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'The sky is crying,' but it didn't put out the fire

Stevie Ray performs with the Black Sheep Blues Band. PHOTOS COURTESY OF STEVE RAY

His house went up in his flames, so did his dog and guitar. It's no wonder Stevie Ray's (廣武漢) got the blues and will be drowning his sorrows tonight at the Living Room.

Joining him and his group the Black Sheep Blues Band (黑羊藍調) for the Friends of Stevie Burnt Guitar Benefit Night will be fellow artists David Chen and the Muddy Basin Ramblers, Blues Vibrations, Bopomofo Blues Band (ㄅㄆㄇㄈ), Brian Kleinsmith and saxophonist Corbett Wall (高培華).

Wall, the owner of Living Room, has been a fixture on the Mandarin music scene for the past 17 years. A star in his younger days and more recently a producer, he was inspired to set up the benefit gig after hearing about Ray's misfortunes.

"I've known Stevie for several years, since he first started appearing at the Living Room jam sessions. I was always impressed by his superb guitar playing and musical conviction," Wall said in a series of e-mail messages and phone calls.

"He's a very private person but the more you get to know him, the more blues-like his story becomes. I mean, how many Paiwan Aboriginal, ex-SWAT motorcycle cops do you know who can play like that?"

Ray said he lost everything in the blaze at his Wanhua home in Taipei and was lodging at the local police station where he works, while he gets his life back together again.

"My Fender Stratocaster, pedals, amplifier, my dog, my phone, it's all gone. It's depressing but some of my mates say it could mean a new start and on a positive note I have found out who my real friends are."

Asked how a Paiwan from Taidung got into Texan blues, Ray said he came from a musical family but hadn't found what he was looking for until he heard the guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, who died in a helicopter crash after a show in 1990.

"He could play lead, rhythm and do vocals at the same time. He just produced a great sound and I was hooked. We Aboriginals have our own history of the blues and actually many of my tribe's songs have a kind of blues feel."

Ray's fellow band members are Japanese. Neishi "Dafu" Daisuke plays drums and Inoue "Kazu" Kazuo is on bass. They have both studied music and provide a solid rhythm section for Ray's less tutored and more intuitive approach.

Entrance is NT$200 and all door proceeds, plus NT$50 from every Heineken sold, will go toward buying Ray a new guitar. It's gonna be blue tonight, from 10pm to 1am, at the Living Room, 3F, 8, Nanjing E Rd, Sec 5, Taipei (台北市南京東路五段8號3樓). Bring your hankies.

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