The B.Rad Blues Band

Brad Rumery of the B.Rad Blues Band

While the South Bay has come to be musically renowned for its punk and reggae scene, we do dabble in a bit of everything, from electronic and pop to jazz and hip hop. But with the loss of Boogaloo as our go-to sanctuary hub for southern roots music, has our local Blues element become as faded as your denim jacket from 1983? The B.Rad Blues Band doesn’t know, and they probably don’t care; they just do the Blues because the Blues does them.

“To me, Blues is raw, vibrant, unadulterated, earthy and real,” says Brad Rumery, South Bay native and founder of the B.Rad Blues Band. “As Robert Lucas of Canned Heat once said to me, the Blues is the only original pure American music -before rock, before jazz.”

The B.Rad Blues Band is Brad Rumery (vocals, guitar, songwriter), Robert Lovato (drums), and Paul Alford (bass). Alford was born and raised in Oklahoma, but now lives in the South Bay; for 8 years he and his wife had a local top 40 band called The Mix. Lovato grew up in Hollywood and as a music major he headed his own band called Rock and Blue for four years, touring another 15 with Kelly and the Cowboys. He and Rumery met at a local Blues jam and decided to start a band.

“Any given night when we don’t have a show, you could find me at one or more Pro Blues Jams,” says Rumery, having played in over 60 of them from here to Vegas. “I’ve met some killer musicians at the jams – LA Jones, Lightning Willie, Oklahoma Ollie, Coco Montoya…”

The boys gig locally at least a couple times a month, typically at Suzy’s and Club 705 in Hermosa Beach. They’ll be performing tomorrow, Friday, at Suzy’s, 8 p.m.

Drawing primarily on the old masters, the B.Rad Blues Band dips a hand into all blues. This includes Southern Memphis Blues, Chicago Blues, Rock Blues, Whiskey Blues, and West Coast Swing Blues. They have penned a bundle of originals and perform them to favorable reception alongside covers influenced by Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Roosevelt Sikes, Snooky Pryor, Albert Collins, Lowell Fulson, and the three Kings – Albert, Freddie, and BB.

“Everybody in Blues does covers,” says Rumery. “It’s how you learn, how you grow by learning from your betters… We like to rock them up a bit and throw in some funk,” he concedes. “But you gotta show respect, gotta keep the rhythm true.”

Rumery is a man of tradition: “Songs are handed down through generations… It’s tradition, like an oral tradition – an aural tradition… With B.rad Blues we try to do songs that aren’t heard everywhere else, with respect for tradition… But we try to lift everything so it’s danceable and your feet can’t stop themselves.”

Out of tradition, Rumery also always wears a suit when he performs.

“My dad’s folks were from Memphis,” he says. “My Granddad always wore crisp suits and shiny wing tips… My dad wore suits too, but Granddad always sported a hand-rolled cigarette, and a sleek hat on his bald-as-an-egg head that he’d doff to any female he’d meet, with a “howdy ma’am”, in a deep whisky drawl…  They’re both gone now, but I kinda like keeping that tradition alive too.”

One thing Rumery doesn’t seem to have trouble keeping alive is that whisky-breath voice. His vocals make as much sense with the blues as cigarettes with coffee.

“I like everything about the Blues… the rhythm… melodic scale… sad, sweet stories… celebrations… and double entendres,” he says. “I sing from the heart, I play from the soul.”

Rumery didn’t always do the Blues. In fact, for a good 30 years he didn’t really play much music at all.

He elaborates. “I was a music major at Loyola, and took a 2 year program at Camino, including a personal vocal coach – mine was Dr. Gordon Orme, a Broadway actor from the 1930s. As useless as it may seem, I once could sing arias in five different languages… Well, the pressures of family necessity weighed on me a bit… I ended up selling my guitars and amps to pay the rent.”

With the advent of children and maturity, Rumery’s fingers grew accustomed to a different set of keys.

“I spent pretty much the next 30 years going to college one class at a time… changed majors along the way… finally getting my degree a couple years ago in Internet Security, and with summa cum laude too.”

With children reasonably grown up, a long earned degree finally settled in his back pocket, and a bit more time on his hands, Rumery would come to find music again.

“After I graduated, my wife Betsy gave me ‘the look’ and asked me if I didn’t have something to do that would get me out from underfoot. “Don’t you like to go and play blues?” she asked. I graduated on a Wednesday; by Friday I was back out at a jam.”

The B.Rad Blues Band performs at 8 p.m. tomorrow (Friday) at Suzy’s, 1141 Aviation Blvd., in Hermosa Beach. They’ll also be at Ricky Gene’s in Lomita at 9 p.m. on March 4. Contact them at bradblues.com. Their original songs can also be heard on DirtyHippieRadio.com. ER

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