West Coast blues dynamo Ron Thompson is nearly as animated on the phone as he is during his supercharged concerts and bar shows. He's excited to be playing his first gigs in St. Paul since the original Wilebski's Blues Saloon was going strong two decades ago.

"Things have really been poppin'," Thompson said from his Bay Area home. "I've been working all the time, playing a lot of club gigs and festivals. And I've started doing some seminars at different colleges, usually an hour or an hour and a half, telling kids about the blues and guitar playing, showing them different slide techniques. I've been recording all the seminars and maybe somewhere down the line I can sort through and find the best selections, and get an intimate live CD out of the experience."

Few people are better qualified to give college students a crash course in 12-bar music than Thompson. He was John Lee Hooker's bandleader for seven years. And he cut his teeth as a youngster backing a plethora of other "chitlin' circuit" blues and R&B heroes, some famous (Jimmy Reed, Big Mama Thornton, Percy Mayfield, Jimmy McCracklin), most obscure collector's favorites.

Thompson later became a go-to guy for rock stars who needed some authentic blues licks on their records or at live shows. He has had long associations with Mick Fleetwood and Chris Isaak, and lately he's worked often with a dude who neatly straddles the blues and rock fence, Elvin Bishop. "Elvin's a really nice guy who lives out here in Marin County," Thompson said. "So I've been sitting in with his band quite a bit. And later this summer I'm supposed to fly out to Hawaii to finish a recording project with Mick Fleetwood, which should be fun."

Thompson's good run of steady work -- festival, college and "blues cruise" gigs -- started back in 2007, when Mayor Gavin Newsom declared "Ron Thompson Day" in San Francisco. "Yeah, I lived there a long time, and I knew some people at City Hall. But I still couldn't believe it," he said. "That was really nice, and it opened up some doors for me."

In St. Paul, Thompson will be ably backed by the Twin Cities edition of his Resistors band: John Lindberg on bass and Michael (Taco) Velasquez on drums. They eat their Wheaties before the gig, and do a marvelous job of keeping up with the wild man, whether he's playing lead guitar, incomparable slide guitar, rollicking electric piano or squealing harmonica. A Ron Thompson show is always a happy workout.