As a bluesman who had been there and done that, Willie lived his life exactly like he wrote songs; simply, without pretension and at gut level. A huge man both in girth and talent, he became a voice for the broken man and the troubled woman. He had a genuine gift for musical arrangement and composition and is, to this day, still considered one of the blues’ most prolific songwriters. He was incredibly intuitive when it came to pairing songs with musicians and musicians with sessions, then successfully capturing on vinyl, the best from both. Just look through any of the Chess or Cobra libraries.

As a studio producer, songwriter, session player and stage performer, Dixon had few peers. His remarkable body of work remains the watermark for today’s generation of blues players. A keen ear for talent and ribald sense of humor made him versatile, but Willie’s observations of the human condition and flair for innuendo, made him legendary.

Born seventh in a line of fourteen Dixon children, Willie could trace his education and understanding of the blues directly to his family upbringing. “One of the phrases my parents used to teach me, especially my mother, ‘Think twice before you speak once, and think the third time before you act.’ And another thing she always said was, ‘Anybody can get mad, but anybody can’t get smart. It pays to get smart but it don’t pay to get mad.’ When I was a youngster I couldn’t understand it because it didn’t make sense. But today it makes sense because the world can make anybody mad.”

“Another thing, ‘If you don’t listen you can’t learn’ and those are three things in life that a person have to do to really understand and learn to enjoy life, because if people make you angry you will never enjoy it. And these are the kind of things that had a great influence on me after I got grown, even though I knew them as a youngster.” Shaking his head, he admitted, “But many a-times I done things without thinking.”

The True Facts of Life

Willie had the unique ability to relate life’s experience through his music. A twelve bar documentary of the world around him. “That’s why I wrote so many songs, because I’ve been writing about the true facts of life that exist today and what I hope, tomorrow, will be a better future. I’ve been writing songs all my life, you know? I used to walk around with a gunny sack full of songs. I couldn’t get nobody to do them. I used to sell them outright for $10.”

If there has ever been a central figure or seminal root of the blues, that list of names would begin with Willie Dixon. From a dirt-poor youth in Mississippi to the revered and respected elder of America’s only indigenous music, Dixon began his pursuit at the tender age of eight.

“I was a kid in Mississippi and we used to be outside of a place called Zack Lewis’. He had a little tavern; they called it a barrelhouse in those days, and Little Brother Montgomery would be in there playing piano with his band. We used to follow Little Brother all over town. I’d be bare-footed, running up and down the road behind them, they’d be up on a wagon bed or a T-model Ford truck and he had a piano up there. Little Brother was short and little at that time and we always thought he was a kid, but he was several years older than we was. I know every time we chased him all day long, I’d go back home and get a whippin’ for missing school and following the band all day.”

Those first short, dusty steps would begin a lifelong journey for Willie Dixon. A path he embraced with open arms and sometimes clinched fists. Occasional brushes with the law and time spent in reform school exposed Dixon to the serrated edge of life.

I’m Ready

“I used to be a fighter, you know?” I used to train at Eddie Nichol’s Gym in Chicago. Fightin’ is a hard job. Of course, I won the Golden Gloves in 1937 and I fought pro a few times. After I found out everybody was getting money but me, my management company was taking advantage of me, so we got into quite a hassle and it caused both of us to get expelled. Fights get into your system like everything else, you know? Until you finally get beat enough to give up. I got a chance to train with the ‘Brown Bomber’ (Joe Louis) down to Eddie Nichol’s gym I was supposed to go on a tour with them, but I never did go. My manager didn’t want me to get shell-shocked before I got out there too far, you know?”

Shell-shocked is the pivotal word here. As often happens with dramatic and unforeseen turns in life, Willie, while somewhat disappointed, began to contemplate his options. “After sparring with Louis, I knew from that point on, and for the rest of my life, that I wanted to be…..a songwriter. The music don’t fight back and you don’t have to be ducking and dodging and running and keeping yourself together, you know?”

