The 4th annual Jamaica Blues Jam (aka Jamaica Rock 'n' Blues Jam) is now in the history books as the most successful yet. The credit goes to the fine group of people that came down to the Hedonism III resort with making music on their minds. This year there were 2 host bands: The Blind Dog Cooley Band with Blake Throckmorton on drums, Mike Green on bass, and of course the one and only Blind Dog himself. Just to watch and hang with these guys would be worth the price of admission alone! They definitely got it goin' on. The 2nd band was the Other Band: Jeff Gibbons on guitar, Steve Springer on drums, and myself on bass. I've known Jeff and Steve for years and have performed with them in various bands. These guys Rock!! And they even let me up on stage!?! How cool!

But the real stars are and were the folks that came to jam! Keep in mind that the only ones who knew each other were the host bands. We had never met any of the people coming down! And as they were brought up on stage, that's when the magic began to unfold. Blind Dog's crew kicked off the first jam of the week in the main dining room on Monday at 12:00 noon.

First up was Bobby Danuff, guitarist from New York. Bobby had been in touch with Lynne, the promoter of the jam, and had wanted to play as much as possible. We were all thrilled when Bob took off on "My first lead break in years" and blew us all away. Smiles all the way around, especially from Bobby! They had to keep things moving, so 3 songs later it was time to change out jammers.

Second up were Kathy and Jim Entsminger from Nashville. Come on, players from Nashville, Tenn.? I expected this to be good and was not disappointed at all! Jim, on guitar laid down polished yet rootsy riffs while coaxing the band with cues at the appropriate times, while the lovely Kathy belted out a Delbert McClinton song. Then swooned us with a great version of Guilty. NICE!

Next up. Oh No! It's me!? Mike Green tapped me to come up and play a while. After all, this is Jamaica and there's no AC on stage. It's hot! And so was the music! I joined Jim, Kathy, Blind Dog and Blake for few more tunes. Next, Steve from Florida came up to take Blake's place on the drums. After sitting behind the drums, Steve said, "I haven't done this in a while. Hope I can." Guess what? He did! With a little coaching, things turned out great! GOOD JOB, Steve! That's what the jam is all about.

A little later, Jeff took Jim's place and soon, Sweetness from the Hedonism Entertainment Staff came up and sang the old Patsy Cline song, Crazy. I'll tell ya what, that lady can sing some "Country"!

We all finished up about 2:00pm and just hung for a while talking and eating from the fabulous food at the main dining room buffet. Great music, food, drinks, and, meeting great, new people. Good Times, Good Times. YOU DON'T GET THIS EVERY DAY!

There was no jam scheduled that evening, so we all enjoyed some of the amenities the resort had to offer. Trust me there is plenty of stuff to do. Or if one prefers, just chillin'. A lot of us hung out at the Quad Pool's swim up bar until dinner. The main buffet had a staggering array of food to choose from. Everything is always wonderful, and you cannot go away hungry. All you can eat of anything offered to eat. WOW!

Tuesday, it was The Other Band hosting the jam. Bobby was back as well as Kathy and Jim. Now that we had all met and had one session behind us, it was time to try other songs. We played around with different combinations of players including members of Blind Dog's band. It worked every time! Later, Brian from Fort Worth got up and played harmonica. Cool! The jamming continued until 2:00pm or so and we finished up just in time to snag a meal from that killer buffet.

The evening jam was to be held at the Nude Pool. I've heard it said that if you are uncomfortable on stage, try picturing your audience naked. "WHOA, HOLD ON! EVERYONE IS NAKED! Hey Jeff, check out how blue the ocean is today! I've never see the water look so blue!" :-) Everybody was back to jam and we did. Another fun set. Just for the record, the bands are considered staff while we are performing, therefore we must wear clothes. There is always one big tradition immediately falling a show at the Nude Pool, but you'll need to come to Jamaica to see it.

The next day would bring new friends. Bind Dog took the main stage Wed. for the afternoon jam. A gentleman that identified himself only as Shaft, came and sang an "original" tune that he had just written about his Lady. An original tune? That's usually a jammer's worst nightmare. All fears were quelled when Shaft said "Gimme a Linda Lou type shuffle in whatever key you want." He sang the one song and left with a smiling Lady on his arm. Missy and Steve Eng from New York were up next. Steve plays a style akin to bluegrass and folk. He also does this Travis style picking and gave the blues tunes we did a whole new feel! He even sang a few tunes. Right nicely too! He has a band back home that does festivals and 'knows his way around the stage'. It worked great! Missy played a hand drum (I can't remember the name of it), but she tore it up! By the end of the week she would have a huge bruise on her leg from holding that drum, but never once dropping the beat! Chuck from Virginia was called up to play drums, he hung with us for 4 songs before saying goodbye and bringing Blake back up to finish the set. Chuck did a fine job. Toward the end of the set Mike got me up on bass again while he and Ebony from the Hedonism Entertainment sang background vocals on some tunes. How cool! Wednesday afternoon was a blast! But, the lunch bell had been ringing, so it was time to wind down and put on the ole feeding bag. I wonder what's on the menu today? Something good I'm sure!

At the evening jam, Blind Dog was back with a lot of the hard core jammers in tow. There was another newcomer to join us. Pedro Lancaster from Maryland came up and played harmonica like nobody's business! He even brought his own mike to use. He played a song, then sang a song, and then picked up a guitar and played some more. This guy is a true blues man. Soon Bobby came up and played followed by Steve and Missy. As Steve sang "I got my Mojo working", Nola from the Hedonism dining room staff got up on stage after much prompting by her co-workers to dance and sing along. A little shy at first, but by 5 or 6 bars into the tune there was no holding her back. TOO MUCH FUN! Flash cameras going off left and right just added to her enthusiasm. After a rousing round of applause she thanked everyone and resumed her duties in the dining room. Nola, you go girl! Ya see, that is the spirit of this whole jamming in Jamaica thing. Ya wanna play an instrument? How about singing? How about singing and dancing? Or maybe just playing a tambourine? [more on that later] Good folks having a good time on stage! FUN! FUN! FUN! Mike tapped me to play once more, so I joined Kathy and Jim for a few tunes. Kathy looked stunning and sounded wonderful. She did 3 songs and let the boys on stage finish the set. Tonight was special. I loved it!

