Becki Sue & Her Big Rockin' Daddies!
High Energy - Low Down - Blues to the Bone! Article written by Arny Bailey Back to Cover
I first saw Becki Sue & Her ________
Big Rockin Daddies! a few years ago at a small club on the outskirts of town. They rocked then so when I showed up at Redmond Town Center last Thursday night in the rain, it was no surprise they’d be rockin’ again in spite of low turn out due entirely to weather. Still, there were those like me that decided it was better to sit in the rain enjoying some up-tempo live blues sung by a beautiful gal than to __
be at home watching Dancing with the Project Runway Stars of Shear Genius or whatever else was appearing on estrogen TV that night. So, there I sat….in the rain….alone….having a great time.
There were actually quite a few people and a smattering of kids (notice I didn’t include “kids” in with “people”) who braved the drizzle to swing to the evenings’ entertainment. In addition to ____
some very seasoned musicians and a very tight sound (they’ve had no line-up changes in over 4 years), they were all very open and friendly and took time to shoot the breeze with everyone who made their way to the stage, including yours truly.
Although Becki Sue looked great in her spaghetti strap polka-dot dress and high heels, I gotta give the award for coolest dressed cat on stage to Jeff Hayes on drums. He was wearing a gold silk pant and shirt combo that would turn Elton John’s head. The biggest cat on stage even when sitting down behind the kit, he said he got the outfit from a 70’s throw back store somewhere in Mississippi. According to Jeff, “It had been sitting on the hanger since 1970….along with the store owners.”
The band consists of Becki Sue on vocals (and a killer tambourine), Tom “T-Boy Neal” Boyle on guitar, Les White on upright bass and vocals, Jim King on tenor sax, blues harp and vocals, and Jeff Hayes on drums sporting the groovy threads.
They have an impressive list of appearances and accomplishments since forming back in 2001 under the brand of The T-Boy Neal Band. They have traveled to the Mississippi delta, performing at The Arkansas Blues & Heritage Festival (aka The King Biscuit Blues Festival) in Helena, Arkansas; they have performed in Clarksdale, Mississippi, the home of "The Crossroads" where Highways 61 & 49 intersect at actor Morgan Freeman's Ground Zero Blues Club; played a "Northwest Blues Double Bill" along with The Paul DeLay Band at a juke joint called Sarah's Kitchen and recorded some "live in the studio" tracks at Studio 61, also located in Clarksdale.
In 2007 they represented The Washington Blues Society at The 2007 International Blues Challenge (IBC) by performing two acclaimed sets at The Hard Rock Cafe on Beale Street in Memphis, TN. In this same year they were honored with five Best Blues Awards, coming from 12 total nominations, by The Washington Blues Society including: Best Blues Band, ___
Best Electric Guitar (T-Boy), Best Bass, Performer of the Year (Becki Sue) and Female Vocalist of the Year (Becki Sue).
Also in 2007, the band released a new CD, "Big City Blues" which has been receiving a fair amount of airplay locally as well as being listed as #6 on XM Radio Bluesville 74's "Picks to Click" list for the week of October 13, 2007. Numerous other nominations, selections and endorsements have followed and the band seems to be on the rise. It’s no wonder. The talent pool has no shallow end.
Photo by Jeff Settle -
_____Becki
Sue - Lead Voclas
A native of Tumwater, Washington, burst on to the local blues scene in 2002 after coming to the attention of then co-worker T-Boy. “I had heard her sing Karaoke and asked her to learn a few blues songs to sing in my band. In about 2 weeks she had learned 30 songs and the rest is history.” After a few nights turning heads at the local blues jams, gigging with "The Tim Sherman Band", and ____
teaming with Tom Boyle in "The T-Boy Neal Band", T-Boy recognized a good thing and invited her to sing with the band full time, changing the name to Becki Sue & Her Big Rockin Daddies!
Becki Sue uses a Sennheiser wireless mic most of the time, but just
recently acquired a "Neumann" mic as a wedding gift…you
see, Becki Sue and T-Boy will tie the knot the end of this month! Nice
work Tom!
She notes that her favorite gig with this band is every gig! “These
guys (and their lovely wives) are like family to me and I love them to death,
especially the guitar player.:)” She works full time for the
State admitting, “It's a job, you know, a steady paycheck, good health
and dental benefits. I'm not ready to give it up to do the band full time,
it makes playing in a band fun because we don't have to depend on it.”
She says she had the most excellent childhood, no neighbors close enough to care how loud they were, lots of animals to take care of, great parents _
(of course, now she thinks so!) and a nice home with nothing to ever worry about. “I had it pretty good! I always loved music and singing was my favorite. I started taking piano lessons at the age of 10 till I was about 18 years old.”
