Words by Nathan Quevedo

Mike Hammar has been playing blues for nearly 30 years. Despite this, he’s the youngest member in Mike Hammar and The Nails.

This statement alone says a lot about the collective experience of the band.

“I was never one of those kids that was in a garage rock band. I waited 20 years to start my own garage band,” he said with a laugh.

“I’ve been a take-any-gig type of working musician since I was 17. This is the first original band I’ve ever been in.”

It’s not that he hasn’t played a variety of other kinds of music: country, rock, Portuguese music, even new wave. But those were all cover bands.

“I did a little stint in the ‘80s doing new wave. I even played in a Portuguese band and we played festas,” Hammar said reflecting on his previous experience. “Covering all types of stuff has made me a better musician. But I was always in some kind of blues band.”

His dedication to blues really has paid off: Mike Hammar and the Nails are playing at the Monterey Blues Festival in June.

And he didn’t just book the show.

“We went to a battle of the blues band at the Monterey Fairgrounds,” Hammar proudly says. “We went in and banged it out with our originals and we won it — that’s a prestigious thing for us.

“We did three tunes, and it’s all stuff that’s gonna be on our new album.” The yet-to-be-titled album is their second full-length which is still in the recording process.

Hammar and his Nails will play on the same stage Jimi Hendrix did in 1967 when he ended his performance with a version of “Wild Thing” where Hendrix then kneeled over his guitar, pouring lighter fluid over it, setting it aflame, and then smashing it.

Despite this, Hammar’s a humble small town guy.

A football coach and teacher for the Merced Union High School District for 21 years, Hammar says the balance of the day job and a band has never been difficult.

“No, it’s not too bad. When you think about something you do that you enjoy, it seems like a lot less of a time investment,” he said.

The band has other big things on the horizon: playing the Sonora Blues Festival and headlining the Hanford Blues Festival.

Hammar’s hopeful the Monterey show will open doors for Los Angeles and San Francisco shows.

Along with the Monterey show, the fact that the band’s opened for Elvin Bishop, Charlie Musselwhite, Jerry Portnoy and Michael Burks will definitely help.

“Now we do shows, and we’ll get people who travel an hour or two. We’ve even got a whole little crew from the Monterey area,” he said.

Hammar’s seen a lot change over the years in the music industry, but the most notable are live-music venues and recording.

“The biggest change to me is the number of venues available that are even offering live music,” he said. “There would be four or five clubs in small towns that would have house bands and live music Thursday through Sunday. Some were even playing Wednesdays.”

He remembers recording a few decades ago, “you’d have a little crappy reel-to-reel or 4-track and it wasn’t a very good sound quality. Anything with one- or two-inch tape and studio time was expensive.”
He’s amazed at how easy it is to record music with computers. “Home studios can produce a phenomenal product,” he said.

Check out Mike Hammar and the Nails at The Partisan on Feb. 13.

And become a fan of the band on Facebook or check out its Web site, www.mikehammar.com.

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