Finally it happened! One of the true
blue blues legends recorded a CD in Yugoslavia, in our studio, with
our backing band and released it on our label. That legend
is Mr. John O’Leary of Savoy Brown, The John Dummer Blues
Band, Sweet Pain, and Mainsqueeze fame; the CD is “As Blue As
I Can Be”, the band is Pointblank, the studio
is Focus and the label is ITMM. In
the middle of March, John and the band played two promotional gigs in
our country during John’s all to brief visit. In
Belgrade, he played The Bitef Art Café and in Senta, a city near the
Hungarian border, he played The Mojo Club. I was lucky on
both occasions to share the energy, the emotion and a lot of great
blues moments which were exchanged between the musicians and
audiences in these packed clubs. John and the band took
advantage of not having too many rehearsals, they were relaxed, they
improvised, but at the same time we all had the impression that they
had known each other for a long time. The evening’s programme
was based on their CD material, John’s and Dr’s
(Pointblank’s guitar player and leader) originals which were
carefully mixed with inspired covers of some great blues standards
(among them, I would like to mention Sleepy John Estes’s “Divin’
Duck Blues”).
The greatest news brought to us by the
CD was, of course, John’s singing. He had spent many
years with great vocalists ( Dave & Joanne Kelly, Tony McPhee,
Victor Brow, etc) which is probably why it took so long for him to
decide to start singing. From what we have heard on the CD
and at gigs, it seems that he has picked the right moment. Great
emotional delivery is the main characteristic of John’s voice and
it is perfectly suited to his powerful and colourful
harp playing. Pointblank backed him with respect and
feeling, but John gave them enough spaceto prove themselves as the
seasoned blues musicians they are.
The audiences at both gigs showed great
enthusiasm, and at all times were willing participants in the events,
which I am sure, inspired and willed the band to finish these gigs in
triumph. When the stage lights finally went dark, all of
us had the feeling that we had been part of something really big and
were hoping it will not be long before we see John and Pointblank
together again!….Valdislav Pejak, Radio Index, Belgrade.
(Editor’s Note:- Vladislav
Pejak is a respected broadcaster and Blues authority in
Yugoslavia and host’s his own weekly blues programme on Radio Index