With the recent rise of a “new breed” of blues, including the White Stripes, the Black Keys and Mississippi’s Fat Possum record label, it seems a simple matter of time before more heroes will soon be noticed and celebrated. Galveston, Texas’ may be one of those soon-to-be-legends of this new crop and he’s on his way to Colorado to play a handful of dates as part of a winter tour. Loomis and his band will play the this Friday night after a two-day stint at the Tugboat in Steamboat Springs.
Not only is Loomis a natural heir to Texas boogie, but his style is steeped heavily in funk (of the Parliament and Prince variety), as well as Chicago blues, jazz, rhythm & blues, soul and just a shade of pure, white-hot rock. And itap no wonder he’s got it down — from 16 on he’s been mentored by and played right along with legendary performers like Joe “Guitar” Hughes, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and the late, great Bo Diddley.
Loomis’ current tour is slated to cover a lot of cold, cold ground in just about three weeks.
“We affectionately call this tour our annual “tundra tour,” because we travel up into the high country while so many other bands are home and warm — which means we get all the gigs,” said Loomis in a phone conversation recently. The band will travel from Colorado through Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Arkansas and Oklahoma before heading back home to Texas by the end of January.
Loomis is proud to call performers like Parliament Funkadelic and Prince strong influences, and you can hear hints of both bands behind his wild guitar wrangling and smooth, confident vocals.
“See, when I grew up, I did spend all that time with guys..but it was also the ’80s, and we had MTV, y’know? I studied jazz in college. But my philosophy about music came about by accident. As a musician, you absorb all you can from what you find around you. Prince really influenced my rhythm guitar style, and he got his from James Brown’s guitarists.”
When Loomis takes the stage, his style also bears a heavy resemblance to guitar masters like Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and of course the ages of learning he absorbed from his famous mentors.
“These men gave me lessons about life, not just about the blues, or performing. They all taught me life lessons.”
While he’s careful never to understate his many mentors’ influences, Loomis gravitates back to the words of Bo Diddley that have become a mantra for him: “Innovate. Don’t Imitate.”
“I’m honored to think that the ‘heavy hitters’ appreciated how we would take their music and add it to ours,” said Loomis. “And I think we’ve done that.”
Don’t miss this chance to see a master in the making tonight at the Buffalo Rose in Golden, or Saturday night in Boulder at the Outlook Hotel (this gig offers limited space, so plan quickly).
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Billy Thieme is a Denver-based writer, an old-school punk and a huge follower of Denver’s vibrant local music scene. Follow Billy’s explorations at , and his giglist at .
