Justin Torpey

The Sweetwater in Mill Valley, CA was a legendary place to play as it was not uncommon for Marin luminaries from Bay Area bands like the Grateful Dead to inevitably stumble in. Downstairs in the basement of the Sweetwater was like a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame museum with collectables and art as so many famous Bay Area musicians donated memorabilia to the long-time proprietor Jeanie Patterson. Jeanie was dedicated to American roots music and she was kind enough to let us fill a hole in her calendar from time to time. The Sativa Blue lineup for this show was the same as the Wednesday Night Showcase and Paradise Lounge shows from 1996, and features a lot of the same material.

This live performance from The Maritime Hall in San Francisco on October 16, 1996 was captured and preserved in stereo on a two-track DAT tape and subsequently tossed in a drawer.  Fast forward over 25 years and the remastered tracks are great for posterity, or a fun trip down memory lane. The previous Maritime Hall show was recorded in June 1996 and released on a CD entitled Wednesday Night Showcase.  This second Maritime Hall concert coincided with the CD release party of Wednesday Night Showcase. Most of the tracks feature Chick T on vocals, along with Justin's vocals on Tore Down and Jason Moen doing his signature classic original, Wastin' Time.  The band was really stretching out at this phase, and the Rhapsody recordings had already begun.

The Blue Lamp was a dive bar in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco for over 75 years. This show was recorded live on January 18, 1997. Sativa Blue played monthly at the Blue Lamp for years in the 1990's. We also played at the nearby Biscuits & Blues near Union Square which was a much nicer supper club for tourists with better pay. When Biscuits & Blues told us we couldn't play there AND the Blue Lamp, we began using an alias for our gigs at the dive bars. The Imperials included Elvis on drums and John McGee on bass. This show featured a scorching guest guitarist, Shawn Ridley, a Bay Area legend now residing up in California gold country.

This was recorded live at the Paradise Lounge in San Francisco on March 14, 1997. The Imperials featured Elvis on drums and John McGee on bass, who had spent 10 years on the road touring with Albert King, in addition to tours with B.B. King, Bobby Bland, and John Lee Hooker. Those are just the ones I remember. The band played straight blues without relying on any Sativa Blue original material. John was a true blues professional and didn't like to rehearse because he didn't need to. For a power trio this is the best live recording we ever made - it was an epic show.