Downhome McBlues Allan Jones

Downhome McBlues

Hills. Heather. Haggis. Where am I?

Scotland evokes a number of popular associations - you could add whisky, shortbread, bagpipes and Brigadoon - but you probably wouldn’t include blues music. Unless, that is, you’d happened upon the Doublet Bar in Glasgow’s West End on an occasional pre-pandemic Monday night and witnessed the Midnight Steppers faithfully recreating the music from scratchy old 78 records by Big Bill Broonzy, Sleepy John Estes, Elmore James and many others.

Vocalist and harmonica player Richard W. Rinn fronts the band and was responsible for bringing together a diverse bunch of blues aficionados from across Scotland’s Central Belt.

From Edinburgh and Fife there’s Richard O’Donnell, Allan Jones and Thomas Lucas. From Glasgow, Richard Rinn, David Stone, Sy McBass and Lloyd Reid. Band members range in age from 24 to 75, and in vocation from zoologist to dentist, from retired social worker to Subway “sandwich artist.”

Passion for the Blues

What unites them is a passion for, and an encyclopedic knowledge of, the great blues players of the 1920s through the 1950s.

Thomas, by far the youngest Midnight Stepper, is a multi-instrumentalist equally at home on piano, guitar, mandolin, harmonica and jug. On the piano, he delivers soulful slow blues, jaunty stride piano and blistering boogie woogie.

At the other end of the age spectrum, Allan grew up amidst the skiffle craze of the mid 1950s and, through it, was exposed to the songs of Leadbelly and Elizabeth Cotten. Delving deeper, he went on to learn the styles of Big Bill Broonzy, Blind Blake, Blind Willie McTell, Bo Carter, Buddy Boy Hawkins and countless other pre-war acoustic blues musicians.

Lloyd Reid - incidentally one of the late John Prine’s favourite guitarists - is a master of jump blues styles, delivered flawlessly on an ancient Hofner guitar.

Sy McBass and David Stone on bass and drums form a solid rhythm section, and Sy occasionally amazes with rocking vocals.

Of the two Richards, the Edinburgh one, is a lifelong devotee of Muddy Waters and Elmore James. Equally at home on piano and guitar, he happened upon the blues when, as a teenager, he wandered into a record shop in Edinburgh’s Princes Street when an Elmore James CD was on rotation on the in-house sound system.

In addition to serving as lead vocalist, Glasgow Richard has long been fascinated with the way recordings were made in days

Depicted L to R: Richard W. Rinn, Richard O’Donnell, David Stone, Sy McBass, Allan Jones, and Thomas Lucas.

gone by, before multiple microphone set-ups and brash amplification. In his home studio and practice space he has experimented with single mic placement, arranging the musicians at varying distances from the microphone to achieve the best sound and tonal balance, just like they did back when.

Here are links to some Midnight Steppers performances:

https://youtu.be/ZHo3nsKl6Gg https://youtu.be/DKt17yzirso https://youtu.be/1hPAOO0MjpM https://youtu.be/5ZEOx6VHZl0

Search Richard W. Rinn on YouTube to access all the Midnight Steppers’ performances, as well as Richard’s solo and duo songs and tunes.

-- Allan Jones

Two from Natural Traveler Books Available on Amazon.Com