Road Journal - Michael Katon Tour - 2/14/14

 Soundcheck at De Hamar.

Friday, 2/14/14 – Belfeld, De Hamar (Acoustic Show) – We’d known all along that our old friend Jean-Paul Geurtjens had booked an “Acoustic Show” for us at his local Culture Center, but none of us, especially Mike, were sure what that would entail. I’d been noticing that Mike would be playing acoustic as much as possible on the road, probably thinking of what tunes he’d do. It’s important to know, if you don’t already, that he’s a really amazing acoustic guitarist as well, with a very deep knowledge of and appreciation for Delta Blues and especially early slide playing. I actually wish he’d do a lot more of that, and this looked to be a good chance to hear him at it. We met Jean-Paul, as cheerful and fun a guy as always, and had an incredible dinner at his house with him and his lovely wife. Really nice to see them again, after all this time!! Then off to the very nice and nearly new Culture Center, a large and airy building with several beautiful performance spaces, including one next to the Center’s bar. Needless to say, we were set up there. I wasn’t sure if I was even supposed to be playing, but I wound up with a rented upright (which was totally unexpected); Mike had two acoustic guitars brought on; and Johnny brought out a truncated version of his stage drum set. The bass itself was OK, but unfortunately the pickup it came with was woefully inadequate and the sound people had apparently never worked with an upright bass before. The upright is a problematic instrument to amplify, though…had I known, I might have brought a pickup with me. After struggling with them and it for a good while, I plugged it into the small amp I’d been brought and hoped for the best.

 With Jean-Paul.

We wound up with a good crowd of happy and curious folks! Mike started the show out solo, singing and playing a tiny 3-string cigar-box guitar that someone had brought to the gig. If I recall, he started with “If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day” an old slide tune, and it sounded fantastic on that little homemade instrument. He proceeded to give a really interesting talk about the roots of the blues, interspersing it with various songs on both of his other acoustic guitars. I’d always known how knowledgeable he was about this, but it was really nice to see him talk about it so eloquently and to play this classic old blues so well. He could teach a university course on the subject! Some folks who have only seen his electric shows might have been surprised to hear him on some of this intricate fingerstyle and subtle slide work. After a while, he brought on a young player from the local area and had him sit in for a few songs, then brought me up to do some duo stuff. I played the upright for a handful of tunes, but after he brought up Johnny the sound was so problematic I switched to electric. With me on electric and Bee on drums, the “Acoustic” premise broke down a bit and Mike played pretty much the way he always does, albeit with many more classic blues and rockabilly tunes, just with an amplified acoustic guitar and not as loud as usual. But still pretty loud, though!! And everybody seemed to love it. All in all a very fun night, I’d like to see him do more of these.  

Michael Katon plays some acoustic slide Blues.