What a blinding gig that was! The sore hands syndrome from clapping and a standing ovation at the end just summed proceedings up to a tee. Starting off with a short acoustic set Steve Arvey and Roger Innes, on a six string acoustic bass, set the ball rolling with self penned songs, tales of whiskey, women, the Misssissipi and, errrrm, chickens. They set the stage for the arrival of of the rest of BluesMove, Jools Grudgings on keyboards and Mike Hellier on drums.

What followed was a real tour de force of Chicago blues with a good measure of funk and a smattering of jazz, one fascinating highlight was Roger and Jools having a bass v. keyboard dual. Steve Arvey's Howling Wolf growl was a delight to behold, a true masterclass of musicianship as evidenced by the audience response throughout.

Howden Live website - May 2006

It's not often you get two for the price of one but at Barrels we were treated to two 'acts' that easily merit the term headliner. First and largely by accident, was Australian Derrin Nauendorf, his cameo set of five songs showed just why he's becoming a 'talked about' musician. Topped and tailed by Papa Was A Roling Stone and All Along The Watchtower, his blistering performances almost pulled off the impossible and equalled the fabulous the originals. A good looking young man with his talent coud take an easier route to stardom but for Nauendorf it is all about the music, the audience agreed.

The 'real' headliner was Chicago's Steve Arvey and the UK's Blues Move, making one of their regular and very welcome visits to the north east. Arvey is now comfortable in Barrels and it showed, he grabbed the place by the scruff of the neck and for one night made it Arvey town. That he was on fire with 'Mississippi Heavy Water Bues' and ironically 'Cold Wind From Chicago' which segued into 'Voodoo Chile' was not unexpected, the walls still bear the scorch marks from his previous visits. However and perhaps because he now feels so at home, the audience were given the chance to look behind the showman and glimpse the real man through his music, 'Mr Nobody, Somebody' wasn't just a performance it was the sound of man pouring his heart out.

Backed by Blues Move, Arvey couldn't do anything other than put in a powerful performance, drummer Mike Hellier and keyboard player Jools Grudgings put in their usual high class performances but Roger Inniss on bass stole the show with his work on 'How Do You Spell Love'. The Midlands may not have a football team to speak of at present, but in Birmingham's Inniss they have a premier league musician.

As always with Steve Arvey you walk out of the gig believing that it could easily have been the first time and that's some trick.

Michael Mee - May 2006

After a mighty fine solo spot by Paul Judge on his custom National, Steve Arvey started off with an unplugged set accompanied by the fabulous Roger Inniss on a big fat 5 string fretless acoustic guitar, what a great sound that made. Steve's voice is a bit like Captain Beefheart's, not quite the same range, but going from low gravely to top howling. The stops and starts in the songs were perfectly timed, Roger with a big grin knowing that he'd sussed it out right. I would say that he could've followed Steve anywhere, he can easily read the way a tune is going. "Soul's on Fire/Blues Mesiah" was delivered with such passion. The rest of the band then assembled, which is basically BluesMove, with Jools Grudgings on keys and Mike Hellier on drums. Steve changed to a strat and things kicked up a couple of gears, all in the same song. Next tune, Roger swapped for his lovely six string and we were away with "Ready for Your", with Steve hitting some pretty impressive top notes. Roger, on his shoulder, was cooking away in the groove, hips aswaying. Keyboard and drums laying down a boogie beat, Steve soloing on top, excellent stuff. Suddenly, Steve was at the bar, scorching out a great riff, he gets a bit thirsty so orders a Jack Daniels and carries the riff on with his left hand on the fretboard whilst he supped it. "Cherry Blonde" was fantastic, everyone into the vibe, which is great to see from a "scratch" band. Well almost, they've played together a fair bit and have even done a CD to celebrate the fact. A Dread Zeppelin reggae style "The Song Remains the Same" was brilliant. A funky boogier. "Love ain't Easy" from the CD featured some great Hammond style solo work from Jools. That was topped by a blistering riff from Steve, maybe just to show him who was boss, before the vocals came back in. "Sweet Home Chicago" 'cos that's where he's from, was introduced with a comparison between American and English beer. Surprisingly, he likes our stuff and toasted us with his pint of Jennings. The second spot included a ferocious Canned Heat sound-alike, whilst Steve wandered through the crowd. More vocals like Captain Beefheart and the song turned out to be ZZ Top's "Heads in Mississippi", with the longest outro ever, which then segued into "Little Red Rooster" in an immaculate fashion. It included the heaviest keyboard solo ever, followed by the extreme rasping of Steve's voice, an absolute cracker. All too soon it looked like the end, but we clamoured for more and got a New Orleans style boogier, which featured a slow orchestral guitar part on top of an awesome beat. This one morphed seamlessly into "Purple Haze" and then the Allman Brother's Top Gear tune. This band can go anywhere with anything and smooth any riff into anything at all. "Let it Shine On, Shine on Me", some old Stones number I think, had some great vocals before another fantatic solo on the strat. Just when we thought it was all over, they went straight into "Pride and Joy", which, in turn, blended into another "Sweet Home Chicago" and the Doors' "Let it Roll", with a tremendous guitar solo and the band pumping away superbly. The Doors' "Turn out the Lights" was the final wind down and a great ending to a superb performance.

