I’ve been a professional musician for decades, and during that time I’ve lived in several different cities. I started in Dallas, and over time I’ve lived in Denton, Keller, Grapevine, Denver, and Colorado Springs. In each of these cities, I was involved – to some extent – in the music scene, both recording and performing live.
Now I live in Albuquerque, and I have to say, it’s a completely different feeling. The cities I mentioned above all have fairly robust music scenes, but there’s something about the scene here in Albuquerque that seems to fit me perfectly. ABQ is one of those interesting medium-sized towns with a broad and eclectic scene – at any given time, you can find rock, metal, country, EDM, party bands, singer/songwriters, jazz, and, of course, blues.
The blues scene in particular has already been very good to me. There are so many world-class blues musicians in this town, and I got to meet a lot of them just as soon as I moved here. Immediately, my wife and I went to see a lot of shows, and before long I was asked to sit in as a sub for several of them. But then we came across something that I haven’t been able to experience in any of my previous cities: organized blues jams.
The blues community here in town is very tight-knit, and any time these musicians aren’t playing, they’re at shows supporting other musicians. And any time one of them has a need, the others jump in. In the almost 3 years since I’ve been here, I’ve played in several big blues jams that were set up to benefit someone who had a real need. It’s an amazing family – and I’m extremely happy to be even a small part of it!