Tuesday Night Blues: Rick Hammond

Rick Hammond is the featured artist at Harrah’s Tuesday Night Summer Blues. Hosted by the Buddy Emmer Blues Band, the free show is from 8 p.m. to 11:30.

Daniel Castro had been scheduled but is unable to make the trip from his San Jose home to Tahoe due to the snowstorm.

Hammond wears a sharkskin suit and likes music he can sink his teeth into.

The veteran Reno bluesman tasted acclaim along with Memphis ribs in 2014 when he was a semifinalist in the Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge. That was the furthest any Reno Blues Society representative has ever advanced.

“Making it to the semifinals is such a great feat,” Emmer said. “He’s a great entertainer,  guitar player and singer, and I just have a lot of fun playing with him.”

As Hammond learned the history of blues music, it shaped his musical path.

“I’ve had a few rock bands but I’ve always turned them into blues bands,” he said.

“I like music I can sink my teeth into. I started playing guitar when I was 7 and when I was 13 was listening to electric guitarists Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, and they were talking about Muddy Waters.”

The Rick Hammond Band has existed since 2001, playing the kind of blues that dancers enjoy.

While he was in Memphis, Hammond purchased a new, cherry Red Gibson ES 335 guitar, like the ones played by Eric Clapton and Freddie King.

“I am the first one to touch it, and I don’t think anyone else ever will, Hammond told Tahoe Onstage. “It’s a work of art, a thing of beauty. It has a thick tone and it’s easy to play.”