Steve Bouckley (from BluesMatters magazine).

The Mississippi river, failed relationships, Jack Daniels and chickens – that was how someone once summed up the music of Steve Arvey; the superb electric blues guitarist from Chicago. The blues funk soul of the ‘Windy City’ certainly seeped into the Penrith Live Blues audience (19th Feb).

Opening for Steve Arvey with chocolately solo slide guitar was Paul Judge who kept the mood mellow before Steve and bassist Roger Inniss took the stage for a few minutes of acoustic splendour with numbers including ‘Poor Boy’ and ‘I’m Ready’.

Steve and Roger were joined by drummer Mike Hellier and, on keyboard, Jools Grudgings. The pace then leapt a couple notches and with his gritty growly vocals that seemed to come from down deep in the ground Steve flung himself into exciting inventive free-flowing guitar blues funk. The improvised texture was reminiscent of Miles Davis’ skills on stage and a wonderful bass solo by Roger very like the style of legendary bassist Stanley Clarke.

Arvey and the band were fluidly funky, rolling from Steve’s own pieces to blues classics. This was very slick musicianship, a delight to listen to and to watch. Some musicians have a practiced charisma, but Steve’s is natural. He’s a fun character, almost flirting with the audience. I’ve been listening to a live recorded CD and it really captures the feel of the gig. Steve’s website (www.stevearvey.com) has details of his albums and tour dates.

One thing was blindingly un-Chicago blues – why was a tin of John West sild fish prominently on stage with them? Was it perhaps a healthy substitute for beer and whiskey? It remained unopened – unlike the Jack Daniels!

Reviewer Fi Exon, Penrith Blues Club 2005

On a cold, windy February night in Teddington, a bit of Chicago blew into the Bluescene. Steve Arvey, singer, guitarist, showman and American-style “force of nature” had arrived.

Singer and guitarist Karen Dale started the evening with a fine blues/country acoustic set which included H Williams ‘Lovesick Blues’, and finished with a lovely version of Bonnie Raitts ‘The man I’ve been loving’, joined by SA on guitar.

Sporting a startling pink jacket, relaxed and joking with the audience, SA carried on the acoustic mood - excellent gutbucket blues picking with Roger Innis on fretless acoustic bass - Arvey's own ‘Poorboy’ & ‘Blues Messiah’, Kraig Kennings ‘Cocaine Girl’ and Barbecue Bobs ‘Mississippi heavy water blues’ – all delivered with a soul-filled, gravelly bourbon voice: shades of Howlin Wolf.

