http://www.mickclarke.net/
The British Invasion soon will land on the bandstand at Buddy Emmer’s Tuesday Night Blues.
South Lake Tahoe resident and London native Mick Clarke will be the guest artist June 7 at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe.
Only wildfires and a pandemic have interrupted the weekly show that began in winter 2014. The cadre of special guests are regional and sometimes national touring blues musicians who front the second and third of three sets, played at Center Stage on the casino floor from 8 p.m. to around 11:30 p.m.
“I’ve known Mick casually for many years, but we’ve just never really hooked up,” Emmer said. “I know he has his own band and he plays good blues, so I’ve just been missing out.”
There will be plenty of strings attached to this show. Emmer always brings three guitars to the stage, and Clarke will have with him at least three.
“There’s never too many guitars,” Emmer said.
“I’ll definitely be taking my 335 Gibson,” Clarke said. “I’ll also bring a couple of Strats as they’re my main guitars these days.”
Clarke’s fiery colored Gibson is the inspiration for his band Big Red, which includes South Lake Tahoe singer-harp player Carolyn Dolan and most recently bassist Glade Rasmussen, who is a new member of the Buddy Emmer Blues Band, along with drummer Kevin Clark and original keyboardist Mark Ishikawa.
Clarke moved to America in 1975. However, he is sometimes mistaken for a British bluesman also named Mick Clarke.
“Everybody has confused us since we were teenagers,” the South Lake Tahoe Mick Clarke said. “We both are the same age, have the same name, also we are both from London. It goes on and on.”
Like so many of his fellow countrymen, Clarke was inspired by American blues music, especially a famed triumvirate which share the same surname. The music of B.B. King is what first captured a 9-year-old Clarke’s attention. Albert King is Clarke’s favorite bluesman. And Freddie King is the American artist is who he was able to see in person.
“Freddie King got to know me when he was in the U.K., simply because I would muscle my way to the front of the stage everywhere he played, and I just stood there staring at his fingers,” Clarke said. “He used to look down and give me a nod, like, ‘Oh, you again?’ ”
After becoming an accomplished guitarist, Clarke was in British blues pioneer Long John Baldry’s band from 1978-80, playing most of the guitar parts on the 1979 album “Baldry’s Out!”
Clarke’s also shared the stage with fellow Brits Jeff Beck, Billy Ocean, Tony Ashton, Uriah Heep frontman John Lawton, Howie Casey (member of the first Liverpool group to play in Germany, beating The Beatles), John Entwistle (bassist for The Who), and Americans Doris Troy (who sang “Just One Look”), Chuck Berry and on Tuesday, June 7, the Buddy Emmer Band.
-Tim Parsons
- Harrah’s Tuesday Night Blues
- House Band: Buddy Emmer’s Blues Band
- When: 8-11:30 p.m. Tuesdays
- Where: Center Stage, Harrah’s Lake Tahoe, Stateline, Nevada
Featured artist - April 26 — Kyle Rowland
- May 3 — Matty T
- May 10 — Alvon Johnson
- May 17 — Rockin’ Johnny Burgin
- May 24 — Terry Hanck
- May 31 — Andy Santana
- June 7 — Mick Clarke
- June 14 — Mighty Mike Schermer
- June 21 — Jeffery Watson
- June 28 — Myles Schon
- July 5 — Kyle Rowland
- July 12 — Richie Blue
- Aug. 30 — Chris Cain
