Friday
Featuring Billy Branch
5:00 PM Fruteland Jackson
4:00 PM Chico Banks
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Guitarist Lockwood learned the basics from his mother’s boyfriend–none other than the immortal Robert Johnson–then made his own mark on the blues with a swinging, jazzy style that served him well in hundreds of classic sessions for Chess and other local labels in the 50s. Though until recently he hadn’t made a lot of records under his own name, he’s backed Little Walter, Sunnyland Slim, Eddie Boyd, and others. Now 83, he’s adopted the 12-string electric guitar as his instrument of choice, and while he’s likely to break into a jaunty swing with plenty of space for improvising, his homages to Johnson are as haunting as ever. The much younger Walker (see below), a Bay Area mainstay, invited Lockwood to guest on his acclaimed Great Guitars for Verve last year, and Walker returns the favor on Lockwood’s new set for the same firm, I Got to Find Me a Woman. Watching them interact in this intimate acoustic setting should be like eavesdropping on old friends.
3:30 pm Fruteland Jackson
Two resolutely electric guitarists (see above) in an acoustic setting.
