This band needs a name. Guitarist Curley Cooke, singer and harmonica player Annette Taborn, bassist Rob Moitoza and drummer Marty Vadalabene asked Monday’s crowd at The Swiss to vote on “Annette Taborn & the Blind Lemons,” but got a tepid response.

For the name, not the music.

The opening set of variations on traditional blues included two Robert Johnson tunes, “Walking Blues” and “Crossroads,” and the quartet made them sound fresh with engagingly subtle and sophisticated touches.

The no-name ensemble, which will perform Sunday at The Spar, features three Northwest blues veterans and a newcomer, Taborn, who sings well and plays harp with melodic grace and considerable power and authority.

“She’s a great singer,” Cooke said. “She works with me in the Blues in the Schools program. Right now we’re at South Lake High School, an alternative school in the Rainier Beach area, for a six-week program.”

Based on Monday’s performance, Taborn, who used to live in Michigan, is a terrific addition to the Northwest music scene.

“I started doing Blues in the Schools in Michigan in 1994,” she said, “the same year I helped start the Kalamazoo Blues Festival. I went to Mississippi and studied blues history at the university. So when I came to Seattle (last May), the first person I looked up was Curley. I’m so happy to be able to play with him.”

She should be. With Moitoza and Vadalabene providing a great rhythmic backdrop, Cooke plays up a storm. The former member of Steve Miller’s band is worth listening to closely because his directness sometimes masks a considerable level of sophistication.

Taborn’s approach fits right in on both counts.

“I started playing harmonica in high school,” she said. “I’ve always been a singer. I teach harmonica now to little girls, so my goal is that there will be lots more women playing. I don’t know why women don’t play harmonica. There’s really no reason.”

She was asked why, these days, it seems like there are few young blues players who are black.

“I think there is a reason for that,” Taborn said. “The resurgence of blues came through Europe with bands like the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. The white rock ’n’ rollers were playing music based on the blues. And, in a way, blacks didn’t want to remember that nasty part of our history. Blues had a bad connotation.

“But I think it’s changing. I don’t think anything’s changed in the music. It’s still the news of the day. It just belongs to everyone now, and I think blacks are starting to come back to it. The farther away you get from the painful origins, the more you can see the beauty of it. When I teach blues in schools, little kids are really happy to learn about it. They wonder where music comes from, and the blues answers a lot of those questions.”

So maybe a little more blues research will turn up a suitable name for the group. “Blind Lemons” is a lemon. If you have an idea, share it on Sunday after 7 p.m. There won’t be a cover charge.

Savoy savvy: The Stones and Led Zep weren’t the only British bands that helped reinvigorate blues-based music in America. Savoy Brown has been a blues-rock powerhouse since 1966.

Leader and guitarist Kim Simmonds has rebuilt the band many times since some members left to form Foghat in the early ’70s. He’ll bring the present incarnation of his group to Jazzbones on Saturday for a 9 p.m. show.

Admission is $15 in advance and will be $20 at the door.

Casino freebie: Get there early to catch Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels and Iron Butterfly at the Emerald Queen Casino I-5 Showroom on Saturday. Admission is free for the 8 p.m. show.

I can’t resist quoting (as nearly as I recall) part of an old review of the Butterfly hit “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”: “The song, which appeals primarily to acid victims, goes on seemingly forever and makes absolutely no sense.”

Perhaps so, but it hasn’t kept the 1968 smash from being resurrected recently in a television commercial selling a retirement investment plan. From LSD to 401(k), what a long, strange trip that is.

Half notes

 • If great Celtic music sounds right for St. Patrick’s Day, check out The McKassons tonight at the Mandolin Café.

 • Toscano’s presents the swinging Maia Santell & House Blend tonight.

 • The Westgate Inn features the blues and rock of the Jerry Miller Band tonight.

 • The Emerald Queen Casino I-5 features the New Blues Brothers Revue tonight and Saturday and Kent Morrill’s tribute to Roy Orbison on Tuesday.

 • Jazzbones has the Jude Bowerman Band tonight and will serve up a taste of New Orleans on Thursday with Papa Grows Funk.

 • Jazz and blues harmonica ace Jay Mabin will be featured at Sunday’s 5 p.m. Blues Vespers concert at Immanuel Presbyterian Church. He’ll be performing with Buck England on Hammond B-3 organ, Joe Blenis on guitar and Mike Slivka on drums; donations accepted. The church is at 909 N. J St.; 253-627-8371.

rick.nelson@thenewstribune.com