Eddie Nichol’s place may have witnessed the end of Willie’s fight game, but it also provided the catalyst for his next career. A fellow musician and delta native, who was also a ringside regular, would steer the impressionable Dixon in a totally different direction. That fight fan was Leonard ‘Baby Doo’ Caston.

“He was the one teaching me about the musical things, you know? He used to come around the gymnasium where I was training and sitting around there playing guitar and singing all day. The first instrument I started on was a one-string tin can ‘Baby Doo’ Caston made for me. I had been singing bass in the south as a youngster on the spiritual side, I knew a pretty good bass line and I’d learned how to play that on one string, so it wasn’t hard for me to learn.”

As part of the short-lived ‘Five Breezes’ in the late 30’s and later “The Big Three Trio”, Dixon and Caston were fast becoming Chicago’s original blues brothers. The Windy City was experiencing post-war prosperity where jobs were abundant and high-paying. The continuous migration of southern laborers and struggling musicians along with the sudden influx of returning, cash-laden military personnel combined to make the south side of Chicago an entertainment flashpoint.

Venues materialized as quickly as the crowds. Clubs, bars and boulevards (Maxwell Street) beckoned to blues players from every region of the country, especially the talent-rich Delta. Some clubs were more prestigious than others.

“Playin’ in some of them old dives in Chicago, every night when you walked in you was lucky to get out. I could name a lot of places we used to play, you know? Like 708 when they was first gettin’ out, and they used to have a place down on Indiana they called ‘the Hole’. You’d have to look goin’ in and look comin’ out because you didn’t know whether you were gonna’ make it goin’ in or comin’ out. I remember the I Spy Lounge, that was on 43rd street. Richard Stems owned the I Spy. The Green Door was another place; they used to have a lot of those rough places. People now days don’t even know what rough stuff is. A lot of times guys you were workin’ with had their guns and things and I was more afraid of them than I was the folks out there.”

The Gospel According to McKinley

Chicago, in the late 40’s, was Mecca for blues players but their styles were diversifying and experimentation produced a new, amplified city sound. On any given night you could find Willie, Big Maceo, Sleepy John Estes, Sonny Boy, Memphis Slim, Memphis Minnie or Son House hanging out at Tampa Red’s place.

“Tampa Red had a big old room back there, he lived right up over a pawn shop on 35th and he had an old, raggedy bed sitting in the corner and a broke-down piano in another corner. Everybody could get in there and could sit on the bed or on the floor or on the piano and they’d all be in there arguing about songs, you know and making songs, like that. Lester Melrose would be in the front room and he’d always have the old lady cooking something; chitlins or something. He’d come back there, ‘What you fella’s got?’ And each one would come up with what he got.”

Creative juices flowed like hot grease down the Melrose stove. Working with Leonard Caston and Ollie Crawford at local clubs, The Big Three would occasionally find themselves on stage with another Delta musician. Willie’s personal association with this one time plantation resident would last a lifetime and their collaboration would become legendary. McKinley Morganfield and Willie Dixon were about to alter the world’s perception of the blues.

“Muddy Waters was one of the first ones that starting doing some of my tunes, you know? I was walking around with 200 songs in a bag and nobody would do none of ’em. I’d go around and sing ’em to him, so he said, ‘Man, I like that song.’ I had a little trio called the Big Three Trio at that time; we had recorded for Columbia and also for Bullet Company. We done that song about the ‘Signifyin’ Monkey’ and ‘Wee, wee baby you sure look good to me’ and other songs.

So this ‘Hoochie Coochie Man’, Muddy Waters liked it, you know? So I started to go out there and jam with him with our trio. He told me, ‘Man I sure like that song, if you let me, I’ll record it.’ Sure enough he got with his manager. I got with Muddy over on 14th Street one night, I took the song over there and he said, ‘Dixon, I’m gonna’ do that song tonight.’ He didn’t know the song, he’d just heard me singing it.

