Bob Margolin: Only After Midnight

March 11th - The devil arrived late, just after the stroke of midnight, but Bob had been on-stage since 9:30 pm. The Surf Club booked virtuoso Blues guitarist Bob Margolin, who played in Muddy Water's band from 1973 - 1980, in hopes of pulling in a big crowd and furthering their tradition as the musician's joint in the DC area.

By my count, there were 30 seats filled at the start of the first set (not counting those participating in the pool tournament on the other side of the bar), and only 18 for the second set. The night prior, at the State Theater in Falls Church, Margolin and The Nighthawks managed a crowd of just 121.

Margolin started the first set as if he were late for the last train home to High Point, N.C. He settled in around the fourth number and proceeded to play with his typical precision. However, the only vibe onstage was provided by bass player Tom “Mookie” Brill, and DC legend Big Joe Maher on drums. Mookie plays an upright bass, circa 1940, as if he was born with it in his hands. With a rockabilly voice to match his slicked-back DA hairstyle, he took on the vocals for some Elvis tunes and showed up the headliner. Mookie spent the 90’s with Carey Bell and Hubert Sumlin.

Big Joe: is there a better blues drummer? Not only does Joe have ‘the touch’ on the drums, his voice is heaven sent and Margolin gave him plenty of space to let it soar.

So, what about Bob?

Bob’s an incredible guitarist -- look at his history. Muddy placed him at his right elbow for eight years. He was onstage for The Band's "Last Waltz". He's recorded with Muddy, Johnny Winter, Pinetop Perkins, Herbut Sumlin, to name a few. He's been on several Grammy winning albums. He's shared the stage with just about every Blues great in the past forty years.

Tonight he appeared to be going through the motions -- until midnight that is. Sure, he played the guitar very well and the song list covered the spectrum from Piedmont to Chicago Blues, with some rock-and-roll tunes for spice. But he was doing some funky affected baritone vocals on more than a few tunes -- which is something wanna-be Blues players do cause they haven’t lived the life and have no experience in their voice. Despite his legendary talent the vibe wasn't with him. He was playing without any soul. It was about the midway point of the first set that I found myself thinking about leaving. There was laundry to do, carpets to vacum, movies to watch, and photos to edit. He really wanted to catch that southbound train and I wanted to point my steel horse westward.

But then, the bewitching hour came and brought with it the devil. Bob played that final hour like the W.C. Handy Award for 2005 Guitarist that he is. He could have stopped when the crowd diminished. But he didn't -- he grew stronger and played with more emotion.

He finished by asking the remaining dozen, or so, fans for song suggestions. "We'll play anything you want" he shouted.

And so they did for three songs -- ending with Bob playing the stand-up bass while Brill took over on his goldtop Les Paul singing John Lee Hooker's anthem "Boom, Boom, Boom."

- 30 -


Copyright 2006 12Bar
Images may not be used without permission.