Last time Mud Bay Blues Band was booked to play the Flamingo in Surrey, a fire in a hotel room doused those plans.
The band is back for a second try this Saturday night (June 9), when the quintet plans to celebrate 40 years of rocking a hybrid sound that borrows from the blues, roots, country and soul.
The band features singer/harmonica player Mud Bay Slim (aka Harold Arnold) with cohorts Murphy Farrell (drums), Mark Branscombe (vocals, guitar), Dennis Ingvaldson (bass) and Randall T. Carpenter (vocals, guitar, mandolin).
“We used to be about the loosest band around,” Slim told Peace Arch News in February. “It took us about 30 years to tighten it up, but now we’re getting compliments that we’re the tightest band people have heard.
“We’ve got four songwriters in the band and three vocalists – it’s not all about one person, which is a little unusual.”
On April 14, a fire in one of the rooms at Whalley’s Flamingo Hotel caused enough smoke and water damage to close the hotel’s Byrd bar, where Mud Bay Blues Band was set to perform that Saturday night, and tenants were forced out of their rooms.
This coming Saturday night, the band will play the Flamingo’s lounge venue. Tickets are $15 for the 19-and-over gig. Details are posted at showpass.com/mud-bay-40-years.