A very happy summer to all of you out there in blues land—all is well out here in San Francisco. Cathy, me and the band have been having a lot of fun promoting our new CD “Lemonace” on Vizztone. Our CD release party on June 16 at Biscuits and Blues in San Francisco sold out—we had people in the streets waiting to get in—but more importantly we were able to perform with and see many dear old friends, friends who not only played on the CD, but who traveled 3,000 miles to share the stage with us to get the buzz. I’m speaking of pianist David Maxwell coming all the way in from Boston and of Paul Oscher coming in from Los Angeles. Tommy Castro, Kid Anderson, and Ron Thompson who didn’t hav as far to travel came too and what a show with all that talent! Yea, these musicians are our REAL friends! Great music was made that night and everyone had a great time. They had to kick us out! Let’s face it, with all that talent we could have had a three-day Blues Woodstock! Ha Ha! If you want to see the photos and some of the video from the gig, go to our website: http://www.lemonace.com. And finally after all these years of writing for Big City Blues, me, Cathy and the band will be coming to Detroit to play at Callahans on September 19th 2010. The show starts at 8:00 PM so come on by. It’s gonna be a natural ball!

Well, now I want to ease your minds back into the past! I sometimes have a very hard time remembering the exact dates and exact order of certain events, so please have a little mercy on my worn out and sometimes very forgetful cranium. I’m gonna say that the date was somewhere between 1969 and early 1970—a night at Ungano’s on West 70th Street in New York City. Elvin Bishop and his first band after having left The Paul Butterfield Blues Band was playing a gig there. Elvin’s band, like all his old bands from the past, played really great. They all created such an amazing sound and they all had plenty of personality—larger than life. The late Steven Miller, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa and of the former Linn County Band was on Hammond B3 organ and vocals. Steve alone was a one-man-band! He was dangerous! The late John Chambers was on drums—he sounded like a machine of pure soul. Art Starvo was on bass and he played so deep and in the groove it used to make me cry. Art used the perfect choice of notes to blend in just right with Elvin’s tasty, blistering guitar licks and his down-home, country way of singing. Then there was Apple Jack. Apple’s very smooth, relaxed voice and his harmonica playing only added just one more weapon to the band’s already full arsenal. Plus, my man Perry “Barrel House” Welsh, who doubled up as both roadie and back up singer, would at the end of each show come up to sing “So Fine” with everyone. He only added a special element of spice to an already great show. They were so good.
Ah, well, it was a bit after midnight and me and Elvin and his whole band were hangin’ out back stage in Ungano’s tiny, little, dark, cold, dirty and dingy dressing room. Buddy Miles, the former drummer and singer from Wilson Pickett’s band and The Electric Flag was there. He told us that Jimi Hendrix was coming down to jam, which was very cool to say the least. Elvin asked me if I’d like to sit in on bass. Now usually he would ask me to just sit in and sing—those were the days when I could do double splits and a whole lot more. I’m not sure why Elvin asked me to play bass—it seemed a little strange. And I had not seen Art Starvo, Elvin’s bass man, in 14 years, so I wasn’t comfortable enough to ask him what was up. But of course I said “Yes.”

Well I waited about 10 minutes while the band finished up their set. Then Elvin finally told me, myself, and I to get ready with my bass for the big jam out with Buddy Miles and Jimi Hendrix. Well I got up on stage with Art’s bass, an old Fender P Bass, a very fine bass—the sunburst colored model. I was getting all my secret settings fixed on this bass plus getting the amp ready to blast. Of course the bass had a great huge ring to it anyway—it sounded great without me doing a thing. But I had to pretend like I knew what I was doing, you know, go up there with total confidence like I owned the place.

Now entertainer’s take heed...ha, ha! Well, I knew what I was doing and I wasn’t nervous at all. I knew that we were going to play blues and that’s what I do, so I was ready to RIDE! In my mind, after shedding blood for so many years in tiny little New York “stink-bomb” toilets, I felt I deserved a little bit of fresh air and sunshine! MERCY!

Well, about one or two New York minutes flew by. I was not paying much attention to Buddy Miles. When Elvin had called me up on stage to get ready, I had said “hi” to him but that was all. He wasn’t no welcome wagon towards me, but I wasn’t going to lose any sleep over it. Steve Miller was on his mighty Hammond B3 organ already. Apple Jack was up there ready to go, too.
I knew Jimi was backstage because I saw him and had said “hi” to him, also. He was very quiet and shy. It seemed like he was carrying the world on his shoulders. I felt a bit sad for him. Now Elvin came up on stage, overalls on, and with a pretty good poker face so I couldn’t read him, he walked over to me and bent down to whisper in my ear something. He said, “Buddy and Jimi have another bass player they wanna listen to.” I couldn’t believe it—I was stunned! But now, looking back, I am pretty sure that they were putting The Band of Gypsies together at that time. But I was really pissed off. And my feelings were hurt. I said to Elvin, “Can’t I just hit Buddy in the head with the bass and persuade him?” Elvin’s response was to wig out and yell pretty loud at me “NOOOOOO John, DON’T DO THAT!” I remembering giving Elvin a very childish, devilish smile, and then very gently placing Art’s bass down against the amp. I then shot “FATBOY” on the drums a real dirty snarl. I was still feeling really pissed off and embarrassed as the club was mobbed and I already had ladies set up to flirt with after the jam. I’d have my meal! Plus my pal and photographer the late John Bellisimo was there with his camera. Now here I am: no jam and I look like “Mr. No-Bass-Putz!” NO RIDE! NO MERCY! Well, it just wasn’t my night, as Rod Steiger once said to Marlin Brando in “On the Waterfront.” It just wasn’t my night.

Well, to finish the story, Jimi went up there on stage and the crowd went wild. But he had Elvin’s guitar and he was a lefty. He couldn’t play Elvin’s right-handed guitar because the strings were on backwards for him, kind of like how he was feeling. I remember they were all jamming on “Fannie Mae,” the old Buster Brown song, and it just wasn’t happening—just nothing. Then they did an instrumental version of “Soul Serenade” a la King Curtis—and with the same results. NO FIRE! Well, no one really knew and nobody really cared but me. Because THE GREAT Jimi Hendrix came in and jammed for free! Of course, he was doing this all the time. It was part of the scene. JAMMING! To jam with other musicians used to mean to trade ideas, have fun, it was all about trying to make great music–just to groove together. I miss that.

Johnny Ace can be reached at aceobass@earthlink.net or through his website: http://www.lemonace.com. Plus you can watch his new hilarious video “Love Like a Fire” with Cathy Lemons on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUciBvVRXGo or visit us on Facebook.