217529602

Hello! My actual name is Chris. I am a Blues harmonica playin', Harley ridin', Iowa Hawkeye Football lovin' guy. Born a raised in Davenport. I have worked over twenty years at the same job and have been married since 1979. Moved to northern MN in '74 with the folks to 'The Lake' and bounced around for awhile before diggin' in here some years later. Youngest of 5 kids, and we have some history of musicians in the family. We had a piano in the house that I used to bang on, but unfortunately did not stick with it. I remember that my sister had the Beatles first 45 record and my brothers turned me on to lots of great music, especially the Stones, the British Invasion and all the great Chicago Blues guys. I remember that my oldest brother had a harmonica or two in his room that I was intrigued with. My second oldest brother played guitar as long as I can remember and had a band called Natty Scratch that played in this area for over thirty years before he moved to the great NW. WAY NW! He was bringing Blues to this town before there ever was a Blues Society. About twelve years ago a friend gave me a harp when he moved away since I played 'air' everything. I tried and died on it for a while before getting determend to stick with it and figure it out. On my 40th birthday I played with Ouad City veterans Spike (Red House) and was hooked. I kept bugging them until they let me join. They were known as a Blues/Rock band so I had some fun trying to fit in with some of the Rock stuff they did. Eventually we dropped the Rock stuff and added tons of straight-up harp driven Blues. I guess we ran with that for ten plus years. But Spike wasn't playing often enough for me, so I went out looking for somebody else to play with. After a while I hooked up my my bro for life, Wade Braggs and formed Blue Luck. We had a good run of about ten months and I got to play some cool out of town places like The Iron Horse and Blues On Grand. I am currently not playing with a band after playing quite a bit with The Avey Brothers Band including winning the Iowa Blues Challenge. Some of my early harp influences were Alan Wilson, Walter 'Shakey' Horton, John Mayall, Junior Wells, Sonny Terry, Taj Mahal, Stevie Wonder, George Smith, Little Walter, Sugar Blue, etc., and,...THEN I heard ROD PIAZZA. To my recallection (sp) I had never heard anything like that! That solo thing he did on "Talk To Your Daughter" live at our MVBS Blues Fest had me gushing tears of musical joy! I had heard the name RICK ESTRIN for awhile, but once I saw Little Charlie and The Nightcats, I WAS HOOKED! I love those guys! Rick Estrin just has that sound (to me) that really gets in ya'. Not to mention his hilairous lyrics and style. Rick and Rod are my 2 'main men' of the harp, but I am really into RJ Mischo, Jason Ricci and some other harp cats right now. AND Reverend Raven! I am also one of the owners of Blueport Junction in Davenport. We are a restaurant/bar/club specializing in home cooked, not out of a box, stick to your ribs type food. Great martini and beer selection and home to lots of great LIVE music. We've had Blues greats, Jason Ricci, Mark Hummel, Bruce Katz, (not ALL blues, but, all GREAT!), Bryan Lee, Michael Burks, John Nemeth, Harper, Mike Morgan, Scott Holt, Nick Moss, Bill Lupkin, I'm forgetting someone I'm sure and lots of local bands including Spike and Wade Braggs and Blue Luck and The Avey Brothers Band. Although I am one of the owners, I am NOT the manager, nor do I do any hiring or firing of the employees or bands, so please direct any comments, suggestions or critisism to the manager. HA! :):):)!!!!!!