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<p>PLAINS TWP. &#8212; With their penchant for guitar driven, often heavy blues, the trio of Dustin Douglas, Matt Gabriel and Tom Smallcomb, aka Dustin Douglas &amp; The Electric Gentlemen, can draw comparisons to Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble in the band&#8217;s heyday as a power trio.</p><p>On Jan. 21, the Wilkes-Barre-based three-piece will showcase those similarities. <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/features/541680/wilkes-barre-power-trio-dustin-douglas-the-electric-gentlemen-finds-chemistry-with-new-music" target="_blank">The Gents</a> perform a tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan at 10 p.m. at the River Street Jazz Cafe.</p><p>Douglas credits local music promoter Tom Moran for staying after him and his bandmates to perform the SRV tribute.</p><p>&#8220;He&#8217;s been after us to do this, and we&#8217;ve always had stuff on our plate,&#8221; Douglas said.</p><p>Douglas said Vaughan was one of his biggest influences growing up.</p><p>&#8220;I wear it on my sleeve style-wise, so it was cool to delve back in,&#8221; Douglas said of rehearsing for the show.</p><p>&#8220;The tribute thing can be a bit passe,&#8221; he added. &#8220;For some reason, in this town, unless you&#8217;re doing something like that, you don&#8217;t draw as big a crowd. I didn&#8217;t want to get lumped into that, but I&#8217;m glad we did it.&#8221;</p><p>The guitarist and songwriter said he&#8217;s not aware of many SRV tributes throughout the country, a dearth that led Moran to see the potential for such a show in The Gents.</p><p>&#8220;At the end of the day, I think he felt like it was in our wheelhouse,&#8221; Douglas said. &#8220;We&#8217;re rehearsing our asses off, but if we just went out and did these songs without a ton of rehearsal, I think it would seem pretty natural.&#8221;</p><p>Douglas said the format for the show is &#8220;not set in stone,&#8221; but he expects to start with a set of his band&#8217;s original blues before getting to the SRV catalogue.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll get the crowd warmed up,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We&#8217;ll do a short set and then do almost 20 Stevie songs. Then, depending on time, we&#8217;ll probably come back out and do some more Gentlemen stuff.&#8221;</p><p>Douglas said he and The Gents have taken pleasure in the preparation.</p><p>&#8220;When you&#8217;re a musician full time, unless you&#8217;re doing something like this, you don&#8217;t really sit and listen to stuff like you used to,&#8221; he said. &#8220;When I do something like this, I almost look at it like method acting. I think we all do as a band. We watch lots of live stuff. Tommy is the king of that.&#8221;</p><p>The frontman said the group took inspiration from a 1986 performance by Vaughan and Double Trouble.</p><p>&#8220;The thing I took from it is that he did in the &#8217;80s what I want to do now, which is make the blues cool again,&#8221; Douglas said. &#8220;He did it naturally. He brought this lethal guitar trio into the forefront again.&#8221;</p><p>Douglas said constructing the setlist has been a challenge with careful consideration put toward taking songs from each of Vaughan&#8217;s albums and catering to his different tempos and techniques.</p><p>Since promotion began for the show, Douglas said he&#8217;s been surprised by the people who have expressed interest.</p><p>&#8220;We know your guitar heads and gear heads and blues guys are going to be there, but I think he touched people you don&#8217;t realize,&#8221; Douglas said.</p><p>In addition to the strength of the songs he&#8217;s poised to play, Douglas said he&#8217;s looking forward to putting Vaughan&#8217;s memory in the forefront for an evening.</p><p>&#8220;Whenever we do covers, even in our own set, I essentially want to wave the flag of that artist,&#8221; Douglas said. &#8220;We put our heart and soul into the songs &#8230; and we&#8217;re trying to spread that music to other people.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Dustin Douglas &amp; The Electric Gentlemen will perform a tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan Jan. 21 at the River Street Jazz Cafe in Plains Township. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/web1_wbw05xxdustindouglas-8.jpg</photo0><caption0>Dustin Douglas &amp; The Electric Gentlemen will perform a tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan Jan. 21 at the River Street Jazz Cafe in Plains Township. </caption0><photoCredit0>Amanda Hrycyan | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/web1_wbw05xx16dustindouglas-4.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">From left: Dustin Douglas, Tom Smallcomb and Matt Gabriel perform at the River Street Jazz Cafe in Plains Township. The guitar-centric heavy blues trio will open its Jan. 21 performance with original music before playing nearly 20 songs by Texas blues legend Stevie Ray Vaughan. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/web1_wbw05xx16dustindouglas-4.jpg</photo1><caption1>From left: Dustin Douglas, Tom Smallcomb and Matt Gabriel perform at the River Street Jazz Cafe in Plains Township. The guitar-centric heavy blues trio will open its Jan. 21 performance with original music before playing nearly 20 songs by Texas blues legend Stevie Ray Vaughan. </caption1><photoCredit1>Amanda Hrycyan | For Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Dustin Douglas &amp; The Electric Gentlemen set for Jazz Cafe tribute</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Matt Mattei</p><p>mmattei@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>IF YOU GO: </strong></p><p>What: Tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan by Dustin Douglas &amp; The Electric Gentlemen</p><p>Where: River Street Jazz Cafe, 667 N. River St., Plains Township</p><p>When: 10 p.m. Jan. 21</p><p>Ticket information: Tickets cost $8 in advance and are available by visiting <a href="http://www.riverstreetjazzcafe.com/" target="_blank">riverstreetjazzcafe.com</a>. </p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Matt Mattei at 570-991-6651 or on Twitter @TimesLeaderMatt.</p></shirttailMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><videoMeta><p><table class="mceItemTable" style="border:none;width:98%;"><tbody><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoID:</td><td id="videoid" style="width:50em;font-size:90%;">5U6UTUc4Mj4</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoType:</td><td id="videotype" style="font-size:90%;">YOUTUBE</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">URL:</td><td id="url" style="font-size:90%;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U6UTUc4Mj4</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Embed String:</td><td id="videoembedstring" style="font-size:90%;">&lt;iframe width=&#8221;560&#8221; height=&#8221;315&#8221; src=&#8221;https://www.youtube.com/embed/5U6UTUc4Mj4&#8221; frameborder=&#8221;0&#8221; allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Caption:</td><td id="videocaption" style="font-size:90%;">Dustin Douglas &amp; The Electric Gentlemen &#8212; Baby Girl</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Credit:</td><td id="videocredit" style="font-size:90%;">Dustin Douglas Music</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Position:</td><td id="videoposition" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr></tbody></table></p><p style="margin-top:10px;font-size:70%;color:#555;">(use the &#8220;for files&#8230;&#8221; link above to associate attached files with this source)</p></videoMeta></div>

Dustin Douglas & The Electric Gentlemen to play tribute to Steve Ray Vaughan