People were swing dancing, hollering, jigging and stomping to some dirty and gritty country blues at John’s Alley Tavern last Friday night.
With Brett Benton on guitar and vocals with Arthur Ortega on drums, this duo picked up their roots and brought the delta blues to Moscow.
Ortega joined up with Benton in August 2018, as Benton’s full-time drummer. Since then, the two have played over 230 shows together. Benton is also incorporating a bassist into the band, but due to scheduling, he wasn’t at The Alley last Friday.
Benton and the band are busy, playing between 23-25 shows a month. This August alone they played 25 shows throughout Washington. Some of their favorites places to play at are the now closed Highway 99 Blues Club, the Tractor Tavern in Seattle, Club Crow in Cashmere, The Saphire Room in Boise and the New Roxy in Clarksdale, Mississippi.
The two had heard of John’s Alley through friends who played there previously. In the past they’ve tried to play there but had never worked out until last Friday.
The two enjoyed The Alley because of its atmosphere and stage placement as well. And the stage is raised and hollow and the venue has a lot of wood which helps with sound.
Vertical Dave knows what he’s doing with sound setup and management as well, Benton said.
When Benton is on stage and playing for audiences, he hopes his music reaches people in different ways, but mostly hopes people are having a good time. For him too, playing country blues is a therapeutic experience.
“If anyone’s having a bad day, I hope it makes them feel better,” Benton said. “If anybody’s having a good time, I want it to be that much of a better time.”
Sometimes Benton and his band will have whole rooms jumping and moving to their music. Other times it’s just a few people. However, Benton doesn’t mind when people aren’t dancing because those are often the people who ask questions, give congratulations and buy merchandise during breaks or after the show. Just because they aren’t up and moving doesn’t mean they aren’t engaged with the music, Benton said.
“Different people react differently to it,” Benton said. “And the influence of alcohol can sometimes make a difference on whether people get up too!”
Benton always feels what he’s doing on stage, and provides a real, heartfelt experience to his audiences. There aren’t many people playing country blues, and Benton has modernized many old songs from the genre.
In the Northwest, Benton and his band are some of the only people playing this music, and certainly the only people playing it with their unique style, Benton said..
“I think it’s a combination of those things for sure, but for different reasons I guess,” Benton said. “Some people might be diehard blues fans, some people might not have ever heard it (blues) but they love that dirty, gritty sound.”
Benton started playing this music partly because of where he’s from. He grew up around people playing country blues.
Some of his influences are Cedric Burnside, R.L. Burnside, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Robert Belfour, Junior Kimbrough, The Black Keys and Reverend Payton’s Big Damn Band.
Cedric Burnside is a personal friend of the band and is featured on their new album “You Got To Pray.”
Benton and the band are about to go quiet here in the next couple months. With a change in their business by by incorporating new management, new schedules and new band members. This means they might play fewer shows than their normal busy schedule.. Don’t fear — they won’t be gone for long and new music is on the way.
“We’re gonna really be taking our time to really do the things that we want to do, and try to retain as much control as possible over what it is that we’re doing so that we can deliver something that is still real to our fans,” said Benton.
Next week’s Alley Chats will be featuring The Resolectrics. A Portland, Oregon, stationed three piece, with Tate Peterson on guitar, John Becher on drums and Bob Dunham on bass.
Their music is a mixture of soul R&B, and psychedelic rock. There may even be some harmonica and horns thrown into the mix. They will be performing at 9:30 p.m. on Oct. 25. at The Alley.
Sam Bruce can be reached at [email protected]