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BluesWax Sittin’ In With

Peter Karp & Sue Foley

Part One

Beyond He Said She Said

By Kyle M. Palarino

Peter Karp and Sue Foley are back for round two as they release their second album together, Beyond the Crossroads. This is a gorgeous step forward in the growth of their time together. It takes off from the original He Said She Said album, which was one point of life for these two people, and really takes them past those initial letters and onto so many strong-feeling songs. Beyond the Crossroads uses the great Swingadelic Horns and James Alexander brings in some great gospel, soul-tinged background vocals to flavor the album. You get more flavors on this album than at a Baskin-Robbins.

Peter and Sue really took their time to write a strong album. This time it focuses on positive themes. The song titles tell the story: “We’re Gonna Make It,” “Beyond the Crossroads,” “Fine Love,” “Take Your Time,” “More Than I Bargained For,” and “Resistance.” These songs talk about real relationships that all of us have with people every day; sometimes it’s an intimate relationship, but you could apply it any relation in your life. These two writers have put a lot of thought into these songs and they benefit the listener as well. The best musicians grow with time so we can grow with them.

Peter Karp is an amazing songwriter and cutting slide guitarist that is the perfect cohort for Sue Foley. Sue blazed herself on the world through the rough and ready Austin music scene in the early 1990s. Not an easy place for a “girl” to grow up. Sue’s tough enough to do it. Her playing pushes Peter each night on the stage and don’t think he doesn’t put up a fight. Some songs turn into straight guitar duels until they respectfully go back to the song. Astonishing is not the word for the respect that these musicians and writers have for each other. They know how to play for the sake of the song, but have fun and push each other’s limits while keeping the audience engaged! Hot Damn!!

I sat down with Peter and Sue two years ago at the Hungry Tiger in Manchester, Connecticut, when He Said She Said came out and I am lucky enough to do the same thing again in the same place. These two are a fun interview – very willing to share their experiences and thoughts behind their tales. Even if I wouldn’t recommend the coffee at the Tiger doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hit the place up for a great show and sometimes a grand chat. Sometimes you have play Bukowski and be a barfly.

Kyle Palarino for BluesWax: OK, let’s get this underway. First off, I want to attack the songwriting since you two are both top-notch songwriters. This album does take a different approach than the last one did [He Said She Said].

Peter Karp: See, he got that.

Sue Foley: Yes.

PK: One guy I don’t think really listened to the record cause all he said was like here’s another back and forth album talking about their problems. I mean he liked the record a lot, but it was like a He Said She Said II. It’s not at all like that.

SF: Yeah, he said it’s like a continuation of the story.

BW: No, that’s what I totally loved about this. It’s a totally different album from the first one. The other thing too was that the two of you seemed to separate as songwriters on this. I mean there are songs that could have been on a Peter Karp album or a Sue Foley album, were there songs that were written for the last album that were on this one?

PK: The letters from the last album yielded those songs. There really were no remnants from that record on this one. It’s not like we had a few in the can and said oh let’s throw on the next one. So this was a brand new attack.

BW: Which is what it sounded like.

PK: Having worked together and doing He Said She Said together and coming together as artists and bandleaders we started to get comfortable. Things felt good, things got really good, so I think that yielded some of the songwriting we shared there like “We’re Gonna Make It,” “More Than I Bargained For.” It got very easy. And then we pulled out our own little things and said what do you think of this, what do think of that? We turned some into duets and some into our own. I think we both respect each other a lot. Well, in a professional mode.

SF: [Laughing] Not personally.

PK: Not personally.

BW: I would hope not.

PK: [Laughter continues] Professionally we have the utmost respect for each other as musicians and songwriters. So that was really fun. We both found to be a lot of fun I think.

SF: Yeah, and me personally I considered myself more of a guitar player for a long time. I think working with Peter kinda upped the ante as far as paying attention to the lyric. I can say he definitely upped my game and made me think more like a writer. So that’s been really good. And our focus on the show has been much more on the songs even though we have a heavy instrumental slant too, but we said that the song is the most important part. Whatever serves the song, that’s where we’re going.

PK: I’ll just quickly add that I had to raise my guitar playing game to play with Sue. When you are standing there on stage and do a solo…

SF: [interrupting with laughter] There’s a girl on the stage.

PK: Well, no, I didn’t say that at all. The thing is when I would do a solo and I would think hey that was a great solo. Then I would hear her do somethin’ and I’m like, fuck that was really! So now I have to up my game. So that’s been pretty healthy.

BW: And on the guitar playing, I love hearing “Plank Spank,” ’cause that takes me right back to one of your old songs, “Hooker Thing,” which was one of the first songs I fell in love with that you did because not enough people do Earl Hooker anything, let alone a female artist playing guitar.

SF: This is kind of an extension of that for sure. Same key. We had a lot of fun on that.

PK: When she brought that to the table I took it and I was like, hmm, I’m gonna play slide on this. What do I do on this because it’s such a busy tune? So we managed to integrate and break up the parts and make into something we could share back and forth. Again, I learned from her on that song a lot, how to write an instrumental. I’ve never really written instrumentals. I haven’t written an instrumental in 25 years, ya know, but I learned from her the power of the instrumental. It was a great challenge to play that with her.

BW: Onto your playing of the barrelhouse piano; you brought that onto this album more so.

PK: Yeah I’ve always played piano at my shows. I love it; it’s what I started on. The last record was a little more contemplative and this one was more of let’s just turn it up. Let’s just have some fun; let ‘er rip. That’s really about it. It lended itself to it.

BW: Alright, being on the road?

SF: Dot, dot, dot. [Laugh]

PK: First night of a six-week tour. So far, so good.

BW: I think I got you last time you were just starting out on the road. So you didn’t have much time on the road together, so tell me it’s been a couple years since we last sat down at this blue table here. Tell me a good story you have shared and learned from each other.

SF: [Rips into full laughter]

BW: Come on, keep it G-rated kids!

PK: [Starts pointing at his front teeth] Let’s see, this tooth, that tooth is false.

SF: Let’s just say that the dynamic and the things you hear on the stage also unfold elsewhere. So we didn’t write a song like “Rules of Engagement” about a fight because we had never fought. We had a lot of things to work out, are still working out stuff but it’s a process. It’s fun; it’s been good. We’re both leaders and had to renege some of our powers to make a proper power together.

PK: I think motivation, in this business is hard to stay motivated. You go on the road, play places, the same kind of places.

BW: Bad coffee.

PK: Bad coffee or whatever and night after night you start to feel like you are going through the motions. So working with Sue is you really can’t go through the motions. Because if somebody starts to go through the motions, somebody else stirs it up. And if we both go through the motions, then guaranteed we are going to have a knockdown, drag-out fight afterwards. We’ll criticize each other about not having our heads in the game.

SF: Let’s just say, we are both better for working together.

To be continued…

Kyle Palarino is a contributing editor at BluesWax.

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BluesWax Sittin’ In With

Corky Laing

By Art Tipaldi

Nowadays Corky Laing often finds himself living two very different musical lives. As the trend-setting drummer of Cream’s heir, Mountain, Laing sits at his kit in the rear of a massive stage show fronted by guitarist Leslie West. However, when he tours as the Corky Laing Band, the set moves to the front and he calls it, “an intimate evening with a rock ‘n’ roll drummer.”

“For me it’s a bigger challenge to get up in front of the audience and play,” says Laing from his Toronto home. “I consider this a musical journey. I call the show “Forty years of Rock ‘n’ Roll” because I basically tell the stories between the songs. Mountain has an amazing assortment of songs that Leslie never got to. So basically I play songs that have not been played in Mountain.”

With guitarist Ritchie Scarlet and percussionist Tito Pediford, the band Laing travels with uses the Mountain format as its take-off point. Scarlett, who plays bass in Mountain, handles the guitar and singing chores while Pediford and Laing keep more than just percussive time. Laing feels that he and Pediford are working on a nightly dialogue between a drummer and percussionist. Not a Santana-styled approach, but a storytelling concept.

“There is definitely a form of phrasing and finding ways to better tell the story. I think when you’re young, you just want to talk as fast as you can and get everything in. I remember seeing Tony Williams way back in the mid-1960s in Montréal. He told me, ‘I know the words, but I haven’t quite told the story yet.’ I know the technical parts, but can I tell the story on my drums in a way that somebody will care about it.”

That’s the perspective of this 64-year-old drummer’s journey from following on the heels of Ginger Baker, Keith Moon, and Mitch Mitchell to insights discovered through forty years of studying one’s craft.

Raised in Montreal, Laing made frequent trips to New York in the 1960s with his band Energy. At a beach house on Long Island, he met the band Vagrant and it’s flamboyant guitarist Leslie West. At the same time, Felix Pappalardi was producing Cream for Atco Records.

In 1969, West was booked to play Woodstock and asked Pappalardi to join him. That success opened talks about continuing and the need for a full-time drummer. Since both knew Laing, he was given the chance.

“At the time, you could feel this band was more then just a passing thing. That first gig was scary as hell. It was at the Boston Tea Party opening for Dion. That was weird because we were so fuckin’ loud and Dion comes out with his quiet set.”

