"Oh What a night....." as the pop song goes and this was clearly, "a night!" It's been a long time, too long in fact, since Kenny Neal last graced a stage in this area. He last played here two years ago. During that gig, he and I were chatting about some business when he took me aside and told me "this is going to be my next to last gig for a while." He went on to explain that he was about to undergo Interferon treatments for his liver. The treatments were 58 weeks long and during that time, he was too sick, too tired, too debilitated, to even play much, let alone tour.

Last year, Kenny began to enter full recovery and he worked on gaining his strength back. TV shows, radio and an East Coast tour to begin supporting his 2008 CD "Let Life Flow" (inspired by his illness) took up the rest of his time and it wasn't until June that he was able to play a couple of shows here. Needless to say, he packed the house. We even had some of our blues royalty show up. Leon Blue (keyboardest for Ike and Tina Turner, band director for Albert King, keyboards for Albert Collins during the Coco Montoya days, and, most recently, touring with the Mannish Boys); Sid "The Kid" on saxophone (B.B. King, Gladys Knight, Bobby "Blue" Bland, to name a few); Moody Scott (has performed with such greats as: Aaron Neville, Alvin Shine Roberson, Earl "Trick Bag" King, Katie Webster, Buckwheat Zydeco, Manhattans, Ohio Playes, Phil Phillips, Dixie Cups, Joe Jones and Little Milton, to name a few); and relative newcomer, Texas bluesman, Willie Jaye Laws. When Kenny brought these guys up on stage, the resulting jam(s) took up better than half the second set. OH WHAT A NIGHT IT WAS!