Mistaken Identity, or "Waitaminute, Isn't He Dead?"

I've recently had the opportunity to talk with a fellow music blogger about a certain friend of mine who's been in and out of my life for the last fifteen years or so.

Or so I thought. Well, it goes like this:

A few days ago, I was going through the email account tied to this blog and I received a message from a man who tried to post a comment to my blog, but was unsuccessful in doing so. It seemed that he knew my old friend Wes Chapman, a keyboardist and singer rebuilding his life after a long struggle with the bottle. So naturally, I responded gleefully and asked what kind of dirt he had on ol' Wes. It turns out that this fellow, a Canadian saxophonist named Russ Strathdee, was thinking of another Wes who'd passed on several years ago. My Wes is, of course, still breathing and playing the occasional piano-bar gig. We got over the "oops" pretty quickly and Russ even threw out the idea of jamming with my Wes if he ever came to Reno. Sounds like a fun idea if schedules work out right. I'll have to give Wes a jingle and see if he has any gigs coming up.

And in the spirit of cross-promotion, here are links for Russ' websites:

strathdee.wordpress.com (his blog)

rstrathdee.com (his personal website)

Russ is a pretty well-rounded player, handling jazz, blues and early rock with equal aplomb. He's got a pretty good discography, going back forty years. And he seems like a nice guy, so give him a look and listen, willya?

Well, I have to go set up my gear now. My next run of shows at the Carson Station starts tomorrow, and I've got the Monster out, and all of it, since I have to take it back to Port Angeles with me for the blues band that wants to jam with me when I get back. Wish me luck!