RJ Mischo has been dropping blues records and discs since the 90s and his latest is out right now. The new release was captured ‘live’ in Studio late, last year at Suprovox Analog Recording in Karkkila, Finland. That certainly comes as no surprise when you consider RJ’s popularity and fan base in Scandinavia and throughout Europe is just as wide-ranging as it is across the U.S.

RJ Mischo and the Tomi Leino Trio

Mischo’s style of play has that rich, Chicago blues tone with an uptempo West Coast swing. It’s the type of music that forces you to get up and get on your feet. And what’s really interesting, you can almost hear his influences in his playing. From ‘Mojo’ Buford and Lynwood Slim to Rod Piazza and Kim Wilson; Mischo’s sound has that feel of the familiar but with added bends and phrasing that create the unexpected. How does that even happen? “I’m a very spontaneous musician,” RJ says. “And I work with so many pick up bands, that all shows are one of a kind, I can’t repeat myself even if I try.”

The new CD has 12 tracks, eleven of which are Mischo originals and one track ‘She Got Next to Me’ in homage to the late Sonny Boy Williamson II. “The one Sonny Boy cover has no real significance.” RJ shares. “Other than Sonny Boy is one of my major influences and I usually cut at least one of his tunes on every CD project.” That tradition continues even if you are recording in Finland. “What happened here is after we cut all my originals, then we just jammed out for some tunes off the cuff and that one made it, but actually I had no plan in advance to do that tune.”

The Blues are truly a universal language and RJ reinforces this by putting together a very tight and extremely talented rhythm section. “The Finnish band on this CD is the Tomi Leino Trio, I’ve known and have toured in Europe many times so we have great chemistry, we have never rehearsed…and those guys can play! I love ’em! The band includes Tomi Leino and Jonne Kulluvaara on guitars, Jaska Prepula on bass and Mikko Peltola on drums.

Whether you like shuffles, slow blues or uptempo boogies; ‘In Finland’ offers up a little taste for everyone. RJ Mischo is without a doubt a performance artist and that is the best way to experience his blues. ‘In Finland’ captured ‘live’ as it happened, is a strong second. Enjoy.

The post RJ Mischo ‘In Finland’ appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Earlier this year, I had the distinct pleasure of witnessing the West Coast swing of the Lurrie Bell and Jason Ricci tour. With the celebrated rhythm section of Rena Beavers on drums and Paul Loranger on bass, the bands cruise through the Southwest was both fast and furious. With stops in San Diego, Los Angeles and Arizona this All-Star lineup provided a blues experience unlike any other.

I don’t use the term All-Star lightly; Lurrie grew up in a family of blues players and has played guitar with everybody from Billy Branch and Willie Dixon to Charlie Musselwhite and Koko Taylor. Jason Ricci has lived and worked with some of the legendary Mississippi hill country players including the Burnside and Kimbrough families and he now fronts his own band; the Bad Kind. Rena Beavers who is just as comfortable in the jazz realm as he is with the blues, has now drummed his way around the globe with Coco Montoya, Johnny Burgin and Debbie Davies. Bassist Paul Loranger has been laying down the bottom end for decades with players like Eric Sardinas, Popa Chubby and Southern California’s own; Candye Kane.

When we sat down to talk, I was curious just how a young harp player (Ricci) from the Northeast ends up touring with a guitar player (Bell) from a legendary Chicago blues family. So we started by looking back. “I grew up in Maine and I got into harmonica at a young age, about four or something.” Ricci says. “And around 13 or 14 I got serious so my mother took me to see Cotton and Musselwhite and that stuff had an effect on me. When I was about 15 or 16, 17 there was a lot of problems at home so I was on my own. I’m staying with friends, homeless shelters and all that kind of stuff. But my mother and father had a divorce agreement that he had to pay for college and he had the money, right? I ended up going off to Boise, Idaho to study wildlife management. I found a blues club out there and fell under the tutelage of Ken Harris, the Hammond B3 organ player from Boston from Paulie’s (Loranger) neck o’ the woods. He knew a lot of the people in Maine that I had been playing with; Per Hanson who was with Ronnie Earl and D.W. Gill and a lot of the players in Maine that had been around Boston. So I started playing in that club and that’s how I got interested in playing blues for money.”

