Black Market III
13. The family landed in San Diego when he turned 15. At that time he
joined a band with a high school buddy and his older brother and a couple
of their older friends. The Wholly Rollers was a Rhythm and Blues type
revue and played out locally quite a bit. As members had to go their own
ways, Scottie and front man Fred Kokaska stayed together and formed Bare
Bones, which through various incarnations still plays today.
by Eli J. Medellin
Photography by Nick Abadilla
At age 19 he met San Diego Blues legend Tomcat Courtney and was
introduced to the Who’s Who of the blues scene. “I’m meeting all these
guys who were at the core of the Blues scene, guys like Eric Lieberman and
his band The Jukestompers. Eric’s former band was the highly regarded
Rhumboogies, featuring Earl Thomas as the vocalist,” said Scottie. Scottie
says that he learned the Lightnin’ Hopkins style guitar playing from Tomcat
as well.
A Recipe For Success
A
fter having a smashing success with The Mississippi Mudsharks in
the 90’s, then again in the mid 2000’s, Scottie Blinn has learned the
lessons of the road from his own experience as well as from the the
experiences of those he’s had the privilege to work with, and has
formulated his own solution to a successful band. He calls it Black
Market III.
Black Market III is a Rock & Roll business, with sponsors and merchandise
carrying a trio of musicians on tours throughout the United States as well
as Europe. Who is Black Market III? Are they a blues band or rock band,
or metal band? How did they get to this level of success?
We caught up with Scottie, Roxy Coverdale, and Gavin Glenn at a beautiful
hillside home that Scottie and Roxy share together, with a scenic mountain
view of Lakeside California in San Diego’s east county.
We are quickly greeted by a Dachshund named Lloyd who has to check us
out and make sure we’re ok to come in. Right away I notice a collection of
new and vintage guitars displayed on the wall, and Scottie had a story for
each one.
While Gavin sets up his drums in preparation for rehearsal, we take a
seat in their living room/rehearsal room/studio for a close-up intimate
interview with the trio to find out their secret recipe.
Scottie Blinn
Scottie Blinn’s influences are too numerous to name. They range from
T-Bone Walker and Lightnin’ Hopkins to ZZ Top, The Clash, and Social
Distortion. His sound is a hard core mixture of everything in between.
He grew up moving all over California and he started playing guitar at age
In 1992 he formed his own band that grew to be very popular called The
Mississippi Mudsharks. Between 1992 and 1999 they spent most of those
years playing seven nights a week and touring the Western States and
Europe.
“It wasn’t so much there was lots of places to p