November 11, 2009

Tombstone Bullet would like to say a special thank you to Blues Society on Taiwan for nominating Tombstone Bullet to represent them at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, January 20-24, 2010. The BSoT was impressed with Tombstone Bullet's runner-up finish to Eric "Guitar" Davis, a touring pro based in Chicago, in the Illinois Central Blues Club's "Blues Challenge" and voted to make us their 2009 representative. BSoT previously sponsored Joey Gilmore, the only man to win the IBC's twice, as well as Taiwan's own BoPoMoFo in the 2007 IBC. We hope we represent Taiwan well and the blues in general when we play there in January. We'd love to see as many of our fans as possible at this great event!

This Saturday it's the Hawg Wild Harley Raffle at City Nights. Come join in the fun Rutledge gigs are always the best!

September 1, 2009

Well we played in the Blues Challenge on Aug 29th in Downtown Springfield and although we lost we had a good experinece. The winner was Eric Davis a friend of Luca Giordano, Luca played with Tombstone Bullet in April of 2008 also with Shun Kikuta and Doug Rapier. Check out our new drummer Damien Kaplan he is outta sight! A true trained professional. We are very excited to have him in our group.

On the 30th of August we played at the Boars Nest in Athens at a Benefit for Adam Padget. A young man who was killed in a car accident 3 days before his high school graduation. What a tradegy. They had a great turnout and raised a lot of money for the Padget family.

Next up is the Final Four in Athens on 09-12-09. Check our gigs page for times. After that we'll be playing at the Boars Nest in Athens. Hope to see you there!

April 21, 2009

Catch Tombstone Bullet next at Marley's May 2nd. We'll be doing an American Idol type contest for the Rutledge Youth Foundation from 7-9pm and then we'll take the stage for a blues performance. Check our gigs page for times. A highlight of the night will be when we jam with the MC for the evening Roger Boyd of Head East fame. He is the only remaining founding member (Keyboard player). We plan on getting him up for some blues songs during our show but we plan on playing a Head East tune before the Idol contest starts. So don't miss this one! Ricky Hardin

In June don't miss us at the Washington Street Jazz and Blues festival which we are very honored to be playing. That's all I got right now. Blues On!!!

April 27, 2008

If you missed a "Night Of The Blues featuring: Tombstone Bullet" at City Nights on Friday April 25, you sure missed a lot. Elizabeth Eckert kicked the night off with a wonderful set of tunes with a beautiful voice and the figure to match. She had quite a few fans there cheering her on.

Next up was Mike Rapier's brother Doug fronting the band Brother Ray and The Blades which included John Sluzalis on drums and Bill Jansen on sax, guest players and singers included Hurricane Ruth Lemaster and Christy Bley. Doug is quite the frontman and a great harp and sax player and overall just a super person. When Hurricane Ruth did her thing it was most impressive, she hit a high note to end a song that was just incredible.

Next up was Tombstone Bullet with a blistering set of blues. During our set Shun Kikuta of Ko Ko Taylor's Blues Machine and Luca Giordano (from Italy) joined the band on stage. It was the most fun I've ever had playing music. Shun and Luca are such professional musicians and I must admit there were several times when they played licks that made you do a double take. All of the musicians were extrodinary, so good there were times when I wondered if I was good enough to be in thier company. But it was all in fun and it was A Night Of The Blues.

At the end a jam session came together that include a little bit of everybody and local musican friends of TB that showed what they can play. You say you missed it? I feel for you...there will be more oppurtunities to see Tombstone Bullet so go to our GIGS page and see where we are playing or go to the CONTACT page and book us for your next event!

Tombstone Bullet would like to thank everyone who came out for the event which includes The Rutledge Foundation and Rapier Surveying for putting the gig on. Mike Rapier really knows how to throw a party! Doug Rapier hinted around that we ought to do this every year and I say I'd love too. So who knows maybe next year we'll do it again as "Second Annual: A Night Of The Blues featuring Tombstone Bullet & friends!

Blues On!!!!!!!!!!! Rick Hardin