Definitely advanced level musicianship classes, that had to create other opportunities? “I did get offered a job with Sam Lay.” Jason recalls. “I didn’t take the job and the reason being the harmonica player in Sam Lay’s band was a tremendous influence on me and they were going to fire him and replace him with me. Even at 17 years old I knew that wasn’t cool and plus, my mother would have been pissed if I had quit college, even though she knew who Sam Lay was. But that put the bug in my head that this could happen for me. So I moved to Memphis to be around another harmonica player named Pat Ramsey and I got a job at an Italian restaurant, not thinking I was going to be a big blues star or superstar, but thinking that might happen. From there I met David Kimbrough and Kenny Kimbrough and Dwayne Burnside. I was playing on the street in Memphis and already had a pretty bad drug problem which had me on the street. They took me down and brought me to the country where I was kind of safe from that. So I played with Junior Kimbrough, R.L. Burnside and their kids for a little over a year in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Senatobia, Potts Camp all these little juke joints out in the middle of nowhere. I was not only the only white boy in the band or in the club, but the only white boy for miles most of the time.” (laughing) “They didn’t even call me Jason; they just called me…white!” (laughing) “I was just white! Anyway, I found another gig in Jackson, and I started playing under my own name and playing with other bands, too. From there I found New Orleans and went on a tour down there, I ended up getting a job and then I went to jail for a year down in Florida, got out and played in Florida a little while and moved to Nashville, Tennessee to take a job with a New Orleans band that was living, touring and operating out of Nashville.”

Lurrie, your father Carey Bell blew harmonica for a host of Chicago blues legends; Robert Nighthawk, Honeyboy Edwards, Muddy, Lovie Lee…looking back do you remember the first time you picked up a guitar? “I was at my dad’s house,” Lurrie says. “In the basement of his house and he’d have all these damn blues musicians from the South rehearsing and they was playing the blues, man. I was a little youngster, you know? And they had a guitar layin’ down in the basement and I think it was my father’s guitar. And while they was rehearsing, I picked the guitar up and I tried to play along with the band and I found that it came natural to me. I had an ear for it and I got it in my head that this is what I wanted to do. I wanted to learn how to play well enough that I can play with my dad. And I did.”

Jason, do you remember the first time you played with or heard Lurrie play?

“I spent 10 years in Nashville and started my own band in the early 2000s. It was during that time I did my first show with Lurrie, he won’t remember this but it was in San Jose. We had a festival in San Jose, I was like skinny and 130-some pounds…I had been 12 years sober but was on the decline, a relapse. I was trying to keep it together, but I couldn’t. But I met Lurrie and we had a great gig that day…he was one of the most emotional players I’ve ever played with and I fell in love with this man’s guitar playing that day. I didn’t think we’d ever do anything because I was sort of a modern cat and he was a traditional cat and I had my own thing going. But all these years later, I got a call from Amberley and she said would you be interested in doing a couple of gigs with Lurrie. So we did a duo thing at the Prairie Dog Blues Festival in Wisconsin, and I had two gigs at that festival. I had just finished a record with Altered Five which is a great band and then Lurrie and I did a duo thing and it felt good. I really relate to Lurrie as a person, not just as an artist but somebody that’s overcome a lot, like we all are really. But just to play with him again was beautiful. That turned into a tour. Pauly called me up and suggested me to Amberley and she said, yeah we had him on a couple of dates…and here I am.”

“I’ll tell you one thing,” Lurrie adds. “when I met you and we played, I was with my lady friend, Claudia Harris. I want you to check this dude out, she liked you. I said you ain’t bullshittin’ he can blow his ass off. I didn’t know we were going to work together. I didn’t know that at first, but I’m glad that happened.”

Let’s talk a little about this tour on the West Coast. You’ve got Rena Beavers on drums and bassist Paul Loranger which is a monster rhythm section.

“Like Jason” Paul says, “I’ve always had a deep respect for Lurrie. I’ve spent most of my life playing traditional blues or blues rock and I was actually out with Candye Kane at a festival and I saw him there…and Jason and I have been friends forever. We’ve known each other probably over 20 years.”
Jason smiles and nods “He’s been here for me through thick and thin. Pauly’s always been a friend and this is actually, weirdly enough the first time we’ve worked together.”

