Recently I was able to spend a week down in Texas including 5 days in San Antonio. You could say San Antonio is the center of the Americana universe as the founder of AmericanaRoots.com, Gregg Geil lives there! You could also say it is because of all the great live music there. Besides two of the Americana Shrines, Gruene Hall and Floore’s Country Store (each of which lie just outside San Antonio), the area is home to a number of other excellent live venues. One of these is Sam’s Burger Joint. If you want a fantastic burger “appetizer” prior to your main course of live music, than this place is a must! From the restaurant you walk across an outside sidewalk into the music club, which is small enough to be intimate and have great sound, but not so small that you’d ever feel cramped.
Of course a great cheeseburger and a lousy show would mean this review would probably end up on RoadFood or something like that, not a music site. Fortunately on this night I was treated to some fantastic music as well as good grub. Jeff Strahan was making his first appearance at Sam’s. If you aren’t familiar with Jeff, he is a native of Lamesa, Texas, near Lubbock where he grew up on a diet of edgy country, blues and rock ‘n’ roll. He started a band at age 12, and he eventually moved in the 80’s to Austin and played a variety of genres in a variety of bands. The 80’s decade was certainly not the music industry’s shining moment, so Jeff pursued a “real job†with the hope of returning to music. He was actually a successful trial lawyer in Texas for 10 years before deciding to return to music in 2000. (We lose one lawyer and gain back a great musician all at once- that’s a good day!!) He moved to Durango, Colorado to get away from the craziness he had been living in and gain musical inspiration. This must have worked as Jeff delivers a killer live performance with much of the material from his live show coming from his recently released CD Amen To The Blues, one of my favorites of the year! The CD, and live show, consists mostly of high-energy music Jeff calls “Texas Red Dirt Blues”. The title track is a great song that tips the hat to many of the heroes of the blues and a magical encounter in Heaven. Apparently Jesus is a blues fan! I’m not surprised.
Another of my favorite on the disc and live is “Southern Jeans,†a soulful number on which Jeff shines live, strolling through the crowd while jamming through the tune. As with many guitar slingers from Texas, Jeff has a love for Stevie Ray and did him proud with his blazing version of “Floodin’ Down in Texas.†As I watched his show, I began to wonder if I thought Jeff was better as a guitar player, a singer, or a keyboard player. On a number of the live tunes Jeff handles all three duties, often alternating jamming on his strat with playing the keys. Don’t apply for the position of keyboard player in his band; he’ll handle that as well as guitar thank you. One of the best live tunes was a solo piano ode to his manager/girlfriend Lois Lane (really) entitled, appropriately enough, “Superman,†which can be found on Jeff’s excellent 2006 release Red Dirt Blues. If Jeff comes anywhere near you, do yourself a favor and check him out. Not only is he a great performer, but he’s a hell of a nice guy. He stuck around well after the show to mingle with the crowd. A Texas band called The All-in Blues Band opened for Jeff. Get this: the band consists of 16-19 year olds, and the CD they sell was recorded live at Antone’s. If they lived near me they wouldn’t even be able to get in to a club like that, let alone record a CD there! Watch for them as well.
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