From there, Laing and West penned classic tunes like “Mississippi Queen” and “Nantucket Sleigh Ride,” two songs essential to that era of infant hard rock. After the band’s break-up, West and Laing teamed up with Cream bassist Jack Bruce to form West, Bruce and Laing. Yet through the years the partnership of West and Laing has been key.

With a sense of humor as quick as his high-hat-to-snare run, Laing addressed the forty-plus-year friendship between he and West. “It’s based on trust and understanding. I don’t trust him and he doesn’t understand me. The inventory that we musicians deal with is straight outta the heart. So when somebody messes with the inventory, you tend to get violent about it. At this point, we’re feeling pretty good about everything. Before it was about destroying your health, now it’s about keeping your health. The good news is that we’re all still here to pass along something. It’s about giving back at a certain time.”

As a member of the drummer fraternity, Laing has his personal list of mentors who have added to his stylistic kit. Older jazz drummers like Art Blakely, Louie Bellson, and Ed Tighpen taught early, while Steve Gadd, Hal Blaine, and Ginger Baker offered ideas in the 1960s. However, two drummers, Levon Helm and Keith Moon stand at the top of Laing’s list.

“I was always listening to dance drummers, and it was always about the feel. When it came to the hardcore interpretation of expressing the heart of the music, then Levon Helm could articulate that feel.

“If you watch Keith Moon, he’ll make you want to play drums. Once I heard and saw him, I said, ‘That’s it. All I want to do is play drums.’ That’s what I try to do on stage, to make people realize how beautiful it is to play the drums.”

Art Tipaldi is the editor of Blues Revue.

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 The 18th Annual

Tampa Bay Blues Festival

April 13, 14, & 15, 2012

Vinoy Waterfront Park

St. Petersburg, Florida

By Mark Goodman

Welcome blues fans and sun worshipers, or sun burners, whichever the case may be. It’s April in sunny South Florida and time for the 18th Annual Tampa Bay Blues Festival. The weather has been perfect for the last six weeks, low humidity, nice sea breeze, and plenty of sun. Perfect festival weather, unless you’re from Michigan and the color of bleached flour! Then make sure you bring a bucket of SPF 150 sunscreen. Just kidding, 50 will do.

As with years past, Chuck and Traci Ross, along with their festival team, enlisted a stellar group of musicians for the festival. In fact, Tampa Bay Blues Festival was the recipient of the Blues Foundation’s Keeping The Blues Alive Award for “best festival” in 2011, a well deserved accolade.

The festivities started on Friday at 12:30 p.m. with a promising crowd already on hand. In fact, it was the largest Friday crowd I’ve seen. Must have been a few workers playing hooky.

The event kicked off with the Alexis P. Suter Band. This 2012 Blues Music Award nominee (Best Soul Blues Female) did a great version of the Dylan classic “Knockin On Heaven’s Door.”

Up next was the “Mississippi Soulman” Johnny Rawls. This Blues Music Award winner (2009 Soul Blues Album) has been a staple of southern soul with his buttery smooth vocals and clean guitar. However, after checking for the kids, he showed he could “do the double” (entendre) with the best with his “really” blue “Lucy Gets Juicy”!

Delta Groove Records has been putting together showcases at many events over the years. “The Delta Groove Harp Blast” featured a trio of harmonica virtuosos, Mitch Kashmar, Al Blake, and Pieter “Big Pete” van der Pluijm, who comes all the way from the Netherlands. As testament to the warm weather, Big Pete asked, “Is it hot, or just me? When I left Holland it was freezing rain. I may never go home!”

Not to be left out, Delta Groove chief Randy Chortkoff put in a few licks of his own before the show was over. Something not usually seen on a festival stage occurred during Al Blake’s set. He stopped a song not once, not twice, but three times to correct a bandmate. A first for me!

Next up was one of the legendary bands of modern blues, Roomful of Blues. Believe it or not, this band is from Rhode Island. Quick, name me another band from Rhode Island!

This is an incredibly talented band that was formed in 1967 by Duke Robilliard and Al Copley. Roomful has been together in one form or another for more than forty years, and has had a swinging door policy with personnel. Current vocalist Phil Pemberton is reminiscent of former  band vocalist, Curtis Salgado. Other memorable musicians to come out of Roomful of Blues are Ronnie Earl, Greg Piccolo, Sugar Ray Norcia, and Lou Ann Barton. Roomful of Blues is the quintessential horn band performing the best in Swing and Jump Blues, Soul, and R&B.

Friday night’s closer was the “Tres Hombres” of South Texas, Los Lonely Boys. This band of brothers burst on the scene with a bang around 2004 with a self-titled platinum record and #1 hit “Heaven.” The band features a Tex-Mex blend of rock, Texas roadhouse blues, and the sweet harmonies only siblings can generate. Over the years, the focus has shifted from singer/bassist Jojo Garza to Henry Garza, who captivates with fiery guitar and vocals. Ringo Garza keeps everything together on a drum kit that even Carl Palmer would envy.

Saturday kicked off hard and heavy with Florida’s own Albert Castiglia. This high-octane guitarist spent a year touring with the legendary Junior Wells before striking out on his on. If your morning coffee didn’t get your heart pumping, Castiglia certainly did.

Castiglia was followed by Toni Lynn Washington, then The Mannish Boys. East Coast to West Coast, The Mannish Boys is really a rotating roster of Delta Groove artists that come together for festivals and shows. The band today featured such gifted performers as Finis Tasbey and Bobby Jones on vocals, Kid Ramos and Frank Goldwasser on guitar, and one of the best drummers in the business, Jimi Bott.

Then a true legend took the stage. James Cotton, one of the harp masters and one of the last of a generation that helped define the genre of blues. Cotton was accompanied by Darrell Nulisch on vocals. Ever since Cotton’s voice was damaged by throat cancer and surgery, he has featured several different vocalists for his shows. Despite his years, he was looking spry and was hittin’ the notes sweet. Cotton and Nulisch make a great team.

I have never been a huge fan of Tower of Power (for no particular reason), but apparently many in the audience were. This unusual choice for a blues festival had many fans dancing and singing along. Even though I have not been a fan, I recognized many of their songs from radio play over their last forty-plus years of recording.

Saturday night’s closer was Jimmie Vaughan, a founding member of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, and brother of the late Stevie Ray Vaughan. Jimmie Vaughn cut his teeth in the rough clubs around Dallas and Austin until the Thunderbirds were formed in 1975. This fledgling group became the house band at famed Antone’s in Austin, Texas. Since leaving the Fabulous Thunderbirds in 1989, Vaughan has forged a solid solo career with his excellent guitar skills and style of Tex-Mex-spiced blues. His credentials include four Grammy Awards in an eleven-year span.

There was a little non-musical excitement at the festival this year. The venue is Vinoy Park, which is located on the waters of Tampa Bay. Many boaters will anchor up to enjoy the music, which carries quite well over the water. Saturday was a windy day with steady gusts that probably hit 25 knots. Unfortunately, one captain broke a golden rule of boating: Never anchor off the stern, especially in bad weather! Once wave height reached transom height, it was over quickly. Luckily, no one was hurt and a local boater was able to pluck the unfortunates from the bay. For the rest of the festival the protruding bow was a grim reminder that you don’t take Mother Nature for granted. Despite that bit of drama, the festival continued without hesitation.

Eugene “Hideaway” Bridges got things rolling on about 1:00 on Sunday afternoon. Man, this guy can sing! He can play guitar, too, but his vocals just hold you spellbound. We don’t get to see Bridges in the States that much and I sure can’t figure why. He has lived in Europe for many years and just doesn’t seem to work many festivals over here. That needs to change! This guy is too good to not have around all the time. When asked why he didn’t play in the U.S. more often, he said, “I don’t know, I’m just a phone call away.” Seems simple to me!

Eugene "Hideaway" Bridges

Jimmy Thackery & The Drivers came on early in the lineup because they had to head out for Colorado right after his show. Coming off a winter break, Thackery and the boys were rested and in fine form. Jimmy Thackery will admit that he’s more a rocker than a bluesman, but you wouldn’t know it when he does decide to go over to the “blue” side.

Jimi Hendrix was an obvious influence on Thackery as most of his shows, today included, feature his excellent version of “The Star Spangled Banner.” He mixes enough blues into his rock to remain a very popular act on the festival circuit. One simple reason: he can play the hell out of that ’64 Strat!

Relatively new to the Tampa Bay area, the next band was Trampled Under Foot. TUF features siblings Danielle (bass & vocals), Nick (guitar & vocals), and Kris Schnebelen (drums & vocals), from Kansas City. This band won the 2008 International Blues Challenge in Memphis. At that event, Nick won the Albert King Most Promising Guitarist Award. Since that time, the band has been taking the blues world by storm, and with good reason. With each record the band has shown a steady growth and maturity that is reflected in their material. Danielle handles much of the vocal duties with a voice and style that literally smolders with passion. Her brother Nick has the voice of a bluesman much older and road worn, a combination that will ultimately take this band to the top.

To close the curtain on the 2012 Tampa Bay Blues Festival was Mr. Delbert McClinton. Ironically, I ran into McClinton backstage before his show and didn’t recognize him at first. He was wearing plaid Bermuda shorts, a T-shirt, and sucking on a chocolate Popsicle.

