Musician Green’s blues gritty and gutsy

Pick any weekend night, walk into a bar or club that features live music and chances are, just about nine times out of 10, you’ll find somebody playing the blues. Sure, the blues dominates bar and club circuits across the continent, and especially in Down East Maine, but it’s rare that you find somebody who plays blues with that certain je ne sais rock, a little rough around the edges and played straight from the gut.

Thankfully, there’s enough Eric Green going around these days to compete with some of the other lackluster, sugar-free blues out there in bar land.

A Penobscot Nation member and self-described “Army brat,” Green spent many years out of state, including some in New Orleans, before returning to Maine five years ago. These days, the guitarist, singer and songwriter makes his home in Frankfort while gigging around the state (though mostly in central and coastal Maine).

Although the names vary considerably – Green & Bosse, Double E, the Eric Green Band and Wicked Mack Duo, among others – and the tunes vary slightly depending on the night’s lineup of backing musicians, all the groups share Green’s gritty, swampy approach to playing the blues, along with some touches of punk and rockabilly thrown in for good measure.

Green will team up this evening with Josh Smalls of the Nightcrawlers for a night of what he describes as “hound dog-style blues” at The Thirsty Whale on Cottage Street in Bar Harbor. The show starts at 9 p.m.

What’s the difference between “hound dog” and regular, plain old blue blues?

“It’s what I call sit-down, dirty-Travis picking, from the time between Delta and Chicago blues,” Green says. “It’s kind of like Mississippi John Hurt through a distortion unit.”

And it’s a style that Green looks forward to playing here in Bangor a little later this month. During the weekend of the National Folk Festival, Green and Smalls will bring the gritty, house-rocking music to the back deck of the Sea Dog Restaurant at 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 28.

In the meantime, Green continues to work on a new album of original material at Nightcrawler Studios in Bangor, along with a little help from some other talented local folks. He hopes to have the as-yet-untitled album out by Halloween.

For more about this Friday’s gig, call the Thirsty Whale at 288-9335. George Bragdon can be reached at gbragdon@bangordailynews.net.