Jersey Gin Joints

Do you remember that scene in the bio-pic “Ray,” where they show a young Ray Charles sitting in gin joints in the South listening to old guys jam out on Blues tunes? I couldn’t stop thinking about that scene last week when I was at an open mic in Marlton. We walked into this bar on a Wednesday night in the middle of the New Jersey suburbs, and there’s this group of guys wailing on some Blues, Classic Rock, and Pop.

Now, these are not guys who pick up a guitar every once in a while. These are guys who are seriously talented. Like, you could pay good money to hear them play at a venue, and it would be worth every cent. They can sing, they can play, they can perform. Some of them used to play with name acts. Big names. What’s even cooler is that many of them are multi-instrumentalists. It was amazing to watch them take turns soloing, or jump from bass to drums and back again.

It was pretty nerve-wracking to get up and play in the middle of that, but we did, and we had a great time. We even had one of the fellas sit in on drums. This guy has never even heard our song, but he just picked up his sticks and together we jammed on original Adams Wilson tunes. And it actually sounded good! The songs took on a whole new character.

I personally don’t understand why people pay $200 bucks or more to see an act that’s been playing the same tunes for 20-30 years when you can walk into a bar in the middle of Camden County and hear these guys play for free. The next Ray Charles or Springsteen could be playing at a bar in your neighborhood. You could meet him. You could even jam with him! Are you gonna stay home and watch the Voice instead? :)