Bringing people together

Joe and Vicki Price personify love for each other and love for music with an el Bait Shop show last Sunday night.

Sometimes the music is enough. We can all hold different political beliefs or come from different economic backgrounds and a wide array of races and religions. But music — the really good stuff — has a way of transcending all that. Genre doesn’t even matter. Regardless of whether it’s punk, blues, rock or country, when it’s good, it lets us all turn to the person next to us and say, “I may not agree with you all the time, but I like this music, and so do you. So let’s just stand here for the next five minutes and enjoy the song together.”

There was some of that going on down at el Bait Shop on Sunday, as Joe and Vicki Price showed the 30 or so people in town who weren’t at Bon Jovi what good blues was all about. Whether joined on stage by Heath Alan and his sax, or performing as a duo, or simply Joe playing a little slide all alone, there’s no doubt that the Prices understand the effect that good blues can have on the soul.

There are two things that make Joe and Vicki really work on stage. One is talent, but that should be a given. You don’t garner the following and the respect that the Prices have unless you’re talented. But it’s that second thing that really sets them apart. Love. Love for the music, to be sure, but more importantly, love for each other. Joe and Vicki understand and complement one another in a way that can only be achieved through years of daily toil in close proximity. The ease with which the two play together creates a level of comfort and camaraderie that is infectious.

Music is supposed to bring people together. Joe and Vicki Price are a couple of unifiers. CV