The Blues Dogs, are made up of the members Harvey Fields, Steve John Meyer and Dean Wolfson,  Song selection was good.  Sound quality from the bandshell was excellent.  If it wouldn't have been for the rain.

I think it is some element of my personality, call it Minnesota Nice, ...now that I live here I suppose it is Wisconsin Nice, that prohibits me from complaining about a band without a bunch of caveats.  Take last night for instance.  It was a family event so I had to drive our van --the car needs a clutch.  I hate driving the van.  When we got to Phoenix Park it was beginning to sprinkle, so I was listening to music, in the rain, with my children who didn't want to be there.   A blood pressure positive event, to be sure.  On top of everything, I forgot my camera, so I don't have any pictures.  So is my grousing entirely to be chalked up to those outside influences?  Perhaps.

So, in my rain-soaked, child addled mood, I offer you the complaints first.  The primary complaint I have, is timing.  I feel like the Blues Dogs could use a little work with a metronome.  It seemed to me like there were several times, in primarily the faster songs, with the rhythm fell apart.  I don't know who the guilty party was, though I have my suspicions.  But there were several times in several songs where they just fell apart.

My second complaint, involves the Folsum Prison Blues.  Just because you can memorize the words to a song, doesn't mean you should warp it to your style and attempt to play it.  Sometimes it is just wrong.  I am no Johnny Cash disciple.  If you want to play Cash and play it well, I can deal with it.  But, I didn't really like the version they had created.   It just had a certain wrong-ness about it, and it seemed to have some tempo shifts ...which in a band that's having tempo problems to begin with, is trouble.

And, finally, when your audience is sitting in front of you  ...PARTICULARLY when your audience is sitting in front of you, ....waiting  ....IN THE RAIN, please hold your intra-band conversations until the show is over!  Don't stand up there having a chat.  Talking between yourselves about song origins, what key to play in, what you did last weekend, and who likes what song, while your audience is getting wetter and wetter.  Stuff like this tends to increase audience hostility.

So, now that all my bitching is over, I want to go on to say, sometimes the Blues Dogs were right on the money. On the good side of the equation, the songs sung by drummer Harvey Fields were excellent!  Fields vocal range and authenticity are impeccable.  Those songs also tended to be slower and with more feeling.  So I think that helped the band stay together better.

Sound quality and volume out of the bandshell was really excellent.  With the exception of Folsum Blues, the music selection was excellent.  And, in only one song we heard the harmonica talent of Steve John Meyer.  I really wish we could have heard more.  He blows an amazing harp.

My overall opinion is the Blues Dogs are worth a second shot, maybe seeing them sometime in a smaller venue, such as a bar.  I think with longer sets, there would be the oportunity to see more of the band's better attributes.  For their schedule, see their web site: http://www.myspace.com/stevemeyerandthebluesdogs

The Tuesday night blues schedule is on the Chippewa Valley Blues Society web site at: http://www.cvblues.com/files/tuesdaynightblues.html

Next week, June 23rd is the band The Pumps, reviewed here (http://www.freaksandgeeks.org/content/view/134/1/) I look forward to seeing them and their wireless guitars strolling the isles of Owen Park.  Hope to see you there!

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