Along with picking up a few other instruments here and there, Becki Sue sang in her high school choir and was always being teased by my friends for singing all the time, to every tune out there. When karaoke entered the bar scene, she was tickled with excitement and couldn't wait to try it. “The first song I did was "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", by Pat Benetar. I was nervous as heck but gave it my all. I was instantly in love with the "sport"!
One night, while out karaoke’ing with a friend, Tom was invited out to meet them. “When he came in I happened to be up singing "Blue", by Leann Rimes. He told me he was blown away! I had actually won a contest with that song, so I was getting pretty good at it. He started feeding me blues tunes and I __
fell in love with three particular female blues singers, Lou Ann Barton, Angela Strehli, and Marcia Ball. I couldn't believe my ears! I didn't know blues consisted of such cool material. I had the misconception that blues was depressing, BOY WAS I WRONG!!! I started going out to hear Tom's band every time they played, and soon their singer, Perry Sanders (now of the Fabulous Roof Shakers) and Tom were inviting me up to sing one with them. Karaoke slowly started being replaced by a live band, and my dream was finally coming true!! We now have one of the best bands out there, and I am the happiest girl in the world!”
____.started playing guitar like every other kid after the Beatles hit America in the early 1960's. A native of Lakewood, WA, and also a current employee of the State of Washington admits playing along with Cream, Led Zeppelin, Wishbone Ash, etc. After high school he joined the Navy where he became good friends with Robert Cray's former bass player, Chris Cardinal, who turned him on to blues guitarists, _
Buddy Guy (1960's records) Magic Sam, Otis Rush, T-Bone Walker, among others. After the Navy, T-Boy moved to Boston to study jazz at the Berklee College of Music. There he met Ronnie (Earl) Horvath while he was just forming Sugar Ray & the Bluetones in 1978. Ronnie taught Tom all he needed to be well on his way to being a blues guitar junkie.
Tom began his musical career in Olympia, Washington in 1981 as band 
"T-Boy Neal" - Lead Guitar
leader for the Capital City’s legendary blues band "The Harmonic Tremors". In 1982 he moved to Seattle and immersed himself in the thriving Pioneer Square blues scene. From 1982 to 1996, Tom joined forces with some of the region’s top blues acts and musicians, performing and recording with John Hodgkin in "The Slackmasters" and "Drivin' Wheel"; with Mike Lynch in "Nitelife"; with Portland-based keyboardist, D.K.. Stewart; with Doug Lynn in "The Led Jaxson Band"; as co-leader, along with Perry Sanders, of Olympia's "The Steamers"; and as leader of "The T-Boy Neal Band". Tom has opened shows for John Lee Hooker, The Legendary Blues Band, Roy Buchanan and James Harman, among others. He has shared the stage with Mark DuFresne, Curtis Salgado, Jimmy McCracklin, Larry Davis, Cash McCall, Sugar Ray Norcia, and blues guitar great Ronnie Earl. He was also nominated for both the "Hall of Fame" and "Life Time Achievement" awards in 2006 from the Washington Blues Society.
Photograph by John Jacobson -
T-Boy’s main axe is a 1993 Fender Custom Shop Shoreline Gold Stratocaster. “It looks older than it is 'cuz, other than the fact that Shoreline Gold has not been used since the 1960's, it was dropped face down on a sidewalk in Port Townsend in front of the Town Tavern, by me, out of an unlatched case two weeks after it was given to me, brand new, in 1993 for my 40th birthday.”
Also in the arsenal is a 1981 Gibson Les Paul (with the famed Tim Shaw Humbuckers) that was given to him as early wedding present by a very generous friend. T-Boy also owns an Eastwood Airline Tuxedo (modeled after a '50's Kay Barney Kessel), an Eastwood H44 (modeled after a Harmony H44 from the '50's) and a Michael Kelly archtop that has GREAT pickups in it that were hand-wound by Dave Stephens @ SD Pickups out of __
Battleground, WA. As T-Boy puts it, “It has that T-Bone Walker tone nailed!”
For amps T-Boy uses a 2002 Victoria 20112 (like a 1950's Fender Tweed Deluxe), run thru a Victoria Reverberato, that has both spring reverb (3 knob) and the nastiest tremolo ever, modeled after the original Fender tremolo that was in the early '60's Vibroverb for his main amp. He also has a 35 watt Juke amp with 3 speakers, two 10" and one 12" Webers, which, “most tone freaks consider to be the best of the replacement to vintage Jensen speakers.”
