Plain and Fancy: 06/14/23

In the late '70s, The Bayou became home club for The Nighthawks. We alternated full week runs with C-Smash and Sinbad, with each of us challenging and breaking each other's house attendance records. On otherwise quiet Mondays, we teamed with Mike Tramonte to produce the Blue Monday at The Bayou series, hosting Chicago blues legends like J.B, Hutto, Otis Rush, Louis Meyers, Big Walter Norton, Carey Bell, as well as Blue Wave brother bands such as Roomful of Blues, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, George Thorogood and The Destroyers, and Billy Price.

The '80s brought the Cellar Door folks from M Street into The Bayou and they enlarged the balcony and stage, turning the club into a showcase room on a par with New York's Bottom Line and L.A.'s Roxy. What better place to record a live album—three sets a night for four nights, the home town crowd, and the holiday season, topped off with two shows New Year's Eve and a live radio broadcast.

People in D.C. refer to all this as tradition—and, in the normally short-lived scene of rock music, anything that occurs annually for several years seems to be designated as such. But the end of 1981 meant the end of the first ten years for The Nighthawks, and this recording is our celebration—an anniversary, a birthday party with so many people who made it all possible. They are the stars of this LP. And you can hear them—stomping, whistling, hollering and generally have a ball!

This set of tunes was performed nightly for months in advance to make sure it had the feel and flow of a typical Nighthawks' show. The middle set of three, it captures the peak of an evening. It is dedicated to you for your drinking and dancing, listening and partying pleasure.

by Mark Wenner, 1982