2 Blue Shoes

Northwest Arkansas Heats Up With Tropical Rock

NorthWest Arkansas Morning News: Friday, April 28, 2006

Just when you think it's OK to pack up your sweaters and jackets, cool and rainy weather returns. If this has left you longing for summer even more, than check out George's Majestic Lounge this weekend, where tropics-infused music is well represented.

2 Blue Shoes

The weekend will open with 2 Blue Shoes, which hails from St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, playing an early show today. The two-man band is Smokey Pratt and John Brittain, who is a veteran of Northwest Arkansas stages. The Little Rock native lived in Fayetteville for several years in the 1970s and was a member of Rodeo, which played "real hard rock and some Rolling Stones stuff," he says.

"This band was the precursor to Zorro and the Blue Footballs and Windy Austin's Hot House Tomato Boys," Brittain continues. "I used to jam with Windy. He even named 'Zorro' after my dog."

After years spent traveling around the country opening sandwich shops for a corporate chain, Brittain settled in St. Thomas. "I came for Carnival and never left," he says. (Jealous yet?) Brittain now has a day job in sales but performs regularly around the island with Pratt; they have had a standing Friday night gig at Betsy's Bar for 11 years.

Brittain has been back in Northwest Arkansas a few times over the years, including when he 'jammed' at the defunct Library Club with old friends in the 1980s. "I couldn't believe how much had changed," he says. "All the businesses had flipped into something else except for Roger's Rec and George's."

Britain says some things seem the same, though. "It's the same atmosphere there, just updated," he says of Dickson Street. "There is still music, still people having a good time, going from bar to bar."

2 Blue Shoes will play an eclectic mix of blues and rock with a little reggae and country thrown in. "You'll hear anything from Randy Newman's 'Guilty' to Bob Marley's 'Redemption Song'," Brittain says. "And we play a LOT of Tom Waits and our own fun and funky songs."

The duo brings with it a "virtual back-up band," a music-making computer that fills out the sound of these two master musicians.

"I love live music and I had my doubts about (the virtual band)," Brittain says. "I was so disgusted with disco because musicians got squeezed out, and I felt like this was doing the same thing.

"But after we went through many bass players and drummers two years, Smokey and me were tired of teaching people the same songs over and over. So we tried this, and we were able to focus on new music. And it really sounds good.

"I've had a lot of musicians come up after shows and say they love the thing."

Two more interesting tidbits to know about Brittain and 2 Blue Shoes:

First: "I've gone from having a lot of really long hair to no hair," Brittain says. "So we'll see if people recognize me."

Second: "We give dance prizes," he says.

2 Blue Shoes Step Out

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: Friday, April 28, 2006

St. Thomas-based 2 Blue Shoes - vocalist Smokey Pratt and guitarist John Brittain - will bring their "2 Blue Shoes on 2-er" show to Fayetteville for a pair of performances this week. First they'll entertain at George's Majestic Lounge, 519 W. Dickson St., from 7-9 p.m. Friday in the lounge. On Saturday, they'll be at The Gypsy, 402 W. Dickson St., for happy hour from 5:30-8:30 p.m. The electric blues/pop/rock duo performs with a computer-generated backup band to enhance their eclectic mix of blues, rocle, reggae and country. Shows include covers of American songwriters such as Randy Newman, Tom Waits and Bob Dylan as well as a mix of originals.

Both Pratt and Brittain are longtime musicians - Brittain even performed with the band Rodeo on Dickson Street in the 1970s - who began collaborating In St. Thomas In 1991. They have released three CDs, "Welcome," "Careless Love" and "The Lost Tapes," and have a fourth on the way. For details on Friday's show, call 442-4226. For details on Saturday's show, call 444-1945.

2 Blue Shoes

Fayetteville Free Weekly: Thursday, April 27, 2006

Talk about Dickson Street nostalgia: Singer and guitarist John Brittain will be in town this week for a Friday night show at George's with vocalist, harmonica and flute player Smokey Pratt.

Brittain and Pratt, who live in the Virgin Islands, perform as a duo called 2 Blue Shoes. They perform with a "virtual backup band" that they jokingly call The Footnotes. The two have played together since 1991 and have released three CDs.

Their music is a mix of "electric eclectic blues/pop/rock" originals and covers that includes a healthy serving of Tom Waits, Randy Newman, Bob Dylan and Bob Marley songs.

Included in their original repertoire are their songs "Women Who Made Gunpowder When They Were Girls" and "Redemption Bong."

This will be Brittain's first time to play Dickson Street in 30 years - although he said he did jam with some friends at the now defunct Library when he was here for a visit in the '80s.

Brittain was a member of the Fayetteville band, Rodeo, which was around in the 1970's and was a precursor to Zorro and the Blue Footballs. "Windy (Austin) even named Zorro after my dog," Brittain said.

For more information:
call Smokey at (340) 777-3060 (leave message) or
contact John at