Now it was time for the electric stuff. First a powerful delivery of Willie Dixon's ‘I’m ready’ on guitar and bass. Next came ‘Big Road Blues’, a Tommy Johnson/Bukka White inspired boogie, and to complete the build up Julian Grudgings (keyboards) and shortly after Mike Hellier (drums) took to the stage and joined the proceedings. Arvey then invited up another Chicago guest, John ‘Doc’ Vilardo – the two exchanged some stunning solos on Arvey's ‘ Cold Wind from Chicago’.

The band rocked on. The highly appreciative crowd cleared a path for Arvey as he carried on playing while making forays to the bar for more Jack Daniels. There followed Chick Coreas ‘Europa’, Bobbie Rush ‘Chicken Heads’, Arveys ‘Love Ain’t Easy’, ‘Deep Elum Blues’ a traditional number with a New Orleans feel – nobody wanted it to end, but the audience went home happily clutching their ‘ Live at Cleethorpes’ CDs.

James Henderson - Bluescene, Sat 25 Feb 05

If there was a direct relationship between quality of performance and audience attendance, the pub would have been heaving tonight. Steve is an inventive guitarist with a talent for jazzy free-flowing improvisation firmly rooted in Chicago blues playing. Powerful singer too, his Howling Wolf style growl delivering lyrics with real punch. The uptempo stuff was very funky, no surprise with the Blues Move backline - bassist Roger Inniss (dig those wonderful effects-laden, wah wah driven jazzed-up solos!) and drummer Mike Hellier - providing the best bonecrunching rhythm imaginable. There was lots of spellbinding interplay between Steve's guitar and the swirling keyboards of Jools Grudgings. At times you had to gape at the band's musicianship and their combined intensity on some numbers almost took the roof off. A musical masterclass, awe-inspiring and highly recommended. Catch them if you can and buy their live CD - it's a corker!

Dave Kingsbury - Running Horse 2005

IN a previous review I described Chicago blues musician Steve Arvey as a 'force of nature', I stand by that. But just when you think you've witnessed the ultimate along comes something else. Only this time the something else was (you guessed it) Steve Arvey.

But this time the audience weren't blown away by Hurricane Arvey wafting in from the Windy City. Although he was as loud and frenetic as last time - from laconic to manic in a single riff is no problem for this blues version of Elmer Gantry. By about halfway through the second half the penny finally dropped, Arvey may snarl, growl and howl his way through the evening but this slighly more restrained (gale force on the Beaufort scale) 'alter ego' showed just what a fine, fine musician he is.

But he wasn't alone in that. What else can I say about Barrels' 'resident blues duo'? Drummer Mike Hellier and keyboard player Julian Grudgings have been up the Tweed more times than a salmon but each visit proves just how good they are. Like 'straight A' students in the company of the school rebel, they took off their tie and rocked with the best.

With them was 'guest' bassist Roger Inniss. Now I'm getting a bit sick of talented bass players, it's not in the script. Their solos are the moment for we, the talentless, to feel a bit superior. We stand and nod and say 'it's all a bit like Switzerland, technically good but ultimately pointless'. Inniss ruined all that during Chicken Heads by playing a solo that had a groove longer and deeper than the Marianas Trench. Incidentally he's coming back with Mick Pini in December, that's a guitar duel you don't want to miss.

But Steve Arvey is Steve Arvey, and while he was on his Sunday best behaviour, you can never quite tame the tiger. He didn't so much begin the gig as take a running jump at it with Cold Wind In Chicago, then cranked it up even further with a version of Voodoo Chile that would have had the Band of Gypsies thinking they'd run out of lucky charms.

Whether a little familairity breeds affection, as well as respect, I don't know but Mr Nobody, Somebody and Love Ain't Easy were the first hints that this was to be a different Steve Arvey show. Both were at the slow end of the rollercoaster and both were lapped up by an audience that I thought was a little subdued, then realised that they just wanted to listen, sometimes that's enough.

As a stage performer Steve Arvey is very deceptive, he plays on a grand scale but physically he attended the minimalist stage school. The odd Suzie Quatro 'Can the Can' kick is about your lot. Between songs he is relaxed to the point of forgetting we were there.

