the RoaD-KinGs

a ban D that is belove D oF bikers an D contains a b lues b rother is about to be on the roaD aGain. m eet the roaD-kinGs december will see a return to the live performing blues scene by the Road-Kings, a band that hasn’t performed for some time after they released their debut album, Dust And Gasoline. That album, firmly planted in the Blues-Rock and Southern Rock traditions, was almost literally fuelled by gasoline, gasoline poured into Harley-Davidson motorcycles. It was a love for these vehicles and the free spirit that riding them echoes that underpinned songs such as Fat Boy Blues and Turn It Up. So too the appearance of the motorbikes in their videos (see You Tube).

In turn, the band went on to play many high profile gigs in the specialist Harley bikers concert circuit. These boys from Birmingham are led by vocalist Brad Henshaw, who has spent several years, and his RoadKings down time, as ‘Joliet Jake’ Blues in the Dan Aykroyd and Judith Belushi licensed Blues Brothers Approved theatre show. This is one of only two shows with that distinction in the world.

As this article is being written, Brad is also promoting a Rock-orchestral debut with his Rock Symphoneque project, which gives him, also an actor, a particularly complex life, even for a musician. Still, Brad’s blues blood runs strong. He talks passionately about his experiences as a Blues Brother, which have included stage appearances with Antonio Fargas (Huggy Bear in Starsky and Hutch). More significantly for Blues audiences, Brad has appeared at Buddy Guy’s Legends in Chicago on stage with the man himself, who commented, “Brad, there’s a story in your voice that everyone should hear, man.” So, if there is one reason to look out the Road-Kings debut album, and look forward to the near-complete follow-up album, that is it. The new album continues in the musical spirit of the first, but some of the new songs are a departure. f or tH e late St new S on tH e road-king S, c H eck out www.tH eroadking S.co.uk

2014 should see a Road-Kings tour in support of their new release.

Norther N Ir I sh blues faN s are curre Ntly g I ddy w Ith exc Iteme Nt because the cou Ntry’s greatest aN d most adm I red blues mus I c IaN, gu Itar I st r o NNI e g reer, whose playIN g d I stIN ctI vely ble N ds c h I cago blues w Ith bebop jazz, has fINally, at the age of 62, released h I s debut stud I o album, a lIfetIme wIth the blues nd the album is, in Belfast parlance, a cracker. Greer, who made his name with the locally legendary Jim Daly Blues Band, who for decades accompanied the likes of Lowell Fulson, Fenton Robinson and Dr. John on their Irish gigs, is, understandably, delighted with the album. ‘What satisfies me most is the diversity of styles within the general blues context,’ he muses. ‘I’ve tried to reflect the influences I’ve had over the years – I’m a very big fan of the modern jazz recorded on labels like Blue Note, Contemporary and Prestige in the fifties and sixties, for example – and there’s great playing on it from the likes of [Grainne Duffy keyboard player] John McCullough and on the jazzier side of things [sometime Van Morrison trumpeter] Linley Hamilton, and some lovely slide playing from Anthony Toner. Plus, of course, the Chicago thing which I’m probably best known for.’

Greer’s soloing on the album is thrilling. ‘The solos are totally improvised,’ he says. ‘I work virtually nothing out in advance. If something happens that’s slightly unexpected or a bit off-the-wall on a tune I turn that to my advantage because I respond to it and that happens frequently.’

‘We more-or-less winged the whole album,’ he elaborates.‘That’s the essence of all the great blues men. Certainly with all the great Chicago and Texas musicians I’ve played with, nobody seemed to know what was going to happen until they got on the bandstand. It was the same with the Jim Daly band. If we had some big gig coming up, with Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee or Memphis Slim or whatever, we would go to Jim’s house and rehearse a set. Then, on the night, depending on what way Jim was feeling, the music would just speak for itself and take its own course. So, with the album, we just let it flow and tried to make it sound like what you would hear when you hear the band live, in all its different forms, from the quartet up to the eight piece band.’

In fact, one track, Baby Won’t You Please Come Home, is actually played as a duo, with Linley Hamilton on trumpet. ‘It’s an old standard, written in, I think, 1919 by Clarence Williams,’ says Greer. ‘I think Linley’s the best musician in the country on any instrument. I have the utmost respect for him, for his enthusiasm and for his quest to improve his own playing and I thought it would be nice to feature him on a tune like that, playing that straight-ahead, Louis Armstrong kind of trumpet. And also it would show off that side of my musicality which I don’t really get a chance to do much in the Ronnie Greer Blues Band situation.’

Greer is increasingly gigging in jazz contexts and regards Hamilton as an inspiration. ‘He’s been a big influence on me and I’ve got a lot to thank him for,’ he says. ‘He’s constantly pushing me in directions that I don’t personally believe I can go in, but he believes I can. And playing in the jazz field is improving my playing tremendously and I want to keep on improving.’

Greer’s guests on the album include Ken Haddock, who sings Keb’ Mo’s Dangerous Mood, and Kyron Bourke, who sings his own, stunning Jennifer.‘Ken’s a great photographer and took the photographs for the album,’ says Greer.‘And after the photographic session he sat and played You Send Me and Somewhere Over The Rainbow and just blew me away. So I said, “Ken, you’re going to have to get on the album.” I think his voice is just stupendous and he deserves much more recognition.

‘And Kyron has a wonderful, cool, almost New York jazz feel. He’s a massive talent, a kind of singer-songwriter-musician in the Tom Waits meets Leonard Cohen mode. He has a very expressive voice, very clever lyrics and some very nice chord sequences in his tunes. The jazzy nuance he has to his songwriting suits my guitar playing to a T, of course.’

