In July 2009 John Paul Hammond capped off the New York State Blues Festival at Clinton Square with a blend of acoustic and electric blues that started with the passionate proclamation, “I’m Ready for Love.”
Since then, the blues community has showered Hammond with love by inducting him into the Blues Hall of Fame in Memphis in 2011, then welcoming him to the New York Blues Hall of Fame in May.
Celebrating 50 years of making music, Hammond headlines a great double bill also featuring guitarist-singer Mark Hoffmann at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 21, in the Catherine Cummings Theater, located at 16 Lincklaen St. in Cazenovia.
The concert is part of the continuing Daniel Pearl World Music Days dedicated to the memory of the mandolinist-journalist who was murdered in Pakistan in 2002.
Hoffmann — a Syracuse Area Music Awards hall of famer whose career began in the 1960s with a bluegrass trio called The Martins — will return to his acoustic roots at Sunday’s show. He’ll perform traditional tunes such as “Trouble in Mind” and “Sweet Substitute,” as well as a swinging original, “Yes, Oh Yes!”
The Daniel Pearl World Music Days will continue at the Catherine Cummings Theater on Nov. 13, when the legendary jam band, The Blues Project, showcases original guitarists Danny Kalb and Steve Katz. Kalb was a protégé of bluesman Dave Van Ronk, while Katz played guitar for the chart-topping jazz-rock band Blood, Sweat and Tears.
The next night, Nov. 14, the series continues with Poco, the Los Angeles-based country-rock quartet led by pedal steel player Rusty Young. Central New York songwriter Dusty Pascal will open the Poco show.
The Daniel Pearl World Music Days are presented by Live Space Entertainment and Cazenovia College. For ticket info and show times, visit livespaceentertainment.com.
When Hammond headlined the NYS Blues Fest three years ago, he offered up older tunes such as “Movin’ on Up the Line” and newer numbers like “Butter” written for him by G. Love.
Best known for his barrelhouse singing style complemented by masterful slide-work on National steel guitars, Hammond keeps things interesting with occasional forays into rock and jazz.
At Clinton Square, he performed “Eyes Behind Your Head,” his homage to jazz pianist/vocalist Mose Allison, “Jungle Party,” a New Orleans stomper he learned from drummer Charles Otis, and “If You Want to Rock’n’Roll,” composed by doo-wop superstar Dion DiMucci.
The son of the late Columbia Records talent scout and producer John Hammond II, John Paul Hammond is an eight-time Blues Music Award winner and a six-time Grammy nominee, winning for his performance on “Blues Explosion,” a compilation from the Montreaux Jazz Festival.
Admission to Sunday’s concert costs $22 and tickets are available at Cazenovia Jewelry, the Sound Garden in Armory Square or via brownpapertickets.com; (800) 838-3006.
Russ Tarby is a contributing writer at Eagle Newspapers. He can be reached at [email protected].
