The Blasters, "Dark Night," Redwood City CA, August 7th 2009.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nCbAUPbvvg

:toast:

[Bennyboy]

1. One of my favorite bands ever......

Nobody knows just how influential this band really was in the early 80's. Dave Alvin is one of my favorite Guitar players and the Guilty Women are the smokingest band out there right now (not named Phish or Furthur that is)....

[abq e streeter]

2. had the pleasure of seeing them about a half-dozen times

ranging from bars to a New Year's Eve concert opening for Los Lobos at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood ( full contingent that night too; Lee Allen and Steve Berlin on saxes and Gene Taylor on piano). Have performed many of their songs too; maybe more Blasters songs than any other band over the years ( well, except for the Stones probably). And Dark Night is a particularly powerful one.Glad to have gotten at least one band to do it, even though we only lasted a few months... P.S. Also saw Dave Alvin and The All-Nighters; again opening for Los Lobos ,in Chicago. For the encore, Dave Alvin and his pedal steel player came out and joined Los Lobos, and then John Doe sauntered ( only word to describe it) out and sang Your Cheatin' Heart with all of 'em , and then sauntered back off the stage..

[Amerigo Vespucci]

3. I'm sure that most people aren't aware of Lee Allen's extremely impressive credentials...

Blasters fans know, of course...but Lee was similar to pianist Johnny Johnson in Chuck Berry's world. Johnny played on all of Chuck's "Great 28"...Lee was Little Richard's "Big Man."

Raised largely in Colorado, Allen played saxophone from his childhood. A combined athletics and music scholarship from Xavier College led to his relocating to New Orleans in the early '50s.

He fell into the city's thriving music scene, performing or recording with dozens of musicians in the early days of rock music and rhythm and blues. Notable are his recording with singers Fats Domino and Lloyd Price; Allen also was the sax soloist on most of Little Richard's epochal hits from 1955 and '56. His own instrumental song "Walkin' With Mr. Lee" was a minor hit in 1958 due in part to its frequent play on the television program American Bandstand.

By the mid-1960s, Allen was semi-retired from music, performing only occasionally after moving to southern California to work at an aircraft manufacturing plant. The rockabilly revival of the late 1970s found younger musicians seeking Allen's distinctive saxophone. He recorded with the Stray Cats, and was a member of The Blasters for their two final albums and associated tours in the early to mid '80s. He also played three shows in October 1981 with the Rolling Stones: on October first at the Metrocenter (Rockford, Illinois), and on the third and the fourth at Folsom Field (Boulder, Colorado).

After Allen's death, Blasters member Dave Alvin dedicated the song "Mister Lee" to Allen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Allen_%28musician%29

:toast:

[abq e streeter]

5. I had no idea he was going to be with them that night; what a great, unexpected treat

[abq e streeter]

4. oops- dupe..