Charlie Musselwhite, The Night Owls @ The Gov, Adelaide 28/9/2024
On a cold wet Adelaide evening, as thousands of under-dressed shivering teenage girls flooded into the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Port Road for an evening of R&B with NE-YO, a large contingent of the grey-haired brigade, with their warm jackets and sensible shoes filed into The Gov for an evening of true blues.
One thing you have to hand to the “older” audience is they get to the venue in time for the support act, with the venue almost full by the time The Night Owls hit the stage. The Night Owls are led by singer/guitarist Oscar LaDell “from West Virginnia, U.S.A.” as he kept telling us, along with Adelaide drummer Little Mickey Garcia and South Australian’s Jesse Freeman on piano and Jason Mannix on bass. From the opening original track of Stop Telling Lies, the band led us through forty-five minutes of down to earth blues and some boogie.
Alongside originals were some classic blues like T-Bone Walker’s Hard Way, Eddie Jones, The Things I love To Do and a superb rendition of Curtis Mayfield’s I’ve Been Trying. Original songs sat nicely with the covers. The instrumental Marketplace gave each member a chance to show off their prowess on their given instrument, while Oscar’s Slow Burning Love, chilled the room but warmed the hearts of those in attendance. The band were not given a lot of room at the front of the stage, but then you don’t need a lot of room to play and feel the blues.
“We have the Blues in the house tonight” Charlie Musselwhite told us as he sat on his stool and reached into his “brief case of blues” for a harmonica. Accompanying Charlie on stage were Kid Andersen on guitar, June Core on drums and Randy Bermudes on bass, a band that has been with Charlie for many years. Charlie is now 80 years old but his voice is still powerful and he blew the harp hard and loud all evening.
Wild Wild Woman started the evening of blues with some down low swamp blues. River Hip Mama and Bad Boy followed in quick succession, the band behind Charlie giving him a tight backing to work to, Charlie’s harp and voice adding another dimension to the music.
“I’ve heard there is a million-dollar dance floor out there” Charlie commented. “I don’t see it but feel free to move about if you want” And move about we did to Blues, Why Don’t You Worry Me and 2015’s My Kinda Girl. My Kinda Girl sounded like a freight train running out of control, getting faster and faster as the song went on. The band by now were hot!
Charlie was there in Chicago “in the day” with Muddy Waters and Sonny Boy Williamson and all the other legends and he regaled us with hilarious tales of working with these people. Charlie then played Sonny Boy’s Help Me, which featured on his debut album in 1967.
Good Blues Tonight was the soundtrack to the evening and set closer was “written when I was eighteen and recorded when I was twenty two. I hardly remember it” laughed Charlie, “but I was there”.
Encore was the soulful instrumental Christo Redemption. The wistful harp playing still reverberating in our ears as we left the building. A beautiful ending to a wonderful evening. We were still smiling as we met the R&B fans from over the road coming out, also smiling. Everyone had a great evening.
The Blues may have had a baby and called it Rock’N’Roll, which we all love, but sometimes it’s good to get back to the origin, parental love – The Blues.
Charlie is eighty-years old and we may not get to see him again but he can genuinely be labelled a legend. This was a legendary performance.
Live Review By Geoff Jenke