Blues Man Comes Home

For blues man Robert Lucas, playing with Canned Heat was more than a job. It was a dream come true.

“It’s weird to be in this band, cause I grew up listening to Canned Heat,” Lucas said. “As a kid I had their poster in my room.”

Lucas’ band, Luke and the Locomotives--who perform at Smokin’ Johnnie’s Saturday night--have been a fixture on the Southern California blues scene for the last dozen years or so. But in 1995, when he got the chance to tour and record with legendary group Canned Heat, he jumped at it.

Canned Heat formed in Los Angeles in 1965 and drew national attention performing at the historic 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. The band’s hits included “On the Road Again,” “Going Up the Country” and “Let’s Work Together.” Their most visible member was lead singer Bob “Bear” Hite.

Lucas and the blues-rock band Canned Heat were a good fit. Lucas not only physically resembles Hite, his voice is also similar to that of the burly lead singer who died in 1981 of a heart attack after a show in North Hollywood.

Lucas toured and recorded an as-yet-unreleased CD with Canned Heat, but there’s some question about the band’s future. Last October, the Heat’s original guitarist Henry Vestine died in Paris while the band was on tour. That leaves Drummer Fito de la Parra as the only original member of Canned Heat.

“Basically there’s one more tour for Canned Heat and then that’s it,” Lucas said. “I’m on the new record--I sing and play the harp and slide guitar.”

So Lucas has re-formed his old band Luke and the Locomotives with former partner Paul Bryant. “I’ve been playing with him since 1986. We play really good together,” Lucas said.

Luke and the Locomotives first made their mark when they won the Long Beach Blues Festival’s talent search in 1986. Over the next eight years, Lucas and his band did more than 200 shows a year in California and across the U.S. and Canada. Lucas has made several CDs with his band and a solo album of Delta blues that was nominated for a Handy award.

This time around, Lucas would like to keep his band a little closer to home and be more selective in choosing his gigs. He has a 2-year-old son and, all things considered, would like to watch the boy grow up. “I want to play good rooms on the weekends--maybe 10 to 12 times a month,” he said.

Since his return to the local club scene, Lucas has noticed a change in blues fans. “Audiences are more sophisticated now,” he said. “A few years back, if you didn’t do a lot of swing, it was hard to keep an audience. Now, people are more open to different blues styles.”

* Luke and the Locomotives play Friday night at Smokin’ Johnnie’s, 11720 Ventura Blvd., Studio City, (818) 760-6631. No cover.

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Heavy: Reactor, named by the local music paper Rock City News as the best L.A. Heavy Metal Band of 1997, performs Saturday night at Reseda Country Club (18419 Sherman Way. [818] 881-2988. $10) This Valley-based outfit has been together about three years.

“We’re trying to play as many gigs as we can and getting signed is our main priority,” says bassist Darryl Strucke.

Besides Strucke, the band includes Greg Martin on vocals, Sean Hicks on guitar, Mark Hagan on guitar and Johnny Bokor on drums.

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Light: Gina Barsamian, the booker at the Blue Saloon in NoHo and the Riverbottom Cafe (4201 W. Olive Ave., Burbank, [818] 846-2342) said her monthly acoustic nights have become so popular that she’s going to hold them more often.

One of the acoustic acts that will perform March 19 at the Blue Saloon (4657 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood, [818] 766-4644) is the Livingstons, featuring Barry Livingston of the 1960s sitcom, “My Three Sons,” and his wife, Karen. The singing-songwriting duo recreates the sound of the late ‘60s urban folk scene.