The year was 1990. It was a special private party hosted by John Goddard for friends and family of Village Music of Mill Valley, California.
A couple of nights before this show, I picked up Richard Berry at the Amtrak station in San Jose. I took him over to visit Bob Sidebottom‘s Comic Collector Shop, where there was a little party going on as part of the usual festivities at the store on every Friday night. I remember hearing Richard and Bob swap stories about the infamous 1956 Fats Domino concert in San Jose that turned into one of the earliest rock ‘n’ roll riots in the United States. Both of these guys were at this particular event, with Richard playing on that bill as one of the supporting performers for the Fats Domino tour.
It was always fun to see Richard whenever he visited the San Francisco Bay Area. On this particular weekend, he just came up by himself to visit some friends, and play this little party for John Goddard. There were no other shows for Richard that weekend.
The party itself was an all-star affair. Along with Richard, there was NRBQ, Ry Cooder, Johnnie Johnson (Chuck Berry‘s original keyboardist), Steve Douglas (saxophonist extraordinaire), and Annie Sampson (of Stoneground).
My friend Dave Hardy, who was responsible for the audio engineering for this event, posted some video from this very special evening, which includes a clip of THE SONG.
In this performance, it’s Richard Berry on vocals, Ry Cooder on slide guitar, Tim Drummond on bass, Scott Mathews on drums, Steve Douglas on saxophone, and Johnnie Johnson on piano.
I figured this would be a fine way to start 2013 with this very LOUIE of the Week!
Happy New Year!
listening since 1953 and still loving it all!!