T-Boy also adds, “Last but not least, I have a 1940's Masco ME-27 PA head that was modified by Skip Simmons (tube amp guru to many blues stars in California including Rick Holmstrom and Kid Ramos) for guitar. I run it thru a cab that contains a 15" Weber speaker, an Electro-Harmonix Holier Grail Reverb Unit and an Austone Vibrostomp Tremolo/Vibrato pedal, the ONLY pedals I ever use, except for an occasion ride with my Hughes & _____
Kettner Rotosphere, which gets as close to the Leslie sound that I have heard come out of a pedal.”
For strings T-Boy prefers, “Ernie Ball or GHS 10's on everything except the Les Paul where I use light top heavy bottom gauge.”
Typically to T-Boy’s left is on vocals, Tenor Sax and Blues Harp. Originally hailing from St Paul Minn., Jim moved to Kent in 1966, took up harmonica at 14 and sax at 21. “I started playing night clubs at the age of 20 and am still at it 33 years later.” He worked at the Paramount Theater in high school 70-74 and reports that, “the shows I saw and experiences I had (too many to list) made me want to spend my life playing music.”
Known for his honkin’ tenor sax and ferocious blues harp playing, he is the former band leader of the BB Award winning "The Nightsticks", former member of regional favorites, "Junkyard Jane”, and often, the featured soloist for "The Two Scoops Combo”. Jim displays an exciting stage
Jim King - tenor sax, harp, vocals
presence and possesses a sharp, quick wit, honed from over ten years as the lead singer and front man for the fabulous "Royals", who reigned supreme from the early days of Pioneer Square’s live music scene thru the early ‘90’s. Drawing from deep roots in a wide variety of styles, including country, swing, rock ‘n roll and, of course, the blues, Jim is a driving force behind the musical and __
visual aspects of "Becki Sue & her Big Rockin’ Daddies!". Jim has received several BB Award nominations for "Best Harmonica” and "Best Horn” by The Washington Blues Society most recently being nominated for "Performer of the Year" in 2006 and winning the 2006 "Best Horn" award.
Jim plays a 1974 Selmer Mark VI Tenor Sax with a Dukoff mouth piece and a #3 reed (various). He uses Marine Band (off the shelf) harmonicas. “I play through a 1993 Fender Blues Deluxe (don’t know the particulars) and a 1960 Electro Voice 638 Microphone.” says Jim who also reports, “I'm the quarterback. I read the audience and call the tunes by feel and if I do it right we earn an encore. Those are my favorite gigs.”
Jim is a sales rep for Rainier Title and Escrow and also owns and operates a retail nursery with his wife on their property in Covington.
On upright bass and occasional vocals, hailing from Wichita, Kansas is . After playing electric ____
bass for over 25 years, he switched gradually to upright bass and has
played it exclusively for the last 17 years. Les has been a mainstay
on the Pacific Northwest's regional blues scene for two decades. He is
one of only a handful of "true blues” upright bass players
around, totally dedicated to his calling, both as a player and as a craftsman
and technician of fine, stringed wooden instruments…
Les White - Upright Bass, Vocals
Photo by Phil Chesnut -
…a complete artist in every sense of the word. He is also an original member of those legendary "Nightsticks”. Les has been honored by the Washington Blues Society as both a multiple nominee and winner of the BB Award for "Best Bass”, most recently nominated in 2005 and winner of that award in 2006.
“My favorite gig so far with this band was playing at the Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival (it used to be called the King Biscuit). We played several times in the area while we were there and they all were a blast. The area has such rich blues history it was a great honor to play there.”
For the last 13 years Les has used a German made solid wood instrument that he converted from a four string to a five string with the fifth string being a high C rather than the usually low B found on most five string basses. “I use two pickups on it. One is a handmade magnetic pickup that is made by a guy named Clark Biesele. It also has a preamp and mixer in it. The second is an acoustic model made
made by Fishman and is called the "Full Circle". The Fishman plugs into the Biesele pickup and is mixed with the magnetic pickup. I use about 60% of the magnetic and about 40% of the acoustic pickup. This allows me to play at high volume with reduced feedback.”
Les has tried many different strings but always ends up coming back to ___
ones called "Spirocore" made by the Tomastik company in Austria. As he puts it, “They are very bright with lots of volume and sustain.”
Les pipes this through an amp made by Euphonic Audio. “It is called the i-amp 800. I also use their speaker cabinets which have one 12 inch speaker and a high frequency horn. When we play outside I use two _____
cabinets while most indoor gigs sound best with just one cabinet.”
