Have you ever had your mind blown? Then you should have been at Carlos Del Junco’s show at Average Joes, Aug. 7.
The Jimi Hendrix of the harp or Eddie Van Halen of the harmonica (take your pick of which descriptive phrase your prefer) took an audience of approximately 50 people on a trip around the world, including an assortment of musical styles from jazz to world music, which left the 50-60 odd people enraptured by the show in awe.
He started off with a relatively slow instrumental inspirational moment “ Dull Blade,” but was impressive enough to leave jaws dropped on the floor with assorted comments of ‘holy f---” that guy can play.”
He sure could, and backed by an stunning guitar player and stand up bassist, he just couldn’t lose. After the second song ‘No Particular Place,” he spoke about the cover of his latest CD “ Mongrel Mash,” noting the creature on the front of the CD was part bull dog, part chihuahua and part lemur’s tail,” which ended up being a pretty apt description of his show as it included an impressive selection of music, mostly from the new CD.
He drew in world music fans with songs like the Mexican tinged “Mariachi,” jazz fans with jazz standards like “Some Sweet Day,” hard core blues fans with Little Walter’s “Just Your Fool,” which showed he could play the mind bending virtuosic material as well as he could play the sweet and soulful.
Guitarist Eric St. Laurent was sizzling and and bassist Henry Hellig played in the pocket, especially on longer tracks like “the Field,” which let all three 
musicians strut their stuff. In his interview last week, Del Junco didn’t lie when he said his show would feature the band as much as it would show off his own skills.
Both of them sat back and relaxed on the drum riser while St. Laurent started “The Field,” with a beautiful classical/ flamenco inspired guitar introduction. The same feel was featured on the new track “Lil’ Laptop” from the new CD which ended the show.
but the enthusiastic audience called him back for an encore of a stunningly beautiful solo rendition of “Amazing Grace.”
The rest of the band joined him for a scorching version of Muddy Waters’ blues classic “Got My Mojo Working.”
While I missed Bleu Sensasun’s opening set. I caught most of Papa King’s set. He was accompanied by Tyler Bird and whipped through a couple of growling acoustic blues classic and some originals including my favourite “Busy Boy Blues.”
He is always a pleasure to watch and can hold a crowd’s attenftion with just his baritone.
