Bands, Discography, and Musical Endeavors
Tina Lee & Random Blues
Somewhere during the Tongue 'n Grove years, I got the itch to play the Blues. I saw an ad in The Toledo City Paper for a blues band looking for a keyboard player. The band was Tina Lee & Random Blues and I guess I passed the audition, because quickly after we met we played a short set at Mickey Finn's on January 28, 2007 for the Black Swamp Blues Society Memphis Send-off Party for winner "Josh Boyd and The VIPs". They played the closing set and were amazing. The opening band was a duo called Lucky Brother (Mark Lemont & Tim Oehlers) and they were so good. The 2006 Lucky Brother CD is still in my rotation. And as luck would have it, the BSBS vice-President at the time was old friend Greg Harley from my Edwin Dare days! Small world after all ? yes.
In 2008, TLRB headlined a Blues Jam showcase at The Rumpus Room in East Toledo (down the street from Tony Packo's). It was a cold March night and while we played it snowed ... hard. We went in with no snow on the ground and came out to 6" of snow and still snowing! Driving home on a barely-plowed I-75 at 1 in the morning was quite the experience.
With Tina Lee singing lead vocals, TLRB was able to perform many female oriented blues selections from artists like Koko Taylor, Etta James, Bonnie Raitt, Lou Ann Barton, and Debbie Davies. It was so refreshing to play songs by female artists and it reminded me of how much I enjoyed the first TnG line-up with Holly McConnell where we played many female artist songs. I enjoyed my short time with TLRB, but decided to leave the band in 2009 to focus on Tongue 'n Groove. The Blues "itch" was not gone, however, and would catch up with me years later. And guess what ... Greg Harley would be part of that too.
Black Swamp Blues Society 2008 ad for Blues Jam with TLRB