Camp Out For Campilongo

"I used to just randomly buy records if there weren't that many songs on them -- I didn't care who the artist was.  A banner day would be discovering a double album that only had two songs on it.  So I ended up with 'John Coltrane Live in Japan' and John McLaughlin's 'Devotion' with Larry Young on organ.  I listened to those records until they melted and I still do to this day (on CD).  Eventually, I found Roy Buchanan's first album and all bets were off, I was going to be a guitar player."

So says guitarist Jim Campilongo, who we had the fortune of checking out at his Monday residency at the Living Room in New York. Fans would have recently heard the San Francisco native in latte-rock project the Little Willies (hey, we love lattes), the quintet featuring Norah Jones and whose self-titled record peaked at No. 48 on The Billboard 200 last year. Recently, Campilongo has been working on his millionth billionth seventh full-length album, for which he's seeking a label deal.

His live show was a mellow affair, a siren to the middle-aged ponytail set, but also an overall killer course on How To Play Your Instrument Putting All Others To Shame. The man can jam. His instrumental compositions are practically lyrical, mixing blues with jazz with country. A real treasure.

Just prior to his set, we caught Amy Miles, who has a positively mesmerizing Lucinda-lite purr. Her rock tunes were a pleasant surprise prior to an aforementioned ponytail scaring us out of the club.