Hammond, John -& The Wicked Grin Band-
Wicked Grin - Live
On May 2, 2002, Hammond took the stage at the Moments club in Bremen with guitarist Frank Carillo, bassist Marty Ballou and drummer Stephen Hodges. What followed was a set of captivating and surreal stories and scenarios from the American demimonde, their songs of dwarfs playing pool, blind firefighters, drunks, junkies, losers, deceitful women and vagabonds with runyanesque names like Slaughterhouse Joe, Jack The Cutter, Little Joe from Kokomo, Jimmy The Harp and The 44 Kid are populated. Hammond always considered 'Wicked Grin' to be a high point of his career. But if the album is a milestone in his recording career, then it is certainly just as true that the concerts at which he performed almost exclusively 'Wicked Grin' were among the most remarkable of his glorious six decades as a "Traveling Bluesman".