So I took him in the washroom on the intermission, and we practiced the song. He walked out of there and he said, ‘Man, you better let me do it first, so I won’t forget it. By the time he came out of the washroom, he went on the stage and he started doin’ the ‘Hoochie, Coochie Man’ and he done it til the day he died.”

Writing music occasionally created conflicts among Willie’s friends, especially if an artist wanted, or didn’t want to record a certain song. And Dixon was the first to admit that writing the song wasn’t necessarily the most difficult part of the recording process.

“Sometime I just have the idea of the experience that people go through involving themselves in different things, and this is what I write about. And then sometime I try to find people that I feel like can properly express these things, because sometime people can express a thing better than another one… sometime. “

One case in point, ‘Wang Dang Doodle:’ “Oh yeah, Howlin’ Wolf recorded it long before Koko Taylor, but the Chess Brothers wouldn’t release it. In fact, I wrote a lot of things for people they never actually would accept and I’d have to give it to somebody else. And then ten to one after somebody else get it, then they’d like it. I used to always have trouble with Muddy and Wolf because one thought I was giving the other one the better song, you know? So I got to the place I just used a little backwards psychology on ’em. The one I be writing for Wolf, I tell Wolf, now here’s something I wrote for Muddy and that’s all I need to do. (Wolf would say) ‘Man, how come you got to give that to him, that’s better than mine.’ And vice a versa, that’s the way it worked.”

Another case in point, ‘My Babe:’ “I had a hard time in getting Little Walter to do ‘My Babe’. Two years I was trying to get him to do ‘My Babe’. He didn’t want to record it. He just didn’t like it. But after he recorded it and it started going over, it was his top running number.”

I Am the Blues

************************

“Learn to respect the wisdom of the blues, because the wisdom of the blues and the blues itself
is the greatest music on the face of the earth. The blues has proved to have more wisdom and
understanding than any other music. And once you learn the wisdom of the story
of the facts of life, it gives you a better chance in all of life.
And I think that’s a great thing for people to do all over the world.”

– Willie Dixon

 ************************

American Folk Blues Festival

As the self-appointed ambassador of the blues, Willie Dixon and a few special friends began spreading the word outside America’s borders. “Memphis Slim and I started the American Folk Blues Festival. We was just working as a duet, we went to Israel and other places trying to promote the blues there. None of these blues organizations was even thinking about them at the time, but everywhere we went we talked about the blues and promoted them. Some of the people got into it before we could complete our thing. I’m glad they did, because today we’ve got the blues thing going.”

During the early sixties the American Folk Blues Festival featured some of the most recognizable names in the genre; players like John Lee Hooker, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Victoria Spivey, Otis Spann, Muddy, T-Bone Walker, Big Mama Thornton, J.B. Lenoir, Lonnie Johnson, Big Joe Williams and the Wolf.

It wouldn’t be until years later that Dixon would discover the profound effect he and his friends had had on a very select group of young British musicians.

“Well when they was young, overseas, me and Memphis Slim was over there and they had their groups going, but that was before they was popular. The Stones, they was kids over there. I didn’t know one from the other because they didn’t have no name then, you know? When I was over in Europe and other places, I would give songs to everybody and a lot of kids tell you, ‘I’m gonna’ do this and I’m gonna’ do that’, and how would I know who’s who?

But when they come back years later they say, ‘You remember you gave us that song here and gave us a song there,’ well I don’t know them but they know me. Some of them gave me their picture when they was young, you know? And when they came to Chicago, a lot of them would come to my house or we’d meet in different clubs and things. How are you gonna’ remember a bunch of kids, man? As many countries as I went into and meet ’em from all over everywhere, I worked with so many different people in so many different places, I can’t remember them all no way.”

A Man with a Mission

Active for most of his life, Willie thought about retirement when he moved to Southern California, but it wasn’t to be. If anything, demands on his time increased.

