Blues On Stage

Inside Straight
@ Brew Bakers, November 14, 1997

Pete Meyer & Kurt Koehler
November 14, 1997 - Brewbakers
Photo © 1997 by Tom Asp

Local blues band Inside Straight opened for the James Cotton show recently. New band members Pete Meyer on guitar and Tony Anthony on drums were joined by long time band members Paul Strickland on saxophone, Greg Beach on bass and Kurt Koehler on guitar and vocals. As is their custom, Inside Straight performed a wide variety of blues and R&B. Their opening number "Every Day I Have The Blues" was done in a swing version with some nice guitar by newcomer Meyer and Koehler. Their material ranged from a rocking Howlin' Wolf to SRV's "Texas Flood" featuring a wicked sax solo by Strickland and strong vocals by Koehler.

Kurt Koehler
November 14, 1997 - Brewbakers
Photo © 1997 by Tom Asp

Kurt's vocals are almost "too" smooth and shine on the more sophisticated jump/swing blues numbers. They did a nice rendition of Fenton Robinson's classic "You Don't Know What Love Is" with some guitar work by Kurt that demonstrated he had studied Fenton's licks. They closed out the up tempo set with Albert King's "Born Under A Bad Sign" and had the dancers out on the floor and warmed up the crowd for what was to follow -- one of the best blues shows I have seen this year - James Cotton.

E-mail Ray Stiles at: mnblues@aol.com

Copyright © 1997 by Ray M. Stiles
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