Popa Chubby - River Street Jazz Cafe 9-10-10

Popa Chubby, back at the Jazz Cafe. This is probably my 15th or so time seeing him. If he came to town more often, the number would be higher.
For the uninitiated, Popa's music is a nice mix of Freddie King and Stevie Ray with lots of ball-busting attitude thrown in for good measure. He is a master of the guitar and his songs often stretch out to 15 minute jams full of tons of licks from his bottomless bag of tricks.
He played two sets tonight, the first of which was full of the old classics, "Stress Will Kill You Every Time", "Sweet Goddess of Love & Beer" and "Same Old Blues" to name a few.
Near the end of the first set, things got a little weird. Poppa decided to read a passage from his forthcoming book "Road Rot - Tales from the Road".
Now as much as I appreciate his humor and enjoy reading his stories on the website, a 20 minute story in a seedy jazz club, smack dab in the middle of a blistering set, seemed ill-timed. Many people took this as an opportunity to grab a smoke and some left and didn't bother coming back.
A short story in the middle of a night of drunken blues was not really working with this crowd.
Anyway, after that little detour, the music continued with a smokin' version of Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door". Never heard Popa do this one before but would love to hear it again because it rocked.
After a short break, Popa and the band were back. They opened with a 9 minute instrumental that transformed into Otis Redding's "Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay". After that we were treated to a 20 minute instrumental jam that was reminiscent of the Allman Brothers with it's peaks and valleys.
The set closer was "Sweat" from his 1995 release Booty and the Beast. I think Popa has probably played this song every time I've seen him and it never gets old. Great tune.
The only small disappointment of the night was the omission of "Somebody Let the Devil Out". Being that the song was inspired by the bombing of the Twin Towers and it was now 9/11, I thought for sure he would dust that one off.
In any case, it was another night of smokin' guitar from Popa and a great night out with the boys.
Let's hope Popa continues to make his way back to Wilkes-Barre, or Wil-kes Berry or Wilkes-Berry. I don't care how he says it, as long as he never forgets us.