About 20 years ago Les graduated from a two year instrument repair course that taught every instrument in the orchestra. A few months before he completed the course, he was hired at a high end violin shop in the University district of Seattle. “I worked for ten years at a local shop that specialized in repair of upright basses. In 2001 I converted a three car garage on my property to a work shop and started my own violin repair shop, The Honeytone Bass Clinic. I now have a wonderful group of bass customers that range all over the musical map, from some of the areas finest jazz players to orchestra, bluegrass and rockabilly players. I also do all the bass work for Ted Brown Music in Tacoma.”
Keeping beat at the rear of the stage is veteran and snappy dresser . A Seattle area native and graduate from Auburn High School, Jeff admits to listening to his older cousin’s music but “not the pop crap __
that was on the am radio.” Things like early Joe Cocker, The Allman Brothers, and Led Zeppelin and early soul music are his influences.
Jeff Hayes - Percussion___
Jeff loves Gretsch drums but had his set of Gretsch's stolen a few years
ago and decided to try and find some no name drums that would give
him the rootsy, vintage sound that he was looking for. After looking
for about a ___
year, he found a set of actual anonymous drums in a Trading Musician
store on Roosevelt in Seattle that seemed to meet his needs. “The
drums sounded good, looked cool (gold sparkle), and since there were
no stickers or badges to identify the manufacturer, they were relatively
inexpensive. Now having said that, if there is a Gretsch rep. out there
who wants to provide me with a set of drums, I'd be happy to endorse
their instrument!”
Jeff uses two snares. His favorite is a vintage 7" deep, wood, Leedy & Ludwig. It
reminds him of a Jim Keltner-owned snare that he used in a Mississippi session
with Pinetop Perkins a few years ago. “I tried to buy the Keltner
snare at the end of the session, but the studio owner, Jimbo Mathus, wouldn't
part with it. So I found one that was close as I could find.” The
other snare he uses is a newer 4" deep, metal, Kenny Aranoff Trackmaster. “It's
designed to sound just like a Ludwig Black Beauty. It doesn't have
the same cool, mellow sound of the wood snare, but _______
it does pop pretty nicely on those hard-driving shuffles and NOLA grooves.” According
to Jeff, “The band also prefers the Trackmaster because it's easier
for them to hear.”
”I typically use REMO Weatherking heads and Sabian cymbals. I like
a nice, dry ride with a big, loud bell that I can use to accentuate punches or
just cut through the rest of the band with when we're building a crescendo
or just wailing.” For sticks he says he’s addicted to these
Zildjian-made "dip" sticks. “I play pretty hard and tend
to work up a pretty good sweat. The rubber "dip" component of the
stick heats up with my hands and provides a tacky grip so that I don't have to
worry about the sticks flying out of my hands when they get sweaty. I just
wish that the Zildjian sticks were a more tonally matched and maybe a little
more durable. I average about one broken stick per hour set.”
Jeff says his favorite gigs are always about the audience, not the size of the venue or the paycheck. “I like playing _
Photograph by John Jacobson -
for new audiences because they have no idea what they're in for. I love to see the looks on their faces when they realize that this is a serious blues band that also likes to entertain and put on a show.”
For his day-job, Jeff is a Captain in the Seattle Fire Department. “Over
the course of my 25 year career I've spent time as a paramedic, dispatcher,
fire code enforcement, training new firefighters, and my first love,
riding the fire engine as an officer. It's been a great career and I'm
a very blessed man. Most people go through life never being able
to find ONE career that they like. I've found TWO. Drumming and firefighting.”
Jeff has been nominated by the Washington Blues Society for "Best
Drums" in 2004 and 2005, while winning that award in 2006.
Individually, these cats' resumes are pretty impressive yet the ego’s all seem to be working together instead of fighting for a position. Everyone knows their own space and willing to give the others theirs. This is one of the hardest working bands I’ve known and they have the mileage on their cars to prove it. While most bands tend to focus on an area due to the expense of travel, Becki Sue & her Big Rockin’ Daddies! seem to be working to expand their geographic position as one of the premier blues bands out there. From the Winthop, WA Blues Festival to being a regular at Duff’s Garage in Portland and The Roadhouse in Lincoln City, OR, they are performing two to three times per week including Becki Sue and T-Boy’s up-coming wedding day!
I mean really guys….take a day off!
ARNY BAILEY, editor
PS - Congratulations and best wishes on your special day!
MEET THE WRITER - ARNY BAILEY
President of In Form, Inc. Media Design and Chief Editor of Weekend Musician is a licensed architect practicing in the Pacific Northwest and weekend musician currently fronting ABOUT FACE, a classic rock cover band and The Grand Delusion a Tribute to the music of Styx and Journey.