The Signature Sounds of Blue Spectrum

I hadn’t planned on seeing a band Saturday as I caught the Columbus Crew game with a friend at Signature’s Millstone Tavern in Gahanna. But as I walked outside after my meal, I heard blistering blues guitar thrumming from the back patio. That’s where I first heard Blue Spectrum.

Signatures Tavern is my local tavern here in Creekside in Gahanna — with great pub food and friendly bar tenders, I’m lucky to live so close to this newly revamped neighborhood watering hole. (The bar changed hands and reopened with and expanded patio and drink selections in 2022).

Signatures regularly hosts bands on the patio and in the bar area. The booking agent there deftly curates the bar bands.

Blue Spectrum frontman and lead guitarist Zayne Harshaw had one dream from the time he was a little boy: Lead a band.

By the time he was 14, despite an autism diagnosis that shaped his childhood, Harshaw had taught himself to play the electric guitar and bass, according to the band’s website. When he discovered the blues, however, he found the idiom that could really give him his musical voice.

I chatted with Blue Spectrum Pianist Genene Blackwell after the show and found out Blue Spectrum will play Gahanna again next month during the 25th Creekside Blues and Jazz Festival. See their set at 7:30 pm on the Blues Stage Friday, June 14.

Look for SkilletReport coverage of the great food vendors that come every year!