“Ever since I’ve been out here, it’s been one thing right after another. I try to back off from ’em, but with the Blues Heaven Foundation I have retired away from working for myself, and by being able to reap some of the benefits of some of my own royalties that I should have got years ago. And this is why I started the Blues Heaven Foundation so I could help other people that wasn’t as lucky as me.

Not only does it try to get some of the capital that’s been owed to artists, people who been beat and cheated out of their thing, but we also help ’em to learn how to protect their songs and copyrights. We do this with donated capital and the Blues Heaven Foundation takes not a penny from nobody. I do all of my work for Blues Heaven for nothing. All the people that has passed on and their families didn’t get anything, all they had to do is prove that they are involved or in the family and they can reap the benefits of their forbearers.

You know when you feel like you’re underprivileged, and know you’re underprivileged and not getting your rights, you always want to know why? Believe it or not, (prior to the civil rights movements in the 50’s and 60’s) people didn’t know they had a black law book and a white law book at that time but today most of them know about it. It wasn’t until after the Martin Luther King era and the government ratified the 14th and 15th Amendment, that everybody had to hear us out and give us just dues just like everybody else. My chance for justice as well as anybody else’s is good today.”

Blues Heaven

“That’s the reason I’m trying to expose the Blues Heaven Foundation because you don’t have to die to enjoy the great things of life. You don’t have to get to the place where you have to have this religion or that religion, fighting over ten dollars and then tell me you’re going to a place where the streets are paved in gold. Don’t you know I don’t want to go there if you’ve been raising as much hell over a dollar here? So I figure if we can enjoy the luxuries of life here as we should, everything is here you need. They say if you went to heaven you’d get milk and honey. We got milk and honey here.

It’s just a matter of time because you see, everything have to change, everything changes. People get more experience and understand each other better, but when you haven’t been taught any of the right things, naturally you can go wrong because you’re only thinking about yourself and not others.”

With a chance to reflect on his life and given the option to change the outcome, Willie just smiled. “Frankly with the experiences I’ve had since I’ve been involved in these blues, I wouldn’t take billions for it, but I wouldn’t want to do it all over again for trillions’.”

Through his Blues Heaven Foundation, lovingly minded by his widow, Marie and grandson, Alex, Willie continues to touch the lives of disadvantaged youth and the surviving family members of early blues greats. Whether it’s assisting students through scholarship programs, donating musical instruments, or recouping lost royalties, Blues Heaven continues to educate, perpetuate, and carry out Willie’s most heart-felt wishes.

Willie Dixon lived, worked and breathed the blues. His music conveyed the depth and drive of that battered old upright bass. To use boxing vernacular, it was his combinations. He could double you over with thumping bass lines and drop you to your knees with devastating lyrics. The name Willie Dixon will always be synonymous with the blues, but to paraphrase the late Dr. King, it’s the ‘content of his character’ that we’ll all miss the most.

The post Willie Dixon: “The Pen is Mightier………….” appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Primer has been amazingly productive over the years; he’s recorded and toured with everyone from Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon to Junior Wells and James Cotton. I lost track of the number of albums he’s listed on at around 87 or 88. John just smiles at me “probably more than that.” From a sharecropping family to a legendary blues man, John Primer is the real deal so we started our conversation with his first instrument.

Is it true you made your first instrument…a diddley bow and what did you make it from?

“Yeah, I did. I used some wire that came out of my grandmama’s broom. A piece of wire from a broom or we’d burn up a car tire and get the wire outta’ there. That was the best one, the best one to make a diddley bow out of. But my uncle and cousin had one made up already and I learned from that and started making my own.”

Tell me about your first musical memories or when you first heard the blues?