But the best known guest is probably Grainne Duffy who sings Will Jennings’ Never Make Your Move Too Soon

‘Grainne is one of the finest talents that we have,’says Greer. ‘She has a great smoky, emotional voice and is a lovely interpreter. I see a lot of potential in Grainne and I’ve been trying to encourage her to push herself more in directions she probably never thought of, such as listening to all the jazz greats like Carmen McCrae, Betty Carter and Sarah Vaughan, and she’s now beginning to take that on board. In fact the last gig we did together she did [Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer’s jazz standard] Come Rain Or Come Shine. And of course she’s trying to get me interested in the Rolling Stones and Bob

Dylan, so it works both ways!’

Indeed the album includes a version of Dylan’s Blind Willie McTell, sung by band slide guitarist Anthony Toner, who, in a parallel career, is regarded as Northern Ireland’s most interesting and literate singer-songwriter. ‘I wasn’t really a Dylan fan,’ admits Greer. ‘I’m not someone who is so interested in the lyrics of songs. I’m more interested in the musicality. But Grainne has educated me. She gave me a couple of great Dylan albums and I got the message.’

Despite the eminence of the guests, however, some of the greatest playing on the album comes from Greer’s core band, including keyboard player and producer John McCullough. ‘John’s contribution to the album is absolutely immeasurable,’ enthuses Greer. ‘I think his playing is tremendous. The late, great Jim Daly is irreplaceable here, but John’s the closest we’re ever going to get and that’s as high a compliment as I can pay him.’

“[Bassist] Alan Hunter and [drummer] Colm Fitzpatrick are the best rhythm section in the country. They lock in to a groove and they never overplay – they just play exactly what’s required. Alan’s absolutely brilliant, steady as a rock, and Colm can not only rock very nicely but also swing and very few players can do both.”

The album includes Greer’s songwriting debut, Goin’ Down To Clarksdale. “I’ve tried many times before to write a song but every time it’s finished up as one that’s already been written,’ he admits. ‘But I played about with this theme. It’s a basic twelve bar blues but it’s almost like two songs because the first part is talking about where the blues began and namechecking some of my favourite players [including Johnny Shines and Otis Spann] and then after the solos I start preaching about what the blues is all about. It’s a heartfelt thing about how I feel about the music.”

In his liner notes for the album Greer acknowledges some of his favourite musicians, including guitarists Ronnie Earl, Robben Ford and Larry Carlton. “With Ronnie Earl it’s quite simply the overwhelming, pure, raw emotion that he puts into his playing,’ he says. ‘There’s nobody does it any better. He plays the guitar like his heart and soul depend on it and he has a wonderful feel and a wonderful tone. And Robben Ford and Larry Carlton not only for the emotion they put into their playing but for the amazing technical ability they both have which is head and shoulders above anybody else and which we all crave and try to emulate as best we can.”

The album is dedicated, amongst others, to Ottilie Patterson, who, as singer with Chris Barber’s Jazz Band in the fifties and sixties, was a pioneer of European blues singing, and Greer’s old boss Jim Daly. ‘I worked with Ottilie over the years, mainly with the Jim Daly Blues Band and she used to ring me up late at night and be on the phone for two hours talking about the blues and she’d actually play the piano down the phone to me. I had a fondness for her. She just had the blues in her soul.

“Jim Daly was the father of the blues here. We’ve all got a lot to thank him for. There has never been anybody like him before and never will be again.”

Like Van Morrison, like Rory Gallagher and like so many Irish musicians, early in his career Greer actually played in a showband, showbands being groups who played the Irish ballroom circuit, copying the hits and putting on a show, with no interest in musical creativity. “I was very fortunate because the very first band that I played in was the Secrets showband in Newcastle, Co. Down and most of them were quite a bit older than me,’ he says.‘This would have been in the mid-60s and I was still listening to people like the Beatles and the Hollies. But these guys were turning me on to people like Muddy Waters and Lightnin’ Hopkins and so on, and on the jazz side to people like Stan Getz, Louis Armstrong, Oscar Peterson and Lester Young. I was very fortunate. I had the normal influences that most people that age do, but I also had these older guys who had another form of music that otherwise I may never have been exposed to.”

Greer went on to work with the Jim Daly Blues Band through the seventies and eighties. After that band split he formed Blues Experience with bassist Jackie Flavelle (currently with the Big Chris Barber Band) and harmonica player Bill Miskimmin (currently with Mercy Lounge, after stints with Nine Below Zero and the Yardbirds) and then the Kenny McDowell/Ronnie Greer Band. McDowell,an extraordinary singer,had, back in the sixties,replaced Van Morrison in Them. The band released a wonderful live album, Live At The Island, in 2004. “We were very aware of the engineer sitting at the side of the stage so we were a bit tentative but when you do a live album you just have to take it, warts and all, and there are some good moments,’ recalls Greer modestly of the album ‘I think Kenny’s work on Sweet Little Angel is a good representation of how great a singer he is. He sings every note as if his life depends on it. He’s consistently brilliant, the best vocalist we’ve had in these parts in that blues rock style.”

The McDowell/Greer band sundered in 2007. “Kenny expressed discomfort with the way my musical ideas were moving and I then suggested it might be a good idea to call it quits,’ remembers Greer. ‘He put up no opposition which made me think I had made the right decision. It was the old musical differences cliché.”

Greer subsequently put together his current band leading, after six years, to A Lifetime With The Blues. He believes that the album title speaks for itself. ‘It’s self-explanatory because I’ve been listening to and playing the blues since I was fourteen,’ he says.

But more intriguingly, why on earth did it take such a phenomenal player until his sixties before he released a studio album? ‘Well, I was sales director in a steel stockholding company,’ he says. ‘I quite simply didn’t have time. When I took early retirement from my day job last year the first thing on the agenda was to make the album which people like Grainne Duffy had always been very keen for me to do and were pushing me towards.

