Bornia Boys take Battle of Blues Bands competition Nov. 21
The News to You
You can see the Bornia Boys live, too. Local Blues band Bornia
Boys won the Monterey Blues Festival Battle of the Bands Nov. 21,
and the honor earns them a slot in the prestigious Monterey Blues
Festival, in June. Until then, the band can be seen at venues
throughout the Bay Area, including a monthly gig at Ridgemark Golf
and Country Club the third Saturday of every month starting in
January.
The Bornia boys will perform next at the Elks Lodge in
Hollister, 351 Astro Drive, for the Friends 4 Ever Christmas Party,
Dec. 4, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. For more information or for tickets,
call 801-9667.
The Bornia Boys, a local Blues band, earned a spot to perform at
the Monterey Blues Festival next June by competing in the Monterey
Blues Festival Battle of the Blues Bands Nov. 21, at the Monterey
County Fairgrounds.
”
We can concentrate on the type of music we want to present, the
songs,
”
said Gene Parodi, the vocalist for the band.
”
We can work on those and polish them up. It gives us time to
think about it.
”
Bornia Boys take Battle of Blues Bands competition Nov. 21
The News to You
You can see the Bornia Boys live, too. Local Blues band Bornia Boys won the Monterey Blues Festival Battle of the Bands Nov. 21, and the honor earns them a slot in the prestigious Monterey Blues Festival, in June. Until then, the band can be seen at venues throughout the Bay Area, including a monthly gig at Ridgemark Golf and Country Club the third Saturday of every month starting in January.
The Bornia boys will perform next at the Elks Lodge in Hollister, 351 Astro Drive, for the Friends 4 Ever Christmas Party, Dec. 4, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. For more information or for tickets, call 801-9667.
The Bornia Boys, a local Blues band, earned a spot to perform at the Monterey Blues Festival next June by competing in the Monterey Blues Festival Battle of the Blues Bands Nov. 21, at the Monterey County Fairgrounds.
“We can concentrate on the type of music we want to present, the songs,” said Gene Parodi, the vocalist for the band. “We can work on those and polish them up. It gives us time to think about it.”
The Bornia Boys performed last June at the Monterey Bay Blues Festival, when they applied through the regular process of submitting a demo tape and resume, though they found they were accepted to perform at a date much closer to the festival. The band includes Parodi, and his good friend Chuck Fike, who also started playing then. Other members include Chris Berry, of Hollister, on guitar; David Parodi, Gene’s son, on drums; Alan Eglington, on harmonica, and the newest bandmate Steve Carlino, on keyboard.
David Parodi knew Carlino, so when they band was looking for a keyboardist to fill in, they contacted Carlino, who agreed to play with them. Carlino, who is in another band as well, has performed with the Bornia Boys on “maybe 95 percent of our gigs,” Parodi said.
This year, the musicians submitted a resume and demo disk for the Monterey Bay Blues Festival Battle of the Blues Bands competition in hopes of securing a spot at the June event.
“I am not sure how many applied, but 10 were selected,” to compete, Parodi said.
The Bornia Boys were sixth in the line-up. Each band was given 15 minutes to set up and play three songs. The application form required the bands to select one slow vocal song, one fast vocal song and one slow instrumental in the genre of blues or R&B. The bands were judged on how quickly they could set up, how well they stayed within their time limit and song selection.
“One of the nice things was as others bands were waiting to go on – or even after – we could talk with them and find out where they were from. It was a really neat thing. There was a competition going on, but it was a friendly atmosphere,” Parodi said.
Audience members were able to vote for their favorite musicians, and when the ballots were tallied, all 10 bands were invited back on stage. Bornia Boys were one of three bands to secure a spot in the June festival.
The band members have plenty of time to practice before then, Parodi said. Starting in January, they will perform at Ridgemark on the third Saturday of every month. Parodi said they have regulars who show up for every scheduled performance and they see new faces each time they have a show at Ridgemark.
“What is the most wonderful thing is they stay,” Parodi said. “They don’t leave. The interaction between the band and the audience motivates us.”
The musicians have plans to continue looking for new venues.
“I know there will be other gigs coming up,” he said. “Of course, we are looking forward to getting involved in new areas.”
Since their turn playing at the Monterey Blues Festival June 27, the musicians have kept busy. In addition to the regular gig at Ridgemark, the group got together at the Poor House Bistro in San Jose, a New Orleans-themed restaurant. Parodi described the gig as more of a jam session for a friend’s birthday party. The highlight was when Chris Cain, a Bay Area blues artist, showed up and played along with them.
The group also performed at Corral de Tierra, in Monterey.
“That was very special in that it was a pretty prestigious place to play,” Parodi said. “We had a good response there.”
Another highlight, Parodi said, was performing at Pietra Santa, in the Cienega Valley. They played outside, and Parodi said it was a warm summer day.
“This is just a thing that keeps growing,” Parodi said. “It’s just hard to fathom sometimes how this has been such a positive experience. Our goal has been to honor the blues artists of the past and every time we play that seems to happen.”
Parodi described the way people react at their shows:
“The way times are now it’s nice to have a little bit of joy and happiness,” Parodi said. “And being able to smile and laugh, I think it’s been contagious. When we perform, people seem to be relaxed and set their troubles down for a little while.”
