Monday, December 12, 2005

The night SRV and Joplin played the blues, together!!


Another great Saturday night (Dec 10). The night the blues rained down heavily on the capital. The night SRV and Joplin played the blues, together. Hard to believe, right!

Well, to tell you the bluesy truth, it was the Soulmate - the absolutely amazing, soulful, compact and immaculately blue... - the blues band from the heavenly green vales of Shillong.

Soulmate comprises of a rare breed of musicians who still believe in creating music for music's sake, devoid of chip generated sounds and effects, full of soul and feel - Rudy Wallang on guitar, Tipriti Kharbyngar on rhythm and vocals, Sam Shullai on drums, and Ferdy Dakkar on bass.

Presented by the British Council and the Rock Street Journal and misleadingly titled 'Late night at the British Council' (misleadingly 'cos some @#$% dame from the high council was hell bent on packing up the show since the time it started), Soulmate created absolute bluesy magic.

Rudy displayed amazing mastery over the guitar with a very pronounced Stevie Ray Vaughan feel. Listening to Tipriti with your eyes closed was like getting to hear Joplin live. By the way, Rudy got great vocals too. Sam and Ferdy showed what seasoned musicians are made of.

Soulmate's compositions were 'true blue' blues pieces to the last note, packed with feelings. The evening air was chilly, the crowd a bit thin, but the mood was happily blue. 


Someone whispered - Damn right they've got the blues! They did, mate...

1 comment:

Soumyadip said...

I missed it.