“It’s a labour of love. All I wanted to do was to document what the music means to me and have it there for posterity and I hope people will find it was worth me taking the time to do it.” fIN d out more about r o NNI e g reer at www.r o NNI egreer.com ric lives for his music but has little interest in promoting himself, this is why he hasn’t yet received the success he deserves. He has met and worked with some great people such as Mick Taylor and with this new album, Soundscape Road, produced by Philippe Langlois’s Dixiefrog label, he returns to his psychedelic, groove-laden world spiced by his own brand of humorous blues. We hope he will finally be heard and recognized on both sides of the Channel. He really shows us that vintage talent gets better with age.

BM: Eric, tell us about your decision to leave France for the US in the Seventies. Was it due to some kind of resentment or frustration, or just out of curiosity?

ET: I guess I would say the need to react to adversity in some way was what caused my move. The overall atmosphere in Paris at that time was very much contrived, sort of black and white, and I needed to shake off a difficult contractual situation that was making me feel unable to progress. My current record company at the time was threatened with legal action by my previous label if they released my new album. So when things settled a little, it just seemed like a good idea to look for a change of scenery. A drummer who is also a good friend of mine had recently moved to New York and I decided to pay him a visit and see what could happen. I then squatted his couch for about three months and we were off across the land in a big Coupe De Ville. Go West Young Men. Off to the Promised Land!

What were you trying to achieve during that period? The main thing at the time was to assume and deal with the day-to-day improvised situation. We only had one or two rather vague contacts and very little money but the most important thing for me was to break away from my home town overall mentality and the trip gave me a different perspective on things which was very useful to me as it opened a whole new world.

What kind of memories do you have from the months and years that followed?

Well it ended up being fifteen years of my life, you know! I am not the most outspoken character and I was not very good at imposing my music and making things happen fast, so instead of knocking on doors or forcing them open, I took on small jobs to keep going, putting music on standby even though I knew I had to keep my input in music going. I did feel there was a huge gap between what I had to do to live and the music in my head, and I was frustrated not to be able to release it. You can add to that a few friendships, a few turbulent adventures among which a first bad marriage (and divorce), another one that lasted … anyway, at some point I got some kind of recording facilities together and I managed to get back to giving shape to the vision, and satisfy my creative appetite.

I had a difficult time to stay afloat, but managed by producing demos for musicians and rappers at a competitive rate with fairly good results. I got to meet quite a few characters on the way! I spent a lot of time in my studio, and when not busy with customers I would spend all these hours putting on tape whatever was coming out. That was vital. I also remember great jams with musician friends, especially Theodore Welch, a good friend and super percussion player, who later on toured all over Europe with the legendary Barry White, and with whom I stayed in touch. In fact he plays on three tracks on the album, including the title track Soundscape Road.

As an artist, I heard you had quite a few disillusions on the way. Can you tell us about that?

Once upon a time, a very long time ago, I used to have a manager I had met while trying to play some tapes to some record companies, and this guy was so enthusiastic that he had me and my band stay at the Château d’Hérouville, a very nice place, where, among others, the Grateful Dead, Elton John and some other “U-Name-Thems” had recorded, but I became spoilt staying in that environment, and when he introduced me to people like Richard Branson, Joe Boyd or Andrew Oldham I failed to come up with the goods and appear convincing enough, I guess. I was flying high in my head, but could not express it that easily!

Despite the very introverted aspect of your personality, there was a first album. Yes, and the music part of it was satisfactory, but the label was after quick money and while deals were being made with distribution rights in different countries, we were in London with the band, in a nice big house (again), rehearsing and waiting for a tour that was not to take place, due to the lack of promised efforts and budget from the record company. Then I signed a contract elsewhere for another album but got trapped in a difficult contractual situation and none of these two records came out within a healthy context. Then I really got sick of it and left for the States.

How did you take that, after all that big time like living in Hérouville?

Beside these easy-living phases, I also dragged my boots and squatted a few couches with little money, but the hardest part was always to try and get heard. People wouldn’t even listen to my tapes and it was very frustrating. I was not very good at hassling them over the telephone and calling people back again and again, so I would usually go back to work on my recordings.

Your two albums in the seventies were under the name of Eric Sirkel. What is your real name?

Ter is the beginning of my real name, TerSarkissian. For some reason I thought the idea of going by the name of Sirkel was a good one, so I was Eric Sirkel from 1976 to 1986. My two first albums were Sirkel & Co (1976), and Eric Sirkel Vertige (1978).

The following albums were by Eric Ter?

Yes, not counting the unreleased material I recorded in between, Barocco came out in 2003, then Chance in 2008 and Nu-Turn in 2011.

Your last few albums were not very successful, how do you explain that?

Simply because not enough people heard them! Mostly due to the lack of promotion and budget, and so not enough concerts in real concert places. I just couldn’t get to stay in front of a computer screen trying to promote myself, that was beyond my abilities. And nobody was doing it for me.

As you were saying, you are not very expansive, rather shy.

This is more of a choice. I find I am freer when I am on my own. But I get along fine with people I work with, and I know that we are all better at some things than others. I’m definitely not good at prospecting and telling somebody ‘listen to me, I’m good’, over a telephone. I just get the music done, and I’m so glad to get everything ready with my band right now. Let me introduce the players: Daniel Cambier plays bass, JeanBernard plays drums, Hubert Le Tersec is on keyboard, and Laurent de Gasperi on guitar. more more IN formatI o N o N er I c ter, go to www.er I cter.N et asti Jackson is a melting pot of ethnic genes and genres; on stage he fizzes like liver salts. His story re-enforces the, ‘Immersed to be well- versed’ approach to a musical education. Pronounced Vast-eye, this guy is a misnomer, being from Mississippi, his speed is much more Northern and plugged in. Blues Matters! loves to listen, and Blues Matters! loves to share, so enjoy.

