The second half of the show was for the younger acts. I would say that it was because it was past the bedtime of the veterans, but Bobby Rush was in the lobby taking pictures and shaking hands until the lights came on inside the arena. Calvin Richardson – who was known mostly as a neo soul act until he did his Grammy Award nominated Bobby Womack tribute album – was the first of the young folks. I had never seen him live before Friday. He got it in – and sang through the crowd for half of his set. I was hoping to hear more of his throwback original material, but I can’t say that I was mad. I wasn’t mad at Sir Charles Jones either, until he started getting too nasty with his little…well I can’t call them innuendos, because he made it plain. His bass player was fine as all get out! Was giving me a hint of NFL star Richard Sherman, but even cuter. I’m going to tell you what was not cute, that Pokey Bear closing out the show singing to tracks when everybody else had a live band. I get that folks get a kick out of him bouncing around like the Energizer Bunny, but I honestly don’t see what all the fuss is about. Oh, and now that I have worn y’all out by talking about the blues show, let me give a shout out to our contest winner Elisabeth Bradley, who was given the VIP treatment with limo service and seats so close she felt the breeze of those big panties from Bobby Rush’s bag of props. Y’all need to stay logged on to stlamerican.com and our social media channels, because we have giveaways on the regular.
