Carvin Jones - Grimsby, 29 January 1999
Today’s nostalgia was born 21 years ago. Exactly. To the day.
A recent trawl through our CD collection created a little extra cashflow after we decided to sell much plastic, paper and recorded musical creativity. musicMagpie was our choice for conveniently culling our discs. If you think it’s time to clear space and move over to music streaming services we can do each other a small favour if you follow this link to setting up an account with them.
Amongst all the trauma of letting go of square-shaped memories were pinpoints of relative joy as we were reminded of moments along our CD buying journey. The first choice we made after getting a decent player (Chris Rea’s ‘Highway’ thing, if you’re asking). Various ‘crackle-glazed’ labels from exposure to too fierce heat in the car. And the unearthing of two purchases from the merch desk at a very fondly remembered gig in Grimsby.
On that night we had caught up with the Carvin Jones Band about eight years into their touring career and a couple of years before he was named "one of the top 50 blues guitarists of all time!" I say ‘we’. On a cold winter night I had taken our son James along to ‘The Spider’s Web’ public house as part of his musical education. He was relatively young and impressionable. I was older but just as impressionable. We both left with a huge dose of the Blues and with souls warmed enough to survive far into any late Grimsby spring or even a tepid summer.
The heat generated by Carvin Jones and his band was exceptional. Look out for YouTube examples of his work. There is very likely no real substitute for being at a live performance but being dazzled by much more than his spangly jacket at this link would never be a poor way to spend thirty minutes of your time. The apparent ease of playing his guitar fails to hide the important elements of Carvin’s appeal. He pulls the music and the listener into such close contact that the buzz is truly electric. Virtuoso playing is shared not only from the stage but through regular forays into an awed and captivated crowd. He communicates - musically and physically - a genuine love of what he does. And what he does draws people together. If I ever felt Carvin was playing for me alone I only had to look around to see that he had connected me to every other person in the room. Including son, James. We enjoy a great relationship and that night remains a small but significant part of its development.
The clip below catches up with ‘The Carvinator’ in his home town of Phoenix. A little guitar strumming from him - plus ample confirmation that he remains the affable, generous soul who we were privileged to meet a surprisingly large number of years ago.
This ticket was slipped in above the card inlay for ‘Unleashed’. Click on it for a link to Carvin Jones’ current tour dates. I’m hoping for some to come up inside the coastline of the U.K. Shit, we could do with Carvin coming over to inject a healthy dose of ‘United’ back into Britain!
Joe’s Grotto has sadly closed its doors (slap bang on my birthday in 2019) but I can now replay the Carvin Jones Band gig there. I’ve just imported both of those CDs onto my computer. And I’ll keep the originals too. As well as every wildly appreciative grin from that night at The Spider’s Web. Nostalgia is non-recyclable.
You have left a deep footprint in my memory, Carvin. Thank you.