JASON RICCI & NEW BLOOD Source: ROANOKE TIMES  Date: 11/2007 Writer: Tad Dickens

Saturday night in Roanoke. 

The kind of night that people look in big city papers' show listings and say, "Why aren't I there? Why don't I move there? So much great music. What a place to be." 

9:14 p.m. 

Blue 5 

Second Street at Kirk Avenue 

Capacity is 266 at Blue 5, one of Roanoke's newest nightspots. Co-owner Kerry Hurley says he has at least a couple hundred people inside. 

The show -- Jason Ricci and New Blood -- starts late, but the Nashville-based blues/rockers are right, opening with a slow, dirty swing and ace harpist Ricci is blowing hot. Next, they move into a bouncy jump. 

"Listen to me, hear what I say. Don't move your lips ... shake your hips," Ricci growls as guitarist Shawn Starski fuses Chicago blues with Jimmy Page-style British rock. 

Outside, Tracey Mitchell, 29, of Roanoke smokes and looks in the window toward the band. 

"It's so cool that all these bands came to Roanoke tonight," she says. Nashville, Ricci's town, "is a music city, and the fact that they would even come here to play ... I mean, if I were in Nashville, I'd be like -- Roanoke?"