John Paul's Flying Circus: I Wish You Would

This is my old buddy John Paul Drum from Kansas City Missouri playing at BB's Lawnside BarBQ in KCMO.  I played with John when he had the Hellhounds back in the late 80s.  Also playing with John is another old friend of mine Bill Dye on guitar.  John carries on the great tradition of blues harmonica players that have called Kansas City home.  From the late great Provine Hatch, to Lee McBee, to Mo Paul, and Trashmouth Tom Baker.  No doubt I am missing someone, because their were a lot of great ones down their in the 80s.  Enjoy some classic John Paul Drum.

Artist Of The Week: Junior Wells

The artist of the week is the great Junior Wells. Wells was a tremendous harp player that got his start sitting in with Muddy Waters. Wells, and Buddy Guy played together a lot over the years, and were known as the original blues brothers. When I lived in Kansas City and played with John Paul and the Hellhounds, we opened for Wells at the Grand Emporium. Between our show and his I went backstage with John and we met Junior Wells. What amazed me is how nice Junior was to us, and although he had only met John Paul a few times over the years he treated him like his best friend. It was also cool to watch him drink his vodka like water! Yikes! The man had a tremendous tolerance for alcohol, because he polished off the bottle got a new one and went on stage and blew away the crowd.

BB's Lawnside BBQ!!! Construction Blues!!!

Some old friends of mine from KC are singing the orange barrel blues since BB's Lawnside BBQ is hemmed in by road construction. Pictured to the left is my old buddy, and partner in crime John Paul Drum performing at BBs. This photo and article are from the Kansas City Star, which has an nice article on Lindsey Shannon's legendary BBQ, and blues joint. It is hard for me to remember just where exactly Lindsey's BBQ is at. I must admit that when I go to KC for BBQ, I go to Gates:-) I do know that he is located near the Troost Street bridge. Shannon explains part of the problem of getting to his BBQ joint.

“The biggest problem is they’ve torn down the Troost bridge,” owner Lindsay Shannon said. “People who do come in from Johnson County used to be able to use the ramp off I-435 ... to get to us. Now they have to get off on Bannister Road first. I still get calls from people going ‘I’m at 85th and Holmes (less than a mile to the west) … now how do I get to you?’ ”

Shannon has even placed alternative driving directions, in the form of a downloadable map, on his Web site: bbslawn sidebbq.com.

Lindsey has made a map on his website to help out us out of towners who need a blues and BBQ fix. Here is his map from his website.

To be honest I can tell heads or tails from this map:-) but I am sure if you go down 85th street off I-435 you should be alright.