{"id":19685,"date":"2020-10-20T05:30:59","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T09:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=19685"},"modified":"2020-10-20T08:11:10","modified_gmt":"2020-10-20T12:11:10","slug":"here-comes-charlie-musselwhite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/20\/here-comes-charlie-musselwhite\/","title":{"rendered":"Here Comes Charlie Musselwhite!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Renowned blues harp (or harmonica, if you like) player Charlie Musselwhite was born in Mississippi, raised in Memphis, and headed to Chicago to follow the blues. His landmark 1966 LP Stand Back! Here Comes Charley [sic] Musselwhite\u2019s Southside Band<\/i> is an exemplar of the powerful Chicago blues style. He has won 14 Blues Music Awards, received multiple Grammy nominations, and \u2013 so the story goes \u2013 was the inspiration for Dan Aykroyd\u2019s Elwood Blues character on Saturday Night Live<\/i> and in The Blues Brothers<\/i>. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2010. Most recently, he collaborated with longtime friend and fellow bluesman Elvin Bishop on an album for Alligator Records, 100 Years of Blues<\/i>.<\/p>\n

My recent interview with Musselwhite provided a number of quotes for a story that ran in SF Weekly<\/i>; below are some additional highlights that didn\u2019t fit into that feature.<\/p>\n

Going way back, do you remember the first blues show that you attended as an audience member?<\/b><\/p>\n

Hmm \u2026 I remember as a little kid, back in those days downtown was where you went for a show. You didn\u2019t have malls. And I used to watch these blues street singers in Memphis downtown. I don\u2019t think that was a blues “show,” but that was an early memory of mine. Seeing those, I was fascinated by \u2019em. And before I\u2019d get on the bus to go back home, I\u2019d wander around downtown on Beale Street, because I just wanted to hear or see one of those guys. I was just real tuned into them. I was just a little kid, and I didn\u2019t know what I was going to end up doing. If I had\u2019ve known that, I would have paid a lot more attention!<\/p>\n

For you, what are the Hallmarks of what we call Chicago blues?<\/b><\/p>\n

Well, to me, Chicago Blues is really just a combination of Mississippi and Memphis blues. \u2018Cause all those guys are from Mississippi. Even when I was living in Chicago — I was living on the South Side — just about everyone I knew was from Mississippi, or nearby. So the South Side of Chicago was like the South in so many ways. All the food was what I was familiar with.<\/p>\n

I had lived on the North Side when I first got to Chicago. I didn\u2019t even know<\/i> there was a North or a South Side; I didn\u2019t know anything about Chicago. So I ended up accidentally on the North Side, and the white people in northern Chicago couldn\u2019t understand me. I didn\u2019t know what they were saying \u2026 I mean, I could kind of get it. But when I moved to the South Side, everyone knew what I was saying perfectly.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve played with a lot of people over the years. Is there one renowned blues artist you wish you\u2019d had gotten to play with but didn\u2019t?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I first got to Chicago, I remember seeing signs for Elmore James singing in town and playing. But there were just so many people to see, so before I got around to it he was gone. And I found out later he was staying not far from where I was; I might have passed him on the street and didn\u2019t know it.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve earned a really impressive pile of awards and recognition in blues, but what I also find interesting about your work is how often you work with artists who are outside of blues. What drives you to work with non blues artists?<\/b><\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s really great when you can take a non blues situation and add the blues to it and make it better. Like with Cuban music: it just seemed so natural and I thought the music had a real bluesy feel to it anyhow. I\u2019ve played with street musicians all around the world, and with the local folk it just seems like it\u2019s from the heart. It\u2019s the language of the heart. Even if you can\u2019t speak to each other, you can play together. I think that\u2019s really interesting how we\u2019re connected in that way.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned for my interview with Elvin Bishop. — bk<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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