Sugar Ray And The Bluetones

photo by Michael Sparks

Severn Records Release Too Far from the Bar from Sugar Ray and The Bluetones Featuring Little Charlie

By Kevin Wildman (vocals and harmonica), Little Charlie Baty Here’s another great Blues album that I (guitar), Anthony Geraci (piano), Michael have the pleasure of letting you know about. Mudcat Ward (acoustic bass), Neil Gouvin It’s called Too Far From The Bar, by Sugar (drums), and Duke Robillard (guitar). Sadly, Ray and the Bluetones featuring Little Little Charlie Baty passed away before this Charlie Baty. It was released just last month project was released. This was the last on Severn Records. The album was produced recording he did before he passed. Fortuby legendary Bluesman, and Roomful of nately, we do get the last word on this project Blues Founder, Duke Robillard and recorded from Charlie, as he wrote the liner notes on by David Earl at Severn Sound Studio in this fine release, which relate to when he met Annapolis, Maryland. The expert mixing it Sugar Ray and the road they took to finally took to make this masterpiece sing was also culminate the recording of this project. The engineered by Duke Robillard, along with line notes are really quite interesting and the Jack Gauthier. Duke got so involved in this crowning moment on the release of Too Far project, that he even contributed a bit of From The Bar. guitar to 4 songs on the album. The musiToo Far From The Bar contains 15 cians on this project were: Sugar Ray Norcia well-crafted Blues songs that span the range 22 Rock and Blues International • October 2020 of originals by the band to include some fine covers that these folks grew up with and cherish. Consider part of this album a brief history lesson into the Blues. Sugar Ray looks back at the recording of this album and his relationship with Charlie and tells us, “Little Charlie was so excited about this project and what a thrill it was to record together. Charlie and I seem to have been cut from the same cloth and musically we were like two peas in a pod. On this recording, we swing, we jump and we get lowdown. Sadly I’ll miss my brother in the blues, but his music will live forever.” Producer Duke Robillard adds his bit to this also by saying, “Producing this album was extremely special for me. Sugar Ray and