Paul adds. “I’m working with Anthony Geraci right now but I started with Eric Sardinas and I was with him a long time, I toured with Candye Kane and Popa Chubby and also worked with Paul Nelson, who helped get Johnny (Winter) back on his feet. But currently I’m working with Anthony Geraci. We were at a festival in Transylvania, believe it or not and it was Anthony and Lurrie together and afterwards, Amberley his manager, asked to join him on some tours and I’m really happy about it.”

Rena, I saw you playing with Coco Montoya a year or so ago. “I’ve worked with Coco Montoya going on eleven years but as far as the blues realm, I started when I moved to Nashville in the mid-90s, I played double bass enough to be dangerous to myself and other people.” (laughing) “Then I landed a gig playing with Little Milton the last two years he was alive.”

Lurrie looks surprised. “…with Little Milton? I didn’t know that. I went down South with Little Milton for awhile, played rhythm guitar with him. It was my job to open up the show and call Milton up. That was a long time ago.”

Lurrie if you would, talk a little about playing with Koko Taylor… “Man, it was incredible because when it comes to female blues singers Koko got me! When she and her husband asked me would I want to work with her, they came down to Junior Wells’ club in the basement (Theresa’s) in Chicago, Illinois. I started working with Koko and we went to Europe and Africa together. I had some great times with Koko Taylor as her second rhythm guitar player. We played together about seven years.”

You also played with Willie Dixon. “Willie Dixon, you know Willie Dixon don’t bring too many people to his gigs and call ’em up on stage unless they’re blues entertainers from the same neck of the woods. My father was playing with Willie Dixon at the time blowing harmonica and I went to one of the shows and before I know it the old man called me up on stage. And I said oh shit, he wants me to play!” (laughing) “With Willie Dixon!!! Buster Benton was Willie Dixon’s lead guitar player called me up and said you can use my guitar. I said I’ve got to play some blues now ’cause the old man is watching. It went alright, I played a couple of numbers and that was that. When they called me up to play guitar with Willie Dixon, I haven’t quit playing since then!” (laughing)

On this limited tour with just the four of you, talk a little about your musical collaboration. It’s not just straight blues; you all seem to contribute your own unique skills and talents during the set. “This was our first gig with Rena.” Jason says. “We didn’t even have a rehearsal!” Rena just smiles. “I told Pauly last night, basically I know enough of the vocabulary and I’m constantly learning but with these guys you sit back, call the tune, know what it’s supposed to be…then hang on!” (laughing) “Just hang on and help propel them.”

Lurrie says, “When it comes time to play my music when I’m playing lead guitar and singing, these guys know how to follow me, you know? This guy here” (he nods toward Rena) “he’s got a solid rhythm on the kit back there and my main man here on the bass guitar.” (grins at Paul) “We go way back!” (laughing) “And of course Mr. Jason Ricci, he’s one of the baddest cats I’ve ever heard play harmonica. You know I was taught by ear, I didn’t go to school to read chords and stuff like that.”

Lurrie, if you had to name someone who had the most influence on your style of guitar playing? “B.B. King!” he says without hesitating. “When it comes down to the blues…that’s right!” Did the church have any influence on your direction? “I used to live in Macon, Mississippi with some of my dad’s people and also in Alabama; I had an older sister down there. We used to go to church all the time and listen to gospel music, quartets and choirs and before I knew it I had joined the church and started playing guitar and they used to pay me for that. They’d raise a collection for me, but eventually I moved back up North.”