“My grandma’s record collection is where I first heard the blues and stuff like that; it was from a record, yeah. We had 78s and 45s. I had a cousin that lived down the hill from me, she had a wind-up phonograph. So my cousin had it and I’d get up in a chair like this, so I could reach it and play it. I’d play Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters. Get in that chair and wind it up and listen to it play those 78 records. Muddy Waters, ‘Can’t Be Satisfied’ John Lee Hooker…” (John breaks into song) ‘…my baby got somethin’ I sure do love…my baby got something.'”

Was the church a big influence on your music?

“Yeah, a lot of church music…gospel, yeah.”

You grew up working.

“I did, yeah. We couldn’t go to the fields until we got twelve years old, I started in the field then. But picking cotton and stuff wasn’t my…I never wanted to do that kinda’ stuff, I wanted to play guitar and be a musician. I didn’t think I could do good picking cotton or pullin’ corn; too rough for me. But I did it, yeah.”

‘Hard Times’ John Primer

Do you remember the first time you played on a guitar?

“Uh, I was about three or four years old. I had a cousin who had one, it was an acoustic guitar but I don’t remember what the name was, I was too little to know. I couldn’t read then, I was too young.” But you knew you wanted to play with it. “I wanted to play guitar, all my life I wanted to be a musician.”

Tell me a little about Chicago in 1963?

“I came to Chicago when I was eighteen years old. It was great! Music was everywhere, comin’ all out of people’s houses, bands playing and rehearsing in houses.”

You spent time on Maxwell Street?

“In 1963 I used to go down there all the time, every Sunday. I used to see a guy named One Arm John (Big John Wrencher) and you’d see Muddy Waters down there and John Lee Hooker. I just wasn’t familiar with all these guys because when I was in Mississippi, I was familiar with Muddy Waters and Jimmy Reed and Howlin’ Wolf and Lightnin’ Hopkins. You know Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup… all the old guys, Big Bill Broonzy.”

When you listen to John Primer’s blues, you hear influences from the Delta, there’s some funk and R&B as well. How do you get all these styles to flow through your music?

“I learned when I started to play guitar and I learned it when I came to Chicago. I could play the blues when I was down in Mississippi but when I came to Chicago I studied all types of music.”

Let’s talk a little about Pat Rushing and the Maintainers.

“Well that was the first band, yeah. It was a good thing; I had a friend that lived across the street and his dad used to be the road man for Elmore James, he was called Big Jim. I met some of those guys and we created a band later on. I remember when Elmore passed, they were getting ready to go do a show and he had a heart attack. They found him in his room, I think he was out of town, laying across his bed; he’d had a heart attack. So he was gone but I still knew his music from when I was in Mississippi. When I lived in Mississippi, I thought all those guys had passed away…Muddy Waters and all of them, Jimmy Reed (laughing) I didn’t know. When I got to Chicago I found they were all still alive.

See, when I grew up I came up with all that music. All the blues, the old-time blues they were creating it back then, everybody was playing it. That’s why I know so much old blues from way back. I’m just like an elephant; I don’t forget nothin’…I remember!”

The clubs and bars in Chicago in the 50s and 60s were pretty rowdy places to play.

“Yeah it was insane. They’d be fighting in there or they get drunk and some of the men would get jealous because some other man was talking to his woman. I remember when Little Walter played, he was a handsome dude and the women were crazy about him, so there’d be a fight even before the show was over. Little Walter was crazy.”

Snooky Pryor told me about a place called the ‘Bucket o’ Blood’ you ever play there?

“I remember that. There was a place called the ‘Bucket o’ Blood’ and we weren’t allowed to go in there. My friends…it was in Chicago and my buddies, you know I’d hear them talk about the Bucket o’ Blood and I knew where it was, but I was too afraid to go in there!” (laughing)

Tell us about your association with Sammy Lawhorn.

