MICHAEL MESSER & BJ COLE >PACIFIC ROAD THEATRE

[Michael Messer]

Hi everyone,

BJ Cole, Ed Genis, Chris Clarke & I would like to thank you all for coming to our concert on Thursday at the Pacific Road Theatre, Birkenhead. It was the debut performance of our slide & steel guitar show called 'That Sliding Sound'. It was a pleasure to play for such an appreciative audience in this fantastic venue. If you haven't been to see a concert at the Pacific Road Arts Centre.....you gotta go!

(If anyone has any photos of the show, we would love to see them)

Shine On,
Michael
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Here are two revues of the concert on Thursday:

Michael Messer with B J Cole: Pacific Road - 15th November 2007.

I saw the Michael Messer Band last year at the Guitar Festival and they played a wonderful set of funky blues based electric music – tonight we heard the other side of this remarkably talented musician. An acoustic evening, very laid back and all done in the company of one of the world’s finest steel guitarists, B J Cole. Michael and BJ started the evening with a long and atmospheric piece certainly with a number of eastern influences, before being joined on stage by an acoustic bass player and the fine rhythmic playing of long time band member Ed Genis. The two set evening show featured the exemplary style on Michael which complimented perfectly the pedal steel and stand guitars of B J Cole. Far from the expected ‘blues’ night the audience was treated with several styles including some vintage Hawaiian pieces` - beautiful. The atmosphere was relaxed and there was some banter between musician and audience, together with some informative background about both songs and instruments.

Certainly Michael Messer is one of the UK’s hidden gems, certainly deserving of greater recognition from outside of the music industry. And what about the mercurial B J Cole? Apart from his many years in the industry, his reputation as one of the greatest pedal steel guitarists around, his whole demeanor is one of warmth and great humility and humour, and a welcome addition to any stage in the world.

Tonight we got more than just the blues we had a world treat of different styles, different musical cultures and exceptional musicianship – see you next year we hope!
Reviewed by Maddie for the International Guitar Festival website - 16.11.07
www.bestguitarfest.com/html/index.asp
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This review is from BLUES IN THE NORTH WEST website.

MICHAEL MESSER & B.J. COLE - Pacific Road Arts Centre, Birkenhead: 15/11/07

This concert, part of the 19th International Guitar Festival of Great Britain, saw the unique pairing of two of Britain’s finest players - slide guitar master Michael Messer, and the man who has graced hundreds of albums since the seventies, pedal steel maestro B.J. Cole.

In the company of Messer’s long-time rhythm guitarist, Ed Genis, and bass player Chris Clarke, they delivered two enjoyable sets of great diversity - from Hawaiian tunes, to Chicago blues and western swing - with interesting dialogue about the songs and the instrumentation.

Messer and Cole switched instruments to suit the songs, with the most stunningly visual item on display being a beautiful four-neck Fender steel guitar, dating from 1953, which presented less tuning problems than B.J. Cole’s other steel guitar, which caused much hilarity from the crowd!

Highlights of two great sets were the lovely “Jitterbug Waltz” and a Hawaiian tune called “Sweetheart Darling” - both featuring stunning interplay between Messer’s lap slide and Cole’s pedal steel. A standout blues tune saw them perform “Steel Guitar Rag”, which was the first known blues song recorded in 1923 - this was done twice as a slide guitar piece and then on the steel guitar.

Michael Messer switched to electric slide for the Chicago blues of “Blue Letters”, co-written by Terry Clarke. The standard “Cry Me A River” was delivered quite beautifully as a duet from Cole and Ed Genis’s acoustic guitar; with a rip-roaring version of legendary country writer Roy Acuff’s “Steel Guitar Blues” rounding off a most interesting and original evening.

Having not caught Michael Messer with his full band before I will certainly be looking out for them in our area the next time - he is a fine musician with lovely technique and great tone in his playing. To sum up; another gem of a night from the good folk of the International Guitar Festival of Great Britain!
GRAHAME RHODES
www.bluesinthenorthwest.com

[fredkinbom]

Hi Michael,

Any plans of bringing this show to other venues (London or South East, for instance )? Lewes Guitar Festival perhaps?

Cheers,

Fred

[Michael Messer]

Hi Fred,

Yes we are planning to tour this show and to make a concert/documentary DVD. The festival you mentioned would be a great one for us.

