Hacksaw's Blues

Above: Mollie Kidari, Dennis Miller, Armando Serna, Ronnie Whitehead

Here are recordings by Hacksaw's Blues:

                                                          
"Way Back Home" live version 2009                                                            "Break Out" live version 2010
Dave Riley, vocal/guitar                                                                                   Kati Ingino, bass/vocal/composer

                                                         
"Dry Your Eyes" 2011 vocal by Ronnie Whitehead                                   "Shaky Ground" 2011 vocal by Ronnie Whitehead
NEW VERSION                                                                                                 NEW VERSION

                                                          
"Come Get to This" 2011 vocal by Ronnie Whitehead                             "Honey Hush" 2009 vocal by Ronnie Whitehead
NEW VERSION (FORMERLY "DO SOMETHING FREAKY")
                                                          
"Time Will Tell" 2009 vocal/guitar by Dave Riley                                        "Got Me Runnin'" 2011  
Armando Serna, second guitar, Dennis Miller Harmonica                       Dennis Miller, vocal/harmonica  NEW VERSION          

                                                          
"49 & 61" 2002 vocal, composition by Hacksaw Tom                               "Hootchie Cootchie Man" 2010
Guests: James Johnson, guitar, Lou Burke, piano                                   Dennis Miller, vocal/harmonica            

                                                          
"Battery Blues" 1995 vocal, composition by Hacksaw Tom                     "Turned My Head Around" 1999 unreleased
                                                                                                                              Tribute to Mike Moses, vocal and composition

                                        
Biography:

In the 1980s Hans Olson, Small Paul, Jimmy Peyton's Midnite Blues, Bill and Suzie Tarsha and the Rocket 88's, and Big Pete Pearson pretty much covered the Phoenix blues landscape, most of them at Warsaw Wally's at one point.  Another club down the road was the Purple Turtle, 1019 E. Indian School.

Hacksaw's Blues debuted by opening for Midnite Blues at the latter club (later to be the Rhythm Room toward decade's end).  David Andrews and Linda Brooks fronted the "Hacksaw Williams Blues Band" as vocalists.  Blue Lou Burke who liked Otis Spann and Ray Charles was on piano.  "Hacksaw" played at what seemed like 20 active blues clubs (including Wally's), with as many blues bands to compete with around town.  As the band changed, drummer Tom Coulson kept the name.

   
With Dave Andrews 1986                With Linda Brooks 1994                        Backing Mike Moses 2000
(Dean Murphy, right)                         (the late Henry Thompson, right)         (Lou Burke, right)

That way Hacksaw could be a sideman.  Such as drummer for Midnite Blues and Buddy Reed into the '90s.  Linda Brooks reunited with Hacksaw for a few of these years, winning second place in the 1994 Phoenix Blues Society (PBS) Showdown.  The new century had Hacksaw joining (the late) Mike Moses who won first place in the PBS Showdown to compete in Memphis in '01.  Hacksaw has played on CDs by Midnite Blues, Dean Murphy and Mike Moses.

                                                            
                                        Midnite Blues 1996: Dean Murphy, Kati Ingino, Hacksaw, Jimmy Peyton

A most significant meeting happened in 2004 during a live broadcast of the original King Biscuit Time radio show (which Sonny Boy Williamson II helped start in 1941) still on KFFA, Helena Arkansas. http://kffa.com  Hacksaw was introduced to Chicago guitarist/vocalist Dave Riley.  http://daverileybluesman.com/fr_mainaboutdave.cfm  Born in Hattiesburg Mississippi, Dave has become Hacksaw's direct link to genuine living Delta blues.
                                                                             
As a result, Dave visited Phoenix playing the Rhythm Room backed by Hacksaw's Blues.  Owner/harmonica man Bob Corritore http://rhythmroom.com was taken enough to produce two albums with Dave Riley (Hacksaw playing on both "Traveling the Dirt Road" and "Lucky to be Living") to world-wide critical and award-nomination success.

It was with Dave Riley's help (he now lives in Arizona during the winter) that the Grinders Coffee Second Saturday series with Hacksaw's Blues began in 2007.  It has proven to be the group's longest-running gig.

Today Hacksaw's Blues includes Kati Ingino on bass/vocals, and Ronnie Whitehead's spirited soulful singing and dancing which adds a new dimension of funk to each blues set.              
                                                                 
But the most effective foil to Ronnie might be Grinders owner, "the REAL" Dennis Miller, who blows harmonica and is building his Jimmy Reed vocal repertoire.  A young "Grinders discovery," Armando Serna, plays stinging blues lead guitar akin to Albert King or Stevie Ray.  Often players from Full Moon Jazz hang around to jam the blues too.

Booking Full Moon Jazz and/or Hacksaw's Blues, social networking coordinator: Mollie mailto:mollie1119@aol.com