“I got the chance to play at Theresa’s Lounge with him. I didn’t know nothin’ about Sammy and I started working at Theresa’s in 1972 and Sammy was the guitar player ’cause Muddy had fired him. He fired him because he’d always go onstage and get drunk and be playing, you know? Muddy was frustrated and would say something to him and Sammy would cuss him. F you MF. And Muddy got tired of it, so he said it again a few times. Muddy pointed his finger at him and said, ‘you got one more time to say that to me.’ So, they were at a college playing, Sammy got drunk, drunk and Muddy looked down and Sammy had peed all over himself. Muddy was playing and just stopped! He told everybody, ‘Excuse Me!’ and Sammy was sitting on his amp playing and Muddy slapped him off the amp! POW! And the bouncers came in got Sammy by the foot and pulled him off the stage and he was fired. He played with Muddy for 15 years.

He’d get drunk at Theresa’s when I got down there, he’d get drunk and I’m a rhythm guitar player and that was the worst time. When he’d get drunk, I was so nervous and scared, what am I gonna do?”

What did you learn from that relationship?

“Oh man, I learned…7 years. He told me, ‘learn what I play, but you can’t be me.’ Learn what I play, but I won’t be here forever and you’ll be playing this. I started learning slide by listening to him.”

Theresa’s Lounge for seven years?

“Seven years, seven nights a week!”

With Junior Wells and Sammy Lawhorn, that’s crazy.

“Yeah, Junior Wells and Sammy Lawhorn. I’d just stay in the back and watch people drink and get drunk.” (laughing) “…drinking whiskey and stuff. I’ve never been a drinker and put myself through that. And when I did try it, it was a down for me and made me sluggish and I couldn’t play nothin’ right. Playing music for me was more important than drinking. You don’t have to get drunk to play music.”

You seem to always enjoy sharing your stage with others. Inviting people up to play with you and the band, it’s like mentoring in real time.

“It don’t bother me when other people come up and play. You know why? Because they can’t play what I play.” (Sammy Lawhorn 101) “And I can’t play what they play. So I don’t worry about it, let’ em go ahead…I like for them to shine. The better they play, the better I sound! Sammy Lawhorn told me, ‘look, don’t worry about what the next person is playing, ’cause I was playing rhythm. When someone comes up and starts playing that good lead and stuff, play that good rhythm and people are going to be paying attention to you. And they do, ‘how do you play rhythm like that? Hey, if you stand up there and play with all them drunk people for seven years…”

Junior Wells had a pretty wild reputation.

“I never had a problem playing behind Junior. Junior was very good to work with. When I met him they was playing in this club called ‘Peyton Place.’ Sam Goode took me down there, because he knew the band needed a guitar player. He introduced me on a break and he said, ‘when we go back, I’ll call you up.’ They went back to playing and they called me up. They were playing blues or whatever, I knew it anyway. I stayed and played with them all night. Junior told me, ‘Hey man, you sound great I like the way you play. I tell you what I got this gig down on 48th Street and Indiana called Theresa’s Lounge.’ I’d never heard of the place, ’cause I never went to the Southside. Junior said, ‘You meet me down there Sunday, I’m gonna’ be rehearsing ’cause I fixin’ to quit…’cause I’m tired of this shit.'” (laughing) ‘Three o’clock!’

So, I’m on the Westside and caught the L to 55th Street and caught a bus over to Indiana Street and caught another bus…at that time the Blackstone Rangers, they ruled the Southside. Their club was on 4801 So. Indiana and I got off the bus a block before because I didn’t quite know…and the bus didn’t stop there you had to go to 47 Street. I got off at 49th. And when that bus pulled off, man…Ohh! I was so afraid, when the bus pulled off, I pulled off, too! And when that bus got to 48th Street, I was at Theresa’s. I ran all the way there with my guitar! I wanted to play, you know?”

Did you ever run into Hubert Sumlin in those days?

“You know in seven years, I never saw Hubert, he was too famous with Howlin’ Wolf. He never came down there. But I played with Louis Myers and Dave Myers, the Four Aces, Fred Below all those guys. They come down there and play sometimes.”

Didn’t you play on Louis Myers last recordings?

