a guitar player's world - august 3, 2004
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Hello folks,
As a singer, you are only as good as your band and often times as a blues singer you are really dependent on your guitarist in particular to "get over". In the jazz world it is the pianist who is the brains behind a singer and the main accompanist but in blues it falls to the guitarist to create the overall vibe and accompaniment.
I consider myself blessed to have been able, over the years, to sing with some of the most talented guitarists around on the blues scene. In fact, I am really humbled by this. Let's face it, in the nightclub scene today it is a guitar player's world; the rest of us just live and work here.
the nightclub scene today is a guitar player's world
From my early days in Chicago I stumbled in to working with strummers: John McDonald, Lurrie Bell, Mark Wydra (currently with Eddie Clearwater), Steve Freund, Dave Specter, Melvin Taylor, Danny Draher, Byther Smith, and Dave Clark (now mostly a saxophone player) and many others. Some of these guys just "filled in" for me on ocassion. Others went on to really learn my bag and to work with me steadily over several years. But all of them bring with them their own flair, their own brand of "blowing". That is where it really gets interesting.
Certain cats are really at home in a given area; for instance, Byther Smith could play the pants off a minor blues. I really enjoyed working with him because I am really at home in a minor key and that is where Byther lives. He will stay in that minor mode all night. But within the confines of the minor key he will find joy, sadness, melancholy, humor, love, loss and danger; emotions that cover every conceivable human experience.
Lurrie Bell has a wild streak and can conjure up enormous guitar passages from a huge reservoir of guitar knowledge.
Dave Specter while a great leader in his own right, is an exceptional sideman as well. Having played with the Legendary Blues Band and as a sideman with Son Seals, Dave seriously paid his dues and as a sideman he can 'comp' with the best of them. You can try all you like but you won't win at "stump the band" when Dave is on a stage with you because he just knows so much. He will go all the way from B.B. to Hubert Sumlin to Robert Lockwood, to Magic Sam and end up with Wayne Bennett lines on a tune like "Turn on Your Lovelight". With cats like Dave, it is the love and respect for the music that shows through and the dogged pursuit of excellence on that axe.
Speaking of Dave Specter, I met one of his old friends Ronnie Earl on a festival in Lucerne, Switzerland. We ended up doing a gig together at a reception for the mayor of Lucerne, among others, and we performed three tunes together, just guitar and me on harp and vocals. It took place in the beautiful, ancient town hall of Lucerne, great acoustics!
singing at the guitar summit
With regard to axe-men, the past year has been a banner one for me. Last August I had a special thrill during the grand finale of the Trinidadio Blues Festival in Trinidad Colorado, of singing on stage while a blues guitar summit was happening on stage with me in the people of : Jimmy Thackery, Coco Montoya, Michael Coleman, and Alex Schultz. Now all these cats were on the festival with their respective bands. Alex was with me. But at the end of the fest Coco invited us all up at the end of his great headlining set. We did a slow blues, "I've Had My Fun" and then we did a barn burning shuffle to ice things off. On the slow number, each solist took his sweet time, developing ideas on a broad canvass. Each guitarist nodded in agreeable enthusiasm as the other guy upped the musical ante.
For the fast number I sang the lyrics of a tune I wrote and have been singing for years, "Best Kept Secret" and it was a gas. The guitarists all took turns bringing it along with their unique solo styles. Michael Coleman quoted from Bill Haley's, "Rock around the Clock" but at break neck speed and the next thing I knew the moment was over and another festival came to a close.
This past weekend I worked a gig with another great guitar slinger, Kid Ramos. Kid, a Californian, is a veteran of the great James Harman Band and more recently a member of The Fabulous Thunderbirds for several years. He currently is a leader in his own right and has put out a string of great solo discs. Kid and I did a show together in Covington, Kentucky at a little joint called Jazzmania, just across the Ohio River from Cincinatti.
Kid was headlining the Cincinati River Front Blues Fest with James Harman on the Saturday but he needed a singer for a club date on the Friday night at Jazzmania. So his agent called me and as I live only three hours from there I took the opportunity to perform as Kid's singer for the night. And I am so glad that I did. He is a great musician, a very unique, intense and inventive player and a beautiful cat. For such an accomplished player (several W.C. Handy Award nominations, records with T-Birds, important cirtically acclaimed records under his own name) the guy carries no discnerable ego-baggage. I hear a vast knowledge of blues history in his playing. Probably influences like Johnny Guitar Watson, Buddy Guy and even Steve Cropper and Curtis Mayfield (yes, he can play soul too). But the way he has put it all together is totally his own. And it is exciting. The thing about his playing is his stinging, ferocious attack. When he played a note in answer to my singing it was a huge exclamation point. And often times just one note was needed and that was the one he delivered. I have never heard a guy do this before, that is his signature -- serious musician, great guitarist, incredible sound.
When Kid Ramos played a note in answer to my singing it was a huge exclamation point.
Guitar players in general get a lot of attention and sometimes too much. Often times they come a dime-a-dozen. And often, as a friend once said to me, some guitarists play so generically that "even their own mothers wouldn't recognize them if they heard them on the radio." But my hat is off to the guys and gals on the front lines of the blues today who love this music so much and have learned from the folks who came before and are actively inventing their own music while continuing to be students of the music. These professionals bring their own styles and they represent the music of the region they come from with pride and great joy. Alex, Kid, Dave, Coco et. al I am so priviledged to have shared your stage. Thanks and Bravo!!
TR
EPILOGUE: Tad's currently playing with Alex Schultz and Paul Holdman on guitar. Tad writes that he'll pen a future blues journal piece and explore in depth these two mainstays of his current lineup.
