Blues night out: Trampled Under Foot, Q-Bus Leiden

You can listen to and buy 'Wrong side of the blues' here.

"Everything is gonna be allright this morning, Whoa!" Trampled Under Foot is a three piece family blues band from Kansas, Missouri that has it all down. Terrifically tight and so much fun. My body went back and forth and from left to right in the different tempos of the blues. TUF is all about the Schebelen family. Danielle plays bass and guitar and sings, Kris drums and Nick plays guitar and sings. Like their parents did some years back, the Schnebelen trio plays the blues as it should be played.

Trump card is Danielle, who has this great raspy voice able to show all sorts of emotions. From happy to extremely sad. She's no Janis Joplin, which is quite healthy by the way, but sang us these slowed down blues ballads that Janis or Aretha Franklin could have sung. Danielle Schnebelen showed the Q-Bus audience what she really got. Evoking a great pain from somewhere deep inside, hurt beyond believe or jealous like no one has felt ever before. She gave it all in those songs. Where Nick shows his ability to play so extremely subtle, with all the big and little notes in all the right places. Great, great, intense beauty was shared with us lucky ones.

TUF excels in several blues styles. Up tempo, ballads, shuffles, Texas shuffles, boogie and Bob Dylan. (Yes, I coincidentally wore the right t-shirt.) The band plays originals and covers. 'I'm in the mood' came by, a song from a band called Southern Harmony, ol' Bob like I already said, 'Don't think twice'. Nick plays all these different styles. He may not be the new Jimi Hendrix or Stevie Ray Vaughn, perhaps not even my guitar teacher of old, Frank van Veen, but Nick Schnabelen has all these chops down without pyrotechnics. Just clean good old guitar playing, without one single effect. Just his two hands, guitar, toggle switch and amp. All these beautiful sounds were brought forward.

Nick also did a one man band country blues slide act in which Muddy Waters and Led Zeppelin came together in his songs. Third member Kris sits in the background keeping things together and let it rip in a good old-fashioned drumsolo. I could not keep from watching his left hand as all these drum rolls came from that while the right hand work on the accents. How long will he keep this up?, I wondered. So supple. Danielle also plays bass in a great way. From functional to great lead notes. It all just sticks out

A blues band a day keeps the rain away? If only, the getting wet part tonight was more than worth it. Trampled Under Foot is a great blues band with a great singer. Watch out for its new album 'Badlands' that is released on 9 July.

Wo.