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| Joe Pitts, one of Arkansas' finest pickers, a good buddy and more fun to jam with than you can possibly imagine. Click his photo, and read his bio, and check out his sounds. You be the judge, but I know Joe gets two thumbs up from everyone that hears him. wwww.joepitts.com |
| Lonesome Oak Studio with Recording Engineer; Rhonda PItts. |
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Mike Dollins & The Cruize Brothers on Facebook
| EMAIL: mike@mikedollins.biz |
| I’ve had a lot of questions about my rig on FaceBook. I owned a guitar shop back in the 80’s, and remember I started playing when all we had were tweed amps. It took me a lifetime of owning thousands of great guitars, to finally meet the love of my life. Her name is “Suzie” and she is a 2002 Les Paul double-cut, with 490 & 498 Humbuckers, and triple AAA top. She is chambered, and has a blend knob now that lets me blend neck and bridge pick-ups to any varying degree I need. Medium neck, not to fat and not skinny. I use DR strings “Pure Blues” 10’s, and Jim Dunlap strap locks. I got the guitar at the Dallas Guitar Show in 2009. The amp is a 1984 Fender Concert II. 60 Watts, Tube 2-6L6’s. 2X10 CTS speakers. This is a hard to find amp that I picked up at the Chicago Guitar Show in 2009. Designed by Paul Rivera for Fender, and is point-to- point hand wired. I hate stomp boxes, and this amp fills my needs as channel one is Fender clean as you can get; Deluxe/Twin clean. The boutique side is funky and nasty like a Mesa Boogie. Only one floor switch on stage to trip over. The speaker cab is by Geezer Sound, and Dave Wienk is a wizard at building birch wood cabinets. It is loaded with two P10R blue back Jensens. Built solid like a Sherman Tank. |
| Geezer Speakers http://www.geezersoundco.com/ |
| My Son Clay Dollins |
| Join us on YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/CruizeBrothers |
| Photos below are from the dream team that drummer Charlie Whitney concocted in his mind, and made happen. Joe Pitts - guitar, Don Garrett - Bass, Charlie Whitney - Drums, Steve Vogler - Keys and Grandpa Blues here. Playing with these fellas is like a Blues Bash high RPM maximus. At Cornerstone June 26, 2010. Booking info at guitar@mikedollins.biz |
| Arkansas Blues Legends http://bluesguitarnews.com/ArkansasLegends.html |
| I picked up the guitar in 1958 at the age of 13. From the beginning, I preferred to hear R&B, Gospel and Old Rock & Roll. Eventually Oldies but Goodies, the boogie type, turned into what we now call “Roadhouse Blues.” I bought my first BB King record in 1959. By 1960 I added Bobby Bland, Freddy King and Ray Charles to my record collection. I was now in high school, and had a very good, and talented band. My favorite album was James Brown “Live” at the Apollo Theater. My high school band was called “The Caravans” and we became very popular. That was around 1961, and you can see all the photos of the many great bands I’ve had over the years with details on the History tab above. 52 years later, I am still playing my guitar. Albert King and Chris Cain are two of my favorite guitar players these days, and my blues guitar record collection today is something that the Smithsonian Institute should probably have. Now that I have spent a lifetime of playing guitar, looking back I’ve played with some great and near great musicians over the decades. As the band names evolved over time, I started a group called “Cruizin” in 1979, and we had a good run in San Diego, California playing Oldies, mostly R&B, Soul, Funk and lot of Blues. In around 1985, the group ended. In around 2000 I tried putting the group back together, but everyone was scattered all over. I had the core of the guys together, and we started to gig again calling the band “The Cruize Brothers.” Over the last ten years, there have been a lot of musicians’ come and go through the Cruize Brothers. I don’t want to list everyone, and maybe someday I’ll have a Cruize Brothers Hall of Fame, but again I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings if they were left out. Finally getting to the point; In my blues elderly statesman stature, I’ve got thousands of blues friends worldwide in an underground network that is Called “Arkansas Delta Music” and is featured on my on line blues ezine called “Blues Guitar News” www.bluesguitarnews.com which has now been read by over 43,000 blues folks worldwide according to our site checker. In the last two years, I’ve had some outrageous jam sessions here in Arkansas, Dallas and in California. It is a level of playing that is only heard well by other musicians, on the same playing field. When you lose track of the audience, and you are playing to each other, the level of playing is off the charts into cyber space. It doesn’t happen each and every time, but when the planets and moons are in the correct alignment, occasionally the “magic” happens. You can tell it, when you look around on stage and all the players have smiles on their faces. This isn’t cover tunes, and trying to copy stuff to sound like records. As close as it gets is “Free Form” Jazz, whereas the musicians know where they are. Free form Jazz has no structure, whereas ultimate blues jammin’ has a I, IV, V chord structure of some sorts, but the soloing is limited only by imagination, talent and technique. This is difficult to explain in words, but I know many of the fine musicians that I’ve jammed with over the decades understand and know what I am trying to say. With all that said, I can put together any kind of band you want or need, all it takes is money. A real sore subject in these hard economic times, but that’s what it takes to get the Mike Dollins Blues Jam on the Road, and to the stage. The crew and me have decades of club, festival and events gigging. If you are interested, send for our line sheet on booking the “Cruize Brothers.” Email cruizebrothers@mikedollins.biz Thank you. Cruize Brothers CD’s played on over 200 Radio Stations Worldwide. www.mikedollins.biz/Radio Top YouTube hits at: www.youtube.com/user/CruizeBrothers www.facebook.com/MikeDollinsGuitar |
