Fell's Point in Baltimore (Night Two)

3/11/2011

Nate Myers

My second night in Fell's Point was a surprisingly successful journey through a variety of musical genres from blues to rockabilly to alternative to bluegrass (?). One of the amazing things I discovered tonight was that virtually EVERY club in Fell's Point features some kind of music on the weekends. I saw numerous acoustic duos and solo performers of various qualities along with some of the bands featured below. This variety and quantity of live music is in stark contrast to the South Side in Pittsburgh which features virtually no live music in its clubs outside of concert performances at Club Cafe, The Rex or Diesel. The Smiling Moose, a heavy metal venue, is the only club I know of on the South Side that features local bands. I understand Pittsburgh's obsession with sports and chugging large volumes of cheap beer but the comparison between these two blue-collar towns is both depressing and embarrassing.

Ironically the best band I discovered on this night hails from Pennsylvania but they call Harrisburg home, not Pittsburgh. Nate Myers and the Aces put on the best live show I have seen in a club not located in Memphis, Nashville or New Orleans in a very long time. The band bridges an amazing number of genres playing blues, rockabilly, country and funk--the kind of musical mash-up usually identified as Americana these days. I have featured three videos of Nate and his band to give you an idea of their musical breadth.

This song features Nate's introduction of the band. 

This song features a brief discussion of  Myer's time spent in Clarksdale, Mississippi recording a CD.

This song features a classic country song most recently associated with Johnny Cash. This is one you couldn't sing drunk or high.

Lower Case Blues were playing a few doors down at at Slainte's Irish Pub. They also played a mix of genres but seemed most interested in old R&B, playing a number of Stax classics including Rufus Thomas's "Walk The Dog". This is their take on an Aretha Franklin classic.

I honestly don't remember where I saw this band, by this time in the night I was bouncing around trying to avoid the dreaded band breaks. I was surprised to encounter a bluegrass band, not one of my favorite genres of music, but these guys were pretty good at playing it.

I saw this duo earlier in the evening at the small bar called Ledbetters II. They do a pretty good job for a duo and the lead guitarist is especially impressive on this Van Morrison cover.

I just happened to run into this singer in a bar called The Whistling Oyster. I recorded this because she said it was an original song. She should have kept doing covers because she seems to have difficulty finding the melody for this song.

All in all I was very impressed with the music scene in Fell's Point. I had considered this more or less a one time trip but I think I will head back here sooner than I had originally planned.