By Jessica Thompson
Staff Reporter
jessica.thompson@doverpost.com
For almost 27 years, Delmarva has been blanketed with the sounds of his slide
playing talents and funky mix that has often been dubbed the “wrong side of the
blues.”
And after all this time of doing what he loves, he has found there are still
plenty of people, across all ages, who are crossing over to that side, not to
mention checking out that slide.
On Saturday, TomLarsen and his band, including bassist Charles
Calloway of Middletown and Tony Robinson of Hampton, Va., will rock out at Irish
Eyes.
“I mix it up with all kinds of things,” he said. “It’ll be up tempo and
danceable … a lot of times what we play is called ‘funky’ because it’s a mix of
old soul, funk, rhythm and blues and goes from the lively to the
contemporary.”
And then there’s the slide playing, using a whittled down wine bottle neck to
get going and then whatever he can find from there.
“I like to step off the stage and pick up different things,” he said, “beer
mugs, keys, chairs … I’ll play on the bar … over a woman’s back.”
Learning from the classics like slide player Robert Johnson and the infamous Muddy Waters, Larsen has appealed to all ages, still playing the college bars and the college crowds and the next night moving on to the biker bar, the clubs and the beach scene.
When he started almost three decades back, Larsen said he didn’t expect this
is how it would go.
“I really didn’t put much thought into it,” he said. “I was trying to pay
bills and with mouths to feed, you just put one foot in front of the other. It
started with trying to last six months and then I would see how it was going.
Then six months turned into a year, and somehow it became 10 years and then 20
years.”
Larsen also has nine CDs, with his latest, “Wrong Side of the Blues” released in 2003.
“We’re still cruising on that one,” he said.
Larsen said he and the band might look to make it an even 10 this fall,
recording some of their shows live, something he’s found to work pretty well in
his favor, arguing that sometimes when you go to show and are all pumped up --
enough to buy the CD – you get it and the studio version doesn’t sound as
good.
“It saves a lot of time and money doing it that way,” he said and added,
“When the band is really tight, it’s a strange feeling doing things live.”
With a busy spring and summer schedule ahead, Larsen said he has high hopes
for the road ahead.
“I think getting the next CD out and continuing on the path that we’re on, is
the way we’re headed. I’d like to play more festivals. I think that would be
great, but if not, oh well,” he said.
If you go, he said to expect his bluesy mix or blues-based sets. Some nights,
he’s been known to bust out a little rap and hip hop.
“It’s pretty amazing to do something that you love and see people tapping
their feet and getting up to dance and then at the end of the night, some lady
comes up and hands you a big thing of cash,” he said.
Check out http://www.tomlarsenband.com/ for more info on where to catch the band next.