Yuku free message boards

Solo/Duo winner was Matt Andersen (Harvest Jazz and Blues) and runner up was Alphonso Sanders and Bill "Howl-n-Madd" Perry (Mississippi's Crossroads Blues Society).

Grady Champion and his band came out and put on a show. Considering the bands only had 15 minutes to do there thing, I was amazed watching how each band got up, got their groove and went for it.

Now one band, Jesse Greene Band (Ottawa Blues Society), had a rough set. The mic stand for Ms. Greene was goofy and the stage hand came out to fix it as she was getting started. She had a problem w/ her guitar strap at the beginning. But 1/2 way thru their first song the band got their groove going. But about 2/3 of the way thru the bass player slipped or tripped on something, landed on his butt, and he kept on playing. The guitar player came over and made the whole thing look like part of the act (at least from my angle). Nobody missed a beat when that happened. After their set, I know about 10 or 15 people near me wanted to go give that band a group hug and tell them they still played well.

It just takes so much guts to get up and play in front of people (having done it a couple of times - I can talk in front of a group without a problem; but playing my guitar in public still scares me silly) but then to get up at the IBC finals and do your thing. Man that is courage IMO.

Finally, I would be willing to pay cover ($10 -> $20) to see the bands I saw at the IBC challenge. And the bands I saw throughout the weekend, I would be willing to pay cover for those as well ($5 -> $20).

Well I better close this out and finish driving home (at Panera bread in St. Louis - needed something besides BBQ and fried ;-).