On your first album Sirkel&Co, you had some rather prestigious people including Mick Taylor, is that right? Robin Millar produced it, it was recorded at Rockfield Studios, South Wales with Colin Allen on drums, who had played with John Mayall and later with Donovan and Dylan, and Marc Frentzel whom I joined later back in New York on drums, also Ronnie Leahy on keyboards, great musician, and Gordon Raitt on bass, then at Olympic in London where Mick Taylor came to play on four songs, as well as a vocal choir and a full horn section.

If you had to describe this new album in two words, what would they be? Too cool!

The style is different from the previous one. What motivated you toward that change of direction? The previous album resulted from a need of space and quietness, very airy, simple and acoustic. My appetite for groove and electricity came back to me for this new one. It’s part of the same vision though, but I’d say this one is probably happier, richer in sounds. I didn’t decide on this precisely, it’s just that one colour leads to another and at a certain point, it just kind of becomes real and all you do is to follow your instinct. That’s when it gets really motivating and exciting. All you do is let it happen and I love it when an album takes you over, you don’t want to break away from it, one song after another. And even though I tend to be over enthusiastic after some recording is completed, I do think that this one really works this way.

How would you define the style of this album?

I am not good at defining a style, but let’s say it’s funky, rather psychedelic, and definitely bluesy, groovy and fun!

Bruce Iglauer, Alligator Records CEO, says of him, ‘Vasti is an extremely talented guitarist, songwriter, singer and arranger. I worked with him closely on two Katie Webster albums and two C.J. Chenier albums and he has a huge musical vocabulary, from down home blues to contemporary funk and rock. He’s a true professional, able to adapt to any kind of musical situation as well as a very confident band leader. Plus he’s smart, driven and has a great sense of humour!’

BM: You have learned to play several instruments, and I guess there are few skills in making music that you haven’t done. Are you a control freak?

VJ: No I’m not a control freak at all. I just love music, and I love music more than I love the guitar. So therefore, this drives me and propels me to learn more about music. Whether it is arranging music, composing, being an engineer, or playing bass, writing for horns or strings; it is not to control it, but to contribute. I come from a blues and gospel background, but I was exposed to jazz at 16 years old, so with me loving and having a passion for the art of music, and coming from five generations of musicians, it gives me the ability to interface with artists that are in different genres of music. This is such a gift for me. I am 53 years old, and I am so thankful to everybody the world over who have took a liking to me, and what I can contribute to their lives in a positive way through music.

A lot of times the public are unaware it is me playing guitar or arranging the music (laughs). This year I have been in Germany, Holland, headlined at the New Orleans festival in Austria – the third time I have headlined that festival. I leave next week for Argentina, Brazil, Chile then the last week in October I’m in Poland. I am my own booking agent, I’m my own manager, my own songwriter, publisher and record label. It is not that I’m a control freak, but I don’t do drugs, I very rarely take a drink, I don’t gamble … so I got to have something to do with my time (laughs). My sons are adults, 33 and 26.

For a very young man you played an awful lot of old school music. Did you get any stick for this as a teenager?

In my community, there were musicians all over the place, and they were older musicians. There was a guy when I was young two blocks away called Big Moody. He knew my mother and my mother would let me play with him in the clubs. I had already heard my grandfather playing, and all my cousins were great musicians, and they were doing more contemporary music like Earth Wind and Fire, Tower of Power, Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson, Funkedelic, that kind of stuff. However, when I went to Jackson State University, the older musicians like Tommy Tate, Lewis Lee, and J. C. States were playing at restaurants and lounges. William W. Davis, a great trumpet player who worked with names like Duke Ellington, Count Basie and all those guys.

I got there, and I could play some jazz and I had a feel for the blues and these guys hired me. So I was working three nights a week with musicians who were more than twice my age. The simple reason was that there were no funk bands working three, four nights a week, they were just doing special events. I will say what people have said to me, that I have an old soul. I have done records like on Alligator Records with Michael Burks where they were very contemporary, intense rockin’ soulful blues, and the rhythm arrangements that I worked on in those records they have a lot of accents, units and lines and stuff like that. In many cases many people don’t see me as being old school (laughs).

Does your live wire stage performance hark back to those old school performers?

Let me say this, I believe that you should respect the audience. I never let my ego get in front of the audience, I believe in listening to the audience, I believe in looking at the audience. With me, if I have an audience they are part of the show, I never leave the audience out of my musical equation. When I see their eyes or the way people move then that is information for me, they are communicating to me, and I take that information and I use part of it to communicate back to them. Am I energised on stage? Yes, am I excited on stage? Yes I am, because this is such a gift and such a joy to be able to do this, and for people to appreciate it. This is how I make my living, but this is my passion. Now does it harken back to old school? No, not that it is conscious in my mind. Because I live this, and the music is completely in me, through me, over me, under me, so rhythm, melody hit me in a certain way, so it is physical thing.

I am not doing a workshop or a seminar, or in front of an audience with tuxedos, I don’t restrict my joy personally.

You have portrayed Robert Johnson on several occasions on stage and film. What is your take on the man, his talent and the circus that surrounds him?

About what you call the circus, I tell you man, anything that is worth having is worth stealing, you know what I mean (laughs). He was a fantastic musician/artist, I never knew the man personally, but I can listen to his music, and I have had to dissect his music. Robert Johnson used the guitar as a mini orchestra, and a lot of people talk a lot about his guitar, but not about how great a singer he was. He was a great singer, a great interpreter of a song and a great communicator through music. He was far beyond the blues in the sense of the basic blues form, with it being three chords. He would deviate rhythm; he would superimpose straight sixteenths then go into blocked triplets, then go on to eighth note triplets.

He would use closed intervals, minus 2nds, and all kinds of things that at the time no one was being as adventurous and on the cutting edge as Robert Johnson was. So many people look at Robert Johnson as being traditional blues, well let me tell you something right now, Robert Johnson is as modern as you’re gonna get in the blues.