But when you can generate the kind of heat that Arvey does what need of theatrics? Was it hot you ask? If Sunday's gig had taken place in a health farm they'd have charged a fortune and called it 'pore cleansing'.

But the night, or my perception of it, was changing. Mardi Gras and the brilliant Soul Of A Man revealed the heart of Steve Arvey, a lot of Steve Arvey's music is about failed relationships, after those two we shared the pain. As dismissive of their power as he appeared to be, those two numbers were a confession rather than a performance.

But Steve Arvey is Steve Arvey and he may well sing 'I am A Little Red Rooster' but in his scorching version he was the fox in the henhouse, feathers flew.

As we neared the end, I couldn't help but think that an evening in the company of Steve Arvey playing acoustic blues would be much appreciated. Just to prove the point he finished off with the acoustic Blues Messiah - mind you it may not have been planned as an acoustic song but Grudgings and Inniss clocked off a bit early. However an already stunned and staggered audience were now having their spines chilled for good measure.

Michael Mee, Editor, The Hawick News

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I SUPPOSE you could call Chicago’s Steve Arvey a blues musician, you could call a cat a dog if you like. In truth he’s more a force of nature, a force that the basement of Barrels, Berwick on Tweed struggled, and at times failed, to contain. The cocktail of blues/rock and even some ‘home-grown’ country left the audience punch drunk but thirsty for more. Some people play music and look like accountants, some look like they were born to play. With 13 gigs in 12 days Arvey could be forgiven for looking a little crumpled but it all added to the bar-room blues effect. As the opening of It’s My Soul attacked the nervous system of the audience, the thought struck that, in less politically correct days, Arvey would be described as having a ‘black voice’ full of raw, undiluted emotion. And, as the band moved into A Deep Elum, any concerns at how ‘tight’ they would be with less than two hours rehearsal was quickly dispelled.

Drummer Mike Hellier and keyboard player Julian Grudgings are well known and admired but alongside Arvey, as the new boys, was Kevin Jefferies on bass. As the song rose and fell like a series of tidal waves Jefferies lived up to the expectations of a guitarist who has played with the likes of Brian May and Steve Harley. Arvey is a high-octane, testosterone-fuelled performer, probably more a man’s blues-man, How Do You Spell Love (Misery) was typical of the “if she hasn’t done him wrong yet, she’s about to’ nature of the music. It also introduced the growling Arvey, this is how Wolfman Jack would have sounded had he taken up the blues. It was not really a night for great introspection, Arvey attacked the audience with the likes of Chicken Heads (not literally of course). While all this mayhem was taking place Hellier and Jefferies held firm and Grudgings looked on indulgently rather like the music teacher roped into the 6th form band to keep an eye on things. But we knew it was all a facade and the night was peppered with magic Grudgings moments, Going Down Slow being simply the first of many.

As with all performers whose staple diet is live music, ‘if you can’t play there’s no pay’, and Arvey demonstrated often and with some style that he knew his way round a guitar, Love Ain’t Easy and the rock ‘n’ roller When I Get Drunk were prime examples. As if to show those enjoying a drink upstairs what they were missing, he joined them during a rousing ‘hellfire’ St. Peter’s. You can picture the scene: “That’ll be a pint for me, a gin and tonic for the wife and you’d better get the blues guy one as well”. The second half was introduced as something different! Different? After what had gone before, well he managed to draw the emotional rack tight with Blues Messiah a song that mentioned crossroads, who could he have been on about? After the pure stadium rock, with obligatory guitar solo, of WRFG it was time for the audience to earn their corn during You Can’t Always Get What You Want, they passed with flying colours. The encore was the title track of It’s A Fine Line and Arvey by now was playing it for all he was worth, you could see the man was loving it. Was it loud? Well I don’t envisage sinus trouble for a while. Speaking afterwards Arvey said he’d like to come back and play some acoustic blues and that’s a mouthwatering prospect. Me? I’m off to Cleethorpes, by-passing Guisborough.

Michael Mee

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