2011 Sioux Falls Jazzfest, The Fabulous Thunderbirds Thursday 7-14

The T-Birds are one of those bands there's no need to introduce; if you like blues rock, you know who they are. I first saw them at a New Years Eve show in Houston back in the early 80s when Jimmie Vaughan was on guitar........and his little brother Stevie Ray was headlining. Since then, singer/harmonica player Kim Wilson is the only one to have gone the distance, but this lineup is really good....as I was sure they'd be. By the time they came on, the sun was almost down, and it was cooling off a little, but as you can see in the pics, it was still plenty hot on stage......in more ways than one.

Crash interviews Kim Wilson at the B102.7 booth.

Johnny Moeller, one of two guitarists with the band.

Jay Moeller is Johnny's younger brother.

The other guitarist is Mike Keller.

Bassist Randy Bermudes

Johnny recently got this and another guitar you'll see later. I thought this one was really sharp.

This was the start of a looooong solo by Wilson. I'd have been flat on my back and he was still blasting on this harmonica!

Johnny switched over to this guitar for the last few songs.

Good night!

This was where I originally intended to hit the road, but everyone insisted I stick around for one of Friday's performers. Was I ever glad I did!

2011 Sioux Falls Jazzfest, Mat d and the Profane Saints Thursday 7-14

Probably the biggest, and best, surprise of the show for me was this next act. I'd seen Crash interviewing someone as I returned from getting a motel room, but didn't recognize him. Later, I reluctantly pulled myself away from the TBirds show because I'd been asked to get some photos from stage #2 and they had acts going simultaneously. When I got to the tent where the "other guys" were playing, I recognized the guy Crash was interviewing earlier. It took me all of 20 seconds to realize this was still another excellent band!
Mat d and the Profane Saints are out of Sioux City, Iowa and could easily have played on the main stage; they're that good. Unfortunately, I only caught the last 20 minutes or so of their performance, but I was d*****d glad I took the time to come over. Since I returned home, I've been going to the band's site several times a day just to listen to the streaming tunes on there. As you listen to their music, you'll be reminded of acts from Springsteen to John Cougar to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band to Black Oak Arkansas to......... But! This is no copycat band whatsoever. 
Frontman Mat DeRiso has a voice that goes from gritty and smokey to tenderly soulful. The music has the same kind of hard to pinpoint range, but I tend to think of Louisiana bayous, roadside diners, & honkeytonks. You ain't gonna find these guys in any laid back piano bar. I told guitarist Kurt Mullins I heard Knopfler in some of his playing and Kurt said he was one, of many, influences.
"Eclectic" is a very overused term these days, but it really fits these guys. I'll shut up now and let you look at the pics, so why don't you go to their site.............
http://www.matdandtheprofanesaints.com/?section=home 
 ............. and listen to 'em while you watch. Enjoy.

Mat DeRiso

Bob Birch

Jeff Deignan

Kurt Mullins

The light was pretty poor inside the tent where these guys were set up so I really had to crank up the ISO. There's some grain so I sized them a little smaller; it's NOT because they were 2nd rate. Anything but.