I love so many of the great shows we present here at the Palladium, but my favorite night of the year is always our Boogie Woogie Blues Piano Stomp. The eighth anniversary of the show is coming up Saturday night at 8 p.m.
Two grand pianos on stage. Five great artists. Cameras projecting the hands moving like eight-to-the-bar over the keys. There are less than 130 tickets left and they are likely to be gone by show time.
To get your tickets before they disappear call our box office at 727 822-3590 or follow this link for online tickets.
Rev. Billy C. Wirtz
This year’s lineup features some great entertainers, who are also world-class piano pounders. The lineup features Los Angeles’ blues and boogie master Rob Rio, the hilarious Rev. Billy C. Wirtz, our 88-year-young boogie woogie kid Bob Seeley, and St. Pete’s own Liz Pennock and Dr. Blues. Liz came to me with the idea of the stomp, she helps pick out the artists each year and I can’t thank her enough.
To get you in the mood I chatted with Rev. Billy C. Wirtz, who is not only a phenomenal entertainer and songwriter, but a real historian of the blues, boogie woogie, R&B and early rock ‘n roll.
He told me his introduction to boogie woogie came from a surprising place.
“I loved Moon Mullican and Merrill Moore. They called what they were doing Hillbilly Boogie, which morphed into what Jerry Lee Lewis did, which was a marriage of boogie woogie, gospel and country,” Billy said.
One of the songs in Rev. Billy’s set will be Pipeliner Blues, a tune that shifts from a country beat to eight to the bar and back again.
Back when Billy was first starting out in music he played what he called “bucket of blood hillbilly joints,” where “we played a lot of boogie woogie to keep them from killing each other.”
Billy traces his strain to boogie woogie to old lumber camps in East Texas and tells the story of sharing a bill with the legendary Sunnyland Slim, who said their gig together had been successful because “We really had ‘em kickin’ the ham tonight.”
Turns out that at old lumber camp shows, while the piano player laid down some boogie woogie, certain ladies of the evening took to the dance floor, where a ham was suspended from the ceiling around waist high. The ladies, who apparently had forgotten to wear anything under their skirts, took turns trying to kick their legs high enough to hit the ham.
The rest, Billy says, is musical history.
Come on down Saturday night for the Boogie Stomp and I promise you a “ham-kickin’ good time.” Just remember to wear all of your clothes.
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