Blue’s Professional Bio Page 5
More Erik
Blue singing for Sin City Gamblers, January 2013
Rejoining his early nineties collaborator Erik Anders, Blue sang lead vocals for Erik's regional punk band Sin City Gamblers in January 2013.
In early 2014 Blue played electric guitar for a handful of live shows with Erik’s reformed rockabilly band, Dragtones.
Dragtones at The Artful Dodger, 2014
Blue produced and performed on a limited release CD by the Dragtones entitled Hunker Down in Whiskeytowne in 2014.
Black Hat Clowns
Black Hat Clowns, photo by Amy Jett
The Black Hat Clowns began playing together in 2008. The 'Clowns' are a versatile trio of multi-instrumentalists featuring Kahle Magalis and his daughter, the astonishingly talented Brooke Magalis.
To this day, despite living 1,300 miles away, Blue refers to the Black Hat Clowns as "his band".
In 2014 Blue also produced a thus far unreleased E.P. of original material with the Black Hat Clowns entitled, A Plate & 8 Screws. He's quite fond of the album and expects it to see the light of day sooner or later.
Black Hat Clown Kahle Magalis was planned to perform on the the New Mythology E.P. but broke his wrist in a skateboarding accident. The injury limited his contribution to the final Booze Monkey album. The title of the Black Hat Clowns album is also a loving consequence of this mishap.
Kahle Magalis was also a member of Blue’s early nineties band, Blue & the Jaded. He is also Blue’s favorite luthier.
Black Hat Clowns, photo by Amy Jett
Black Hat Clowns, photo by Amy Jett
Black Hat Clowns, photo by Amy Jett
meatball Surgery.
In the fall of 2016, Blue published a collection of ten new rock & roll songs entitled, meatball Surgery.
meatball Surgery. was the first album to be released under his full name, Blue Ajay.
In addition to the audio album - which also features instrumental mixes of each song - Blue made a Video-Album - aptly entitled, Blue Ajay’s meatball Surgery. Video Album.
Ch ch ch changes
Long overdue for a life-change, Blue and Christina (partners since 1984) decided to relocate to Denton Texas with Blue expressing his intent to enjoy the music scene there.
Blue spent the bulk of 2017 developing a new solo live show and repertoire. The new approach abandoned the long-employed StompBox, the mic’d acoustic guitars, the stool, the music stand and the lamp - all of which had been signature attributes of Blue’s live appearances since the Booze Monkey duo days.
Blue’s standard solo live performance setup prior to 2017.
Blue mic’d his guitars, allowing him to seemlessly switch between his Taylor 814ce (in standard tuning) and his National Reso Rocket, Trixie. He plays Trixie in Open-E tuning with a heavy brass slide.
He ran everything through an early gen Bose L1 system with a Bass module to facilitate the StompBox. He had the system’s mixing console mounted to his mic(s) stand for easy access.
The setup could also easily accommodate guest musicians.
His new approach featured a single acoustic guitar, plugged in and amplified, no notebook and a more energetic performance.
Bloody Wonderful
In anticipation of the forthcoming move to Texas, 2018 was dedicated to the recording of the Naked Acre Compound Studio’s final album - Bloody Wonderful.
Bloody Wonderful features a collection of old and new songs recorded as a final representation of the recording techniques Blue had collected and refined since first purchasing an 8-track Tascam 1/2" Reel to Reel unit in 1989.
Bloody Wonderful album cover
Bloody Wonderful back cover
Blue created this album with the foreknowledge that he would be dismantling the Naked Acre Compound Studio after these sessions, and selling the vast majority of his musicial instruments and equipment.
After nearly thirty years as, first and foremost, a multi-instrumentalist recording artist, this album would conclude a definitive era.
After finishing the recording and mixing of Bloody Wonderful, Blue packed away the recordings for later manufacture in Texas. The studio was dismantled and a newly streamlined Blue and Christina moved to Denton in December of 2018 with little more than a camper-van.