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The History of CP Blues
CPB has been playing live music in and around Arlington since 1998. It all started in a neighborhood church, Clarendon UMC. It was there that Tom, Michael, Bob, John and Natalie began to bond musically, singing and playing each Sunday in the early service. Often in rehearsals the band would go off on musical tangents, usually ending up playing some rock 'n' roll or blues. Well one thing leads to another and there you have it, the fire is lit.
They had everything they needed...almost. They had no rhythm. That was soon changed with the addition of George. After several minutes of Michael's groveling, George finally gave in and joined the blues band. Soon afterwards they had him playing in the church band too. Now the band was complete. They finally had rhythm. ...Well at least as much rhythm as you can have for a bunch of white guys playing blues music... hence the name. Caucasians Playin' Blues.
George wasn't the flashiest drummer in town, but he was rock solid on the groove. George would always say, "you can kick the stool out from under me, and I won't miss a beat." He wasn't exaggerating at all. In fact he backed up his claim during CPB's first public performance. It was near the end of the first set, in the middle of a song and one of the three legs holding up his drum stool broke off. Well he busted his ass on the ground. It was the funniest damn thing. But if you didn't see him do it, you wouldn't have known about it, because the song went on without a hitch.
Over the years, CPB has opened up for a couple of good bands and helped close a number of bad bars. In the early years, the band wasn't very choosy about where they would play. It was then that they got hooked up with the infamous TV John, the eccentric songwriter/lounge singer. TV John quickly became enamoured with the band and began booking them in various and sundry places. In general CPB was pretty indiscriminate when it came to gigs. If TV John said, "Hey I have this place you'd be perfect for," the band would usually fall for it hook, line and sinker. Ironically most of these shaky places closed down shortly after their performance. Once the bar actually closed the night *before* they were scheduled to perform, leaving the multitude of CPB fans high and dry.
Well, in the year 2000 Natalie moved away to New York and left the band with a female vocal void. Fortunately, they found Ellen and she fit the band perfectly. Her voice ranges from being down, dirty and soulful all the way to lofty and angelic. It's like she has a 300-pound voice, but it's coming from a 98-pound body. And of course, Ellen had that classic CPB rhythm! In the summer of 2002, the band took a much needed hiatus. When we returned, Ellen did not.
Fortunately for CP Blues, our front man, Bob survived law school and is back with the boys now. We sure missed him during those late night bar cramming sessions though.
In mid 2003 we had another personnel change. John Melnick left the band to spend more time with his family. He's an amazing song writer that we truly miss. However, we're fortunate enough to still be able to Jam with at the monthly Blues Jams. We were also fortunate to find John Harrison to step in and make an instant impact. Harry (as he's called when there are too many Johns in the room) is an extremely talented musician. His main love is the guitar, which he smokes on, but he's one of those guys that can play any instrument you put in front of him with authority.
So now that you know a little bit about the band, come on out and see them some time. They would love to meet you. Check the home page for their next gig. And remember you can always catch the boys of CPB on any given Sunday, at Clarendon UMC.
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