Blues band gives audience a taste of rock, jazz, polka, whatever

By Jerry Fink

Wednesday, July 29, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Station Casinos’ blues fans may never have seen an act like Jason Ricci & New Blood.

“The show is ridiculous,” Ricci says during a telephone interview from Orlando, Fla. “It’s different every night. When I say it’s ridiculous, there are moments in the show that are absurd. I could do an entire evening of just blues songs or I could end up in a Speedo. There’s no guarantee that either one of those is going to happen.”

The 35-year-old harmonica player and vocalist describes his band as “reactionary.”

“What we do depends on what kind of energy we’re getting from the crowd,” he says. “The crowd gets what they give back to the band. If they just sit there and clap after great solos, then we will do a show that accommodates that. If they want to have fun and get a little wild, we’ll do that with them. Whatever they want, they’re going to get.”

The freewheeling stage presence comes from the band’s love of all kinds of music.

“Not just punk rock or blues,” Ricci says. “Everything from classical to alternative to heavy metal. You name it. Anything you can name. Jazz. Any kind of music you can imagine. Polka. No kidding, we have a waltz on the new record. If it’s good and it’s sincere and the musicianship is somewhat reasonable or has lots of soul, one or the other or both, I’m interested in listening to it. And once I get involved into listening to something I can’t help but incorporate some element of it into the show — but it’s not just one person’s vision, it’s the whole band’s.”

Jason Ricci & New Blood make their Las Vegas debut Thursday at Boulder Station and play Friday at Texas Station.

It isn’t your typical blues band. You’ll never catch B.B. King in a Speedo.

And Ricci isn’t your typical blues musician.

For one thing, he’s gay, which he says has had an effect on his career.

“Sure it’s been an obstacle. How could it not be?” he says. “We’ve been boycotted by blues societies. Not invited back to clubs or not invited to clubs. Kicked off of festivals when they found out. The real damage I’ll never know. How many people don’t bother to tell me and just don’t book me because of it?”

But the occasional bias doesn’t prevent Ricci and his band from working.

“We’re pretty much on the road all the time,” he says. “It’s one constant, never-ending tour.”

Ricci has been performing professionally since age 18. He was always fascinated by the harmonica, which led him to the blues.

“All the good harmonica guys were blues guys, so I started listening to blues just to learn how to play so I could use it to play punk rock,” he says. “Then I ended up falling in love with the music.”

The late blues harmonica legend Pat Ramsey was the biggest influence on his music, but Ricci says every form of music has had an effect.

“If I had to name all the musicians who influenced me we’d have to do it genre by genre,” he says. “We’d have to start with classical and work our way up.”

In 2008 Ricci and the band released their debut, “Rocket Number 9,” which made it to No. 4 on the Billboard blues chart.

Their follow-up, “Done With the Devil,” was released in April. It’s more of a collaboration between Ricci, guitarist Shawn Starski, bassist Todd Edmunds and drummer Ed Michaels.

“We locked ourselves in a room for a week and the music is wonderful,” he says. “The results speak for themselves. Lyrically, the record is excellent. I’m proud of the stuff I wrote and played. The song writing on this record is really top rate.”

Before launching into another project, the band is promoting the latest album.

“I always have ideas in my head, jotting them down in a notebook,” Ricci says. “I write from life experience. I’m not like a Delbert McClinton guy who gets a catchphrase and goes, ‘Oh! There’s a song in there.’ I wait for something to happen to me and then I write about it.

“I’m not saying that the other guys that write that way, that their music isn’t good, but I have to sell my records. I have to sing the songs every night. It’s hard enough to put your heart and soul into something every night and mean it.”