Bamboo Room Report:
Steady Rollin' Bob Margolin, Mr. Jerry Portnoy, and Ms. Sherri Margolin play Lake Worth. Small turnout yields great show for 28 hippest people in South Florida.
My wife and I went down to the Bamboo Room and saw a real fine show last night. Got there early, grabbed a table on the front row and off to the left. (Bob Margolin always said Muddy put him on his right side so he could see how Muddy played those riffs, so I figured if I sit to the right of Bob Margolin I'd be watchin' Muddy play by proxy.)
I walked up close to the stage to check out the arsenal and he'd brought along. There was an ancient black Gibson acoustic, a National Steel single cone with no mirror finish and PineTop Perkin's autograph scrawled in big letters on the headstock. Also a blonde Telecaster that had seen a lot of road work. A delicious looking guitar with fretboard wear like mine is only starting to show.
Bob Margolin came up for a mic test. A big ol' softspoken man with wild gray hair and a tropical shirt. He stopped at our table for a minute and said hello, I shook his hand blabbering "how ya doin', break a leg, blah,blah..."A real nice guy, humored me and several others who'd approached him and then excused himself to finish up the sound check.
Jerry Portnoy (that's him with the cig in the center) came in a sat down with some friends at a table reserved at the center of the front row, looking real cool and sport a pair of ostrich/lizard slipon type shoes one of which he passed around the table for inspection while Bob started off the first set playing on that black Gibson and got us goin' with some Delta style blues played with a heavy hand, often slappin' the fretboard for effect. His sister, Sherri Margolin joined him after about four songs and did some great boogie woogie and Otis Spann style piano accompaniment and the two of them were havin' a fine time up there makin' sure that the audience was having a REAL good time listening to them play off each other. Sorry I didn't get any pics of Sherri for you all but she's got jet black hair and was wearing a jet black dress playin' a jet black upright Dudlow with her back to me. She's a good one and stomped her foot loud enough to provide a bass drum effect on most of the songs.
Jerry Portnoy..what the hell can you say about that guy? He stepped onstage, took a seat beside his old buddy and blew the harmonica. At one point when the three of 'em were goin' off I was transported into another time. You could feel the presence of the Father of the Blues in the room. Bob Margolin can make that telecaster whine and moan and laugh and was doin a good job of makin everyone in the place do the same. Jerry Portnoy's harmonica playing is just what you expect to hear. His harpwork comes off great on the records, but to hear him in person is almost a religious experience. My face still is sore from grinning from ear to ear. They ran through several songs from Margolin's newest CD (which I bought after the first set) and then headed off into several Robert Johnson covers, John Brim's "Ice Cream Man", Sonny Boy's "Eyesight to the Blind" and more than I can remember or could jot down on this handbill (my reporter's notebook)I'm now trying to decipher.
During the break, Margolin sold a few CD's and took time to speak to many of us there. A very modest man, who gives all credit for his abilities to Muddy, Jerry, his sister and the men and women of Chicago who have passed away and from whom he learned his craft. Very cool dude indeed. I asked him what Muddy Waters would have thought of a jook joint like this and he replied,"I think he'd approve. There's not many in here tonight but they've got the spirit of the blues in this room." I of course was thinkin' Muddy wouldn't pay four bucks for a damn glass of beer by God. But I kept my mouth shut about that. It was good beer and you tend not to go overboard suckin' em down when they cost that much. I have it down to exactly three beers which last two sets. If I'd drank any more of that Guiness I'd have been in trouble I expect.
The second set was even better than the first. Bob hit his stride with his vocals and his guitars went off into some extraordinary blues, jump, and jazz riffs. Jerry Portnoy, and I wish MaddMike coulda been there, caused jaws all around to fall open with some of the stuff coming out of him. It was a great damn show, and all those people who thought about going and then didn't, you screwed up royally. These guys put out the best of the blues for a small house and moved us all up another level. Ghosts of the Masters were floating around in there as thick as the cigarette smoke and I don't care if I skip lunch for two weeks, it was worth it.
SO, GO OUT AND SEE SOME BLUES WHENEVER POSSIBLE
The ticket booth at the Bamboo Room, the carved wood header at the top says "Greyhound"
