Robin Moxey rocks Highway 99

I'm more worried about the Alaskan Way viaduct than are most engineers. If Robin Moxey plays many more gigs at the Highway 99 Blues Club, which sits right under the city's favorite roadway, the whole thing is going to come tumbling down sooner than anyone thinks. The dude rocks and he rocks hard!

Moxey delighted with his hard-driving blues rock show Jan. 2 at Highway 99. He opened the first of three sets with Weisenheimer's favorite tune on the Moxey playlist, a lengthy, driving cover of "Papa Was a Rolling Stone." The first set also included a couple of tracks from Moxey's album One Big Song: "Everything Changes" and "Keep on Moving." It closed out with the Allen Toussaint classic "Sneaking Sally Through the Alley."

Set two featured a new twist, as Moxey and band were joined by a woman lead singer, "Lady A" of Lady A and the Baby Blues Funk Band, for a couple of numbers: "Go Home to Your Wife" and George Jackson's "Down Home Blues." The new sound was a treat, but the vocals always seem secondary to the Moxey Band. The words are just bookends to their lengthy, electric, rocking jams. Moxey has a great band, with keyboardist Eric Robert and Montana's Bendickson brothers, Aaron, Jason, and Sean. Robert is particularly in demand; he played with Lee Oskar at Highway 99 on Halloween. Set two also featured a rendition of Big Joe Williams's "Big Legged Women, Keep Your Dressess Down," the Meters's "People Say," and Dylan's "She Belongs to Me."

The third and final set on the night started with the Taj Mahal tune "Take a Giant Step," into which Moxey always manages to work the chorus of Marshall Tucker's "Can't You See." Then there was another Moxey original, "How Long?" They closed out with another Meters classic, "I Just Kissed My Baby," and the Eugene McDaniels tune, "Real, Compared to What?" They finished the evening with an encore, the Hendrix hit "Voodoo Child."

Weisenheimer and Sweetie the Scorer discovered Moxey by accident. We'd been taking a blues dancing class and wanted to get out and practice. There he was. We've heard him play several times since. He always entertains with a screaming, rocking, high-octane show. Check him out if you get a chance. He's not on the club's calendar for the rest of January, but you can keep an eye on him, watch some videos, and download some tracks, on the Moxey MySpace page.