Southside Denny Snyder is coming in from Montreal to Wild Rose Moon, 115 North Michigan Street, Plymouth, on Saturday, May 27th to play in one performance at 7 pm. He’ll be playing with regional musicians, Nathan Waddill on bass guitar and Jim Yocom on mouth harp and cajon and djembe. George Schricker, Artistic Director at the Moon, talks about Denny this way:
“Denny Snyder recounts a great story about playing on stage with the late great bluesman, Luther Allison.” ‘It was the end of the evening and Luther was finishing his set when Luther asked him to play his guitar–sharing the fingering part while Luther handled the picking part. The solo went on for some while, in a seamless fashion, and then ended. Afterward, Denny asked Luther, “How did you know which way I was taking it?” To which Luther replied, “How did you know which way I was taking it?”’
“It’s stories like these that really help cement Denny’s career as a prime bluesman himself. When Denny sings his signature song, “Sliding,” he gives a shout-out to all his prime guitar influences, “Muddy Waters, JD Hutto, Luther Allison, Johnny Winter, Leo Kottke, JJ Cale, Eric Clapton, Elmore James, Tampa Red,” he names them all. Those influences rise up in him like lightning striking in the same place twice–his guitar playing is immaculately clean and precise–and his rhythmic pulse is deep in the groove. His playing grabs you and never lets you go.”
Denny was born and raised in South Bend and became associated with the Chicago-style blues-rock style in the 1980s. He played on stage with many great blues artists including Sugar Blue, Pinetop Perkins, and (as mentioned) Luther Allison. He toured with Southside Denny and the Skintones for several years. In the 1990’s he earned a regular spot at Buddy Guy’s Legends Club in Chicago. In 1999 Denny was chosen as the 2nd recipient of the Ole Harv Award for lifetime promotion of blues music in the Michiana area. A year later he represented his home state of Indiana in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis and captured third place at the Montréal Grand Prix de la Guitare.
Nathan Waddill is a bass guitarist with over forty years of experience playing in various musical genres. He began performing in clubs around the Los Angeles California area in the late 1970s and in 1984 recorded the album “Down Home Blues” with Thurston Harris (The Lamplighters) as part of Willie Egan’s Houserockers. Later, after moving to Indiana, he started playing traditional Irish folk music and became a regular for over a decade at the weekly Irish session at Fiddler’s Hearth in South Bend. In 2009 he began filling in on bass guitar at pubs and Irish festivals across the Midwest with the Celtic rock group Roger Drawdy and the Firestarters, then later joined the band full-time as their lead guitarist in 2011. For several years, he played bass with the Celtic/Americana band Soltre and the blues band Treated-n-Released. Nathan currently plays with the traditional Irish group Kennedy’s Kitchen, who he has been with since 2018.
As a harmonica accompanist, Jim Yocom has performed with bands playing a wide range of musical styles, including delta and Chicago blues, Western swing, Americana, and rock. Fitting harmonica into all these genres has informed his melodic playing style and created an ability to listen to what a song needs. In 2001, Jim began studying traditional West African percussion and has developed a “polycentric” percussion style that lends a crossover sound to the many bands he accompanies.
Tickets for the performance are $15 and available from www.wildrosemoo.com or at ASK for Flowers and, if available, at the door.