With his career spanning more than fifty years, McClinton is still touring and writing like a younger man. Probably known more for his songwriting than performing, this two-time Grammy winner still puts on a heck of a show. With hits such as “Givin It Up For Your Love” and “Everytime I Roll The Dice,” he continues to keep the fans rooted until the very end.

Blues Cruisers Gathering at the Land Yacht

The festival also featured an after-party on Friday and Saturday nights, which were only a short walk from the venue. The parties featured performers such as Trampled Under Foot, Albert Castiglia, and Eugene “Hideaway” Bridges.

What a great weekend of music! The lineup left no one lacking for variety and talent. The gorgeous weather and beautiful people made it a totally wonderful blues experience.

Even as great as this festival was, I always feel a tinge of regret that it’s over. However, there is a surefire cure for that feeling – The Next One!

Based in Florida, Mark Goodman is a contributing editor and photographer at BluesWax.

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BluesWax Sittin’ In With

Ian Siegal

By Charley Burch

Ian Siegal (born 1971) has been blazing the charts and wowing fans in the U.K. for over a decade. Imagine a British hybrid of Howlin’ Wolf and Tom Waits and you’ve got Ian Siegal! In the late 1980s, Siegal dropped out of art college and went busking in Germany. In the nineties, he returned to England and formed the Ian Siegal Band. From 2003 thru 2005, he opened for Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings and released his debut, Meat & Potatoes (2005), and Swagger (2007), both featuring Matt Schofield. Siegal and Schofield’s performances and touring  garnered great praise and press, including an entry in the Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings, and Swagger was Mojo magazine’s second best blues album of 2007. Siegal’s discography continued with The Dust in 2008 and a year later Broadside, which received numerous awards and accolades.

In 2010 the brawny-voiced singer and guitarist made a pilgrimage to the North Mississippi studio of the late Jim Dickinson and recorded with multi–instrumentalist and producer Cody Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars, Hill Country Revue), guitarist/bassist Garry Burnside (solo artists and son of the late R.L. Burnside), guitarist Robert Kimbrough (son of the late Junior Kimbrough), and drummer Rodd Bland (son of Bobby “Blue” Bland), all of whom happened to be the youngest sons of their legendary fathers. Also pariticpating were Alvin Youngblood Hart (guitar, vocals), Andre Turner (fife, vocals), Duwayne Burnside (drums and grandson of R.L.), and Quintez (drums). All were recorded with the sublime engineering skills of Kevin Houston, resulting in the 2012 Blues Music Award-nominated album titled The Skinny (2011).

Ian Siegal is a personal friend and colleague of mine and was happy to answer some questions for our readers while on a train from London, U.K., to Paris, France, last week.

Charley Burch for BluesWax: Tell us about your beginnings in music, your influences, and how a Brit turned out to be so funky and have delta mojo a flowin’. Are any of your immediate family members musicians and how did they assist in developing you?

Ian Siegal: I have a cousin who was a pro who I watched a lot growing up but he wasn’t really a Blues guy; I think that developed my interest in playing live though. It’s hard to say where my Blues interest came from, I don’t remember not being aware of it, particularly when I discovered the north Mississippi style. I guess I was about 14 or 15, but before that Muddy and Wolf really got my juices flowing.

BW: When did you first start performing in the Delta and discuss the evolution of your relationships with the players and producers of your latest BMA-nominated album, The Skinny?

IS: It was only during the recording that I’ve been in that part of the world, North Mississippi, I guess. [Coldwater, Mississippi] I’d met Cody already and we hit it off immediately; I’d long been a fan of the Allstars anyway. He’s an incredible player, producer, and all around legendary guy with incredibly infectious enthusiasm, which really helps me be creative as I need a good kick in the ass sometimes! I met the other guys [Rodd Bland, Robert Kimbrough, and Garry Burnside] on the first day of recording. We really only spent two full days in the studio and they’d heard nothing prior to my arrival. We just kinda set up and locked into a groove pretty much right away. So I guess we clicked; it was all just so natural. They were all very warm and welcoming and very keen to get down to business; it went very smoothly. We had fun with it.

BW: Describe the production techniques and equipment used on The Skinny.

IS: I think Cody could give you a more detailed answer but there was a mixture of old analogue recording gear and modern stuff (I’m a total Luddite on this subject). The way Kevin [Houston], the engineer, worked was so fast that there must have been a fair amount of digital going on. However, Luther Dickinson had given me free rein of his amps and guitars which were old Harmony, Silvertone – that kinda stuff which I love and use in the U.K. anyway. As for techniques, everything was recorded in one room with some separation for me and the vocals but it’s pretty close to being live with a few overdubs.

BW: Were there instrumental or personnel attachments that you wanted present but were not? Are you touring with the same instruments and/or players as on the album to match its sound live?

IS: I could not have asked for better instrumentation to match my personal tastes, but that was purely coincidental! I tend to use very similar stuff live. I actually went and bought a Silvertone Twin 12 afterwards to match Luther’s. As yet it’s not been possible to tour yet with the same lineup, but there are plans for the future to do something similar.

BW: Was the selection of covers and other writers work on the album solely your own?

IS: Yes

BW: What are some of the differences on how your body of work is being accepted in Europe and the U.K. versust the United States?

IS:  That’s a tough one, but so far it seems I’ve had pretty universally good responses, especially to The Skinny. European blues writers and audiences are very well educated in the genre so they were well aware of the album’s legacy.

BW: What and/or who do you feel will be chief crossover elements of blues/roots music in the 21st century?

IS: I think the elements of American roots music are reaching further so people who have been strictly into blues for example are becoming more open minded about country music, bluegrass, etc. I think the boundaries are blurring anyway. Especially the “alt-country” stuff. I’m a huge fan of people like Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt; you listen to The Stones and you hear as much country in them as you do blues. So I think this broadening of influences on younger players these days will have an effect on the output in the roots field. I saw Alabama Shakes recently and was blown away. They draw on old blues, soul, music of all kinds and rock ‘n’ roll – everything really. I see a big future for them. And the singer, Brittany [Howard], plays old Harmony guitars! I hope the project I’m working on this year with the Dickinsons and Alvin Youngblood Hart gets some attention, too, of course!

BW: What is on the horizon for you as a writer, performer, and as a man.

IS: Musically, as I mentioned above, plus lots of touring with various outfits and solo work. I never consciously plan anything as a writer. I’m not fortunate enough to be able to do it to order, to churn them out constantly like, say Dylan or Prince, so I have to wait for the Great Muse to smile upon me. When inspiration hits though, it’s a great feeling when it starts to pour. As a man, there is too much to mention and maybe too personal, but let’s just say I’m a work in progress!

BW: On getting the nomination for the Contemporary Blues Album Blues Music Award: Don’t Explain, Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa; Medicine by Tab Benoit; The Lord is Waiting and the Devil is Too by Johnny Sansone; The Skinny by Ian Siegal & the Youngest Sons; Tommy Castro Presents The Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue–Live! by Various artists; and, Unconditional by Ana Popovic. This is a pretty impressive competition. Are you familiar with these other artists’ work and what do you think are the strong points that The Skinny brings to the table that should take home the award?

IS: Yes I know their work. I particularly love Tab’s stuff that I’ve caught live; he has such an amazing presence on stage – hilarious, too! But a great player and writer aside from that. I guess Skinny brings that Hill Country legacy and the history of the Burnside and Kimbrough families in. I hope in some small way we have done them justice. But also I’d like to think that, with one foot in the past it has one foot also pushing forwards and bringing modern elements in. I’d like to think there is something different and original in the lyrical content, but also the production and the general vibe of the album is something I’m particularly proud of.

BW: If you could work or collaborate with any artist(s) of your choice today, who would it be?

IS: Wow that really is a tough one! Taj Mahal would be a great honor – and I must say the aforementioned Dickinsons and Mr. Hart is a reality that I’m very much looking forward to – a dream come true in fact. Levon Helm would obviously be great, as would Tom Waits, but I fear I’d be a little intimidated! Way too many people to mention. Many are sadly no longer with us, of course.

BW: Please share with us any professional formulas or mantras that make your music as authentic and signature as it is.

IS: Follow your gut instincts. Give everything. That about covers it!

“With The Skinny Siegal maintains his position as one of the

most gifted singers and writers in contemporary blues.”

- Tony Russell, MOJO magazine

Charley Burch is a writer and producer in Memphis.

For The Best Video Links In The Blues Follow Us On Twitter!

Follow @BluesRevue

BluesWax Sittin’ In With

Terry Robb

Part Two

By Bob Gersztyn

Last week, in Part One of his interview with Bob Gersztyn, Terry Robb talked about his influences and career. This week, in Part Two, he discusses his latest release Muddyvishnu and his friend John Fahey.

Bob Gersztyn for BluesWax: Why did you title your new album “Muddyvishnu”?

Terry Robb: It was a joke out of a combination of Muddy Waters and the Mahavishnu Orchestra. It was a joke I had a long time ago, because I have a variety of influences. It’s a Muddy Waters’ blues with a Mahavishnu intensity to it. It’s not really that, but I thought that it was a pretty good description in a comical sort of way. The music is so intense, I had to put something funny on there.

BW: “Muddyvishnu” is the title song as well, and it’s a full-throttle, pull-out-all-the-stops guitar attack. Talk a little about it and how you decided what to put on it.