After this quicky tour, will you guys all go back to your regular bands and projects? Jason, what’s the latest on the Bad Kind? “Well, we’ve got a new guitar player that we hired last year. Brent Johnson. I’ve been after Brent forever, for a long time I had two guitar players because I like that sound. I like when a guitar player can play and has chords behind him. Brent was behind Bryan Lee for 15 some odd years, the only person to never be fired from Bryan Lee’s band. It made him very insecure because he’s the only one who never got fired. It’s like a badge of honor in New Orleans if you’ve been fired from Bryan Lee’s band.” (laughing) “He did 15 years and never got the badge, you know?” (laughing) “And like Lurrie, he’s a very emotional player. He’s in-the-moment with no pre-conceived notions about what should be and that reinvigorated me. I did a record with New Orleans pianist Joe Krown who was with Gatemouth Brown for 14 years and with Walter ‘Wolfman’ Washington. Walter loved Lurrie and Lurrie was one of the few people that Walter lent his guitar to during Jazz Fest. I played Jazz Fest with Walter just last year and just recently we christened the Walter ‘Wolfman’ Washington Memorial Park. There will never be another one like him. Joe Krown was the pianist for him and many other people too. One of the most famous pianists in New Orleans who can play all the Professor Longhair stuff plus, he’s also a Hammond B-3 organ player. We put together an organ trio and we recorded the very first ever organ trio with harmonica as lead. We’re doing all Grant Green numbers, Jimmy Smith, Crusaders…stuff like that. That’s what I did throughout most of the pandemic. I just stuck around town playing soul jazz and jazz funk and a little bit of blues with Joe Krown and Walter. The Bad Kind was ready to go and Mike Zito called me up and asked if I would be interested in doing a record with him. We just finished it at Dockside Studios, Joe Krown is on it, Joanna Connor is on the record and we definitely want to get Lurrie on the next one.”

Lurrie says, “I’ll be around!” (laughing)

Jason, I can’t let you go without asking you about playing with Big Bad Smitty. “Big Bad Smitty was a blues singer and guitar player originally from Mississippi but made his name in Saint Louis. I met him in Mississippi, I didn’t know who he was and he wanted to sit in and I said no, and he came back with a Living Blues magazine cover from 1981with him on it! And I said okay.” (laughing) “He got up and he sang Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf and he sounded just like both of them. I found out he had a HighTone release with Hubert Sumlin on it (Cold Blood) so we put together a band and backed him up. He lived with me for a little while and then decided to go back to Saint Louis and that was that. He passed just a short while later. When I met Smitty, he had no legs. He had lost his legs to diabetes. He was a gruff, abrasive, rough and vulgar person.” (laughing)

Jason, you also teach music online. “I’m trying to educate cats, especially harmonica players…so they can play music, not just blues but music in general.” Lurrie adds “without music there’d be nothing to look forward to everyday you get up in the morning, see the sunrise. What’s you gonna’ look forward to if you can’t hear no music? Something’s gonna’ go wrong somewhere.”

Paul, could you share a story or two about working with Popa Chubby. “Popa and I have known each other for a long time, almost like Jason who I’ve known for almost twenty years. We came up together, dating back to my time with Eric Sardinas; we played a lot of shows together and got to be friends. And working with Candye Kane, because they were dear friends and both Popa and Candye were on the peripheral of the mainstream blues players and they were both okay with that. I’ve been living out here in the Long Beach area for almost 30 years. But Popa Chubby, he’s one of those guys that plays with a lot of heart, man. I mean he gets up there, he has his own style and he’s a really good songwriter. He’s got some very pertinent songs and I really enjoy my time with him. I learned from him.”

Rena, tell me about working with Coco Montoya. “Oh, he can take that guitar from a gentle whisper to one of the biggest roars and even though he’s blues-based he draws inspiration from all types of music.”

It seems this band does the same thing. I’ve got to say Thank you to Amberley Stokes for making this interview happen. And a special thanks to my good friend, Rosalea Schiavone of Wicked Harem Booking & Productions for the opportunity. And a special Thank You to the band, you keep the music and especially blues music alive for all of us.

The post When the Blues Come to Town! Lurrie Bell and Jason Ricci with Rena Beavers and Paul Loranger appeared first on Traveling Archive.

James Cotton was born into a Mississippi farming family in the middle of the summer, 1935. As the youngest of eight children, his prospects in the Tunica cotton fields held few opportunities beyond hauling water buckets for laborers or endless hours on a plantation tractor seat in the sweltering Delta sun. Fortunately for all of us, fate and a fifteen cent harmonica placed James in exactly the right place at exactly the right time.

It was an uncle who would coerce the young Cotton to walk up to, and play his harp for, radio personality Rice Miller (Sonny Boy Williamson II) Then there was the small radio spot that turned into a recording session in Memphis for Sam Phillips in the pre-Elvis era of Sun Studios. Oh, it gets better… Junior Wells would quit Muddy Waters’ band in the middle of a southern tour, forcing an immediate search for a replacement harp player. That search ended in Memphis, when Muddy met James. A meeting that began a musical collaboration and friendship that would last decades.

