12 minute read
Kirk Fletcher
By Kevin Wildman We’re happy to announce that former Fabulous Thunderbirds guitarist, Kirk Fletcher is back again… this time with his sixth solo album, My Blues Pathway. Ever since Kirk left The Thunderbirds he has been hard at it with his solo career. His new album, My Blues Pathway was released just last month on September 25 th and features 10 of the finest blues songs you’ve ever heard from this man. The album was preceded in July with the release of his first single from the album, “No Place To Go.” In addition to some great original songs here, he also delves into his roots to pull out some fantastic material from blues greats Sonny Boy Williamson, Juke Boy Bonner, AC Reed, and Chris Cain. The album was released through Cleopatra Records. No doubt you will be hearing some great things about this album. His last album, Hold On, was nominated in 2018 for the coveted Blues music award. Kirk tells us that this album is the next step in his evolution as a musician. Yes, he’s had albums out before this one, but My Blues Pathway was an extension to his songwriting process. He really felt that he had progressed tremendously on this album, not to mention returned to his basic roots. “Well, I would definitely say that this is the record I wasn’t able to make with my musicianship before, to make quite the same record as I can now. I practiced my songwriting more on this record, and it’s been sort of like an ongoing thing. So this record is almost a 45-year-old guy looking back on the different records he’s done before with musical experiences from playing with different people and all this stuff. I’m right back kind of where I started making it. Just playing Blues primarily, so it’s just a sort of like a ‘celebration of the Blues’… it is the celebration of me coming back kind of full circle to mostly Blues orientated stuff.” The First single off this album, “No Place To Go”, along with another great tune, “Love Is More Than A Word” was written by friend and Robert Cray’s longtime bassist, Richard Cousins. “No Place To Go.” Kirk says the “song is about the struggles of success, sometimes at the expense of what life is really about.” We asked him what it was like to sit down with Richard and work on these songs, and just how it came together. Richard told us that he had a basic framework of both of these songs, and knew where he wanted to go with them, and it was just great to have someone help take it further than he had expected. It was two like-minded guys on the same path, “I kind of knew where I wanted to go. But when you find a person that’s really good and really understands where you’re going with these songs and they don’t take it someplace you don’t want it to go, and they can just add to it, it’s really a magical thing. And that’s exactly what happened with Richard Cousins. It was really like I had an idea and he would say, ‘Oh, I know what you mean. So maybe I can add a line to it or something’ and we could come up together. I could say something and then he would say it a different way and he made it better. It flowed better that way because he’s had a lot more experience writing songs than I have.”
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It was this kind of approach that really classic blues songs and kind of combine that adds some great variety to the songwriting on with putting out a fresh spin on it. This is this album, especially on one of the slow about a guy that’s younger than a lot of the songs, such as “Love Is More Than A Word,” classic bluesmen, so It was like my own and “Ain’t No Cure For The Downhearted, personal spin on a lot of these kinds of things. another song he co-wrote with Cousins. He So I just wrote this song in the style of classic said this one really pulls on his heartstrings. slow blues songs. One of the big topics is a He just loves the slow songs. We asked him woman breaking a guy’s heart, so I just what were a couple of his favorite songs on thought this was the time to do this. This was the album and he mentioned those right off. the first slow Blues song I think I ever wrote. “I really love slow songs,” says Kirk. It was just fun and I really thought about it “I really like slow songs a lot… Slow and you know, I just wanted to make a classic Blues… slow Soul ballads.. and all that kind Blues song. of stuff. I would say, “Love Is More Than A Besides writing classic Blues songs, Word” is a personal kind of a thing for me, Kirk also wanted to pay homage to one of his because I always listen to slow music. friends and mentors from his days in Los Everything is so fast now and so immediate. I Angeles. The person in mind is Denny like to slow it down. So you know, I would Freeman, and the song is “D For Denny. He say “Love Is More Than A Word” and I certainly put a lot of emotion into this song as would say, you know another song I really well. We asked Kirk what was it that Denny like is “Ain’t No Cure For The Downhearted” did to put this kind of inspiration into him and “No Place To Go” because I wrote that and the song. He told us that it was the with a friend of mine, Richard Cousins. camaraderie that Denny showed him after When it came to the question of the they met, the stories of the great masters and song, “Heart So Heavy,” a slick song about a the lessons to be learned. “When I first woman breaking a man’s heart, we asked him started going out and seeing Blues in Los if it was autobiographical and he replied Angeles, California, where I’m from, Denny happily, “Well in this case, it is hypothetical. I always like my lyrics to have pieces from continued on next page October 2020 • Rock and Blues International 11
