I had some trepidation about attendance tonight--I mean, everyone had probably already blown any beer money over the Memorial Day weekend, plus this Tuesday was the first day back to work--probably one of the hardest nights of the year to get people to go out. Turned out, I was...right.

Nonetheless, we started out with high hopes, or at least I did. Jon Koonce arrived around 8:30 to set up, but bassist Joey Casemeer didn't make it till about 8:45. He thought Jon had said 122nd instead of 112, and was driving around looking for the place. Joey lives on 122nd in Clackamas, so he figured he'd just saunter on up that street to the gig. Oh well.

Joey set up his bass rig, and lo and behold it was my favorite rig when I played bass--the classic Fender Showman! Cool! Jon and Joey have been holding down the blues and rock jam at the Trail's End in Oregon City of late, along with guitar great Doug Rowell. Jon plays drums on the gig.

I assured Jon this didn't have to be a "blues" gig, and for him to pull out his faves and throw 'em at me (I was feeling cocky). So after the first three or four obvious blues and rock songs, Jon started feeling comfortable enough about my playing to start stretching a bit, even doing some old Johnny & The Distractions tunes, of which I'd heard them few times if any. But, it was not rocket science, and was very engaging straight-ahead rock and roll. I could see right away why the major record labels have been interested in Jon over the years. But, a shot at the big time sponsored by the starmaker machinery is a one-in-a-million shot and Jon just hasn't been that one...yet.

We were laying down some really nice blues rock throughout the night...too bad there were only about five or six people in the room at any given time the whole night. (Ugh)...One song in particular ended up sticking in my brain--an instrumental called "Crown Royal," a slow tempoed rock reminiscent of a ZZ Top ballad, or Dick Dale meets Led Zeppelin. My fuzzy metaphors aside, it was beautiful, man!

Jon was really digging our sound, and was really playing some great stuff and singing great, too. Geez, one of the best nights musically, and THE worst attendance. Jon shrugged it off and was prompted to tell me about his stint in the Memphis/Nashville region. He actually landed a gig as bass player for blues-rockabilly entertainer Duane Jarvis. They did some European tours and some recording, but other than that, Jon found Nashville to be a tight scene, and a bit pathetic, with low-grade blues and rock bands fighting over $25 gigs in upscale venues. It was just time to come home, he figured, and get hooked up again in Portland, write some music and put out some records. Which is exactly what he's doing now, as he plans to release a solo acoustic album this summer, and a band album in the fall.

After the dismal audience showing, I'm going to make sure to get Jon back again, hopefully in August when more people can hear and appreciate this legendary Portland musician.

Really hope to see you down at Hopper's next Tuesday night, with Lee "Snake Charmer" Blake!

Boyd