Tommy Blood and the Blueshounds, FB
The first surprising thing about guitarist Tommy Blood is that his name really is Tommy Blood—it’s not a rock ’n’ roll nom de guerre. The second is that the leader of a long-running band called Tom Blood and The Blueshounds has a resume considerably more varied than covering songs by Willie Dixon and Stevie Ray Vaughan, albeit there is a two-degrees of separation connection between Blood and the latter.
“I went to New Orleans when I was 18,” the Milwaukee native recalls, “and played in bands in the French Quarter and in clubs. In one of the bands, Stevie Ray Vaughan was the former guitarist. At the time I didn’t know who he was—and neither did anyone else.”
By the early ’80s he was back in Milwaukee, playing and co-writing music for Belladonna, a techno group drawing from dark European post-punk influences. A decade later Blood was in Lazarus Effect, an alternative rock band compared at the time to Jane’s Addiction. His checkered roster of bands also included The Satans, a Rolling Stones tribute act performing three sets in costumes pegged to the Stones’ early, mid and later periods. Then came The Blueshounds, a power trio sprinkling originals with covers that worked the regional blues-rock circuit. “And then I stopped. It felt like I was beating my head against the wall.”
With Belladonna and Lazarus Effect, Blood tasted a measure of East Side Milwaukee success and with The Blueshounds, he found steady work in a local music cul de sac. For his new lineup, the Tommy Blood Band, he brings the modest ambition of enjoying himself, entertaining an audience and supplementing his income as luthier and guitar instructor. Along with songs by Jimi Hendrix and Robin Trower, the song list includes originals by Blood, mostly instrumentals steeped in blues-rock but with jazz fusion ambitions. The best moments prove that music moves hearts more than words. “They are somewhere between Jeff Beck and David Gilmour,” he says of his songs. “I like the blues but I like what Stevie Ray Vaughan did with the blues—it was more than three chords.”
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Rounding out Blood’s new lineup are a pack of veteran local players including Greg Vandenberg (vocals), Ross Hartung (bass) and Joe Bjorklund (drums). “Probably creativity,” Blood says when asked what ties his diverse musical resume together. “I always tried to put my own spin on things, to make the music as exciting as possible live while trying to play what the crowd wants.”
The Tommy Blood Band performs Saturday, Aug. 6 at Las Margaritas, 6869 W. Forest Home Ave.; and Friday, Aug. 12 at Mo’s Irish Pub, 142 W. Wisconsin Ave.