TR: It is, yeah. I wrote a bunch of songs and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I didn’t want to put together a fusion-type of rhythm section, I wanted to put together guys that played more like Booker T & The MG’s, and play what I played on top of that. I’m very happy with that. The rhythm section is [Paul] Delay’s old rhythm section, and Adam Scramstad plays guitar, Jeff Minnick [drums], and Dave Kahl [bass], and those guys. You know when it snowed a couple of years ago at Christmas time?

BluesWax: Yeah, it was like being back in Michigan.

TR: I got trapped in my apartment for a week and I wrote all the songs. It was great because I’m always going somewhere, and I couldn’t go anywhere, and so that’s what I did. Then I went inside the studio and started recording them. I kind of figured, this is the way that it is and nature is taking its course.

BluesWax: When you put the album together you even included some covers, how did you decide what to put on it?

TR: I included “Idle Moments” because I really like Grant Green a lot and I just really liked that song, and I started during the Guitar Summit, me, Doug Smith, and Mark Hanson. I brought that song as an acoustic guitar piece for the band at Summit, so I just kind of started playing it with my band at the time, so I thought that it would be a great thing to put on there. Then there is the cartoonist John Callahan’s song. I produced his record, and it was one of my favorite records that I ever produced, so I wanted to do one of his songs, so he was very sick at the time and he passed away. I recorded a tune, put it on a laptop, went to his apartment, and had him sing the lyrics. [I] had him do it in his own apartment, while he was lying in bed. I joked with him that I was doing an Alan Lomax field recording with him. Then the other song was written by Jeff Minnick, the drummer. Oh yeah, and then there is the Tommy Johnson song, “Lonesome Home,” which I turned into something different altogether different, but those are the covers, the rest are all originals.

BW: I really like “Lonesome Home.”

TR: Thanks, that’s one of my favorites.

BW: Really, it’s my favorite. Everytime that I heard it, while I was playing your album yesterday, while I had it going non-stop in my office while I was working, every time that “Lonesome Home” came on, I would stop, and finally about the third time I went, “What is that song?”

TR: I like the solo, because it never really resolves, so there’s always this tension. I think that the central point, instead of the tonic, instead of going back to the tonic, I’ll go back to the 9th, or go back to the 6th. So there is always this tension, it sounds like you’re drowning. I really like the way that it turned out.

BW: The guitar phrasing towards the end of “Lonesome Home” sounds Hendrixian in its intensity.

TR: I play very off time in my soloing because I listen to a lot of Indian music and Arabic music, as well as American music and all kinds of stuff, so a lot of that in the soloing there in the phrasing isn’t quite your normal R&B sort of guitar playing, but thank you very much. That’s my favorite piece on the record, too.

BW: The final cut on the album, which you wrote, is performed on lap slide guitar and is the song that sounds the most influenced by John Fahey’s style.

TR: Absolutely! Sure, it’s Fahey by way of Charlie Patton. Yeah, that’s something John would do. I mean I always like to put some kind of Fahey on all my records because he was such a good friend of mine, and such a great influence on me, and also on everybody and I like to keep his music alive. Like on the last record [Resting Place, Yellow Dog Records 2005], that I did in Memphis, I recorded “Joe Kirby Blues,” which is one of his tunes. I did record a Fahey song on the record, and it’s an acoustic solo song, but I really didn’t have room for it, so I didn’t, and it’s called “Sun Is Gonna Shine On My Back Door Someday,” and it just really didn’t fit in at the end. It’s off, Blind Joe Death. It just didn’t fit in with the rest of the record, so I didn’t put it on and I decided to do something in his vein.

BW: You said that you used a John Fahey painting for your album cover that you borrowed from Tim Knight.

TR: Absolutely! Which is a nice painting, too. Like I told you, I was on the road with John towards the end, and he was doing all those paintings, and I never thought to get one from him. Funny, I just thought that I’d see him again.

BW: How did you first meet John?

TR: I used to go see John all the time when I was a kid. I first heard him in 1968, or something like that. And then I’d go see him when he’d come to Portland [Oregon], and he was great, and I became a big fan and I really liked what he did. He was mixing the blues with all those classical themes in a really unique way, and plus the music just really touched you. Anyway, a friend of gave him a demo tape I had, and John really liked the fact that I did the song called “One Way Gal,” an old country-blues song, and he sent me a Christmas card saying that he’d like to meet me, that he was going to be playing in Portland at Louie LaBamba’s, I think. It was the big club back then everyone played there, now there’s nothing there. It’s where the Saturday Market is now and the guy who owned that place started Key Largo, which was a big club for a while. So I went to the gig and saw him and went backstage and we spent a long time backstage trading Charlie Patton songs. Well, do you know this part? Yeah. Well, do you know this? Oh, no, I haven’t heard that. We got on really well and we just became friends, and then one day he just asked me, when he got signed in a deal with Rounder Records, and he wanted me to produce his record, and I said okay, even though I never produced a record before, but he kind of showed me the ropes, and I knew that he knew that I really knew his music really well and I understood what he wanted to do and he wanted to go into kind of a new direction at the time. And I used to always say, man why don’t we do a record like Death Chants, Breakdowns and Military Waltzes and Yellow Princess. Finally he said, look I’ve already done all that. I always change, I always move on. Finally a light bulb went on, and I go, oh yeah, okay. He was like Miles [Davis], that was why he was so great, he was always evolving, always changing.

BW: What would be the most interesting John Fahey story that you can remember?

TR: [Chuckles] There are so many that are funny, because he would have these great concepts, but he was very spontaneous at the same time. I liked the fact that he would always challenge me, he would call up and say hey you’re doing a record, this is the idea for it, see what you can come up with, I’ll come up in two weeks, and that sort of stuff. One time he suggested that we, he really liked Booker T and the MG’s too, and he wanted me to do an entire album of theirs called Hip Hugger for two acoustic guitars and he wanted me to arrange it, and I started to work on that, but it got scrapped because he had to do something else. Oh yeah, one time he reached in his pocket, pulled out a cheeseburger, took a bite out of it, and put it back in. John was funny. He would do stuff like that.

BW: You pretty much cover every style of guitar playing on the album, too, from a variety of electric ones, to acoustic and slide.

TR: I always play things in my own style, but I like all kinds of music, and people want to hear me play guitar so I gave them a guitar record, there’s very little vocals on it. I don’t like to sing too much, because I don’t have that great a voice, and a little of my singing goes a long way. What I mean is that nobody is going to come see me because they want to hear me sing. I kind of break it up when I do a show with my band, not only do I sing, but I have great singers in my band, like Albert Reda. Then I’ll do some acoustic stuff in a set, because I like to break it up a little.

BW: Other than “Lonesome Home,” what would your favorite cut be off the album.

TR: I like that song “Ju Ju,” because I wrote that piece as an acoustic piece, and the first part of it is all in acoustic, back in the ’80s and played it for John [Fahey]. John really, really liked that song. I like “Idle Moments,” too. The interesting thing about “Ju Ju” is that I played Fahey two new songs one day, and he really liked that song, he said that’s a great song. And then the other song that I wrote, he felt was the worst piece of shit he ever heard in his life, and he would not let me forget that. All day long he would say, “I can’t believe you wrote such a shitty song. I can’t believe you wrote such a stupid song.” He just would not leave it alone. “That other song was great, but I can’t believe that you wrote that song,” because he expected more out of people. He would push you that way. It was great. A lot of people would get really upset, but I just thought, this is John’s way of saying “Come on, you can do better than that.” But he liked that “Ju Ju” song, so I always kept doing it. I had that basic track left over from the ’90s, and I just re-recorded the guitar parts on top of it, with bass player and drummer in ’92.

BW: So you recorded it back in 1992?

TR: Yeah, I re-cut all the guitar parts to the original bass and drums.

BW: I noticed that you had a different backing rhythm section on that cut.

TR: Yeah, and Bobby Torres on percussion.

BW: When will the album be officially released?

TR: The album will be officially released on April 17. It’s on my own label, PsycheDelia Records, and the other artists that we have on our label are Linda Hornbuckle and Janice Scroggins, who released their album on PsycheDelia, called Sista. We’re just kind of getting the label up and running again, so I’m taking it one step at a time and getting distribution together and get it out there. Then I’m going to work the record and try to get reviews and get it heard. If there’s interest, I’ll put a band together and go out and promote it.

For more information about Terry Robb and his music go to his site.

Bob Gersztyn is a Oregon-based writer and photograph. He is a contributing editor at BluesWax.

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BluesWax Sittin’ In with

Terry Robb

Part One

By Bob Gersztyn

Terry Robb has been into the blues since he was first exposed to the music of icons like Muddy Waters, Hubert Sumlin, and Howlin’ Wolf in the late 1960s via radio and live concerts in Portland, Oregon. He came from a musical background with his father and grandfather playing musical instruments at home and an uncle who played in Lawrence Welk’s band. After studying music theory at Portland State University, with Czechoslovakian composer Tomas Svoboda, Robb moved to Corvallis, Oregon, in the Willamette Valley, in the late 1970s where a vibrant blues scene was thriving at the time. He played with Ramblin’ Rex Jacobosky, a Los Angeles blues musician who was friends with Frank Zappa and lived just outside of Corvallis, at the time. After a few years of touring with Ramblin’ Rex, Robb returned to Portland in the early 1980s to an exploding music scene that had risen during his absence.

