When Bruce Bears settles in behind his keyboard at Brendan Crocker's Wildhorse Cafe in Beverly next week, he'll be in familiar territory. In the 1980s he played at Grover's, a rock club formerly located in the space that the Wildhorse now occupies on Cabot Street.
"Back then it was a hard drinking club," Bears said about Grover's. "It was a fun place to play back when I was 24, because it was a wild atmosphere. The Wildhorse is a beautiful restaurant; the difference is like night and day."
Bears, who grew up in Topsfield and appeared at Grover's with bands such as Blue China and Sally at the Sophisticats, said he once had a keyboard stolen out of the back of his pickup truck after a show one night.
"I turned my back for 20 seconds," he said, adding the neighborhood has since improved.
Bears will return to the "scene of the crime" with his three-piece band Threadbear Fynn on Wednesday night to promote the band's latest CD, "Sneaky Child." Guitarist Duke Robillard, the founder of Roomful of Blues, will sit in, as well as some other special guests, according to Bears.
"We'll get up there with the trio and play tunes off our record, and then Duke will come up and we'll play whatever we feel like playing — jazz standards, swung, blues," Bears said. "It's gonna be pretty eclectic because we'll switch back and forth from different styles all night long."
Rounding out Threadbear Fynn is Mark Texeira on drums and Jessie Williams on bass. "Sneaky Child" is all instrumental and anchored by Bears' full sound on keyboard and Hammond B3 organ. All but two songs — Eddie Harris' "Cold Duck Time" and "Love Me Baby," by Johnny "Guitar" Watson — are originals.
"(Threadbear Fynn) is kind of the three of us having fun ... and not sticking to a specific style of music," Bears said.
Bears said he also teaches music at a private school in Dedham, and often tours with older blues musicians such as Big Jack Johnson, James Harman, Junior Watson and Sherman Robertson. He is also the bandleader for Toni Lynn Washington, a well-known blues singer from Boston, who he's played with for more than 20 years.
The show starts at 9:30 p.m., and there is no cover. For more information, call 978-922-6868.
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Features editor Larry Claflin Jr. writes his "Music Notes" column weekly. He can be reached at lclaflin@salemnews.com.