the boys - who I’ve known forever it seems, plus Little Charlie on guitar was obviously going to be a killer combination. There was just no doubt about it. Right from the first track it was in the groove. Ray and the guys had written some great material and Sugar pulled out a few obscure tunes that knocked me out. Helping pick takes and make suggestions was part of my job but the vibe and flow of the session made it smooth enough that I even jumped in for a few numbers! The band got to do a few tours with Charlie in the guitar seat and I was fortunate to do one of them on second guitar. These guys were so hot on this session they even set one of the multi-track tape machines on fire!” Yes folks, their multi-track recorder indeed caught fire during the recording of the song, “Reel Burner.” We’ll tell you more about that later. There are nine great original songs on this album, as well as 6 really brilliant covers that a lot of you probably haven’t heard in a while. Those include the 5 Royales “Don’t Give No More Than You Can Take,” Sonny Boy Williamson (“Bluebird Blues”), Little Walter (“Can’t Hold Out”), Jerry McCain (“My Next Door Neighbor’) and Otis Spann (”What Will Become of Me” and “I Got a Right to Sing the Blues.” This is Sugar Ray and the Bluetones’ eighth album for Severn Records. Their previous album was the Blues Music Award Nominee for Album of the Year, Band of the Year and Traditional Blues Album, Seeing Is Believing (2016). The album also provided additional nominations for Sugar Ray Norcia (Traditional Blues Male Artist, B.B. King Entertainer of the Year), not to mention even more nominations for other members of the band. Their previous album, Living Tear To Tear, which was released in 2014 received seven Blues Music Award Nominations. As you should be able to tell by now, when Sugar Ray Norcia and his band release an album, it really turns heads and brings a lot of attention. No doubt the same thing will happen to Too Far From The Bar as well. This album is a bit different from the other Blues albums that I’ve been getting lately to review or talk about. It’s a combination of Swing and Jump Blues infused with a bit of the good ‘ole traditional Blues. It really makes for an incredible listen. We got to sit down and talk to Sugar Ray Norcia for a while and he explained the reason that they took that direction was because, “Charlie was a big factor in that. We They said, absolutely, go ahead and do that were cut from the same cloth and when we one.’ So that was nice.” first met we realized we both liked to swing Another one of the selections on this and we both liked to get lowdown on the album is “Bluebird Blues.” This one is a blues, and so many other things, and so it fit favorite of Sugar Ray’s and he’s been like a glove.” performing it for quite a while. It just seemed For the recording of this album, the like a natural choice to be on the album. As band decided to go ‘old school’ with it. Sugar tells us, “ I had been playing that in my Nowadays, when a lot of people record, they repertoire live. I really lean towards slow lay down their parts separately and just fill it meaningful Blues in any genre actually, but full of overdubs. For those of you not you know, I just love some of that slow familiar with ‘old school’, that’s when the Sonny Boy stuff… “Lonesome Cabin” and all band is all there in the same room recording that. The harmonica to me is an extension of together. For Sugar, Charlie and the guys, the voice, so I can apply both into one song. this was the way to do it. It’s where they The song really goes over big during our live excel. They are able to play off each other shows. I usually leave the stage and play and things go quite smoothly. It was acoustically, walking through the tables on basically like playing a live gig except the that one and to me, it’s beautiful.” only person sequestered in another room was Another one of the cover songs on the Sugar Ray, being the vocalist and the harp album is the Otis Spann song, “What Will player. This way the band was not only Become Of Me.” That song is actually one of together in the same room, but they were all Sugar’s favorites now. He found that one there musically and on the same page. when he was searching through some old Otis Although Sugar and the band pretty Spann Records, as he tells us, “Well, that’s much picked out all the songs they did on the got to be my favorite, believe it or not. Yeah, album, there were times that they would lean I asked Anthony (Geraci) if he plays any Otis on Duke Robillard from time to time to see Spann style things, and I came up with that what he thought of a selection. Bare in mind, when I was going through some old Otis they were not just trying to please themSpann records. When I got in the studio, I selves, they were also trying to please their really didn’t know… We hadn’t done it live record label and didn’t want to stray to far at all, ever. This was what was probably the from what the label might be wanting to hear first or second take… probably the first, on their release, such as on the song, “I Gotta which is normal for me. I went back into the Right To Sing The Blues.” “I brought the idea room and I folded my arms and closed my about that song up to the band and the band eyes and listened to it, and shit, man that feels would just about love anything I might good. We nailed it the first time out of the approach them with,” said Sugar Ray, “but box.” then I said, ‘well, let me ask Duke and the Some of the original songs on this record company owner’, because we had to album have really interesting origins… go through them and they didn’t even flex. continued on next page October 2020 • Rock and Blues International 23