Soft spoken unless it concerned his music and extremely humble, Cotton rarely talked of his awards, Grammy nominations, or his status on the worlds blues stage. He was just a bluesman and his focus remained solely on his music. Our conversation took place backstage at a club in Southern California in the late 80s and began with his early influences in music.

“I used to listen to people.” James said. “Like Memphis Minnie and Charlie Patton. And it was Sonny Boy who kinda’ taught me how to play the harp. Sonny Boy #2, Rice Miller.”

Didn’t you live in Sonny Boy’s house? “Six years!”

How did that happen? “Well, Sonny Boy was on station KFFA in Helena, Arkansas. He had a fifteen minute program everyday from 12:00 to 12:15. I used to listen to it every day. We get out in the field with the radio and listen at that.

My uncle, me and him drove tractors together. He taught me how to drive a tractor when I was a kid. We was getting three dollars a day for driving a tractor. Get paid $36 every two weeks.

So he’d taken me to Helena to meet Sonny Boy. I told him I was orphaned, my uncle told me to say that. I walked up to him and he talked to me, you know? Me and him (Sonny Boy) got to talking, so he took me in. My uncle talked to him also when he seen it was working, you know?”

After your move to Memphis, other than Sonny Boy, who else were you playing with? “Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Love… I played with quite a few people down there.”

Any special memories of those Beale Street years? “Somebody stole my harps one day, that’s what!” (laughing) Somebody stole your harps? Who stole your harps? “I don’t know man. They were hard to come by, too! You couldn’t make no money… I had about ten of them. They ripped me off!”

Did you play a lot on the streets? “Yeah I played on the street a little bit. Not much because I was lucky enough to be in a band with Sonny Boy and we were working pretty good.”

Some folks refer to the blues as a comforter, you ever feel that way? “Well, blues do a lot of things for you, you know? Sometimes they make you sad, sometimes they make you comfortable.” What do they do for James Cotton? “They do a lot of things for me. They make me… they make me cry.” They make you cry? He nods, “Sometimes they make me cry.”

You moved to Chicago in 1954? “Had a job with the late, great Muddy Waters. Muddy brought me to Chicago. He’d been on tour, down through the South and Junior Wells left the band. Muddy was looking for a harp player and he heard about me in Memphis. So when he was coming up from Florida, he came through Memphis and asked me if I wanted a job.”

What was it like playing in Muddy’s band? “Well, I had a beautiful time playing with Muddy. I had the pleasure of working with Muddy twelve years. I had a really good time; he was like a father to me. I learned a lot of things in that band.” Like what? “He was doing a lot more recording than Sonny Boy was. A lot about the studios, things like that.”

One of my favorite albums is Muddy at Newport in 1960. You and Muddy with Tat Harris, Otis Spann, Andrew Stevenson and Francis Clay. What do you remember about that recording? “Well, I got fired the same day!” You got fired? “We did a song called, ‘I Put a Tiger in Your Tank.’ Muddy forgot the words to it and I played the lines and he said I played it wrong!” Did that happen a lot? “About a dozen times, but I always got hired back. I was lucky. I was always trying to do more, you know? Trying to make it better. A lot of things I was doing, by me being younger, Muddy didn’t understand.”

What were regular recording sessions like? “It was beautiful in the studio. But I guess he’d been doing it so long, when I got with him, you know?”

Chess provided a good environment? “Chess had got hip to the blues, man. I have to say this about the Chess brothers. I’ve never been in the studio where they recorded harmonica like the Chess brothers did. They were good at that!”

What do you suppose made them so different? “I don’t know some magic they had with those buttons back there.”

You had recorded at the famed Sun Recording Service in Memphis too, didn’t you? “I did four sides for Sun. This was before Elvis Presley or anybody like that. I did the recording in 1950, but I think it come out in ’51. Uh, I did four sides for them… ‘Straighten Up Baby,’ ‘Oh, Baby,’ ‘Hold Me in Your Arms’ and ‘Cotton Crop Blues.’”

You think you can still find copies of them? He just smiles, “Cost you a lot of money!”

