Shaking it up at the Jolly Roger
- By Claudia Colli
Lou Schwartz likes to refer to the Jolly Roger, his West End eatery, as Jolly World - and for good reason. The waterside restaurant always sports a lively crowd, good food, and in season, an array of live music encompassing everything from popular local reggae bands to get-up-and-dance rhythm and blues bands.
Starting on January 9 and 10, the Jolly Roger will launch its sixth season of the Bud Light True Music Series with Dan and Levi. Dan Myers is a veritable one-man band, playing harmonica, mandolin and violin as well as providing vocals, while Levi Briton specializes in acoustic guitar and vocals. On Jan 23 and 24, Chris Klein and the Boulevards will bring New Orleans style jazz, blues and great dance music to the JR.
In February the Milwaukee based band, the Blues Disciples are slated to play their brand of Chicago electric blues, followed later in the month by the Grandsons, whose music The Washington Post describes as "vintage pop, country, jazz and rhythm and blues." Deb Callahan, who has been compared to Bonnie Raitt, will perform along with her band in March, followed by Reverend Raven; this soulful blues man took the Jolly Roger by storm when he appeared there last year. The Music Series will end with a flourish in April with Hudson and the Hoodoo Cats, a perennial JR favorite. The band, led by Hudson Harkins on drums, shakes things up with its "jump-swing-rockin-boogie-blues-billy music."
Lou, a music lover who has owned the Jolly Roger for 18 years sums it up when he says, "Bringing a cross section of different modes of music to the island is what the Jolly Roger is about."