photo by Farmer John

Too Far from the Bar

continued from previous page

stories that ultimately make the songs… before I went to the studio. It had a New songs that become real special. One such Orleans beat to it at one point and then a song is the title track off of the album, “Too straight-ahead Chicago-style feel-good at Far From The Bar.” “Well, the title track, another point. I’m a lover of old-time country Too Far From The Bar,” says Sugar, is a little music and so then I remembered the melody bit of tongue and cheek. I was explaining it to by Elvis Presley, so it came out more prettier the band because with a lot of these songs, than I had anticipated, but I like it. I asked the first time we performed them was in the Anthony (Geraci), the piano player… he’s the studio that day, you know in the moment. I piano player. He’s got 88 keys in front of him said to the guys, ‘Can you imagine being on and he can play a lot of notes, you know. So I stage and you’re playing for a few thousand said, ‘do me a favor for this one song and people screaming and getting themselves play very, very, little… just play a few worked up, and then the show’s over, and you notes… notes that count, and he really came get together with the band you want to eat… through for me. He did it. That’s one of the you’re hungry. You’re going out to eat and things that I tell young players. Slow down you want a cocktail and you walk into a and think about this for a second. Fewer crowded restaurant and they sit you way back notes say a lot more in certain times. Give in the far back room, about a mile from the them a chance to ring out and feel the bar. The waiter is slow and not paying emotion in that note. Don’t just try to run attention to you. We’ve all been in that through 50 of them in one time when you situation. You’re thirsty and you’re kind of only need five.” getting hungry and they don’t know who we Sugar Ray wasn’t the only writer in the are. We just played in front of thousands of band for this project, Take for instance, people and all I want is a drink and that’s how “What I Put You Through,” a song written by the lyrics came to me… you know… true Michael Mudcat Ward. “Well that was written stories.” by Mudcat Ward, my bass player,” continues Not all of the songs came together as Sugar Ray. “He wrote that. We wanted that easy as some of the ones we’ve talked about kind of feel and we didn’t have material for already. Some took a bit of reworking and it, so he went back to the hotel room after one restyling. While they may have originally session and came back the next day with started out as one vision, by the time they those lyrics.” reach the studio, they have really evolved. Another song that Mudcat also wrote They take on another life. One such song was the humorous, “The Night I Got Pulled was “Too Little Too Late. “Actually,” Over.” “I like doing those kind of recitaexplains Sugar Ray, “there was a movie. It tions,” explains Sugar Ray, “You know, just was an Elvis Presley movie and he sang a me a chance. I thought at some point in my melody similar to that, “Too Little Too Late,” life, I might be an actor, so it gave me a and that’s always stuck in my mind and that chance to be an actor, but on a record. This song went through a lot of changes at home was all before social profiling and black lives 24 Rock and Blues International • October 2020 matter and all that. He wrote that before all this came to a head. So it’s kind of timely now.” And now, here’s the story behind a song we mentioned earlier in this piece, “Reel Burner.” The song appears early on in the album and then an alternate take of it closes out the album. Imagine you’re recording a song and then your recorder starts smoking. Either it’s a malfunction, or it’s one hot song. Well, quite honestly, it’s both here. It’s another one of those humorous instances that helps to breathe life into the legend of an album. It becomes a real talking piece and something that will always make you remember that day in the studio. As Sugar Ray explains about the instrumental, “Yeah, I did an instrumental. I counted off the song and Charlie goes, ‘Sugar, what are you doing?’ What are you playing? I said, it’s going to be a harmonica instrumental.’ ‘Well, how does it go,’ Charlie asks. I reply, ‘I don’t know, we’ll find out when we get there. Let’s just try it and I counted it off. And so we played it and it came out really fine. Then we went to lunch. So we went in the other room to have lunch and we were sitting down with sandwiches and all of a sudden we heard this alarm go off. The president and owner of the record company came running out of the control room and says ‘We got a fire, we got a fire, and we can hear the alarms going off and it only took literally two minutes and there were firetrucks outside. You could see them running around out there with their hatchets and air tanks on their backs and their helmets and boots… the whole thing. They come running through our lunch room with like ‘what the hell’s going on’ and sure enough there was a reel-to-reel tape machine in the control room that we were using and it heated up during that song… that harmonica. instrumental, which later became “Reel Burner.” And even the fireman said, ‘man, you guys must be playing real hot because you almost burned this place down.” Well, you should be able to tell by now, this isn’t just you’re ordinary Blues album. Besides being a Blues album steeped in Jump Blues and Swing, it’s also got a story line to it. There’s some real ‘meat and potatoes’ here. Just knowing the background of some of these songs should peak your interest. From sitting as far away from the bar after a gig to almost burning down the studio, this band will be remembering Too Far From The Bar for many reasons. Besides that folks, the music on this album is really first class… first class music performed by first class musicians. There’s 15 great songs on this album. Who could ask for anything more. If you’re not familiar with Jump Blues or Swing Blues, then this is something you should check out. If you are into Jump or Swing, then you definitely need this for your collection. Be sure to pick up a copy of Too Far From The Bar today.