“Right, sure did. It was good, it was tough because he was kinda’ sick, but it was good, man. I knew his music because they used to come in Theresa’s and sometimes him and Dave would play the whole night on a weekend. I learned a lot from them, I learned a lot from those guys, man. And they taught me a lot, showed me what to play and when to play it.”

You also played on James Cotton’s ‘Take Me Back’ album. (laughing)

“Aw man, James Cotton was something else, man. When he’d come back in town, that’s where he’d come; Theresa’s. And they’d hang out all night and be out until daylight…Whiskey and cocaine. I toured with him all over, Phoenix, Denver he was trip, man.”

How did your association with Willie Dixon’s All-Stars come about?

“I was playing at Theresa’s and Willie Dixon came down and I’d be singing all the Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters stuff. I was lookin’ who is this big guy sittin’ there? I didn’t know who he was. In 1979 he needed a guitar player to go to Mexico.” (Willie Dixon’s All-Stars) Primer in his best low growl Willie Dixon impression… ‘Hey, I like the way you play. You know my stuff and I need a guitar player to go to Mexico, you interested?’ I said Yeah! ‘Do you have a passport?’ I said no. ‘Tell you what, I’ll be by your house on Monday and we’ll go downtown and get you a passport. You got any money?’ I said no. A passport cost $80 bucks, man. ‘You can just pay me.’

That late 70s All-Stars tour had some talent.

“Koko Taylor, Muddy Waters, Big Bill Broonzy, the guy that had the guitar strings all tied up there.” (laughing) “Larry Davis. That’s when Muddy heard me play…with them. Before they came up to play, Muddy and Dixon were back there talking and Muddy ask him (Primer in his best Muddy impression) ‘who-who’s that young man…playing that guitar…up there?’ (Primer does Dixon’s growl) ‘That’s John Primer…he works down at Theresa’s.’ Muddy responded, ‘That man sure knows my music.’ So, in 1980 when Muddy’s band quit, he called Willie Dixon and asked for me.”

You worked with Muddy till he passed?

“Yeah, about two and a half years.”

From listening to Muddy when you were a child, then getting that call to come play with him…I just can’t imagine.

“It was my dream; I had a dream when I was in Mississippi at about 14 years old about playing in Muddy’s band. So my dream came true. I was jumping for joy when they came down there and got me. Mojo Buford came down there.” Primer in his best Mojo impression… ‘Muddy needs a guitar player, he sent me down to ask you, did you want to join the group?’ “What? Man, I jumped for joy. Lovie Lee playing piano, Jessie Clayton was the first guy to play drums, but he didn’t want to go out of town, he didn’t want to leave his wife. So I took Lovie Lee and we went and got ‘Killer’ Ray Allison and a guy named Rick Kreher. Rick is playing on my latest CD, ‘Hard Times.’ The last guitar players to play with Muddy Waters was him and I. So, I gotta’ chance to play with Muddy, man. I was full of joy; I didn’t even go to sleep that night, waiting for Mojo to come get me.”

Then came the Holt’s…

“Magic Slim! It was right on time for me ’cause Slim was another guy like Muddy; workin’ hard, a workin’ man and workin’ all the time. Thirteen years.”

Your first recording under your own name was with Michael Frank in the 90s, ‘Stuff You Got to Watch.’

“He was the first guy who came to me to record me. I was doing stuff with ‘Wolf Records’ people coming from Europe to record me. But ‘Stuff You Got to Watch’ was my first American record…with Michael.”

There are so many people that you’ve played with, but the Stones with Muddy at the Checkerboard Lounge…that’s just wildness.

“That one video, it helped me out, a lot.” John remembers. “People didn’t really recognize me too much when I was playing with Willie Dixon but when I got with Muddy Waters; it really put the icing on the cake for me. The thing I learned from Willie Dixon was how to write blues.”