The Other Band hosted the jam on the main stage Thursday at noon. Things were thinning out a bit. A lot of people were leaving in anticipation of Hurricane Ivan's arrival. But there were some folks that were just getting there. Steve Springer and his wife Betty caught a flight out so Blake filled in on drums. Along with Jeff and myself, we continued the festivities. Joining us on stage, was Pedro playing harp, guitar, slide guitar and singing. Steve and Missy played a Bob Dylan tune as well as a few other songs. Wow, by this time that bruise on her leg was getting big. But she just kept on a drumming! Bobby came up and kept on 'doing his thang' and grinning ear to ear. Nancy from Florida had just got in the day before. She had brought her tambourine and was ready to do it! We met her last year and convinced her to play with us. I even got her to do a tambourine solo that year. Next year she promises to tie brightly colored scarves to it. We are all getting kinda used to playing together so things are sounding real good! Before you know it our time was up! Gotta go hit that buffet again. I can't wait for the evening jam!

It turned out that Thursday noon would be the last scheduled jam for the week, due in large to the hard working resort people preparing the facilities for the approaching storm. Nick, the Entertainment Coordinator for Hedonism III, informed me that all the equipment on stage was going to be stored in a secured place and would not be available to us. He reluctantly told me that for safety reasons they were canceling a lot of the activities including the jam. It was up to me to break the news to everyone else. What could we do? Everybody understood. Lynne and I spent part of the day preparing our downstairs room by moving everything up as high as we could. We then spent the rest of the day watching the Hedonism staff people scurrying about boarding windows, storing chairs and tables, boats and anything that could become airborne. It was a major effort to say the least. All the while still pampering the guests! Amazing!

Thursday evening was called 'The Hurricane Bar Crawl', mainly because all other entertainment had ceased, and the bars were beginning to shut down and store stuff. We were searching for open bars, thus the "crawl". Everyone at the resort did manage to find liquid refreshments. The 'Hurricane Party' had begun.

All weather reports indicated that Ivan should hit the island Friday 'noonish' and the resort was getting ready. The Italian restaurant Pastafari was set aside and prepped as the Hurricane Shelter. It adjoins the kitchen and main offices and was therefore deemed the safest place to ride out the category 5 storm. Lynne told me that Super Clubs, the parent company of Hedonism III who built this resort, built it to withstand hurricane force 5 winds! That would turn out to be an asset. In addition to Pastafari, the Quad section is a four building complex that was built to the same standards. The management decided to move all remaining guests to the Quad section. This way, everyone would be in the same place in the event that we needed to evacuate to the Pastafari restaurant.

As it turned out, Ivan did not arrive until Friday night. During this time, the storm approached the island and took a hard left 35 miles from the island, and then continued to the west. The south end of the island caught the brunt of the storm. We, in turn, were spared. So Mr. Levee, the General Manager, decided that it would be okay for us to spend the night in our rooms. The preparations that Lynne & I had taken were fruitful, and we survived the night. Not much sleep due to the fire alarms going off repeatedly, but relieved nonetheless that we had survived unscathed.

Touring the grounds the next morning revealed trees and debris everywhere. But no one was hurt. The majority of Jamaica did not fare as well. The whole island was without power, and much of it without water. As far as the guests of the other resorts island wide, we at Hedonism III were the pampered few. I cannot express enough gratitude for their concern for our well-being. In spite of the personal hardships of many staff members, their main focus of attention was the resort guests. I never saw a frown on anyone's face. And when I did ask how their families fared the storm, I received heartfelt reports of riding out the storm. WOW ! Courageous people.

With the jam being canceled, it appeared that there wasn't much to do, except wait for the airport to open so we could leave. On Saturday, a few members of the host bands suggested that we go to the piano bar and have a little get-together. That started about 2:00 p.m. Word got around, and before you know it, the place was packed! It soon became very obvious that a crowd had gathered at the piano bar. Someone in charge decided we needed a bartender, so the bar opened 2 hours early. OH YEAH! PARTY TIME! This turned out to the ultimate jam of the week, and went on until almost 8:00 p.m. All the jammers were there at one time or another. We even got George, the guitar player from the house band, to play bass and guitar. Fun, fun, fun.

Although I didn't attend it, there was also a spontaneous accoustic jam later on the front entrance drive to the resort. It included such notables as Blind Dog, Pedro, Dave Ulrich, Bobby and Vladamir, who is a member of the Circus staff. Wish I had been there. I heard it was killer.

Although the Jamaica Rock 'n' Blues Jam was supposed to end on Sunday, we were unable to get flights out until later in the week. The resort kindly and graciously granted us the extra stay. I wouldn't have missed all of this for the world. The storm was scary. But in retrospect, what an experience! I'll never forget it!

If you've never been to an all-inclusive resort, especially one that hosts musical jams, you should not miss the next Jamaica Jam. All the food, drinks, activities and music you can stand. No extra charge. I've been doing this for 4 years, and I want to do this as long as the Jamaica Jam people want me to. No problem, Mon. The 5th Annual Jamaica Rock 'n' Blues Jam is Sept 4-11, 2005. It is so much fun that my few paragraphs can't even attempt to convey the good times.