I made it to the venue around 3:00 p.m. to catch L.A. local Gino Matteo open up his set with the gospel standard, ‘John the Revelator’. This is all it took to set the hook on the sizable crowd as Matteo laid down a righteous version of the song for the Sunday afternoon crowd.

Combining blues, soul, and R&B into almost every song I heard, Matteo really dealt his music out. His guitar playing sometimes reminded me of a Leslie West – Gary Moore hybrid sound with a little and a lot of B.B.King style playing, especially when he would hold some of the notes played on his Gibson for incredible durations.

Funk was represented as well especially on Matteo’s number “We Can Find a Way”. Remember Soul Music? Matteo might not but he had plenty of it spread around with this number.

Other Matteo originals included “Childhood Games”, “The Longest Night”, and “My Grandmother Told Me”. My personal favorite was ‘Coming Clean’.

Another notable highlight of Matteo’s set was when his fiancé, vocalist Jade Bennett joined him for an incredible version of Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings song,,” If You Call”. Bennett’s vocals augmented by Matteo’s soulful picking was amazing.

Gino Matteo is a can’t miss performer…so you can’t miss him if he’s around your town.

Celebrating the 25th year anniversary of their first album this year, The Delgado Brothers are mainstays on the SoCal blues scene. Their music seems to come from the heart and soul of their lives and is evident in their performance.

Blues with a Latin flavor is a staple of the Delgados judging from their latest killer CD “Learn to Fly”, but this show didn’t seem to lean on that sound so much as the brothers featured some scorching straight up west coast blues numbers.

Lead by Joey Delgado, the brothers have a natural playing instinct and are true journeymen of their craft. Brother Bob Delgado on bass is the eldest and has played in numerous bands from the 60’s forward. The youngest brother, Steve, keeps the rhythm in check on drums. Vocals are handled by Joey and Steve while the keyboards were maintained by David Kelley. Missing on this night was percussionist Victor Bisetti.

Songs featured included’ “L.A. Ellie”, a kind of shuffle number that featured David Kelley and Joey Delgado extensively through out. “Come With Me Baby”, had a Zydeco flare to it that really had the crowd steppen it up.

The one cover song the Delgados performed was Dave Masons’,s “Look at You, Look at Me”. Joey D did a little name dropping as he mentioned that he has performed with Mason in the past. It was evident that this number was one that he and Mason must have rehearsed since the brothers nailed it perfectly.

The Delgado Brothers often collaborate with Beaumont, Texas native Sherry Pruitt and this night was no different. Pruitt has become one of the best known gospel blues belters around and she proved to the crowd exactly why that is this afternoon. Backed by the bros, Pruitt worked it out on a number of tunes that included “It’s Amazing” and “I Need a Man”. Of course I had my favorite and that was “Tina Nina Nu”.

The Delgado Brothers led by Joey Delgado’s impeccable guitar playing is the band to see if you are in the L.A. area.

Last up were The 44’s. I’ll admit that I had never heard of these guys before and was probably more interested in seeing what Kid Ramos had to offer as he was featured with the band at this show.

Wow, was I taken aback, these guys are the most real deal, butt rockinist band I’ve seen in a long time. I had listen to a few cuts from their CD, “Boogie Disease” prior to going to the show and expected great things but this performance was way over the top.

The 44’s have it down with some of the most original sounding, hard driving, blues bending material out there. I can’t even compare their brand of blues to others that I’ve listened to for years.

Guitarist Johnny Main fronts the band with flashes of guitar work that ranks among some of the best I’ve heard in this musical genre. His vocals are guttural, sharp and sometimes have a witty sound that really lends to the bands overall persona.

The rhythm section consists of J.R. Lazana on drums and Mike Turturra on upright bass. Both of these hard driving, blues pounding titans plied their craft with amazing precision to help keep the 44’s original sound in check.

Noticeably missing from the show was harpist extraordinaire Tex Nakamura. Nakamura had a prior commitment to tour Japan during February so the 44’s added a horn section that included two of the best Southern California has to offer.

On baritone sax was Troy Jennings while the alto duties were man handled by Ron Dziubla. This killer duo swapped solos back and forth on many numbers each seemingly trying to out do the other. Neither horn player blew a gasket during the show but each probably popped a few capillaries considering how amazingly hard they were playing.

Rounding out the band was the 44’s guest David ‘Kid’ Ramos. Ramos can really stretch his guitar playing out covering everything from hot boogie blues, California hep-cat swing and dirty sounding roots rock, most of which was included at some point during the 44’s set.

The 44’s opened their show with the Albert Collins classic “Don’t Lose Your Cool”’ a nice warm up for things to come. “Too Many Drivers” was one of the numbers featuring the dueling saxophones. I’ll have to give the horn match up on this one to Dziubla as he really ground up his solos with some diabolical playing.

“Hanging Tree”, a nasty beat boogie from the 44’s soon to be released CD “Americana” kept the dance floor busy with shuffling patrons.

Other highlights included “Hold On” and “You’ll be Mine”

The 44’s left the crowd with the title song from the band’s latest release “Boogie Disease”, as the last number.

The 44’s are coming through Texas in June and if we’re lucky they might make it by Houston. We’ll have and wait see.

If you can’t wait, you can take a look at the following links for highlights of all three of these great acts from The Guitar Slingers Ball and see what you missed.

Gino Matteo –  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZfFSpsSdP4
The Delgado Brothers – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvjjkgLQIKQ&feature=related
The 44’s –  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoGVVEtbZwQ&feature=related