Kirk Fletcher that’s what I think of first. There’s something about the lyrics that just stood out to me. My take on “Fattening Frogs For Snakes” is like continued from previous page I’m tired of making other people rich and they’re not doing the right thing by me. Sort Freeman was out from Texas and living in Los Angeles, so that was sort of my direct link to all of the Texas blues that I love so much. He was really gracious and ready to talk to me about some of the people that I wanted to know about, like Lightning Slim and different Texas Blues artists like Juke Boy Bonner… different people like that and those that I had never heard of before. Then, I was a young 19-year-old guy from sunny California, but it was like ‘Wow!’ Amongst other things, he was such a unique guitar player and has such a unique style, but it’s still Texas Blues, and it’s like his own way. He just has his own path of doing things and I really love that.” In addition to his great originals, he also pays tribute to a couple of Blues Legends, such as Sonny Boy Williamson and AC Reed, not to mention Juke Boy Bonner and Chris Cain. For his Sonny Boy Williamson pick, he chose “Fattening Frogs For Snakes.” He just loved the lyrics for this song. In fact, his choice on picking his cover songs have been mainly through the lyrics. He felt that they really had something to say to him, perhaps even a life message. “Well, I have a long history of playing with harmonica players and Chicago Blues type singers, so this was one of the songs that was sort of in that whole catalog. I’ve done a lot of listening to Sunny Boy Williamson myself, and this was song just so good lyrically. I just love the lyrics to this song and in most of the covers on the record lyrically, of in a way that that was my own personal spin on what Sonny Boy was maybe trying to say in this song. I just like that.” Juke Boy Bonner is another Blues artist that Kirk idolizes. Juke Boy was a traditional Bluesman that just had a way with words and Kirk just loved the Juke Boy Bonner song, “Life Gave Me A Dirty Deal.” He knew he had to do this one, and he knew exactly who he had to have on the song playing the harmonica, the legendary Charlie Musselwhite, a man he respected and had even played with before. “I listen for hours and hours every day to a lot of music so I was just really getting into it. It was one of those days where I was really getting into Juke Boy Bonner. Every once in a while I go through these periods where I just want to strip everything down. The life we live is sometimes clouded by so many things, so I just listen to different people, like Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton, and people like that. Juke boy Bonner was a Texas Blues musician and he played a guitar kind of solo with harmonica on a rack, like Bob Dylan or Jimmy Reed. I was looking at this song and it’s like, I smile like I’m happy, but you don’t know how I feel… and that just a load right there. It just made me go. Oh, wow, that’s heavy. You know, a lot of people can relate to that. So once again the lyrics are what really got me and it was so direct because he didn’t have a band playing with them or anything. So that really just stood out and I felt like I should do it, along with bringing my friend Charlie Musselwhite in and we did the song.” When it came to the Chris Cain song, 12 Rock and Blues International • October 2020 Kirk knew he had to do the song “Place In This World.” Not only did he love the song, but it was also written by one of his friends. He just loved the lyrics on this one as well. This song was certainly a no-brainer and had to be included. “Well, Chris Cain is a long time friend and I’m a longtime fan of Chris Cain. He’s a really good friend of mine. And that song is another outlook, sort of on the world and through Chris Cain’s eyes. He felt moved to write this song and it’s just everyday life for people and their struggles in life. It really resonated with me. So once again it was about the lyrics, first and then. I’m just trying to pay homage to him and also this great song lyrically.” Well, Kirk Fletcher has certainly come a long way since the time of being a sideman in The Fabulous Thunderbirds. So far, his newest and sixth album, My Blues Pathway is his best album to date. In addition to that, it was certainly a lot of fun for him as he was able to record with several friends and former bandmates. “The album was a joy to make,” says Kirk – “especially making music with some of my longtime friends. I’ve known drummer David Kida for over 25 years. We have been in the trenches together on the L.A. Blues music scene.” Yes, Kirk has certainly come a long way since his youth when he started out with his brothers performing in Church. His older brother Walter played guitar and it just sort of rubbed of on Kirk… Thank God… Says Kirk, “My Blues Pathway is an album about celebrating the music that got me excited about playing blues from the beginning of my career and the musicians that inspired me. My path led me straight back to the Blues.” Be sure to check out this fine album by Kirk Fletcher today.
Bert Wills
Legendary Texas Singer/Songwriter Bert Wills Delivers The Goods
Down in southeastern Texas lives a man that was born in rural Kentucky but moved to Texas years ago. He came here playing the blues harp with a slow, winding country bent to it, part of his Kentucky roots, and the recording industry was quick to pick up on his unique sound. Abilities is used in the plural here and that’s because the man not only wails a mean harp but his guitar work is aces as well. His name is Bert Wills and if you are a studio musician you know that name well as the man is sought after by many producers. One of those producers is Andy Bradley, known world wide for his talents at the console, his past co-ownership in of SugarHill Studios, and his successful book titled, “House Of Hits”. Bert and Andy go back a ways, 35 years to be exact, both know each other’s talents well so it would be of no big surprise that they could team on a compilation of Bert’s songs for a new album. It would not be their first collaboration as Andy has recorded nearly every album Bert has presented to the world. A new album has come to life recently simply titled “Bert Wills”. It’s just being shipped to radio stations right now and let me tell you whether you are a blues fan or an Americana fan or both this album is packed with stirring and riveting selections. Both men have similar personalities, friendly but direct. Both will tell you where to go in a New York second if you are a poser and both will be the first to tell you how welcomed you are if you are the real deal. Bert is known throughout the industry internationally and has worked with a ton of well known stars over the years. He’s also an accomplished songwriter and when he puts his Kentucky roots into a song well Katy bar the door because it’s going to be good. His last gig was with Nashville artist Rob McNurlin who is part of the Marty Stuart clan. Then he returned to Texas to work on his new blues Americana album. The end result was a fourteen track collection of 13 original songs and one cover, not a klunker among them. On the collection you can hear the raw strains of good back woods country music in Bert’s voice and on the same collection you will hear some of the best blues you have heard in years. To learn more access www.bertwillsmusic.com