One of the turning points in Robb’s musical career came when a friend gave legendary primitive guitarist and blues scholar John Fahey a copy of his demo tape. A friendship blossomed through their mutual love of Charlie Patton and soon Fahey had Robb producing his music and even performing on several of his recordings. Over the ensuing decades Robb continued to record and produce albums, while winning all the music accolades that the Northwest has to offer. He’s a member of the Oregon Music Hall of Fame and the Cascade Blues Association’s Muddy Award for Acoustic Guitar is named after Robb. He’s toured and performed with artists like Steve Miller, Curtis Salgado, Buddy Guy, and the Oregon Symphony Orchestra. At the same time he started his own record label, PsycheDelia Records, to record himself and others, along with teaching blues workshops. On April 17, 2012, Robb’s new album, Muddyvishnu, will be released on his Psychedelta record label. After listening to an advance copy, BluesWax contributing editor Bob Gersztyn sat down and talked to Robb about everything from his relationship with John Fahey to his passion for the blues.

Bob Gersztyn For BluesWax: What was your first recollection of music?

Terry Robb: My uncle was a musician, who played with Lawrence Welk’s band and was a professional entertainer playing guitar, so I probably heard him and my father played the piano, and my grandfather dabbled in classical piano. I remember the first record that really rocked me on guitar was Duane Eddy’s “Rebel Rouser.” It knocked me out.

BW: When and how did you first become interested in the guitar?

TR: Since my uncle played it, it was an instrument that was around, and then everyone saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, and all of a sudden there were guitars everywhere. There was a whole blues revival thing that was going on, and that’s what got me interested in blues guitar. It was the acoustic blues, where you’d see people like John Lee Hooker and Lightnin’ Hopkins, and then you’d see people like John Fahey and others that were playing blues-oriented guitar. A lot of these old guys were being rediscovered. This was probably about 1966 or 1967, when I was a kid in grade school. Back then you’d hear Howlin’ Wolf and you’d hear Jimi Hendrix, all at the same time. I didn’t see much difference, except the older guys were very cool. I might hear a song originally done by Howlin’ Wolf, like I might hear “Spoonful” by Howlin’ Wolf before I’d hear Charlie Patton’s version. I heard killing floor by Howlin’ Wolf before I heard Led Zeppelin’s verson, but I heard “Outside Woman Blues” by Cream before I heard the original version of that by Blind Joe Reynolds. Then it was all kind of mixed up. Plus you’d go see these bands and there was a blues guy, like Albert King or something. It was kind of cool, and even radio back then was kind of cool too, because you would hear Jimi Hendrix and then you would hear Frank Sinatra. Then you’d hear something from Motown and then the Cowsills or something. It was all AM radio and then FM came along and that had a great variety too. The big underground FM station in Portland was KINK, 101.9 FM. It was an underground station equivalent to the one in San Francisco and it played all the album cuts and didn’t play any top 40 stuff, and they had a blues show. I owe a lot to Jeff Douglas who was the manager and part owner of that station, because he played a lot of cool stuff that I never would have heard anywhere else.

BW: Who were some of your early primary influences that you looked to for inspiration?

TR: There were a couple of jazz guys that I listened to, like Mel Brown, a jazz/blues guy who was a big influence on me, Buddy Fite, who was a guy who was Les Paul’s favorite guitar player. and Wes Montgomery. The band that struck me the most was Canned Heat. I was really into Canned Heat because I like the old blues stuff a lot, and it’s very cool, and like they were…like Al Wilson was a genius at the Delta blues stuff and he was adapting that on the electric guitar doing all these like Walter Hawkins, Tommy Johnson guitar parts, as a rhythm guitar part to Henry Vestine’s soaring wild B.B. King-ish, Albert Collins kind of guitar playing, and then this great R&B bass player and rock-blues drummer. It was really a great band I thought, really innovative then, in that one little window of time from about 1966 to when Wilson died. Through them I got turned on to a lot of the older stuff, and I’d hear Muddy Waters at the same time and B.B. King of course, and my favorite guitar player was Hubert Sumlin and you just hear this stuff, but in terms of the commercial pop band at the time it was Canned Heat. Most people were probably listening to probably [Paul] Butterfield, but I liked Cream too, and Hendrix, but I didn’t care for Zeppelin and a lot of those later bands like that, but the first wave of those blues bands were pretty cool.

BW: Yeah, Canned Heat was a good band. I saw them in 1969 after Harvey Mandel replaced Henry Vestine on lead guitar, but I enjoyed their early albums because of Vestine’s guitar playing. He was one of my favorite guitar players in the late 1960s.

TR: He and I got to be good friends. He came out to Oregon and I hooked him up with some stuff and it was great, because he was my favorite guitar player back then. There were people who followed Hendrix and Clapton and B.B. King, and I liked B.B. a lot, but Henry was my favorite. He had a very unique style and really intense. We got to be good friends it was really nice. There’s the Fahey connection, too, since he and John went to school together and they discovered Skip James together.

BW: I remember one time hearing John tell a story about how he helped put Canned Heat together in 1965, and how Jimi Hendrix was sitting in the audience at the night club that they were playing at, studying Vestine’s guitar technique a couple of years before Hendrix became famous.

TR: Yeah, Canned Heat got started as a jug band with Fahey, Bob Hite, and Al Wilson, because Wilson and Fahey were really good friends from back east. Wilson’s from Boston and he showed up at one of Fahey’s gigs and had all the songs transcribed off his first record and they got to be friends because of the blues connection. John brought Wilson out to California with him when he moved, and they were having a rehearsal of the jug band, and John really didn’t want to be in a band, so then it evolved into an electric blues band.

BW: Yeah, there were so many new groups that were emerging during that time period who were all inspired by the blues. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones were inspired by blues and R&B.

TR: I think that you have to give credit to the Beatles, not only for how great the Beatles were, because I was a big Beatles fan, but also, none of these English blues bands would have had a chance in America if it wasn’t for the Beatles, because everyone was disinterested in anything British at the time. The records sounded different from over there, because the recording studios were different. They’re actually like way dated, but it added a unique sound, because it made them work harder.

BW: A good example of the way that Americans felt about British music before the Beatles can be found in the way that Sir Cliff Richard is disregarded here, even though he has more #1 hits and has sold more records worldwide than either Elvis Presley or the Beatles. Most American’s don’t even know that he exists.

TR: I think that the problem, why he didn’t catch on here was because he was a pre-Beatles guy, and nobody was really interested in what happened in England before the Beatles. It’s kind of like the Beatles and onward. But the point is that they opened the door for all things English, so all those blues guys like John Mayall, Cream, and any of them would have a chance here. I can’t imagine any of those bands coming along before the Beatles, and anyone in the United States paying any attention to them, in terms of radio play and things like that. There would always be cult followings and stuff like that.

BW: How did you get involved in music professionally and how did that first begin?

TR: Probably at 12, when I started playing at dances and high schools and things like that. Then I went to college and studied music and had bands in college when I attended PSU [Portland State University]. I had a band called Dry Spell, named after a Sun House song, which to this day I think is a great name for a band. Nobody was interested in what we were doing. There was no blues scene then. So then I moved away and stumbled into this guy named Ramblin’ Rex [Jacobosky] and ended up down in the Willamette Valley, in Corvallis. Rex lived outside of Corvallis and I decided to move down there, because we were traveling so much and playing so much together that it made sense to live down there, near him. It was great, I learned a lot from him. Rex was this guy from L. A. who had a really huge following and had a blues act. He was 40 then, which seemed like an old guy, and I was 21 or 22. He was a great blues guitar player and he was really good friends with Frank Zappa. He was good friends with Zappa and went to high school with him, and had all these blues trios down in L.A. and stuff, before Cream and Hendrix and all that stuff. Zappa had a trio, Vestine had a trio, and Rex had a trio, and they all played around down there. I eventually got to know Zappa through Rex, but as I started playing with him, that was kind of like the beginning of when I really started getting out there and playing and getting my name known. I would have been around 21 or 22, somewhere like that, and then I moved back to Portland to start my own band.

BW: How did you first get involved in the Portland music scene?

TR: When I came back to Portland this huge music scene was happening. It wasn’t like that when I left. It was just gigantic, with all these great clubs, that would have been ’81, and there’s all these great clubs everywhere and there’s a big variety of music. The ’80s was a really great time in Portland for music. Like the first half of the decade, because there’s all these new jazz bands, blues bands, reggae, new wave, punk. We all played at the same clubs. I mean I would play Satyricon, which was a punk club, and there were jazz clubs, and everybody hung out. I mean it was a really healthy environment. I think that it was because for so long that Portland was denied to have live music.

To be continued…

Bob Gersztyn is a Oregon-based writer and photograph. He is a contributing editor at BluesWax.

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BluesWax Spotlight On

Joe Louis Walker

A Show and CD Review

 Hellfire

Alligator Records – Released January 2012

BluesWax Rating: 9

and

Live at Biscuits & Blues in San Francisco – March 1, 2012

By Dan D. Harrell

On the January Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise (LRBC), folks got a preview of Joe Louis Walker’s newest CD, Hellfire, and a peek at a new band with some familiar San Francisco Bay Area faces.

