B.B. King

Photo by Chris Vandercook

A big mahalo to Bob Peyton for bringing The "King of the Blues", Mister B.B. King and Lucille back to Hawaii.
He performed at the Kaua'i Marriott Grand Ballroom on November 7th,
the Blaisdell in Honolulu November 8th,
the Maui Arts & Cultural Center November 9th
and the Hilton Waikoloa Village Grand Ballroom November 10th.
The opening act at the Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu was J. P. Smoketrain who assembled one outstanding band of local musicians that played an excellent set showcasing their abilities at various different styles of Blues, from Chicago to Texas and down to the Delta! Steve Miles and Chris Vandercook shared guitar duties with J.P., Ron Artis played keyboards, Dominic Leonard was the bass player and Alvin Cameros was behind the drums. For the delta numbers they were joined by "Boogie" and Adam. All of them are to be commended for doing Hawaii proud before the King! ;-)
B.B. may be 77 years old but once again he proved to his Honolulu fans that he is still the "King of the Blues"! I noticed a couple changes in his eight piece band this year. Long time guitarist Leon Warren and bassist Michael Doster were replaced by Charlie Dennis and Reggie Richards respectively but the band still had the same powerful sound. B.B. was in fine spirits and after receiving several leis he joked that he hadn't been "lei'd" that many times in one night in decades. :-) B.B. King is a National Treasure and we go to see him every time that we get the chance but I couldn't help noticing some empty seats. If B.B. King can't sell out the Blaisdell, is there a Blues act that can? Support live music!

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