Weekend Full of Blues May Dispel March Madness

Even if your team hasn’t lost yet in the NCAA basketball tournament, it probably will, since only one team wins. And if your team didn’t even make the playoffs, this is already a good weekend for the blues.

Tonight, at Alexander’s in Ventura, it’s the second installment of Sweet Thursday, featuring Texas guitarist Stephen Bruton.

His latest album, “Right On Time,” features guest appearances by Delbert McClinton, Don Was and Bonnie Raitt, plus lots of fluid guitar solos by the man of the moment with a guitar. Bruton writes stuff like “. . . Nothing ever seems the same/Simple as a two car funeral/Lonely as the ride back home/Never know what gets seen/Only what gets shone. . . .”

Across Ventura at Joe Daddy’s, it’s “those dangerous gentlemens,” the James Harman Band, making one of their frequent local appearances. Harman has had the blues for more than 30 years, after growing up in Anniston, Ala. A master harmonica player, Harman’s latest record is last year’s “black & white.”

On Friday night, it’s Raging Arb & the Redheads at Johnny Dingo’s in Ventura. Their bluesy brand of rock, sort of like the Rolling Stones at the beach 30 years later, has been filling dance floors for more than a dozen years.

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At Java Heaven in Mira Monte, which is neither Oak View nor Ojai, it’s Bob Jones. Jones graduated from Camarillo High School in the early ‘60s. A few years later, he became the proprietor of one of the area’s classic dives, The Back Door in Ventura. Canned Heat was just one of the bands that amazed and dazed the locals.

Jones is a believer in low-budget blues. It’s just him, a hat, a guitar, a chair, a mike and a couple speakers.

On weekend afternoons, at the place with two front doors and minimal spelling skills, it’s Blue Stew at Hi Cees in the Ventura Harbor. The patio will be packed, the dance floor will be packed and the bartender will be working overtime. One of the swing dancers’ favorite bands, Blue Stew, plays Chicago, Texas, jump, West Coast, Delta and country blues, plus even some Stevie Ray Vaughan stuff.

Speaking of Vaughan, Guy Martin & Rude Mood is a group that is influenced by the Texas guitar great. Martin not only covers Vaughn’s songs, but has a bunch of originals and a memorable set-ender in “Voodoo Chile” by Jimi Hendrix. This trio will be tearing up Johnny Dingo’s in Ventura Friday night.

Maybe the best blues band this weekend and one of the least known in these parts is Blue by Nature, playing at Nicholby’s Saturday night. Karen Lawrence is one serious blues belter. The band has a new album, “Blue to the Bone,” on Shattered Music. Lawrence is backed by a first-rate band that has her originals figured out. But wait until you hear her sing the James Brown biggie, “It’s a Man’s World.”

Also Saturday, another blues band, the Pontiax, will be at Joe Daddy’s. These Santa Barbarians have been around since 1982--long enough to make a few tapes and a lot of people dance.

Sunday afternoon at Bombay Bar & Grill in Ventura will be Raw Silk out of Santa Barbara, featuring Leslie Lembo on vocals and harmonica. Besides their 40-odd R&B-flavored; originals, the band knows about 150 covers, many of them from Motown’s heyday. The band has been around for a decade and its four-set every-other-Sunday gig here is a hit.

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Also Sunday, disturbing the pool players at McGinty’s Sports Bar it’s local blues guitar god Randy Rich & the Ravens. Rich, a Camarillo High grad, has played locally with the Ravens since ’91 at various venues, and he does mostly originals with a few oldies by the blues greats. Rich ain’t fakin’ either; he really has the blues.

“The amount of money I’m making these days, I used to laugh at, but that’s all they’re paying,” he said. ‘This is what I do, and I don’t do “Free Bird.’ ”

And finally, Monday night at Cafe Voltaire in Ventura, Ashford Gordon gets those blues. The cafe, once a serious coffeehouse dispensing janglectomies with reckless abandon, still has coffee, but also food, about 40 kinds of beer, and even hot sake to melt those blues away.