Those same familiar faces showed up with Walker on a blustery Thursday night for the first of a two-night stand at San Francisco’s leading blues club, Biscuits & Blues. Walker gave the audience a full dose of the new CD and a good variety of his crowd-pleasing favorites – nearly twenty tunes over two eighty-minute sets, with no repeats.

I’ve been seeing Walker, 62, for a very long time – he’s a local boy made good – and there’s one particular show at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco about thirty years ago. It remains vivid in my overcrowded mind that’s forgotten so many other shows. Vivid because of the roaring intensity of the music coupled with an energized audience that spent most of the show standing, clapping, stomping, and singing. It was a great night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1PAGfqKTFI

I’m happy to report that, all these years later, Walker can still deliver one hell of a performance, and his guitar playing has evolved into pure art, seldom touching the familiar and always pushing the boundaries of the instrument. His songwriting and singing are very strong too, tough in places, tender in others, but showing a conciseness and clarity of thought.

During a few short conversations on the LRBC, I found Walker to be friendly, forthcoming, and pleasant. Very comfortable in his own skin, so to speak. Of course, when he said, “I love BluesWax” I was all his. He brings the pleasant but leaves most of the peaceful when he delivers his edgy, hard-rocking shows.

Walker understandably concentrates less on esoteric licks and more on singing and showmanship in performance, but on Hellfire he explores places with his guitar that just might qualify as uncharted territory.

Walker opens the CD and ends his live show with the title song, which immediately introduces the complexity and competence of this man, and his creative approach on many cuts. It starts out with a country-boogie line that could be the intro for a Dave Dudley trucking song and evolves through cool, organ-laced gospel rock, to Walker doing expert, and unusual, guitar calisthenics with feedback, sustain, and other effects that made me think of, yea, Jimi Hendrix.

Walker does have a connection to the lefty “strato-master” by the way – when he was growing up in San Francisco in the 1960s, Walker was already opening shows for folks like Hendrix and Lightnin’ Hopkins at the city’s famous Matrix, where Walker was house guitarist at sixteen. Walker’s music has gone in several directions since then. In addition to the obvious Hendrix influence, he credits his good friend, and former roommate, Michael Bloomfield with helping shape his sound. He also took a decade off from performing “popular” music (1975-85) when he was a member of the gospel-only group, The Spiritual Corinthians.

There’s lots of evidence that Walker hasn’t strayed too far from the church, in performance and on Hellfire. But he’s not there to hit you over the head with it. On the CD, he delivers a six-minute, rocking “Soldier for Jesus” that’s hard not to clap along to and enjoy no matter what your beliefs. When I first heard it, I flashed back to the group Mylon and minister/singer Mylon LeFevres, who could rock the gospel as good as anybody I’ve ever heard.

In concert Walker extends “Soldier” and his fabulous slide guitar work that’s as tasty as can be. And there’s his light-hearted, jazzy delivery of “Don’t Cry” about getting to heaven – “It’s gonna be all right/When I die/So pray for me/That I’ll make it to the other side.”

The title song itself presents a familiar theme about staying one step ahead of the devil, coupled with the age-old struggle of doing good versus doing evil – “Burning down the devil’s highway/Lovin’ everyone I meet/Tryin’ to live my life the right way/But the flames are nipping at my feet/Hellfire, it’s my curse/Hellfire that’s my church.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wJPpxdPK1s

Among many things, Hellfire is notable for a couple big ones. It is Walker’s first for Alligator Records, which continues its recent winning streak of signing great, established artists and releasing splendid albums from them. And it’s produced by the ultra-talented Tom Hambridge, who also plays drums and whose credits would fill this column, including writing songs and producing for Buddy Guy.

Hambridge contributes lyrics on five Hellfire tunes with full writing credits for three. One of his best is “I Won’t Do That,” a slow, deep blues that finds Walker pleading to a suspicious lover that he’ll be faithful this time – “Now you say I can’t be trusted/When we’re apart/That if you let me love you/I’ll only break your heart/But I won’t do that/Baby, you know I won’t do that/I’ve done most everything baby/But you know that I won’t do that.”

There are some real rockers on Hellfire, including “Ride All Night,” a Walker-Hambridge collaboration that could easily fit into a Rolling Stones set. It’s got Richards/Wood-like slashing guitars, in-your-face organ from Reese Wynans and wonderful female backup vocals by Wendy Moten. The rest of the band on Hellfire includes Rob McNelley on guitar and Tommy McDonald on bass. The touring band has LB Bradford on bass, Ronnie Smith on drums,and no second guitar.

The Jordanaires provide vocals on a pair of Hellfire’s songs, and a talented group of horns – Matt White on trumpet, Roy Agee on trombone, and Max Abrams on sax – sit in on the rave-up, George Thorogood-like “Too Drunk To Drive Drunk” and on “I Know Why,” a slow, soulful ballad that counsels the heartbroken to hold on and to trust in the power of love.

Moten is back to deliver knockout vocals on “Black Girls,” another rocker that proclaims (somewhat tongue-in-cheek I suspect) that  “The blues I’ve been hearing lately/It sounds like rock ‘n’ roll/I’ve been wondering what in the world/Happened to all that soul/We got to have black girls, black girls/We got to have black girls, black girls/Got to have black girls/To put the soul back up into your song.”

The album ends with a very pleasing rendition of Hank Snow’s classic “I’m Movin’ On,” and it couldn’t sound more country if Merle Haggard was playing it. John D’Amato sits in on guitar.

Now about those “new faces” mentioned above. Just like on the cruise, Walker now features two female singers – the very talented Bertha Blades aka Sari Posner, who has the raw vocal power of Lydia Pense [Cold Blood] and young daughter Lena Walker, whose voice is still developing, but she can dance up a storm and looks like she’s having the time of her life backing up dad.

But the familiar faces to the Bay Area, on the boat and at the show, were keyboardist Tony Stead, saxophonist Keith Crossan and trumpeter Tom Poole, all recently separated from the Tommy Castro Band. In fact their last performance with Castro was the very last show of the cruise. Crossan has already started his own self-named band, featuring Poole, and Stead can be found working with them and many others, so it appears they all have landed squarely on their feet. They fit in with Walker like they’d been together for years.

The live show included lots of good music that’s not on the new CD, too, like The Pimpinaires wonderful tune “I Don’t Sing For Free”. With its gospel-infused sound, but R-rated lyrics, it’s often referred to as the musician’s national anthem. Look it up and you’ll see why.

Blades stepped up to shine frequently, including big-time covers of “I Just Want To Make Love To You” and “Sugar Coated Love.” Stead’s uplifting electric piano was right on the money and even Joe and the band frequently gazed over at him in appreciation. Of course the band did “T-Bone Shuffle,” the jazzy, everybody-gets-a-solo “Eyes Like A Cat,” and a great version of “Tell Me Why” that turned Walker loose for some exceptional slide guitar.

Towards the end of the show, Walker introduced a guest, “My godfather Fillmore Slim,” and the lanky, blues crooner ambled to the stage for “Every Day I Have The Blues,” then “Every Night And Every Day.” The Bay Area’s Nancy Wright joined in on sax to add to the festive mood. Introducing the latter tune, Walker remarked, “We’re going to do some gut-bottom blues like we used to play at the Saloon in 1985.” And they did.

This is Walker’s twenty-fourth CD in a little over twenty-five years, but he’s been playing professionally for forty-five years. He’s won four Blues Music Awards, including album of the year for 2010’s Between A Rock And A Hard Place, and he’s always on the ballot it seems, having notched forty-eight BMA nominations. Walker is nominated this year too, for contemporary male artist.

With Hellfire, Joe Louis Walker offers a rock-solid set of really good songs. It seems he’s taken his guitar work to another level and to some unexpectedly imaginative places, whether it is excellent slide work, hard-rocking blues, or psychedelic effects. This is truly a tour de force that’s sure to please, whether you’ve followed Walker for forty years or you are hearing him for the first time.

Dan D. Harrell is contributing writer for BluesWax and president of The Write Answer in San Jose, CA, specializing in writing, public relations and marketing consulting. Contact him by commenting below or at dan@writeanswer.biz.

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BluesWax Spotlight on

John Campbelljohn

By Kim O’Brien

On the East Coast of Canada, jutting out into the North Atlantic, lies Nova Scotia. The name is Latin for New Scotland, and the province shares more than just its name with the home country. It was the destination for the first waves of Scottish immigration to Canada. Most of these immigrants settled on Cape Breton Island because of its uncanny resemblance to the highlands of Scotland. The music they brought to its shores, played on fiddles, bodhrans, and guitars, evolved into its own sub-genre, much as it informed country, and especially Bluegrass, music in the United States.

Indeed, if Nova Scotia is known for any style of music it is most likely the modern day version of this Celtic music which became popular with the World Music boom of the early 1990s. (Nova Scotia’s Ashley MacIsaac made quite a name for himself when he famously lifted his kilt on Late Night with David Letterman revealing to Dave and the TV audience that he was wearing it “regimental” style ­– i.e., sans underwear.)

This was the milieu into which John Campbelljohn was born and raised.