Harmonically, rhythmically, and you can take that music and apply it to Hip Hop, you can apply it to anything and it is still interesting today. So what I do when I am looking at that music in the stage play, Robert Johnson, The Man, The Myth and the Music it was not to extract his guitar part. It was to embrace, embody the whole of what I could gather about his possible personality, his life as if he were here today.

Take the stories, what do the stories mean to me? That is what is important, what do the lyrics mean? When he says, ‘Sweet home Chicago, going back to the land of California’, he means Utopia or a better place. In the song, Stop Breaking Down when he sings of the term 99%, which was slang for cocaine. When you read about the work camps in Mississippi where they brought in cocaine and other drugs to fuel those labourers, and there were prostitutes, there were murders and all kinds of things going on back around the turn of the century.

When he sings, ‘She’s got Elgin movements’ Elgin was a very popular watch where the hand moved very smoothly, and he’s talking about the body language of this woman. A lot of times people concentrate so hard on the guitar that they lose something, they are trying to play it as a guitarist as opposed to living in the story, and letting the emotion you get from the story go into the music, whether it’s singing or playing. So now it becomes real to the audience, not that you are trying to imitate Robert Johnson, it is not about imitation, it is about taking on the character or the persona in a way you can get enough information, and humble yourself firstly to the spirit of the culture.

Then you have to research the time period, because being in 1927, 1930, 1935 it’s different. So you have to think about how this guy felt walking down the street, you got to think what this guy felt when the sun was going down, and he was worried about the Paddy Rollers catching him. You know in Crossroads, ‘Sun going down, can’t let darkness catch me here’, he don’t want darkness to catch him man, because he is scared of the Ku Klux Klan, there was a curfew for blacks at night. Now put that into your psyche as a musician at that time, and you’ve got to consider all of these things. Steve Johnson, Michael Johnson and all of the family came to the theatre, and we were so honoured that they approved of our presentation. for more IN formatI o N, aN d merchaN d I se v I s It www.vastIjackso N.com the full INterv I ew caN be accessed v Ia www.bluesmatters.com teve Strongman is a multi-award winning artist based in Canada. He has been recognised as one of the country’s top performers for a few years now and is starting to gain much deserved wider acclaim

When we started to write and construct the play they were excited about it. We were able to get funding from the Mississippi Opera Association and the Hattiesburg Concert Association’s Dr Jay Dean. When I first started working on the Robert Johnson stuff, I got a call from a young director in Los angles by the name of Glen Marsano. He was doing a short film called, Stop Breaking Down, and he called about me being the musical director for that particular project. That was during the time of the court case when they had just finalised that Claude Johnson was the legal heir of Robert Johnson.

Can you tell me about your current and future projects to wind up?

The new CD is out now, it is called, New Orleans, Rhythm Soul Blues. I am very happy about this CD because it combines a lot of my New Orleans influences and activities musically, and, of course, I can never get away from Mississippi, and there is lots of blending of that. There has always been strong musical exchange between New Orleans and Mississippi. Reverend Charlie Jackson was a cousin of mine; my mother took me to see him when I was nine years old. Little Freddie King is kin on my maternal side of the family.

I have also re-issued my first CD, Vasti Jackson, Mississippi Burner. Last August I was in South Africa with the Joy of Jazz festival with the legendary Battiste family from New Orleans, which is a New Orleans jazz/ funk/ R&B army. I received a call from the Jazz Foundation of America about doing presentations that demonstrate the link between blues and jazz. So, I am very excited about that. I will be working with, and mentoring youth, more visitations with the elderly, and producing more music.

BM: Hi Steve, thanks for agreeing to talk to Blues Matters! and giving our readers the opportunity to become familiar with your work. Your most recent album, ANaturalFact, has pretty much swept the board at this year’s Maple Awards. You must be very proud, did you have any idea how well it would do?

SS: Thanks, no I had no idea how well it would be received. As an artist you don’t set out to create music so you can win awards, it’s about making the absolute best album you can make. Having said that, when you get that kind of recognition it’s an amazing feeling.

One of the stand out tracks is Leaving, a wonderful duet with Suzie Vinnick that you co-wrote with producer Rob Szabo, that also won many accolades in songwriter of the year categories. Did you always have Suzie in mind to record that with?

Suzie was my first choice when we wrote that song. We were playing a festival in Quebec at the same time, and when I asked her she was excited about it from the start. Rob Szabo (producer) had a great idea to have us track in the studio together, at the same time while facing each other, and I think the vocals have some real excitement to them because of that.

The whole album has a warm, mostly upbeat feel to it. There’s definitely a great connection with the other musicians, are they your touring band?

Thanks. I am so fortunate to have such great friends that happen to be incredible musicians around me. Everyone on A Natural Fact did an amazing job. I’ve been touring as a trio. My touring band has Dave King on drums, and we have a different bass players that come on the road with us. Alec Fraser (bass) plays with many different artists, but we work together as often as we can.

Going back to those Maple Awards, you were actually nominated in six categories that included Electric and Acoustic Act of the Year, plus Entertainer of the Year. It must be unique to be nominated for both acoustic and electric awards. Do you have a preference?

Yes, that is unique, and it was a huge honour. The electric and acoustic aspects of playing guitar are so different to me, but I can’t say that I have a preference. I play using a hybrid picking style, which is highlighted with the acoustic guitar. There is such rawness to the acoustic guitar for me, and we wanted to capture that on A Natural Fact. Yet sometimes, you just can’t beat the intensity of the electric guitar. I love them both!

Your previous albums are less acoustic? Yes, they are more electric, blues rock, but I’ve always introduced acoustic elements. Lots of people have been asking for more of that and my great friend Rob Szabo is renowned for his production of acoustic based stuff so we decided to push the boundaries this time. A Natural Fact is my most successful album.

Tell us a bit about your background and what got you interested in becoming a musician and especially one influenced by the blues?

I believe that people don’t choose musicmusic chooses them. That was the case for me. I was fortunate that at a young age I knew that I was going to be a musician. I was born in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada and stumbled onto blues, via bands like Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones.

I soon realized what I loved most about their music was the blues influence. Then I started taking in as much blues as I could around the age of 15. At this time

I met the incredible blues guitarist Mel Brown, (who played with too many artists to mention. Mel lived in Kitchener and really took me under his wing.

I’m aware that you’ve toured extensively in the past; USA, Mexico, Brazil and lots of Europe. Any plans to revisit Europe, especially the UK soon?

I would love to return to Europe, right now it looks as though I will be doing a summer 2014 tour. I’ve never performed in the UK, so I’m looking forward to getting there soon! It would be fantastic to play a couple of festivals.

It’s very easy sometimes with gifted guitar players to overlook the vocal ability, but not in your case, you sound very natural in your vocals. Has this come with practice, or is it as natural as it sounds?

Thanks. I started singing in my first bands when I was about 15 years old, because we couldn’t find a singer! After a while, singing just seemed to fall into place for me. I’ve never studied formally, but after some throat issues I took a lesson for some technique suggestions, and the vocal coach did point out that I have a very natural approach. I always consider myself a guitarist first, but it’s really great to hear so many positive comments about my vocals.I think a lot of guitarists tend to look at singing as something they have to do. I’ve found that focusing more on my singing makes me a stronger guitarist. you ca N d I scover more about steve at www.stevestro N gma N.com arlier this year he reformed his legendary, multi award winning band, ‘The Workers’ to record a new album Bull Goose Rooster, their first since 2008. I had a very interesting conversation about all things Watermelon Slim recently.

The list of people you’ve played with is pretty impressive. Buddy Guy, Sonny Landreth, Jimmie Vaughan and Jeff Healey to name a few. Could you share some of the best moments with us?

Yes, I have been fortunate to play with some incredible artists. There are so many great moments to choose from! I used to go to Jeff Healey’s club in Toronto and sit in with Jeff as a special guest. Those nights were always incredibly special. Jeff seemed to have another gear that he could kick into. I opened for Joe Cocker as a solo acoustic performer, and mid-song looked over side stage and saw him standing there, listening.

I remember thinking “wow, Joe Cocker is listening to this tune I wrote!” The first time I opened for Buddy Guy was incredible. I remember feeling as though that was a turning point in my career. After I met Buddy I just sat down for a few minutes to take it all in.

Jeff Healey is Canada’s greatest ever blues player. Without doubt, my bass player Alec Fraser played in Jeff’s band for many years. I was lucky enough to be invited to guest with Jeff at his Healey’s club five or six times. He had this uncanny ability to find another gear.

We have a lot of talented young blues guitarists starting to emerge in the UK at the moment. Do you have any advice for aspiring blues artists?

I think many young artists overlook the importance of writing. Write as much as you can. With Blues being a traditional art form, it can be a challenge to sound unique, but I think that writing is what can set an artist apart, and of course, hard work. The most successful people that I’ve met have one thing in common. Hard work.

BM: Thank you very much for taking time to talk to the Blues Matters! readers. You have a big following here and we’re all very excited that you have recorded a new album with your band The Workers. Was it always your intention to record together again at some point?

WS: It was always possible. I retired the band after 2010, paid everybody severance pay, but it was always possible we would do a reunion tour. I would not have recorded another Workers record unless there was such a tour.

I’ve been listening to the album a lot and it’s up there alongside the very best Watermelon Slim & The Workers albums. The energy is palpable and the song writing and cover choices are right on the button. Are these songs you’ve been storing up for the right moment or were they written just prior to recording? Both, and more. Bull Goose Rooster, the title song, was written for the record. I Ain’t Whistling Dixie was one of the last songs The Workers learned before we retired. Over The Horizon is one of two songs that I have ever written in sheet music. The other one may emerge one day, if I make any more records. On the other hand, I’ve been singing Take My Mother Home since I heard it on a Harry

Belafonte album from 1959 or so. I can, and occasionally do, still sing most of the songs on that record, 55 years later.

Given the state of the music business, I may or may not do that. I am not optimistic about being able to sell Cds. If a person is not wholly committed to making electronic downloads one’s primary way of selling recorded music, there’s just not a huge future in recording. I’m obsolete. I need to put an object, with words, pictures, other stuff, in people’s hands if I’m going to sell music. Otherwise, I might as well remain a gigging musician. People still like to hear me at gigs.

The track OverTheHorizonincludes guest vocals by Trampled Underfoot’s Danielle Schnebelen, a lovely slow blues with some tasteful piano by Dennis Borycki, is a wonderful piece. How did that collaboration come about? It must be a buzz working alongside other talented artists on your own songs. Dennis and I have collaborated on several occasions. He’s undoubtedly the best allaround piano player in Oklahoma. Over The Horizon is NOT a slow blues, it is a jazz ballad that has the feel of the blues in it, emotionally speaking. Chris Hardwick, who produced this record, as he has done on part or all of four others, including all the Workers albums, suggested the collaboration between Danielle and I.

I have always considered myself a minorleague professional musician. I will never even make what a minor-league baseball player makes, and I have no benefits. But I do get to play with the best people in the craft, and that virtue does provide its own reward.

The cover choices are great, a couple of Slim Harpo tunes and a rocking version of Vigilante Man by Woody Guthrie. What do you look for in choosing covers? On your albums the covers always seem to fit the overall flow so well. Well, thank you for that, sir! I recorded Vigilante Man in 1972 on my first and only solo LP, Merry Airbrakes. It was time to do it again , after 41 years, with state-of-the-art recording tech and a superb band. Slim Harpo has always been a favourite of the band, and of mine. The fans want the straight-up-nochaser blues, and so we give ‘em a bunch of it. But I will never put a drop of filler on any record I ever do, so we had to make the songs our own, and those songs have been in The Workers gigging repertoire from the time we started in 2004, the week I retired from truck driving.

