Date/Time
Date(s) - 08/11/2019
6:30 pm - 10:00 pm
Location
High Dive
Categories
One of the most revolutionary, unorthodox, and influential Blues musicians is coming to the High Dive for a North Central Florida Blues Society concert. For Jason Ricci and the Bad Kind, which includes guitarist John Lisi, Todd Edmonds, and drummer John Perkins, being in Louisiana has influenced Ricci’s Blues with its gumbo of genres. “I want a band with swagger. When I was down in New Orleans, I really fell in love with drums and bass and the way New Orleans’ rhythm sections sound and the way all those street beats are so prominent in the music. This group plays Blues and plays funk, really, really well.”
The show starts at 6:30 pm at the High Dive (210 SW 2nd Ave) in Gainesville, FL. Tickets are $15 for general admission and $8 for North Central Florida Blues Society members. Students with ID get in for $5. Veterans with ID also get in for $5.
Ricci has received multiple Blues Music Award Nominations from 2009 – 2018, and won in 2010 and 2018. He was a featured performer on Johnny Winter’s Grammy award-winning CD ‘Step Back’ (2014), and when the late Paul Butterfield and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Jason is who they wisely chose to play with Zac Brown & Tom Morello.
Not that everything Jason Ricci & The Bad Kind plays is traditional Blues. A listen to his latest album Approved by Snakes, easily one of the best albums released in years, will give you an idea as to what will blow your mind when you see them live. You will hear funk and some jazz influences, and some elements that are very hard to classify. Ricci’s fluency and tone are top-shelf and with its unconventional instrumental backing, it creates something not heard elsewhere. It’s otherworldly, but will also make you want to move your body.
The subject matter, while sometimes humorous, is gritty and at times spooky and based on some of Jason’s darker personal experiences, which is the honesty as we would expect from a Blues legend. “I try and write only about what I know and about real true life,” Ricci added. “so much music shares the same structures as far as chords, harmony, melody and rhythm but being honest is the true connecting thread no matter what the differences are theoretically.”
No less an expert as Adam Gussow (Satan & Adam, U2’s Rattle & Hum film) has included Jason Ricci in the Top 10 All Time Harmonica Players list on his Modern Blues Harmonica website, and called Ricci “one of the best harmonica players of his generation.” “This is what originality, technical mastery, and soulfulness look like on the rock-flavored leading edge in our post-9/11 era,” Gussow added. “If you’re an ambitious young cat looking to make your mark on the Blues harmonica world, be forewarned: (Ricci’s) fireworks will put your ego in check.”
Root Redemption, one of the area’s top Blues bands, will open the show. Root Redemption’s lineup is: Alan Yeatter (vocals, guitar), Gus Olmos (harmonica), Mark Armbrecht (bass), and Rick Wagner (drums). All four members have represented the North Central Florida region in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis.