Okay, so this ain't like the Bobert's usual rants and raves but, oh, sometimes ya just gotta say "Hey, I've just been involved in something real nice, dangit!" and share it folks that mean somethin' to you....

For the last 6 months I've been driving down to Washington, D.C. every Saturday to an old Barber Shop in NE known as Archie Edward's Barber Shop to play blues with a number of old and less than old bluesmen.

Well, these folks have atken me in inspite of the fact that I play a hard Delta slide blues and they play Peidmont. But we ve found enough common ground to keep it going. Well, last wekend we did a workshop at the DC Blues Festival and I got my first call to lead a song, other than at the Barber Shop, and did Fred McDowell's "61 Highway" and it was well recieved..

Well, today, it was the Kennedy Center as part of this year being the "Year of the Blues" and we were on a 2nd stage but the jooint was packed (maybe 200 folks) and Big Mike gave me the nod just toward the end and I took Harp Boy Vince and the P-Vine (percussion) and asked Big Mike to sit in on the Bones and proceeded to hit a Bobertized version of Son House's "Empire State Exress" and got maybe the best applause of the Barber Shop's 50 minute set. I mean, like the other Barber shop folks were high fivin;, low fivin' us generally lettin' me know that I have been accepted.... Whew!

Best I've performed, I think....

Glad it's over, glad I didn't mess up, glad to have a little wrist band that says "Artist, Kennedy Center", and glad to have the folks at the Barber Shop take me into the fold....



Bobert