On Valentines Day, we played one of the coolest venues ever - The Buckingham Blues Bar. Located outside of Ft. Myers, FL, they put on mini Blues Festivals in their backyard featuring local and national acts. Candye Kane and Laura Chavez are there this coming weekend.
You walk into the front door of the bar, and you see...a bar. Stage to the left, bar in the middle, beer signs, a few tables scattered around. A standard issue blues bar - nice enough, nothing fancy. Then you go out back. A beautiful covered stage in a pastoral setting, sloped lawn for amphitheater type seating, a covered area with tables, great sound system and operator, beer and burgers and a mule named Bucky!
First on the bill was Tommy Cook and The Wild Bunch. Tommy is the owner and creator of this venue, and a fine guitar player and singer to boot. Excellent band. Then we played, had a fantastic time, and after us was Graham Wood Drout and Iko Iko. These guys have got it going on. Graham's songs are amazing. Check out some of his lyrics on their website - http://iko-iko.com/v2/. The guy's a poet.
We look forward to playing the Buckingham again.
Chris Carlson