That was the opening number last night by Lil' Ed & the Blues Imperials at our fav local Blues Club !

Wonderful show - Two 65 min. sets.

My wife was thrilled, because 15 years ago, while we were still dating, I took her to a local Blues Club, now defunct, called the Blues Saloon. She had never been to a Live Blues show before. The Blues Saloon was an old, tired Roadhouse, in a bad neighborhood, located on top of a bar, accessible only by an old, rickety, worn wooden staircase. As we climbed, she gave me that '...Really...??? ' look until she got inside. Inside, there was a Bar, a stage and a wonderful dance floor... The show that night ... Lil' Ed & the Blues Imperials !!

She had such a wonderful time listening to live Blues for the first time and dancing with me... then, all of a sudden, in the middle of a number, Lil' Ed jumps off the stage, his Gibson 335 in hand, trailing the amp cord, and starts dancing with my wife and I while playing... she was absolutely ecstatic !!

Last night, we were sitting near the front, next to a group from Alligator Records - Lil' Ed's recording label. We chatted before the show, and they gave us a DVD of Alligator's 40th Anniversary concert along with a copy of Lil' Ed's newest CD.

At the break, Lil' Ed came over to the Alligator table to chat. He spotted the CD sitting on our table and asked if we wanted an autograph... sure !!

He asked my wife if she was enjoying the show and she said: "Even better than the last time I saw you..." Ed asked: "When was that..?" She told him it was the Blues Saloon back in '96, that he had jumped the stage and danced with us... Ed said:" THE BLUES SALOON..?? ... sh*t... I remember that gig... thought I was going to break my back hauling that amp up those nasty old stairs ! We were heading back to Chicago after the show and it started snowing so bad, we had to wait it out in Madison, WI that night... missed a gig the next day in Chicago...!

I asked him when he was going to play the Les Paul he had on the stand onstage and he told me it was a Heritage H-170... that he'd bought it just last week. Said he went to the store, saw it and played it for 4 hours in the store, finally the clerk went up to him and asked if he was going to buy it or what, that they were closing. Ed bought it and said it's a wonderful guitar, but that it weighed "50 lbs."... just kidding of course. (I looked Heritage up and it is a small company founded by former Gibson employees when Gibson moved all their manufacturing to Nashville in the mid-80's. http://www.heritageguitar.com/indexa.html )

Anyway, we chatted some more about how we were each gonna spend Thanksgiving... Ed is having the whole family over and deep-frying 2 Turkeys... he said goodbye and went back on-stage for the final set.

If you ever have the chance to see one of their shows, be sure not to pass it up !!

cheers!

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'11 FSR Am. Vtg. Ltd. Ed. CAR '57 Stratocaster (SN# LE02639)
'14 American Deluxe Ash Stratocaster
'12 Telebration Empress Telecaster
'99 Deluxe Nashville Telecaster
'12 FSR Telecaster HH
'10 Heritage H-535
'99 Martin DC-1E
'13 Lanikai Tenor Ukulele

LMN...Talk about living the dream...don't get much better of an evening out than that!

T2

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What time is it? It's Fender Time.

Heritage is a company that's fairly close to where I live. The Lansing State Journal had a big write-up on them not too long ago. It sounds like they put a lot of care and time into each instrument they build. They're definitely not a high-volume manufacturer. The thing I found interesting about them (aside from being ex-Gibson makers) is that, for some reason, most of their sales are from foreign orders (I think Japan buying the most).

They are a fine company. I went by one day (I grew up near Kalamazoo and had an uncle that worked for them, back when Gibson was there) and they gave me a great hour long tour and then Ren Wahl I think his name was sat and BS'd with me for another 45 minutes about guitars and music in general. Even showed me how they set up guitars! They still use alot of the same machines from the Gibson days. They had one that did the scooping of the tops and some hand carving on thier arch tops, which are just beautiful. It was nice of them to give me a tour and if I am ever in the market for another 335 type instrument, I wouldn't hesitate to give one of theirs a try.

My apologies for the short hijack.

T2

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What time is it? It's Fender Time.

What a cool night.