The 55 Party! 

Kensington Park

July 31, 2010

** A Cooperative Event **

** Retrospective **

The Front Street Blues Band 

This page presents the Front Street Blues Band's performance at the party, and a link to their website. 

First, many great thanks to Greg Manning and his fellow members of the Front Street Blues Band, not only for performing, but for bringing the PA system, which benefited everyone.  Besides Greg, on drums, the FSBB includes Brian Smith, harmonica and lead vocals, Cliff McClanahan, guitar and vocals, and Tracy Garneau (bass and vocals).  The FSBB is a very fine blues-rock band.  They favored us with 12 of their original compositions; links to audience recordings of the 12 songs are provided below.  In addition, following is a link to their website:

		To go to the Front Street Blues Band's website:  (click here or on the picture to the left to go to the FSB Band website)
		Greg's wife, who is also a fine performer, Sweet Claudette, and joined in on one of the XBHS jams, also has a website (click here to go to her website).
		Claudette not only for sang for us, but also was very nice and took/provided a lot of nice pictures (Thanks, Claudette!) (click/press here to see Claudette's pictures).]

Hey, here's a nice view of the band...

Following are links to the music played by the FSBB at the party. Higher quality recordings of the FSBB, and much more information, can be obtained through their website (again, you can go to their website by clicking here). (Sorry, 2015 update, their website does not currently provide info about their schedule/CDs, so maybe contact Greg Manning via FB for more info, and/or contact us so we can put you in touch w Greg, and, hopefully you can figure out the best time and place to catch up to them for a live performance...and/or purchase their CDs.) 

An audience recording was made of the FSBB Live at Kensington Park performance, which included 12 songs.  (See below for a brief discussion of factors impacting the audio quality of the recordings.)  Following are links to recordings of the 12 songs, with three short introductory-type clips to lead off.

		Introduction to the Band (if you listen closely, you can hear The DJ, Dan F, through the table chatter (Thanks, Dan!)) (click/press here or the picture to the left to hear Dan's intro)
		Introductions of the Band's Members (click/press here or there)
		FSBB's Gracious Thanks and Credits (click/press here or there)
		Blues Promised Land (click/press here or there)
		Lose That Woman (click/press here or there)
		Shuffle Off to Buffalo (click/press here or there)
		Heartbreaker (click/press here or there)
		Full Contact Blues (click/press here or there)
		Five Dollars (click/press here or there)
		You Always Got my Back (click/press here or there)
		Hanging Around (click/press here or there)
		Pay Some Attention (click/press here or there)
		Since My Baby Left Me (click/press here or there)
		Somethin' Bout You (click/press here or there)
		Hit By The Blues (click/press here or there)

And now, the video...  (By the way, this free website has very limited space and there is only room right now for one of the video versions of the songs.  Also, the views are from a picnic tabletop, with a lot of people walking in front and that doesn't make for the best videos, sorry.)  Please note this huge mp4 video file could take a minute or so to load...)

		Hit By The Blues (click/press here or on the picture to the left)

Here are a few more shots of the band in action:

From the TMI Department...

Please understand the recording conditions during this ultra-casual event.  A camcorder was turned on and basically just left on a picnic table, somewhat away from the stage, with people walking in front of the camera much of the time (to/from the food tent, especially at first...), with everyone chattering away, all as one might expect, but obviously not condusive to ensuring high quality audio/video recordings...as no website presentation was contemplated at the time. Yet... the quality is pretty good at times, and it's cool to be able to share with those who couldn't attend. 

[FYI, the audio files are very large (9+ MB), and the available video files are about 4 times bigger, and it tends to take a very long time for them to load.  The media files open in new windows, with audio showing as a small progress bar and video opening in a small frame view.  Also, some computers may have difficulty getting through the video.   

(For your convenience...following is another set of links to the various (55 Party mostly) pages, with photo pages organized by photographer/subject, etc.)

  <(Dave A's)>  <(Nancy's)>  <(Greg S's)> <(Brian S's)>  <(Greg/Claudette's)>  <(Diane/John's)>  <(Andrea S's)>  <(50 Party (2004))> 

   <(55 Party Music (index))>  <(Front Street Blues Band)>  <(Jan Krist)>  <(XBHS Jam Band)>  

 <(55 Party (main page))>  <(The 60 Party (index))>   <(Party Central (Home))>