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Uncle Ed’s Molasses Jam (1993-1995)               
Harmonica, vocals/frontman and lyricist for this Seattle-area blues band; work in various clubs and venues included Wednesdays at The  Bohemians in Pioneer Square; Saturdays at Hagar's, north of downtown; Sundays at Atlantic Street Pizza, also northerly; also featured in the Empty Space Theatre’s 1994 late night show Beat Degeneration.

 

 

Scotch and Donuts 

Ursa Major Theatre Co., Seattle, February 1997  

Composed, performed and recorded music for the premiere of this new comedy by playwright John Longenbaugh. Here's what he's up to nowadays: (Hint: if you're into Steampunk, you'll dig it!)

https://battlegroundproductions.org

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The River’s Invitation           

Productions in No. CA (CitiArts Theatre/Concord), Oregon (The River Theatre) and Seattle (AHA!, A Theatre Under the Influence, and the Solo Performance Festival, “SPF 1: No Protection”)

Wrote and performed this solo theatre piece which included a set of blues performed on harmonica and vocals; accompanied in the AHA! production by local jazz guitarist Gil Menendez. 

You can find Guitar Gil here:

https://www.guitargil.com

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Sorry Charlie & I Ain’t Lyin’: Diggin’ the Moonglow

A Theatre Under the Influence at the Union Garage, February-         March, 1998. Conceived and staged this theatrical tribute to blues songwriting legend Percy Mayfield; selected seventeen Mayfield numbers around a story arc; recruited, rehearsed and fronted a four piece band (including Gil Menendez) for a held-over six weekend run.

 

 

Sorry Charlie & I Ain’t Lyin’: NW Folklife Festival, May, 1998

“Blues Harp Kings” event, Mercer Arena.

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Nudity and Adult Situations, BlackValiant Films, 1998

Official Selection, Blue Sky International Film Festival, Las Vegas, Nevada. Portrayed an ailing blues musician in this haunting, locally made independent feature--a very early foray into digital filmmaking. The soundtrack includes an Uncle Ed’s Molasses Jam recording of a Leggett original, a Sorry Charlie & I Ain’t Lyin’ recording from the Moonglow concert, and solo harmonica work.

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Sorry Charlie & I Ain’t Lyin’: John Hancock MLB All-Star Game FanFest—July, 2001

Led the band through a four-morning stand on two different stages in Downtown Seattle’s Exhibition Center during this popular event.

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14/48 Band, “14/48: The World’s Quickest Theatre Festival"

At least 4 weekends, mid-2000s-2018                           https://www.the1448projects.org    

Harmonica, vocal, and songwriting duties for this beloved, if grueling, Seattle phenomenon, in which seven playwrights write 10-minute plays on a theme in approximately 12 hours; the plays are cast at random, rehearsed mid-morning to mid-afternoon (while the band arranges music and sound design), then performed twice, which entire process is then repeated the following day with a new theme.

 

 

Sandbox Artist Collective, “The Sandbox Radio Hour,” 2011-18       

Harmonica, vocal, and songwriting duties for this quarterly podcast series recorded live in front of an audience.  Three of the four blues lyrics I have had published as poems in literary magazines, I wrote for these events.

Here's the archive: http://www.sandboxradio.org

 

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Miss Mamie Lavona the Exotic Mulatta & Her White Boy Band, Sordid Details, 2016, “Frog Song”

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Victor Janusz Band, Living in a Blue State, 2014, “Should I Ever Love Again”

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Heart Full of Dirt, American Road, 2004, “If I Find Jose” and "Cactus and Skulls"

 

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As we come, howsoever haltingly, out of pandemic restrictions, some music is getting made. I sat in with Guitar Gil at C&P Coffee Company in West Seattle on July 18, 2021, and did a live Facebook concert with him in May. On the Charles Leggett YouTube channel there's a video produced by the Seattle Shakespeare Company for their annual Gala event, of a tune written by Seattle sound designer and musician extraordinaire Robertson Witmer, with Auld Leggett on vocals and harp, shot at Jules Maes in the Georgetown neighborhood.

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Miss Mamie and Victor Janusz were/are gigging bands here in Seattle; I have sat in on many sets with Miss Mamie, mainly at Connor Byrne Pub in the Ballard neighborhood, and a few times with Janusz’s outfit. The members of Heart Full of Dirt, however, were scattered all over the country when they recorded American Road, and I don’t know if they ever played a live show; the album was assembled and mixed entirely with separately recorded tracks.

 

I have also sat in with jazz bassist Ted Kamp at Matt’s in the Market; Seattle songstress Sarah Rudinoff at the Frey Art Museum; Purty Mouth, a “camped-up country-tonk combo” at the Highway 99 Blues Club;  and Julia Francis at Jules Maes—with whom (alongside several future members of the popular progressive rock outfit Awesome! The Band) I was also in a short-lived rock ensemble called Starhole 67.

 

In the late ‘90s and Aughts, I made several appearances as a guest solo performer in the late light variety shows “Carlotta’s Late Night Wing Ding,” at the NW Actors Studio, and “Spin the Bottle,” at Annex Theatre.

 

I have also utilized harmonica in many stage performances, including Merry Wives of Windsor, Wooden O, outdoor tour of Puget Sound area parks, as Sir John Falstaff; Bulrusher as Schoolch and The Streetcar Named Desire as an itinerant sideman (led by noted Seattle jazzman Jose Gonzales), Intiman Playhouse; Twelfe Night, Seattle Repertory Theatre, as Sir Toby Belch; The Crucible, ACT Theatre, as Marshall Herrick; The Hostage, Theater Schmeater, as Pat; It’s a Wonderful Knife, A Theatre Under the Influence, as God.

 

 

 

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“Fools Blues,” Transcendant Poetry: An Anthology: Volume 1, Cosmographia Books, Pittsford, NY, July 2019. Originally written for and recorded in the “Sandbox Radio Hour,” 2012.

 

“Here It Comes Blues,” Latchkey Tales, “Clockwise: The Midnight Blues,” Solarwyrm Press, Wellington, New Zealand, Vol. 2, Issue 4: August 2015. Also a Sandbox composition.

 

“Polly-Esther Blues,” Unrequited: An Anthology of Love Poems about Inanimate Objects, ed. Kelly Ann Jacobson, Falls Church, VA, May 2016. This was an Uncle Ed’s Molasses Jam number that we often closed our shows with.

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"'It's All' Blues,"Sage Cigarettes, Daytona Beach, Florida, Halloween Issue, October 2020

 

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Image: Low road, Inis Mór, on a morning walk.

This dog unilaterally left its driveway post and joined me, to island's edge and back, then reassumed its driveway post.

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