


In June and July, Charlie popped over to England and Switzerland for a merry little tour, in which the boys stayed at Dave's lovely house in Chichester and did some splendid little shows in the surrounding countryside. Truly a Piece of Cake.
Charlie and the boys headlined the Bands on the Sand show in Treasure Island May 29. There were 8 bands and a crowd of over 5,000 people, dancing on the sand and beaching it up in true Florida style. This show was a lot of fun. The sound and lights were first rate, and it was a blast to play for all our local frineds and a whole lot of other folks too.
Oil fouls our beaches, and it fouls our lungs
Cars kill our dogs and our teenage sons
Now they're off to war, and we all know why
But maybe they wouldn't have had to die
If we hadn't Got Greedy
We've released Got Greedy as an online single. All earnings from this song in 2010 will be donated to environmental organizations working to end offshore oil drilling.
Was it another wonderful tour of Switzerland, with great crowds, first-class accomodations, spectacular scenery and top-notch skiing? Or was it a long, hard row to hoe, with bad luck and trouble dogging our every step? Did we get the blues, lose the blues, or give everybody else the blues? You'll have to read the story to find out!
Blind Pig recording artist Damon Fowler was the latest luminary to join us for the Bluescoast Sessions. This is a series of all-star jams that will be released on CD some fine day...real soon, we promise. With Tim Hedding (James Brown, Greg Allman, Delaney and Bonnie) on the B-3 and Tom Bell and Mike Chavers in the engine room, we laid down five (or was it six?) tunes and had a splendid time. Damon's huge talent on guitars both slide and otherwise added some horseradish to Chuck's cocktail sauce (or something like that), and all agreed it was the best Bluescoast Session yet!
When Charlie gets tired of the flatlands, he heads for the hills of East Tennessee. Here are some photos from Charlie's gigs in Knoxville, Nashville and Chattanooga.
Last summer, Chuck and his boys played four festivals and a couple clubs in Switzerland, including the Fribourg Jazz Parade.
Blues and soul master Darrell Nulisch blew down to Florida for a couple of dates, and your favorite local boy was tapped to back him up and open the show. Darrell lays down some rootsy harp-driven blues and sings his ass off on some great soul ballads. Right up Charlie's alley, and he was tickled pink to be a part of it.
Friday night we did a gig at the Bradfordville Blues Club in Tallahassee, an excellent old-Florida venue where Chuck has played a couple of times before. Saturday it was the Suncoast Blues Society's anniversary bash at good old Skipper's. A fantastic party - kudos aplenty to the SBS - and the best turnout this smoked gator has seen at Skipper's in a long time. Darrell had the crowd in the palm of his hand from the downbeat to the encore.
The Bluescoast Sessions, a series of informal jams with the greatest blues musicians from Florida and beyond, continued in April 2008.
Lucky Peterson is simply one of the greatest bluesmen alive. This man lives and breathes the blues, and it was a great honor to trade licks with him. Lucky stopped in on his way to the Tampa Bay Blues Festival. His set later on at the Ringside was one of the best blues shows I've seen in my life (and I have seen quite a few!), with a nonstop barrage of magical guitar lines holding the audience spellbound.
Bill Wharton, aka the Sauce Boss, is a real Florida bluesman, a mean steel guitar player and a super guy. We had a ball making up a crazy song about Fly Gumbo. This night was exactly what the Bluescoast Sessions was meant to capture.
Some fine day, the pick of the Bluescoast Sessions will be released on a big fat CD.
In July 2007, the Charlie Morris Band had a weeklong stand at the Montreux Jazz Festival. We had an absolute blast! Standing-room-only crowds plied us with champagne and whiskey, and all sorts of great musicians, including Steve Cropper and Duck Dunn, came by and sat in with us.
BAAMO and WMNF released a CD, Power to the People, with 15 songs of protest and political punditry by various artists. One of Charlie's new songs, I Don't Know My Neighbors Anymore, was selected for the disc. It's an acoustic version, recorded during Charlie's appearance on WMNF's Live Music Showcase. Later, Charlie recorded an electric version with the full band, which will be on the next CD (yeah, yeah, one o these days, right?).
Chuck and the band also played at the Power to the People concert at Skipper's Smokehouse, which featured 30 bands! They played Neighbors along with a tune by Iris Dement and one by John Prine.
Charlie's been a big fan and supporter of WMNF for many years, and has appeared live on several different shows, including the Florida Folk Show and the Afternoon Blues Show. It was an honor to be a part of the Power to the People CD and concert!
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