Sherman Robertson
Hometown: Houston, Texas
http://www.movinmusic.co.uk/sherman_robertson.htm
Shawn Kellerman
Hometown: Kitchener, Ontario
http://www.shawnkellerman.com
November 17, 2006
The Junction (Peterborough, Ontario)
Man, I needed a break. So, I grabbed Don and Jim and headed out to The Junction for some blues. Electric blues that is.
Al Kirkaldy had lined up Sherman Robertson to perform. If that wasn't enough to get my juices flowing, I got an email from Shawn Kellerman informing me that he would be backing Sherman that night.
I'm not going to recount the setlist, as I was just there to have a real good time and honestly didn't take any notes (other than the URL of a site Sherman told me would give me some bio info about him). I did take lots of photos, though.
Shawn Kellerman is one of my favouite blues guitarists. He wrenches the blues out of an eclectic collection of what I affectionately call pawnshop guitars. These are guitars that snobs like me often wouldn't give a second look, but probably should. The Ibanez copy of the Gibson 335, the little Supro for slide, and the Frankencaster, which Shawn sheepishly revealed to me is made from an old fender bass body converted to a guitar.
I've recently come to the conclusion that Shawn could coax the blues out of a peice of driftwood and some baling wire. The Ibanez and the Supro were the best sounding axes out of the fleet he had with him. Shawn's backline consists of a customized 70s Fender Super Reverb mounted in a head cabinet which is run through 4 x10" EV speakers. Sonic bliss, I tell ya.
Shawn and his band opened the evening with a few songs before Sherman joined them. Sherman took the stage with his Blade guitar through a modified mid-sixties Fender Bandmaster provided by Shawn. It took a Sherman a few songs to get his tone dialed in, and he was seen quite often heading back to the amp to twiddle with some knobs. You could tell when he found his sound, though, as the guitar tone just blossomed.
The first set was pretty sedate. Maybe Sherman was sizing up the audience, maybe this was all part of the master plan. There was still lots of great music and impressive guitar work from both sides of the stage. The second set began like the first, with Shawn Kellerman performing a couple of songs. Shawn turned things up a notch, and his rendition of the S.R.V. classic "Rude Mood," and an instrumental Slide/Wah spectacular, had jaws dropping thoughout the venue.
Sherman also rose to the challenge and delivered a fiery second set. This was when he encouraged folks to come up and dance and started talking to "Erica." I hadn't noticed her earlier in the evening and hadn't seen Sherman with her, but somehow he knew that she was the girl for him. Erica played along and ventured to the packed dance floor several times during the second set.
The blues flowed like water this night, and I can't wait 'til the next serving at the Junction. My hat's off to Al Kircaldy for again providing a great night of blues.
Have a look at the photos (sadly none of "Erica")
