Shaky Deal was a 5 (but for a short time 4)-piece blues band based in Franklin, MA from ~1996-2003. Started by Jim Chilson and Nick Carmignani (see below), it reached the status of a regional blues band playing venues in Massachusetts and Rhode Island (and maybe New Hampshire but unsure) including the famous House of Bluesspan> in Cambridge, MA and Harper’s Ferry (now The Brighton Music Hall) in Boston, MA.
Members of the band were (in order of joining):
- Jim Chilson - Guitar and vocals. Later guitarist of the The Ten Foot Polcats
- Nick Carmignini - Drums
- John Deal - Bass
- Natalie Marsh - Vocals
- Alex Gitlin (1997-1999) - Organ/Piano
- Joel Aberbach (2000-2003) - Guitar and vocals
It seems the band's demise was caused by my moving to Virginia in August 2003 to take a full-time college teaching job since I could not find one in the Massachusetts area. I highly regret this decision for multiple reasons but the primary one was missing this band.
Recordings
There are a couple of Shaky Deal audio records on the Recordings page and below are links to some videos. I am in the process of digitizing analog video recordings of Shaky Deal and hope to post more soon.