You knew Little Walter? “Little Walter was a beautiful cat, man. I had the pleasure of working in Chicago with him four or five years before he died. I don’t thinks nobody will ever be better than Little Walter. I think he’s so far ahead of his time, you know?”

During the 60s, you played a lot of Fillmore dates. “Well, we probably worked at the Fillmore’s more than any band I know. Fillmore East, Fillmore West, Fillmore East… man, we did that so much till I thought I was going to die between San Francisco and New York!” (laughing) You know that those venues and events introduced blues to a whole new generation of fans, that’s quite the legacy. “I don’t even worry about things like that.” He shrugs. “I just want to be a good musician, do the best I can with it.”

Any one particular Fillmore event that stands out for you? “Yeah, I worked a date with Janis Joplin at the Fillmore West and we were managed by Albert Grossman. And then Monday she was in the office and said, ‘Look, I want to work with this guy again, he makes me work like hell.’ She said, ‘I can’t play around whenever he’s working, so I have to work!’ So, I did quite a few dates with Janis Joplin.”

Are you still having fun playing? “The music does as much for me as it does to the people out there. It makes me get up and go, too.”

How long have you been on the road? “40 years!” Ever get you down? “Well, when it ain’t fun no more, that’s when I quit. I’m certainly not getting rich, so when it ain’t fun, I’ll have to go home then.”

James went home March 16, 2017, he was 81 years old.

The post James Cotton: Super Harp appeared first on Traveling Archive.

It’s been almost 30 years now since I ran into Carey Bell. He was touring through Europe and was gracious enough to sit down and talk for awhile about his friends, his life in music and the road he travelled. Immediately after our conversation, in his typical workingman’s approach, he stepped on stage and proceeded to blow everyone in that Italian theater against the back wall. He was a remarkable talent and genuinely funny human being.

Born in the winter of 1936 and raised on a farm in Macon, Mississippi, Carey Bell Harrington grew up working hard. He laughs, “Damn sure did!” I heard you taught yourself harmonica? “Yeah! I got one for Christmas and started blowin’ on it.” Your mother sang in church, do you think that was your first musical influence? “Yeah, I guess so. That’s what they all say.” He laughs. “I haven’t the slightest idea, you know? 

What was life like for you in a small community like that? “There wasn’t too much to it, I just didn’t want to work on the farm, so I ran away. I learned how to play the harmonica and when I thought I was good enough, I went to Chicago.”

Talk a little about working in Bobby Shore’s Tavern in Meridian? “Oh yeah, that was great! It was a restaurant and a tavern and I was selling bootleg, moonshine whiskey.” (laughing) “But I drank too much! (laughing) Were you playing blues there? “No, Western and Country music and that was great, too! Yeah, that was the first thing I learned but after blues came along, I got into that.”

You grew up around Lovie Lee. “Yeah, he’s still hangin’. But working with him I felt it was too slow because I wanted to get up real fast, you know? Who were some of the people you listened to on the harmonica? “You mean the people I liked?” I nod. “Oh I listened to Sonny Boy, Big Walter, Little Walter, Sonny Terry, Jerry McCain, Junior Wells, James Cotton. They were playing way before I was…Cotton is old as Moses!” (laughing) “Junior, too!”

Like most bluesmen of the era, Bell would busk on street corners; sometimes alone, sometimes with others. “Yeah, I played with a band, Robert Nighthawk, Honeyboy Edwards… shoot, a lot of peoples.”

You played in a place once called the Cadillac Baby Bar with Little Walter, what was that like? “That was okay.” What did you do? “Nuthin’!” (laughing) C’mon, running with Little Walter had to be a high point in your career? “No, it wasn’t.” (laughing) “You see when I went to Chicago I was too young to get into the clubs, I had to go in the back door. I had to sneak around and people would sneak me in.”

I had always heard that Little Walter Jacobs was a scrappy little guy and would fight anyone at the drop of a hat, but Carey set me straight. “Naw, everybody tells that same lie.” Then he says. “Well, I guess he would if somebody would jump on him, but everybody have to defend themselves, you know? There was no doubt that he was an unbelievable harp player. “Yeah he was, he’s gone but he’s still has stuff out, it’s still great stuff.”

