SYRACUSE — On the day after Christmas, tuck that High John the Conqueror root in your pocket, wrap a lodestone in a $2 bill, stash your trick bag in your jacket and sashay on down to the Palace Theatre where two dozen of the area’s best barroom musicians get their mojos workin’ at the Great Salt City Blues Concert 6 on Dec. 26.
Staged by Baldwinsville resident Greg Spencer, who founded Blue Wave Productions in 1985, the Boxing Day blues bash will honor four members of the Blues Hall of Fame, Sleepy John Estes, Elmore James, Little Junior Parker and Etta James.
Last year’s Great Salt City Blues Concert featured award-winning jazz singer Ronnie Leigh paying a tribute to Mississippi guitarist Little Milton.
“Have you ever heard Ronnie Leigh sing the blues? Wow,” Spencer exclaimed.
Though he’s best known for his bebop and scat vocalizing, Leigh showed a real feel for the blues as well.
“As far as I’m concerned, Ronnie was the highlight of last year’s GSCBC 5, as he tore up it up paying tribute to Little Milton,” Spencer remembered.
This year, Leigh will pair up with veteran soul singer Ava Andrews to recall the work of Etta James and Little Junior Parker. Another female vocalist, Jes Sheldon, will also revive some of Etta’s hits.
Over most of the last four decades, Spencer has operated Blue Wave Records, Central New York’s most accomplished independent recording label. Now 65, Spencer still runs Blue Wave out of the home he shares with his wife, Sue.
Releasing an average of one album for each year it existed, Blue Wave’s catalog runs the gamut from legendary rockers such as Eric Burdon, Kim Simmonds, Cub Koda and Syracuse’s own Jimmy Cavallo to the cream of Syracuse’s blues crop, bands like Built for Comfort, Backbone Slip, Kim Lembo & Blue Heat, and, of course, The Kingsnakes.
Along the way, Spencer won a 1994 Syracuse Area Music Award for Best Producer and in 2005, he was inducted into the Sammys Hall of Fame.
Other area musicians making the Great Salt City Blues scene on Monday will be Tas Cru, Morris Tarbell, Colin Aberdeen, Dave Liddy, Jeff Stockham, Rodney Zajak, Rob Spagnoletti, Jake Capozzolo, Raedwald Howland-Bolton, Don Williams, Larry Kyle, Lee Tiffault, Mike Davis and Matt Lomeo.
Two of Spencer’s favorite players – drummer Garnet Grimm and bassist Steven T. Winston – will reunite to form the rhythm section for Monday’s second set.
“They were once the rhythm section in Los Blancos’s early years,” Spencer said. “I don’t think they’ve played together since the early 1990s. Garnet’s been drumming with Savoy Brown for the last decade plus.”
The Great Salt City Blues Concert 6 takes place at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 26, at the Palace Theatre, 2384 James St., in Eastwood.
Tickets cost $30 in advance. If tickets remain available at the door, they will cost $40. Advance-sale tickets can be purchased at brownpapertickets.com, and in person at Sound Garden in Armory Square.