I was pleased to see a couple of straight out ‘political based’ songs in ForeignPolicyBluesand AWrenchIn TheMachine. It seems that nowadays lots of artists shy away from what used to be known as protest songs. Do you agree that these kind of songs are important to help keep the blues a relevant art form today?

I don’t know, but I will tell you that I wrote Foreign Policy Blues in 1979, during the Iran Hostage Crisis. We all first learned the word ‘ayatollah’ then. It was timely then, and remains so today, because America hasn’t learned diddly from that, or from ‘my’ war in Vietnam. George W. Bush, and sad to say, Barack Obama, for whom I had hopes, give me the blues worse than any bottle or any woman I ever had, and I have had a bunch of both.

A Wrench In The Machine was specifically written in 2011 for the 10th anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan. I sang the song for Occupy DC just before we marched to the White House.

It will not, perhaps, surprise you when I tell you that I am a socialist revolutionary. I don’t have any affiliation with any socialist or communist sectarian organisations, in fact during my time with the original Vietnam Veterans Against the War, I was one who fought a running battle not only with the

American Nazis and other rightwingers, but with the RCP, SWP, YAWF and all the other alphabet soup sects that became know as the New Left.

You have never hidden the fact that you are a very aware and active person politically, often joining in on marches and demonstrations. Your father was well known as an attorney who stood for human rights issues and I know you are especially involved with the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, was it your experiences in that conflict that mostly roused the political animal in you or your fathers influence?

I was influenced by my father, William P. Homans Jr., a civil rights lawyer, one of the most prominent American attorneys of the 20th century. You can read about him in his biography, William P. Homans Jr. A Life In Court. He was in the British Navy doing convoy escort on corvettes and minesweepers from 1941, before the US joined WWII, till late 1943. He then returned to the US, joined the American Navy and was a gunnery officer at the Anzio Beachhead.

If you go to the Royal Naval Academy in Greenwich, and go to the Painted Hall, you will see a monument in the floor of that magnificent building toi my dad and 22 other young Americans who dropped what they were doing, risked imprisonment for joining the military of a foreign power, and fought the Nazis. A member of that bunch was the first American combat casualty of WWII.

My own war experience was so miniscule as to be not even considered, but I still have ‘ghosts’. I shot at the enemy once the whole time I was in Vietnam, but watched desperate children starving. That’s the movie that runs through my head to this day. I never go to war movies, I have my own movies. That quiet but horrible time was even more than my Dad influential in my lifelong commitment to antiwar activism.

You recorded your first record, MerryAirbrakes, way back in 1973, upon your return from Vietnam which is considered a record of some merit but you seemed to go off the radar musically until the late 90’s. Were you still playing and writing through those years? I do recall hearing you talk about performing with Henry Vestine of Canned Heat but I’m not sure when?

In 1973, the watershed event in the entire history of the recording industry occurred, the OPEC Oil Embargo. Suddenly, within two months or less, the price of oil jumped 400% or more, and so did the price of polyvinyl chloride, the petroleum product from which Lps were made. I was negotiating with Adrian Barber of Atlantic Records but suddenly the industry had no use for unproven commercial possibilities. I never made another record until 1999, although I did make several demos during those 26 years, including one in 1980 and two different ones in the early 90’s, one with Eddie Kirkland’s young rhythm section in Boston.

I continued to play and write, including during the time I was trying to reinvent myself as a reporter, at University of Oregon. I met and played with the late Henry Vestine, ‘The Sunflower’ lead guitarist of Canned Heat. We were even roommates.

There are many stories about your background, perhaps you could clear up some of the fact from the myth for us. It’s well documented that you spent lots of time truck driving and that you got your stage name because you did spend time as a watermelon farmer, but is it also true you have been at various times a sawmill operator where you lost part of a finger, a debt collector, a funeral official and dabbled with the criminal underworld?

All those things are true. I officiated my most recent funeral last year in Miami. There was a five car chain reaction accident in the funeral procession on the way to the cemetery, and the Catholic priest had to leave, so I ended up doing the graveside service. I could never be a priest, though I was dutifully raised in the Anglican Communion, because as someone who has always practised at least a couple of the seven deadly sins, lust in particular, I could never be such a hypocrite as to dedicate myself to Christian doctrine. I have no problem burying folks, I say a good prayer, and do truly believe in a supreme intelligence that responds, somehow, to prayer. But I would never want to be responsible for marrying them.

I was the offbearer at the back county sawmill, making railway crossties, and I touched the 52-inch main saw at the sawmill once. It was a good thing that saw was daily sharpened by the old man, Roy Bruer. One dull bit and it might have pulled my whole arm in.

You gained two undergrad and a Masters degree, in journalism. Mensa member and talented artist, and bowls player to international standard are other ‘facts’ often mentioned. What’s your take on those?

I have a BA in History and Journalism, double major with Honours, and an MA in History from Oklahoma State University. I was a Mensa member for about two months in the middle 70’s. It bored me. Politics and crime were more exciting. I was a very good, but hardly international standard bowler. I’m practising golf now, right handed, and may one day be able to play consistent bogey golf. I am an artist, in oil on canvas, and available for commissions. I have some for sale.

It was a pretty serious heart attack in 2002 that you have said pushed you to concentrate your efforts on your music career. Your output since then has been phenomenal both in volume and sheer quality. In the interview with Chip Eagle on your DVD in 2007 you alluded to health problems that were making touring more difficult but your creative output seem to remain undiminished. What is the situation now, will we be seeing less of you on the road and do you foresee more recordings in the future?

