This show is the first in a series of free concerts presented as a kick-off event for Durham’s Third Friday Artwalk in downtown. Start your Third Friday off right with some great Piedmont Blues at Lakewood, before heading downtown!! No ticket required! Great music for free! Come have some snacks and drinks with us at Magnetic Sound Studios, enjoy the live music, peruse our collection of locally-produced artwork and enjoy some rare jazz photographs while checking out the studio, our control room and soaking up our analog vibe!
Near-Blind James (James Shoe) and Harmonica Bob (Robert Waldrop) have been playing blues together for over 46 years. Originally from Greenville, NC, they play a variety of blues styles but through a lack of focus, play whatever pleases them including: Piedmont Blues, Ragtime, Hokum, Rockabilly, Elderly Rock n Roll, Country & Western, Eastern & Urban, Delta Blues, Atlanta Blues, Chicago Blues, Deep Black Gospel and all the rest of it.
Many of the artists they have studied and have choosen songs by, lived and played in and around Durham. These include Blind Boy Fuller, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee and The Reverend Gary Davis. James has been playing metal-bodied dobro and guitar in the fingerpicked style used in Piedmont blues since he was 12 and helped Bob to get hooked on Blues music in the late 70’s. Bob “The Human PA System” as James occasionally refers to him, plays harmonica (obviously) and both sing, often on-key and in harmony ! NBJ and HCA Bob have performed at most every sort of club, venue, street fair or gathering that calls for music in various acoustic and electric formats including: 5 Guys Named Moe, The Cavemen, The Phantoms, The Jive Bombers, Cool Papa Bel and The Soul Duprees, James Get On The Good Foot Shoe and His Progressivaires, The Mighty Gospel Inspirations, The Jive Bombers and have recorded and shared the stage with The Right Reverend Billy Wirtz, Bo Diddely, Big Boy Henry, Nappy Brown and John D Holeman to mention a few. They play what they mean and mean what they play. Sure to please or your money back!!