But John’s musical tastes, like so many who grew up in the1960s, were shaped by influences that were rocking the world – in particular the Fab Four from Liverpool. “I was a lad when The Beatles hit North America, and there was a bluesy feeling in their early beat that twigged something.”

But the departure from his Celtic roots didn’t really take flight until he was at a high school dance. He was about to leave when the band started playing “Statesboro Blues” by the Allman Brothers Band. “I can still hear them clearly announce the tune,” John says, “then they started playing. I stopped in my tracks, turned around, and walked toward the stage and just stood there, listening. That fully-fledged shuffle beat nailed me to the floor.”

He was now on the path to becoming a professional blues musician. He realized he needed some guides to help him find his way. B.B. was the first of the Three Kings he followed, with Freddie and Albert just slightly behind. “I loved them all, but B.B.’s were the first licks I stole,” he remembers. “Didn’t we all? For me it was Indianola Mississippi Seeds, my first B.B. album. I wore the grooves off that record, playing along.”

This day, I’m sitting with the affable Bluesman in his home studio. He sits surrounded by the tools of his trade – five electric, four acoustic, two dobro, and one bass guitar, as well as a small keyboard attached to his computer array, and a microphone. And there, sitting under a gooseneck lamp like a frontman under a spotlight, was his pride and joy: a double pedal-steel guitar.

John has earned a reputation as a master of blues slide guitar, so “moving to a steel is a natural progression,” John says. He now adds steel virtuoso Buddy Emmons to his list of influences (“the Wayne Gretzky of the pedal steel,” John calls him).

His penchant for slide goes back to the sound that stopped him cold at the dance. The Allman Brothers were blending rock with blues and a dab of country, and Duane’s blistering slide work prompted John to teach himself how to play it.

“I started trying to play it in standard tuning until I read that Duane played in open E or G. That made it considerably easier,” John recalls with a chuckle. Since then, John has carved out an impressive career in a genre that traditionally has a narrower audience than the day’s popular music. “I’m pretty passionate about the blues,” he says, “it’s how I make my living.”

When asked what the secret to his success and longevity, he is typically humble. “I try to serve the music, to get out of its way. And I play with musicians who have the same ethic.”

Lately those musicians have been Neil Robertson on drums, and Andrew Lambert on bass. “These guys are groove players, not flash players. The thing about good blues is not the notes you play, it’s the notes you don’t play. I’m always telling myself to stop playing too much and get to the point.”

Keeping the sound lean allows John to play guitar, slide and, increasingly, the pedal steel. “I’m playing the steel more, having a fabulous time adapting its country sound to my style of blues. It’s frustrating sometimes, but it’s a lot of fun.”

John says that working with the pedal steel has gotten him listening to country music, “real country music, not this ‘today’s country’ stuff – that’s just pop music with big hair.”

“The blues is a feeling, not a style.”

He sees some “real” country in blues and some blues in country, particularly in artists like Hank Williams. He also notes that Ray Charles had a couple of country-laced hit albums and that Lyle Lovett has incorporated western swing and blues into his repertoire.

“Good music is good music, and you can find it if you look for it,” John asserts. For him, it’s about defining the sound you want, even as he brings new influences and new instruments into his palette.

He especially enjoys performing this new sound live. John is very busy around the East Coast of Canada, but he has also found a growing, appreciative and knowledgeable blues audience in Europe. He regularly tours in Germany, Austria, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, and Italy. His record label, ZYX Peppercake, and his agent are both based in Germany.

“They’ve been taking good care of me since 1999,” says John. “It’s a very good relationship I have with the label and the fans.”

He recently added Scandinavia to his European conquests, particularly Norway. “It’s very rugged country and the fjords are both incredible and daunting. I wanted to fly from gig to gig there, but I was told it was too tricky to repeatedly land and take off, so we drove around fjord after fjord to get to the next gigs. It was like driving Cape Breton’s Cabot Trail over and over. Took forever,” he remembers.

He says it’s worth it. “The fans are among the most knowledgeable I’ve ever seen. They know blues history and discographies better than I do, and I thought I was up on most things.”

He also loves the audiences. “Blues clubs there are more like nightclubs rather than smoky bars. There, the people come out to listen to the band. In North America, people come out to socialize with the music being little more than background noise. In Europe, they come for the music.”

“That’s reflected in CD sales, too. They come with money because they really want to buy the music of authentic North American blues bands. They really make an evening of it and aren’t afraid to spend. It’s wonderful.”

When asked if he had any tips for North Americans playing in Europe, John says it’s essential that you do your homework. He says that Europe is very expensive – food, accommodations, gas – so you have to make sure you have a full slate of bookings before you go.

“I would get hired to play a festival or two, then I’d be on the phone or emails booking as many gigs as I can. I go for a month with a couple of festival gigs as anchors and fill the rest with pubs, clubs, and other venues. I like to have about 22 to 24 gigs over the month. That way, you can earn some money, sell some CDs, and lay the groundwork for your next tour.”

I asked him how he got a European label.

“It was 1999 and, again, I did my research. Germany had the best economy and a reputation for liking the blues, so I found a few German record labels and sent out an email that more or less read, ‘I own all my own music, are you interested?’ A few days later I got a reply which I expected to be my first rejection e-mail. Instead, it read:

‘Thank you for your submission. We enjoyed your music, it reminds us of a few of our current artists. Here’s our offer.’

One month later, they signed the deal. John found a German booking agent who was booking Canadian acts in Europe, and as a ZYX Peppercake recording artist, he got enough bookings for an inaugural tour. He hasn’t looked back.

He loves the fans, the people, the countryside, the experience. And there are some great players there, too, says John. “It’s unusual to hear the blues sung with a pronounced European accent of some kind, but they can really lay it down.”

“Then, when I come home, I go into the studio again,” he says. He does his own recording, editing, mixing, and mastering in his home studio, working hard to get the sound he wants.

“I’ve been lucky. Record companies always want you to define a ‘style’ that they can market. But ever since my first record I’ve been able to combine blues, blues-rock, a dash of country, even a hint of reggae. It was my diversity that sold them on that first album and everything since.”

“I’m completely comfortable with whatever comes out, whether it’s something that was influenced by Deep Purple in 1972 or Freddie King in 1975 or Buddy Emmons in 2004.”

“But that’s the thing with the blues … Blues is a feeling, not a style.”

He should know. John Campbelljohn, winner of the 2007 East Coast Music Awards (and a nominee again 2012) for Blues Recording of the Year, shows great style in everything he does, on stage and off.

Kim O’Brien is a contributing writer at BluesWax.

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BluesWax Sittin’ In With

Paul Thorn

Singer-Songwriter/Visual Artist/Performer

By Charley Burch

If you haven’t heard of Paul Thorn, you may be in a minority in the blues world. If you haven’t had the pleasure of listening to his music, viewing his artwork, or having a conversation with him, your company widens in size, but there is much to gain both intellectually and socially by letting a master writer, performer, and human being like Paul Thorn into your life. I have had opportunity to experience all of the above on many occasions and would like to share Paul with you today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOccBm2MV1k

Paul Thorn was born (had to write that) July 13, 1964, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, but immediately after his birth moved to Tupelo, Mississippi, with his family, which is evident in his dialect which is pure southern bliss. Adding to his renaissance resume of skydiver, furniture factory worker, and champion boxer, Thorn initially secured a record deal with A&M records and now is on the Perpetual Obscurity label (through Thirty Tigers and RED). Thorn has appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Kimmel Live!. Paul’s website, www.paulthorn.com, is a treasure trove of audio, visual, and spiritual media that can get you on a path to pleasure and enlightenment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_-qnATBN6c

Paul and I have had numerous chin wags discussing life, liquor, music, and all the wonderful women in it (most recently on this past New Year’s Eve in Nashville, Tennessee) and the following are a few excerpts we decided to share with you.

Charley Burch for BluesWax: Let’s tell everyone about your earlier musical influences.

Paul Thorn: I grew up singing in Pentecostal churches. As a child we attended black churches and white churches and that’s where I got whatever mojo I have.

BW: What was your family’s involvement in guiding you to being a musician?

PT: My dad played guitar and my mom played accordion. They had a rockabilly sound that really had a groove. My sisters sang tight harmony and when I was little I would beat on a Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket with a spoon

BW: Describe your relationships, both personal and professional, with your management, co-writers, and fellow musicians and band members.

PT: I am very proud of the fact that my band and I have been playing together for about fifteen years. I am 47 years old and I have been writing songs with my co-writing partner Billy Maddox [also Thorn’s manager/producer] since I was 17. I am surrounded by a loyal group of people.

BW: What kind of equipment to you prefer to record with?

PT: I don’t know. That’s a Billy Maddox question. I’m just an ignorant singer-songwriter.

(Do you want?) My two cents: These days we record using Digital Performer – (which is) one of the many computer based platforms. One of the cool things about recording this way is it make it simpler to add guest artists on the project. For instance, we just emailed a file of the track to Elvin (Bishop) for his overdubs. He cut them and emailed the parts back and we dropped them in the track. That’s a wonderful thing. Delbert McClinton’s vocals were recorded on a laptop in a cabin on the Sandy Beaches cruise (which we) did with him in January. (It was) pretty surreal to be recording on a cruise ship while sailing across the Caribbean. Beyond all this, we make all the records in our own studio which provides us the luxury of taking our time to get things done our way.

