Regulars for the Dennis McClung Blues Band are bass player and backup vocalist Jason Corder, keyboard player and backup vocalist Randy Franklin, drummer Pat Sutton, harmonica player Joe Sabatino and, of course, McClung, guitarist and lead vocalist.

 

But on nights like tonight – an outdoor venue with lots of space – the band sometimes brings on a sixth member.

 

“Our guest tonight is Terry Hotsinpiller, a friend of ours, who also plays keyboards and percussion with us,” McClung said. “Sometimes we like to expand our song repertoire and that requires more instrumentation, so we wanted to bring some extra percussion in. The extra percussion and instrumentation gives us more reign as to what we can do musically.”

 

Hotsinpiller is a veteran musician and a longtime member of the band "Second Street" which played several local and regional venues. 

 

 

Dennis McClung Blues Band, which has been together since 2001, has released two CDs and will have a third in the near future; this one featuring more original work. It’s long overdue, McClung said.

 

“We all have day careers that eat up so much of our time that we really haven’t done anything except go from one gig to the next,” McClung said. “We plan on starting to record and arrange some original music in October. We don’t know if we’ll make the Christmas market, but by spring, we should have something new out.”

The band is a regular at Wisp Resort in Deep Creek, Md., as well as several festivals - Charleston’s Rhythm & Blues Festival, Beverly’s Wine and Blues Festival and many others that feature the word “blues.”

 

“What we try to do is pay tribute to the blues by performing the songs of Muddy Waters and the Kings – Freddie, Albert and B.B.,” McClung said.

 

The band throws in some Allman Brothers, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton.

 

“In general, we try to pay tribute to the blues by exposing people to that music and then adding our twist to it,” McClung said, “but we try to do is to be very authentic in our performance of blues music. We don’t try to turn it into something else.”

 

And that typically results in some interesting feedback.

 

“People come to me after a performance and say they didn’t know they liked the blues until they heard us play,” McClung said. “So that means we did our job.”

 

Perhaps one of the biggest misconceptions is that blues is slow, sad, depressing music.

 

“I look at it like this: Blues is about real life and sooner or later everyone goes through some adversity in their life,” McClung said. “So many forms of music have developed from the blues. James Brown and all these great performers all came from the blues. That’s where dance music came from.”

 

Blues is defined by both the rhythm and the lyrics, McClung said.

 

“Music is a language of emotion and if you play the blues right, you’re getting exposed to that emotion and the audience knows what you mean,” he said.

 

When it comes to original pieces, McClung is the primary songwriter. But most often, a writing session turns into a collaboration with all the guys joining in the effort.

 

A recent original by McClung is “While I Sing the Blues,” a take-off on George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

 

McClung has also done some solo work, including a gig last weekend with Ms. Freddye.

 

She has a blues band in Pittsburgh and something happened with their guitar player so she called me and asked if I would play with them,” he said.

 

The Dennis McClung Blues Band has a couple of local appearances in the near future – both on Sept. 10.  They play the Black Heritage Festival in downtown Clarksburg at 2 p.m. then go straight to Fairmont’s Palantine Park for the Mon River Blues and BBQ Festival.

 

Tonight they play 7 p.m. at Bridgeport City Park, a free event and the last in a Summer Jams series sponsored by Bridgeport Arts Council.