I was looking at some of the people you’ve played with and it’s unreal. You’ve played with Big Walter, Earl Hooker, John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters… and the list of venues, what was the rowdiest club or bar you’ve ever played? “The only place I remember was a house party in Mississippi. They got to fightin’ and I went up under the house.” (laughing) “Yeah, under the house, the guitar player got in his car and left. Yeah, people got beat. That was about the rowdiest.”

Charlie Musselwhite and Otis Rush both told me about a place called the ‘I Spy Lounge’ in Chicago? “I didn’t hang out in the ‘I Spy’ that much. I always heard about all the fights and stuff going on in there, that’s one of the reasons I didn’t go in there!” (laughing) You and Charlie Musselwhite are pretty good friends. “Yeah, we used to hang out together, every day almost, every Sunday playing on the street. He’s crazy, though.” He’s settled down now a little bit, haven’t you? “No!” (laughing) “I just ain’t as fast as I used to be!” (laughing)

You toured a great deal with Willie Dixon’s All Stars. “Yeah, he’s a good friend of mine. I was his main man. We used to cook in the hotel, and we’d get busted for it.” (laughing) “Hot dogs, pork chops, potatoes.” You mean like a hot plate in the room? “I had one of those big, old Hoover electric frying pans and we had a good time. They told us to quit but then the hotel manager would sit down and have a bite with us. Willie was good at starting a conversation. After we finished the guy would leave and tell us, ‘Well, you guys don’t do it every day or just put something at the bottom of the door so the smell doesn’t go all over.’ You know those white potatoes and onions you could smell them a country mile…” (laughing) “And the band wouldn’t help round up food with us; we’d sneak off to the grocery store and they’d be sleeping and when they’d wake up they’d smell the food and Willie would lock the door and wouldn’t let them in.” (laughing) “Oh, we had great fun!”

You’ve been on the road a long time, you ever tire of it? “Un-uh!?” Carey shakes his head. “It’s my life…I love it! You know why?” He smiles. “I don’t want to work!” (laughing) Isn’t it tough sometimes? “It ain’t like work!! Man, work would KILL me! If I had to go back to work punching a clock and here come somebody telling me, ‘How come you’re late? I’m docking your money. Well, you’re fired!’”

What kind of work did you do, outside of music? “Oh man, shoot. I worked in junk yards, nursing homes; washing cars…you know that work? I put on a rubber suit at 7 o’clock and wouldn’t get through till 5 in the evening, keeping that yellow suit on. It was yellow. They had those little pads you stick your hands in. Man, I used to say if I ever get out of this here… man that was something else.”

Describe Carey Bell’s blues? “I just DID!” (laughing) “I just did!” (laughing) “The first wife I had, we moved from Mississippi to Chicago with Lovie Lee and a whole band. I didn’t know the city and I had to go look for a job and at that time that had old junk carts that they pulled through the alley picking up scrap and stuff. Her mother’s old man built me a wagon to pull. Now, I had been plowin’ with a mule in Mississippi and man, when I get to Chicago they go and make a mule outta’ me! Owww!” (laughing) “Un-Uh! They put me out! Yeah, that’s when I met Honeyboy (Edwards). Honeyboy took me in. If it hadn’t been for Honeyboy I’d probably woulda’ been dead or something, or in jail!”

You’ve played with everybody, do you have a favorite session or recording that you truly enjoyed? “My favorite was with Muddy, the London sessions. Oh, we had great fun. With Sammy Lawhorn and I can’t remember the other guys. Only three of us left Chicago and went to London and they had musicians there in London. They were big guys but I can’t recall their names.” That album was loaded with talent including Rory Gallagher, Rick Grech, Stevie Winwood, Mitch Mitchell and many more… I totally understand why it was your favorite. Other than the talent, what made it so special for you? “Muddy was funny. They didn’t want to give me no whiskey. Muddy said, ‘you don’t give that boy no whiskey, he ain’t gonna’ play!” (laughing) “You better go out and get him some. It was real funny. And we’d lay up in the hotel all day and do the session at night. It took us a week. In the hotel, we’d order anything we wanted, Champagne… anything we wanted and we didn’t have to pay for it.”

The results speak for themselves.

We lost Carey Bell in Chicago on May 6, 2007 from heart failure. He left us with an incredible library of music. (Check him out — Carey Bell; I know you’ll like it.)

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