Ron Thompson – From the Patio: Live At Poor House Bistro Vol. 1

Recorded live at the Poor House Bistro, San Jose, CA on June 4 and August 6, 2014

Produced by Kid Andersen at his Greaseland Studio

Little Village Foundation and San Jose’s Poor House Bistro are very excited and honored to present a very special live recording from the late, great Bay Area blues legend, Ron Thompson!  This is a very emotional and bittersweet recording for all involved, because unfortunately Ron passed away earlier this year at the age of 66, due to complications from diabetes.

As you can hear on this riveting live recording, Thompson truly was one of the most passionate, powerful, intense, and soulful blues performers we were fortunate to have ever experienced and known.  Live at Poor House Bistro has captured Ron in his element, performing his electrifyin’ deep blues live in a friendly, familiar, intimate club with his long-time fans, friends, and bandmates.

Thompson is most well-known for his unique and fiery guitar playing, and his unbelievably killer slide guitar playing is always the highlight. But the multi-talented Thompson also can sing the blues more convincingly than most. Be sure to check out his emotional vocals on the deep soul ballad, “That’s How I Feel” a somewhat forgotten treasure from ‘68 from the The Soul Clan, a 60’s soul singer supergroup, written by Don Covay and Bobby Womack.

Special guests include another under-appreciated Bay Area Blues legend, harp player Gary Smith, who shines on Little Walter’s classic, “One More Chance With You.” You can hear why Little Village’s Jim Pugh is nominated for keyboard player of the year in LIVING BLUES Magazine; check out his soul drenched organ playing on Lowell Fulson/Lloyd Glenn’s “Sinner’s Prayer” and Guitar Slim’s “Done Got Over It.”  And let’s not forget about Sid and Kid! Pianist Sid Morris is another long-time talented veteran of the Bay Area blues scene who somehow hasn’t gotten his due, and the one and only Kid Andersen adds his formidable, one of a kind guitar skills to the last 2 tracks, the slide driven original “When You Walk That Walk” and the should have been classic from ‘60, “Dr. Brown” , originally written by vocalist Buster Brown/saxophonist J.T. Brown (also covered in a rave up by Fleetwood Mac, and interestingly enough Ron played for years with Mick Fleetwood, who called Ron his favorite guitarist!)

Here’s what journalist David Mac of BLUES JUNCTION had to say about Ron’s previous CD, Son of Boogie Woogie, one of the first recordings Jim Pugh released on his unique and important record label, Little Village Foundation.   “The blues explodes out of Ron Thompson like a dormant volcano which one day decides to blow its top.  Like a lava flow, Thompson’s approach here is relentless, dangerous, and slow. He has found that virtuosity doesn’t have anything to do with speed. This CD lives in the moment, and is an aural snapshot of barely harnessed emotion, soul, and energy- straight ahead, low down, gut bucket blues at its finest!’

“I’ve always felt that Ron is the most talented blues guitarist I’ve ever seen.  He can do it all. He’s extraordinarily gifted.  What many folks aren’t aware of is that Ron was a huge asset in the re-emergence of John Lee Hooker, the foundation in that boogie sound.”  –Tom Mazzolini, KPFA DJ and founder/producer of the San Francisco Blues Festival.

Remembering Ron

We met back in the 70’s when he was living out in the Excelsior and then Novato then a warehouse in San Raphael, in Hayward then Madera then back to Hayward again and Newark. And a bunch of other places in between that I can no longer remember.

Gary Silva and Byron were with him back when I lived next store to Major Ponds. And then with the Rat Band with Tim Kaihatsu then AJ and some other drummer from Stockton- that period was dangerous – then Leonard Gille and Larry Van. Terry Hanck, me and Kenney Dale Johnson played with him for years every Sunday at Pat O’Shea’s. Later on with Scott Griffin or D’Mar at The Poor House Bistro. Even Tony Coleman and I had played with Ron more recently at The Waterfront Blues Festival in Portland. Early on Tom Mazzolini, Mark Naftalin and Harry Duncan had all been huge RT supporters. So too Angela Strelhi and Bob Brown.

He had the admiration of everybody from Lowell Fulson to John Lee Hooker. From Mick Fleetwood to Stevie Ray Vaughan. Jay Meduri and all the people at the Poor House Bistro had really rallied for Ron the last few years. And of course Carolyn Phillips. Truly heroic she was.

Other than music and mutual friends we didn’t have much in common. Ron was a bad ass. I was definitely not a bad ass. But there were years when that combo of organ, drums and his guitar really swung. As good as it’s ever gotten for me.

Before he got too sick Ron and I went out for lunch at a Mexican place in Newark. We drove by The Newark Pavilion and talked about having both seen Los Tigres del Norte there way back before they got big. He showed me the house he grew up in and even pointed to nearby fields where he and his mother had worked picking when he was a boy. It was a tough way to grow up and you could tell it was something he carried with him.

Like I said, we didn’t have a lot in common but he was a good friend and a great musician. In one way that’s the real power of music.

-Jim Pugh