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Levon Helm's Barn Burners Share
A Night of Blues with RSFCO Members & Friends
It is a photo of Elizabeth, Bobby Keys & Blue Lena at the
Coach House in
San Juan Capistrano, CA. Feb. 2, 2001
San Juan Capistrano, CA February 2, 2001 The Coach House
A gang of 18 die-hard Stones fans gathered in California February 1-4, 2001
to see long time Stones sax man Bobby Keys play with Levon Helm's Barn Burners
at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano. The majority of the fans were Rolling
Stones Fan Club members as well as long time members of the Backstage Chat Crew.
Elizabeth & Kenny drove the 7 hours down from Monterey, Manny & Tina
luckily lived nearby in Fullerton, Joni & Tim drove down from Venice, Randey
& Maryellen and Shari & Larry flew out the previous Monday from New
Jersey after having seen Bobby Keys with Levon Helm at the Stones Pony in Asbury
Park (look for a longer story to be featured in Stones Planet #5 Spring 2001),
Blue Lena flew in from Pittsburgh, PA, Mars Bar flew in from Canada, Jana &
Elaina drove down from Las Vegas and Dini & Lee and Tom & Roxanne drove
down from the Santa Ana. area.
One thing was clear, we didn't know much about the Band, for which Levon Helm
was a singer & drummer. But, we did know a lot about the blues and more
importantly, Bobby Keys and the Stones. Levon Helm didn't form this
current band until the late 90's, and Bobby is just guesting on sax during his
off time with the Stones.
Those of us who weren't from California, stayed at the Holiday Inn in Buena
Park and we reminisced by partying until the wee hours with plenty of Stoli
& Cranberry and Red Stripe beer, as well as Stones photo scrap books from
pervious tours and many a good bootleg on the cd player. All of us had met
online, and the majority of us have known each other since we met in person in
1997 during Bridges To Babylon.
On Friday night we all met at Manny & Tina's, our gracious host &
hostess for this event, who not only purchased our show tickets for us, but also
reserved us a VIP room upstairs stage right.
Joni & Tim made us all some cool VIP passes with a photo of Bobby Keys on
them (even Bobby got his own!). We piled into various cars and made the 1/2 hour
trek to San Juan Capistrano.
We were disappointed that they didn't have Stoli at the Coach House (we
should always call ahead!), so we had to drink Absolut & Cranberry this
time...this crew has drank a few bars dry of Stoli in its time. Upstairs we
realized that the VIP room only had enough seating for roughly 12-14 people, so
we overflowed into the hallway & the hallway is where we stayed most of the
night, in between going down to the stage for photos, although the management
let us use 2 more VIP rooms upstairs as well.
There were two opening bands before the Barn Burners came on & actually
the Barn Burners and Bobby Keys arrived while we were standing in the hallway,
so we gave Bobby quite a rousing greeting. In fact, he was quite taken aback
& speechless when he realized that this group of 18 people were there
specifically to see him! They told him downstairs he had a bunch of fans
upstairs & when he finally got upstairs to see us he said "I thought
they were lying!". He shook hands, gave out hugs to those he had met before
& posed for a few photos before going backstage to change for the show.
During the show we took many photos as the Barn Burners ripped through some
well known blues tunes such as "Little Red Rooster", "Hound
Dog" & original material such as Chris O'Leary's "Goin' Down"
as well. The band is made up of Levon Helm on drums, Amy Helm (Levon's daughter)
on vocals & keyboards, Chris O'Leary on lead vocals & harp, Pat O'Shea
on guitar & Frankie Ingrao on bass.
Levon Helm will be featured on an upcoming album entitled Hubert Plays Muddy,
which also features Keith Richards & Eric Clapton as well as several others.
The album is part of Howlin Wolf's guitarist, Hubert Sumlin's tribute to Muddy
Waters & is slated for a June 2001 release. In fact, singer/harp player
Chris O'Shea commented that during the remixing of this album, Keith hinted that
the Winos may tour in the summer as well (so lets keep our fingers crossed).
After the show, Bobby & the rest of the guys were gracious as ever &
allowed more photographs with their fans, plus plenty of idle chit chat. Their
next stop was the House Of Blues in West Hollywood, CA.
Stay tuned to STONES PLANET #5, our Spring issue, which will include a
feature longer story /interview & more photos of Bobby Keys with Levon
Helm's Barn Burners!
Try to catch Levon Helm's Barn Burners if they come your way, upcoming dates
include:
3/16 Schenectady, NY Van Dyck Club
3/30 Asbury Park, NJ Stone Pony
4/27 Schenectady, NY Van Dyck Club
5/12 NY, NY Chicago B. L.U.E. S
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