BW: Describe your evolution up until your upcoming release as a writer, musician, and human being.

PT: I just live my life and along the way song ideas come to me from things I experience. As a person I just want to create good music and make enough money to give my family everything they need. If I can maintain a happy relationship with my wife and kids, I will have had a well spent life.

BW: What were the goals and objectives of the new release and were they accomplished?

PT: After writing nine albums of self-penned songs, I wanted to record a CD of songs that move me by other writers. I am very proud of this record and the songs we chose

BW: Are there other members of your family that are also career musicians or are emerging as such?

PT: My family still sings, but only in church. I am the only one playing and singing the devil’s music. I guess I’m goin’ to hell.

BW: What is on the horizon for Paul Thorn?

PT: At the moment I am about to go in the kitchen and have a sausage and biscuit. I will probably wash it down with some Kool-Aid.

BW: Describe the relationship with you and your fans. Do they act as muses in your creative process? Are you interpersonal with them or do you distance your personal life from the professional in that respect?

PT: When I am on the road, I am a willing servant to my fans. I shake every hand and kiss every baby. I realize that they support me and I want to let them know how much I appreciate them.

BW:. Who do you want to work with in the near future that you have yet to have an opportunity to do so?

PT: It would have been cool to open for Elvis Presley. He was the king. He and I are both from Tupelo, and I believe he was the greatest entertainer of all time.

The latest release by Paul Thorn, Pimps and Preachers (his uncle was a pimp and his father a preacher), is absolutely fantastic. I personally recommend “Weeds in My Roses” and “I Don’t Like Half The Folks I Love” as both are excellent examples of how Thorn is a great storyteller and writes songs that everyone in the world can identify with. On February 2, Thorn began a joint musical endeavor with Grammy-nominated Ruthie Foster as they embarked on the Soul Salvation tour. Ruthie is traveling with her band while Paul is appearing solo and intimate, but watch for him to join the band to blow it out during Ruthie’s set!

Based in Memphis, Charley Burch is a writer, producer, and a contributing writer at BluesWax.

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BluesWax Sittin’ In With

Joe Bonamassa

Part Two

By Bob Gersztyn

In Part One of his interview with Bob Gersztyn, Joe Bonamassa talked about his Dust Bowl album, the globalization of the blues and Hubert Sumlin. This week, in Part Two, he talks about some of his other heroes and influences.

Bob Gersztyn for BluesWax: I just saw B.B. King a couple of weeks ago and I can’t believe that he’s still playing.

Joe Bonamassa: Plus he’s 86 now, right?

BW: Yeah, he just had his birthday about a month ago.

JB: He’ll never stop! There are two constants in this world, that the sun will rise and B.B. King will do a gig.

BW: You called B.B. King the possible connecting point between blues and rock. Why?

JB: He is mutually agreed upon that not only is he the king of the blues but he defines the genre. I hear B.B. King in Iron Maiden songs. I hear B.B. King in Zeppelin songs. I hear B.B. King in all kinds of music. Kanye West with some of that stuff that is more bluesy. Moby, I mean like that guy. I think that he sampled some of B.B’s singing, and it’s a connecting point because, it’s like one of those things you know that, if you don’t feel B.B. King, then chances are the blues are not for you. If you listen to Live at the Regal, and you go “This doesn’t do it for me,” then chances are, the genre of the blues isn’t your bag. Which is fine, but I think to me it’s like when you ask anyone about B.B. King, whether they play heavy metal music or they’re a rapper or a straight-up hard rock guitar player, they go, yeah, B.B. King, he’s the king, and it’s mutually agreed upon, and everyone has listened to a B.B. King song and has gotten something from it. That’s my theory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwXyKUxMskw

BW: Taking guitar players, and since you already named B.B. King, who are your all-time top three guitar players of any genre and why?

JB: Of any genre? The two Erics: Eric Johnson, Eric Clapton, and probably B.B. King. Those are probably the guys that I look up to the most, as far as their careers and the music and just the way that they carry themselves. One of my favorite guitar players of all time is Jeff Beck and Paul Kossoff and Peter Green and Rory Gallagher. I met Jeff a couple of times and he was super cool. I wasn’t alive when Paul Kossoff was alive and I never got to meet Rory Gallagher, but I respect their music to the umpteenth degree. Fantastic! I have so many guitar players that I look up to, but those are probably the ones that come up in conversation the most.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEEfDdJyxPY

BW: You named Jeff Beck and I read how you were influenced by Rod Stewart’s first solo album from 1969, after he and Ron Wood left the Jeff Beck Group to join the then Small Faces. An Old Raincoat Won’t Ever Let You Down is a great album – I saw Stewart perform it with the Faces in 1970.

JB: It was essentially the Jeff Beck Group, sans Jeff Beck, with Ronnie Wood playing guitar and Mick Waller and I think it was Ronnie Lane playing bass. It was very incestuous.

BW: Okay, but exactly how did Rod Stewart influence you? I once read an interview with Rod Stewart where he said that he modeled his singing style after Sam Cooke.

JB: Yeah, and you can hear a lot of that, well one of Rod’s biggest songs was “Having A Party.” Rod Stewart’s music, just in general, take the voice off the table for just a second, just the way he was able to do the heavy blues rock, but with the acoustic element in it. So that acoustic guitar was very strong so he was very organic, almost an Americana feel to it, but it was all these British guys doing it. And then when he sang it was just unbelievable, I mean he had just had such a soaring soulful voice. It’s like listen to “Let Me Love You Baby” from the Jeff Beck Group or “Old Man River.” Serious stuff. Serious stuff.

BW: Who are some of your other influences for songwriting and performing besides the people you’ve already named?

JB: I think that Warren Haynes is a big influence on me, songwriting wise, singing wise. I think Paul Rogers is a big influence on me, singing wise, songwriting obviously. I think Chris Whitley is another one, the late great Chris Whitley, and I even get into guys like Harry Connick Jr., who made a couple of records that were really New Orleans based. Some of his jazz, big band stuff, and just the way that he puts melodies together, and lyrics and stuff like that. Really cool stuff. I’m an equal opportunity thief. I’ll take a good idea from anybody.

BW: How would you describe your approach to playing guitar philosophically, emotionally, and technically?

JB: I don’t really know. At this point, I just pick up the thing and play. I just pick it up and play. My theory is I give one hundred perdent of whatever percentage that I have. If I’m not feeling great and I’m going out there with sixty percent, then I’ll give a hundred percent of the sixty percent. And that’s my philosophy as I play. There’s some nights when we’re out for ten and a half, almost twelve weeks here, and your hands are tired, everything is tired, your voice is tired, but you give a hundred percent of it, and people will understand if you make a bad note, or your voice squeaks once or a couple of times during the gig. When they see you’re giving it your all, in some ways make people actually think it’s cool, then if it’s just a gig by numbers. Like you make it look too easy. Some of the gigs that I think go really well, like I feel like I’m playing really well and singing and people say, yeah it was okay. Then other nights where I think that I was like struggling a little bit, are the one’s that mean the most to people, and you’re going, I just don’t get it. I start thinking of it from the pundits point of view, well you know what? They can see, they can sense the struggle and they can see that you’re fighting a little bit, but you’re giving it your all. That kind of is more endearing than not breaking a sweat. That’s kind of like my theory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2kJtU5KM1o

BW: Before we conclude the interview I wanted to ask you if Vince Gill brought Amy [Amy Grant, Gospel Music Hall of Fame superstar spouse) along?

JB: No, he did not. She had to watch the kids.

BW: That would be interesting to have her on the album, too.

JB: Yeah, she’s great; what a singer she is. It’s a talented family. It’s a very talented family.

BW: My last question is, why do you feel that it is important for the legacy of the blues to be taught to future generations?

JB: At the end of the day, for me, it’s sixty percent, going if you don’t teach the next generation about this music, will there still be a genre? Will there still be people playing it in a hundred years? That’s like sixty percent of my concern. Then on the other hand, in terms of our situation, if we don’t have new fans coming to the gigs, 20 or 30 years from now, will we be able to do gigs? And you have to kind of cultivate that now. You have to start early and go into schools or do these public service announcements or whatever and just go, hey listen kids, everyone likes Led Zeppelin. Everyone knows “Whole Lotta Love,” but do you know who Willie Dixon is and do you know who Robert Johnson is? Do you know where it all came from? Basically you kind of get in the door using something that they know, and then kind of plant the seed, hey there’s a lot more where that came from. It’s just a web. It opens up the world of this kind of music to a kid. Not all of them are interested and some people frankly could care less, but the ones that are interested that need just kind of a push, you know? Those are the ones that are going to make up the generation of fans that are going to come to gigs for the next 20, 30, 40 years, and that’s important.

BW: Okay, we’re all done. Are you playing tonight in Pheonix?

JB: No, no, we’re off tonight. We’re doing two nights at the Orpheum Theater, here in Pheonix, and it’s great, both shows are sold out. I remember starting here in a little dive bar, called the Mason Jar, with like three people, but that was a decade ago.

Based in Oregon, Bob Gersztyn is a contributing editor at BluesWax.