Last night, at the Bluesberry Café in Clarksdale, I was spry enough to dance for a fairly full house while I was playing. However, in 2006-08, I was touring so much that it was indeed hurting me. I was hit by an automobile in October 2006, and that serious injury marked my transition from being a hale, hearty, ripped really, late middle-aged man to being a senior citizen.

I have my up and down days. I played soccer at a high level some in the 1980’s and I have no cartilage in either knee, or in my left shoulder. A former member of the All Blacks rugby team, John Loveday, was my chiropractor on my recent New Zealand tour. He told me he might have seen a worse shoulder than mine, but he wasn’t sure he ever had. Irreparable, he said. Both athletics and the sawmill have ruined that. I can still throw an uppercut or a left cross, but can no longer throw a ball or skip a rock.

Since the last album you recorded with The Workers you put together two outstanding Country influenced albums, EscapeFromTheChickenCoop and Ringers, working alongside some great musicians like Gary Nicholson, and, of course put out your joint album, Okiesippi Blues, with Super Chikan. Were these projects that you had to exorcise to get to Bull Goose Rooster? No. These records were going to happen anyway, and Bull Goose Rooster,though it would not have been made if I hadn’t been talked into this reunion tour, ditto. I could make four or five more different projects today, four or five full CD’s but I don’t have any confidence that anything I ever make will sell enough to make a backer interested. All the records I have ever made- CD, DVD, my only LP may have sold 100,000 copies total. Like I said, I’m a minor leaguer, and an old, craggy, toothless man with an uncertain physical future. Not a good investment for a capitalist record company, even if I was not the politico I am.

The country albums were clearly a labour of love, but I’ve heard you speak before about hearing the blues for the first time as a child being sung by a lady working as a maid for your mother, and you often talk at live shows about the time you travelled to Clarksdale to apply for a job with the blues museum, with some painful consequences. Do you consider yourself at heart ‘a bluesman’? watermello N sl I m’s N ew cd b ull g oose r ooster I s ut N ow. f or more IN formatI o N, go to www.watermelo N sl I m.com wIth the I r fresh, INN ovatI ve approach coupled w Ith the I r mus I c I a N sh I p, so N g wr ItIN g ab I l ItI es a N d IN fectI ous e Nthus I asm, trev a N d b ec are forg IN g a u NI que path alo N g the blues h I ghway

The country albums, especially Escape From The Chicken Coop, should NOT have been just a labour of love. Chicken Coop was potentially my best opportunity to break out, cross genres, and sell a relatively major number of albums. But my management combine utterly disregarded my advice, or plan, for marketing this record, which, no bragging intended, is the very best truck driving record of this century. Had it been marketed through truck stop corporate headquarters, and just one percent of American professional truckers had bought one, I would have sold 200,000 copies, and become more like a country household name to go with my modest international reputation in the blues. I’m a bluesman, though I’ll play and sing most anything: except rap, disco and opera. I have been practising in the basso profundo range for many years. I have sung as low as A below low C, the 13th note on the piano, at gigs. Try it.

You have a fairly distinctive style of guitar playing. Self taught upside down left handed and using any number of improvised slides. Has this style of playing been a blessing, or even a curse?

I started playing guitar in Vietnam, while recovering from a disease I caught there. I used a Zippo lighter for a slide. I am strongly left handed, and there are virtually no left handed guitars, or left handed guitar teachers, so I had to make do on right handed ones. It is only this century that I have begun to be at least a master of my own style. In fact, I have added finger picking to flat picking and I have a steeper learning curve in guitar than practically anything else in the world I do. Definitely a blessing, not a curse, though I didn’t always think so. I believed at times that I was a damn fool for chasing this dream as long as I had without truly possessing the talent to ‘make it’.

BM: You’ve come a long way in a very short time; how did it all start?

Babajack: It came about from Trevor and I meeting, predictably, through music … Trev was playing in a country blues duo called The Lost Dogs with a mutual friend and that friend asked me to do some percussion with them. And right there was my first proper introduction to Blues!

That unique sound of yours; did you aim for that or did it just evolve?

Trev is the Bluesman, to his very soul. But I have to admit that it took me some time to get to grips with the Blues. It’s such simple music and I was into rhythm: world, reggae, roots, latino. Gradually those blues seeped into my bones, and I am now a true fan. But I think the unique sound we have is to do with the fusion of Trev’s and my very different backgrounds and influences. And yes, it was a process of evolution, we kinda worked out the ‘BabaJack’ as we were going along. But it is our mutual love of the early blues and our instruments that created the sound.

Your instruments are a big part of that sound? Making our own instruments has in many ways defined the BabaJack sound. I should say Trev making the instruments! I wouldn’t want you to think I was capable of hammering a nail in straight, let alone building guitars and cajons, harmonica mic holders, drum stands and stomp boxes! Trev is the genius right there.

He’s a master craftsman in wood as well as music, and it was a natural progression for him to make his own instrument. And so the winebox guitars came into being.

In the tradition of early blues, they truly are made out of whatever we had lying around. The original four string, nicknamed ‘The Beast’ was made out of a wine box, bits of my old wardrobe, the dog’s bone and offcuts of various woods that Trev had in his workshop. The second, ‘Joanna’, a six string, was made out of a winebox and bits of old ‘peeanna’ keys.

The latest addition, ‘Grahame’ (made from a Grahame port wine box) really was the inspiration for the new album Running Man.

Right from the beginning you were getting gigs at major venues and festivals but things really started taking off after your third album, Rooster I think we have been very lucky. We work very hard and we have had some very good people to help us out. Blues Matters! amongst them. The Blues community is incredibly rich in good people.

But really it was meeting our producer, Adam Fuest that gave us the opportunity and the confidence to create the Rooster Album. It was one of those moments that you can pinpoint in your career as a turning point.

Rooster was recorded at Twin Peaks