I have been wanting to blog Kendall Jigsaw again for a long while and when I woke up this morning I said to myself, "SELF! This is the day! Get out there and do it!" And so I did.
I got to the amazing steel and glass structure that Petra Steele has so graciously put up for a wonderfully detailed and upscale live music venue, just as Kendall was taking the stage and tearing into Christone "Kingfish" Ingram's "Outside of This Town." I had first blogged Kendall for Droppin' the Stream when we were both relatively new to all this stuff, and he had started with the same tune back in March as he did today. And both times ended it by announcing, "I'M NOT DONE YET!" and, again both times; I smiled and was very happy that there was much more to come. I just love Kendall's enthusiasm and the way he responds to his audience and gives them what they want.
He took a minute to let us know it was his intention to present us with a more Bluesey set than his usual Hard Rock offerings he has become known for. And it was a treat to my ears to hear him start those Blues off with ZZ Top's Fool For Your Stockings with a perfect drift into Blue Jean Blues, one of my faves. Kendall gets better every time I see him, and the speed of his solos always leaves me pushing my jaw back up off my chest and speechless.
He finished up his "ZZ" portion of the set with "Driving While Blind" which I will now remember as "Listening While Blind" because hearing is the only sense I needed to enjoy the ring of Kendall's guitar with eyes closed in this beautiful and voluminous venue space.
Kendall is a fantastic performer and virtuoso guitar player and he's also a great guy with a friendly, sunny disposition that always makes his shows a lot of fun. He laughs and he jokes between tunes, and when he does "Baby Don't Wear No Panties" by Mean Gene Kelton (with a nod to Tone Uriza, who also does the song) he gets the crowd smiling and chuckling along with him as he paints that little story in your mind like the artiste he is.
His next number, "Blow" by Ed Sheerhan, Chris Stapleton & Bruno Mars, got us back into that hard-rock-screaming-up-and-down-the-neck-wildman-assault-that'll-blow-your-mind Kendall Jigsaw fare that generates such a hugs volume of notes per second that it makes him one of the fastest guitar gods I have EVER seen. (And I have been around the block a few times now... :))
With those notes still ringing through this beautiful auditorium, there came the head bobbing drum beat that gets your funk on for "Take Me Home" as done by Marc Broussard. It doesn't matter what Kendall plays, its always well done and its always HIS.
He then gave us his excellent interpretation of Gary Moore's "Still Got the Blues." Its one of my very favorites, and as he closed with "Tennessee Whiskey", I needed to take a moment afterward just to decompress, take a deep breath of left over notes and smile, as the tears dried on my cheeks....
THANK YOU KENDALL! YOU ROCK LIKE NO OTHER, BROTHER!
You can always be trusted to give us your very best and to do it with professionalism and style! And he really is a heck of a nice guy!
Many Thanks Also to Petra Steele for her Steampunk Ballroom, which is fast becoming another great venue I have on my radar for live music in SL
Special thanks to Scott Flick Ryder for his awesome pictures used in this blog.
Check out my first blog of Kendall here and check out the other blogs from Harlow Davi, she has an awesome site and is the Queen of the SL Live Music Blogs (She taught me everything I know!)