and see ya at the next monthly jam session.”  And to my band-mates Megan, Tim and Johnny: “Y’all are the best, Friends!  It was a pleasure and a privilege to share the Old Daisy stage with you and to hang tuff together; there in such an exciting and inspiring “nat’chel born blues-town” like Memphis.  Now what time did we say rehearsal is set for tomorrow night?”

 

The Megan Boyer Band is: Megan Boyer (lead vocals), Jimmy Steffan (guitar, vocals),

Tim Shields (bass guitar) and Johnny Walker (drums).  Please check us out at

www.meganboyerband.com.

 

P.S.  We received our official scorecards from the six judges (three each night) a week

or so ago.  Our scores were “middlin’ high” and on two of them judges commented, “great band”.