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REMEMBERING MAI
Rockin’ with the Howl
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Last Thursday was a night for musical remembrances and rebirths in Harvard and Inman Squares. The remembrance was a memorial for the late disc jockey Mai Cramer, who died two years ago from cancer, and whose absence after 24 years of playing blues on WGBH 89.7 FM is still felt by the local music community. The core of the band 2120 South Michigan Avenue — Cramer’s husband, Peter Ward, on guitar, his brother Michael "Mudcat" Ward on bass, harmonica player Charles Sawyer, and drummer John Hoik — joined by piano ace David Maxwell convened at Squawk Coffeehouse in the Harvard Epworth Methodist Church to pay tribute. After a stand-up comic and a member of the Biker Poets took the open mike, the music commenced with laid-back but heartfelt versions of the Little Walter classic "Blues with a Feeling" and Big Walter’s instrumental "Easy" that showcased Peter Ward’s elegant way with a Stratocaster and Sawyer’s smooth, warm note-bending style. Peter also sang a song he’d written about Mai detailing how they met and their love of music and life together. The receptive crowd, many of whom were friends or fans of Cramer, roared at the performance of local blues diva Shirley Lewis, who came to the stage to sing two originals, "I’m Your Rocker" and "All Alone," that she topped with vocal gymnastics like soaring to the peak of her range in a gospel flutter and scatting notes in a call-and-response with Ward’s guitar. A mile or so down the road at the Abbey Lounge, Worcester-based band the Howl’s local debut was a rebirth of sorts for the respected guitarist Troy Gonyea. After leading his own regional group and building a national reputation as a blues guitarist with the Fabulous Thunderbirds for the past two years, Gonyea has made the transition to rock and roll and done it gloriously. Surrounded by home-town buddies bassist Jeff Berg, drummer Tommy Callahan, and organist Mark Stevens, he led a set of powerful psychedelic boogie, his big-boned guitar work and edgy vocals at the fore. The Howl’s ensemble playing was muscular, covering much of the same nuevo-retro territory as Gov’t Mule but upping the ante with punk-rockers like "Do the Curl Up and Die," which would have fit comfortably on a Dead Boys set list in 1978. And their sound and dynamism were already too big for the Abbey’s tiny stage and easily distorted PA. No question that the Howl are an important new arrival on the scene. (2120 South Michigan Avenue play Zeitgeist Gallery, 1353 Cambridge Street in Inman Square, on Thursday August 26 at 9:30 p.m.; call 617-876-6060.)
BY TED DROZDOWSKI
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