Shine On,
Michael

[lee holliday]

The Lewes festival is a great place to be. I met up with Colin Brooks a regular contributor to this forum there a couple of years ago when the Mary Flower open air set was subject to a freak storm!
Colin will no doubt be up for a Lewes gig as would quite a few others from that area!
Michael there is normally a workshop opportunity as well but you will have to speak to the festival organisers .
Regards Lee.

[Bill Stig]

Hi Michael

Pacific Road was a great night, and it was great to meet you and BJ Cole at last. Sorry I had to rush off at the end as I had to be up early for work the next day and a weekend full of long drives for gigs.

I'd brought my trumpet and guitar player Ged along. It's always a worry when you persuade a friend to come to a gig, they may not like it . But, thankfully, he loved the night. He was especially taken with the tune you played by the English steel player, he wants to adapt it for trumpet. As you said you'd found it on a 78 I don't expect it's available, but what was it called and who wrote it?
The mixture of acoustic and electric steel and peddles certainly worked well and it was great the way the audience were allowed to climb on the stage at the end to chat and look at the instruments - I'm currently on the hunt now for a four neck eight string Fender Stringmaster.
Can't wait for the DVD

Bill

[Michael Messer]

Hi Bill,

It was a pleasure to meet you too. There is never enough time at gigs to really talk, but at least we have now actually met!

We all really enjoyed the concert on Thursday and I was very impressed with the Pacific Road Arts Centre Theatre. Wow....what a great venue.

This project 'That Sliding Sound', is very different to anything else that BJ & I are involved in, so we were very pleased with the reaction from the audience. I really love the combination of the pedal steel and acoustic steel & slide guitar. Although closely related, they are quite different.

The tune you are asking about is called 'Sweetheart Darling'. I recorded it in 1990 on my album called 'Slidedance'. The track was very popular and got lots of radio airplay. It also got played at some weddings and at a funeral. A lady talked to me after a show I did in St Helens in 2001 and said that it was one of her late husband's favourite tunes and that my recording was played at his funeral. 'Sweetheart Darling' actually does have lyrics, very 1920s crooners....There's a light in your eyes Sweetheart Darling...etc. I have the 78 record and if you keep nagging me, I will mp3 it and sent it to you.

Best wishes,
Shine On,
Michael

[Bill Stig]

Thanks Michael, I'll take you up on that offer of the MP3 and look out for your slidedance CD. Is it still available?

That was the first time I've been in the Pacific Rd theatre, I was quite impressed. I'm going to see John Williams there this Sunday.

Bill

[Michael Messer]

Hi Bill,

The mp3 will get done....I promise.....but you may have to nag me!!!


Original CD cover - Minidoka Records MICD003

Slidedance is no longer available. It was released twice in the 90s - first in 1990 on Minidoka Records MICD003 - and then in 1998 Koch released it and within a few months, we fell out and the album was deleted from their catalogue. I was pleased they deleted it as I was forced into releasing it on their label. The Koch CD has different artwork on the package & is not as good as the original. I never liked the re-package done by an amateur designer on the cheap. It still winds me up....ten years later!!!! The CD is the same on both releases - it was not re-mastered.....thank God!!!!

Encore Rare Records shop has a copy of the original Slidedance www.encorerecords.com/detail.aspx?productid=10239 - It is quite expensive at 15 quid, but I guess it is a rare album. Somewhere at Koch HQ there's a stack of Slidedance CDs with 10 years of dust on top of them.

Here are a couple of press quotes about Slidedance -
“Truly cosmopolitan, Slidedance is like nothing else I’ve heard this year. If the blues had been the nursery of world music then the results could well have sounded like Slidedance”.
Simon Jones - Folk Roots - 1990

“To say that Messer is a slide guitarist is like describing Mother Theresa as a nun! Slidedance is possibly the finest blues / world music album of the year. One of the best slide guitarists Britain has ever produced”.
Jim Driver - Time Out Magazine - 1990

Although it was recorded 17 years ago (March 1990) & I have grown and learnt a lot since then, I am still proud of Slidedance. There is a seriously wild version of Mannish Boy and some pretty cool African grooves on there too.

Enjoy John Williams at the weekend, he is a wonderful musician and a gentleman.

Shine On
Michael