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- Special to the Madera Tribune

Band members of Ron Thompson and the Resistors, Thompson, at left, and percussionist Chris Millar jam at Backstreet Bar and Grill, 1930 Howard Rd.

Photo by: Wendy Alexander

Ron Thompson and the Resistors play their regular Tuesday night gig at Backstreet Bar and Grill.

Photo by: Wendy Alexander

By Jed Chernabaeff

Special to the Madera Tribune

Backstreet Bar and Grill owner Mike Orlando had no idea who Ron Thompson was when he saw his name on some old fliers.

After talking with some of his regulars, Orlando thought Thompson might be a good choice for a regular gig at his Madera bar.

Orlando gave the blues musician a call, and Ron Thompson and the Resistors began to play every Tuesday from 9 p.m. to midnight.

Orlando knew that he had booked a great act but he didn't know how great. He did his research and found that Ron Thompson was not just another guitar player.

He discovered that a legend was playing at his bar.

Big Mama Thornton, Etta James, Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker and B.B. King are a few legends that most blues lovers know. But what they might not know is that all these artists have one thing in common: Ron Thompson has played with every one of them.

"He can get along with anybody," Orlando said. "He's not trying to impress anybody, he's a cool cat. We are very lucky to have him come in and play every Tuesday night."

Thompson, now a Madera resident, was born in Oakland in 1953 and had learned how to play the piano and the guitar by age 11. He fell in love with the blues when he moved to Newark, another Bay Area town.

"One of my friends liked Jimmy Reed, who was a blues guy that played the harmonica and guitar and was kinda popular back then. A lot of Hispanics would cruise around in lowered cars and play Jimmy Reed records. I thought that was real cool, and I got into playing the blues."

Thompson today recalls how awed he was when he saw a James Brown concert at the Oakland Auditorium.

The high-energy performer - sometimes called "the hardest working man in show business" - made a lasting impression as Thompson began his own musical career.

"My main influences as far as the music I play are derived from Jimmy Reed, Elmore James and John Lee Hooker, who I played with for about seven years in his band."

Thompson was resourceful enough to avoid the scourge of many musicians: the dreaded day job.

"I haven't had a job since I was 19. I was a janitor then at a college that I was attending."

Before Thompson began to write his own music, he perfected playing the blues by covering songs written by others.

"You can't just come out and play the blues out of nowhere, you know it comes from somewhere. I used to play in some pretty rough clubs in North Richmond, that is where I learned how to play the blues.

Years of playing in small clubs and dives from coast to coast were Thompson's classroom as he constantly honed his musical mastery.

Don Heflin, founder of the Central Valley Blues Society, enjoys listening to Thompson as much as he enjoys playing with him as his occasional bass guitarist.

"At the end of the night I should be paying him," Heflin explains. "He is the ultimate performer for the Central Valley."

From the big gigs in New York City to the small gigs in Madera, Thompson said, he plays for the people who like "listening to the music as opposed to just listening to it for background noise."

Although he has played in the likes of Madison Square Garden with Mick Fleetwood in the 90s, Thompson said his mentality towards a gig does not change, no matter the size.

"I just try to do what I do, even if it's like 10 people. One time I was in Illinois and there were like six people in the place. Other performers didn't want to play. I gave my show like there were 1,000 people there. It ended up that those were the people who booked these big concerts all around that area."

Playing in big and small gigs for the last 30 years has taught Thompson one important virtue - patience.

"A percussionist that I play with, Oliver Brown, told me one night, "you are at the Coliseum one night and the next night you are at Joe's Pool Hall, all you have to do is keep your integrity up no matter where you are at, and if you don't, that's too bad."

This attitude has kept alive his love for the music.

"You have to have it together so you enjoy what you are doing. If you feel it and you get into a space, a space where people are feeling the energy, and if you feel that yourself and the crowd reacts and picks up on it, it's kind of like a religious thing, like a church thing."

"Those are the things I cherish the most about everything."

Thompson has only one desire when he plays live.

"I want people to remember how I played good and that's real. It's not about getting up there and messing around. You see bands that's don't care about the audience or the show. No matter where you are at you have to get down and bring something to the table."

Thompson's Tuesday night gig at the Backstreet Bar and Grill is like a family get-together in some ways. Regulars sometimes join him onstage and he often plays requests.

Fans can also approach Thompson between sets or after gigs and purchase CDs that he has recorded.

Mike Orlando recalls one of those magical moments at the Backstreet Bar and Grill.

"We were getting close to closing and Ron was in the middle of a break. There were a lot of people that night and everyone was dancing to the 50 Cent (popular hip-hop artist) song P.I.M.P.

"Ron was ready to go on so we turned the (juke box) music down and everyone stopped dancing. They seemed disappointed that the music stopped. But what the crowd didn't know was that Ron and the Resistors were listening to the music and picked up the same riff that was going on while the song was playing.

"People cheered and continued to dance while Ron and the band played for 10 more minutes."