It is hard out here

Saturday Morning Caffeine Fueled Rant:

If there is anything better to do on a Friday night than playing harmonica with a rocking band at a great local bar, I sure as crap don’t know what it is.

The Leucadian is an old school neighborhood pub/tavern nestled in the Eucalyptus trees off the 101 in the beachie side of Encinitas. You could say it is a dive, but that sounds too pejorative. This place has the sound of pool balls clacking, the smell of spilt beer and perfume all wafting together in a dimly neon lit warm atmosphere with friendly locals.

The lead singer, my pal, Quite Talking James or James Johnson, a regular caller to the radio station I write for, Dave Shelly and Chainsaw, invited me to sit in – after I asked – and he did a great job with amazing range as one would need for someone who sang everything from the Stones to Eagles to Skynnard to Beatles. QTJ is genuinely a really good lead singer.  

The band Redhanded was a great collection of young guys and Veteran local rockers and they rocked from beginning to end. The crowd was pretty mixed to fairly young and they danced all night. The quotient of unreasonably hot women was high. They brought me up on harmonica on the Stones “Honky Tonk Woman” and we killed, if I must say. Then in the next set we killed again on the Stones “Brown Sugar.”

A band’s worst nightmare is letting some Jamoke they’ve never played with before sit in but they couldn’t have been cooler and it worked very well, if I do say so myself. Redhanded has two killer guitar players, a young rockin’ drummer, a very talented bass player who can play lead – which is rare – a really good keyboard/vocalist/harmonica player and a rockin’ dude lead singer – in the person of one QTJ- as well as a smoking hot female lead singer.