Primer’s latest release, ‘Hard Times’ is a testament to that. John wrote all thirteen songs on the new record. “All originals.” he smiles. “I wrote everything on there, except one song. My daughter has one on there.” The new project also debut’s John’s daughter, Aliya Primer. “She’s seventeen years old and she can sing.” He beams. “We used to take her on tour with us everywhere…she was two or three years old and traveling around.”

Discography, I lost track after about 87 albums. You are a prolific session player. You’ve been featured on or have performed on 87 recordings? That’s incredible in itself.

“Probably more than that.” John grins. “That’s just where I lost count. I did all the Wolf stuff, all the guys that had been forgotten and they got them and took them in the studio and recorded them.”

(Authors note: Wolf Records is out of Vienna, Austria and what’s really fascinating about the label and probably why they are still so popular; it was started by blues music fans with an appreciation of all things blues; from the early originators to the contemporary Chicago blues sound.)

You played with Magic Slim on a Tribute album to ‘Hound Dog’ Taylor.

“That guy was amazing. He had like six fingers on each hand. He cut one of them off…or tried to cut it off.”

No…why? Why would he do that?

John just shakes his head “guess it just got in his way of playin’!” Bluesmen, you gotta’ love ’em!

From your perspective, as a long-standing participant and knowing so many of the younger players coming up, how do you feel about the state of the blues today?

“To me, I’m loving it and it’s looking good.” And if I ask you about your own musical direction? “I’m not going to change the state of the blues; I’m going to keep it real…the original sound and keeping it as close to the original stuff that I learned and I don’t try to change it. Everything you see me playing on stage is going to be real close to the original stuff. All I need is a four-piece band, maybe a keyboard. I would always have a harmonica in my band. I would not have a band without a harmonica player.”

Speaking of playing on stage and harp players, you’re on the road now with Bob Corritore, what’s that like?

“Bob is great to work with, he ain’t gonna’ fuss atcha’!” (laughing) “But he’s a hard working man and he’s gonna’ make you do it right!”

You have a new album out, ‘Hard Times’ that you’re touring behind. You’ve been nominated for Grammy’s twice, you’ve received not one, but two Lifetime Achievement Awards and you’re in the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame. What’s left to accomplish?

“Well, I’m just going to keep on pushing, keep on trying. I’m doing what I love to do, so if I don’t get it, I ain’t going to sweat it, I’m going to keep on doing it, till I get it.”

You always look like you’re having fun on stage, does music keep you young?

“No, my wife keeps me young!” (laughing) “She keeps me in good health and everything.”

As you look down the road do you see a future with blues in it?

“Well, I hope people will pay more attention to the blues, just to see what it’s all about. There’s not many people around now playing the real stuff. You can put whatever you want into the blues and I say this all the time, you cannot change the blues. You can add rock and roll players and call it blues. It’s not the real blues, but I like what they do and I’ve got nothing against it because… they’re keeping the blues alive! So I give them the respect.”

Last Call, describe John Primer’s blues.

“It’s the traditional blues, the way it was played, the way it was made. That’s the way I play it. I don’t try to change it. Not just blues, but all music has got to have a feeling. You don’t get up there for the hell of it or to just show off. If you don’t have the feeling of it, you just can’t do it. My feelings come from hard times and hard living and that’s the way I play…from my heart.”

Amen.

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Surviving members of the Muddy Waters Band – just one of the highlights of the ’93 Long Beach Blues Festival. Photo: T.E. Mattox

A Delta blues overload most certainly, but the highpoint for me was the opportunity to sit for a few minutes with Robert Jr. Lockwood and talk briefly about his life, the music and his amazing longevity in the blues. It started with the most obvious topic, growing up around the mythical King of the Delta Blues Singers; Robert Johnson. Lockwood was often referred to as the stepson of the legend, but he was adamant about their relationship.

Was your mother married to Robert Johnson? “No, she was not!” Lockwood said. “My mother lived with Robert Johnson.” Was that your introduction to the guitar? “No, there were guitar players all over the country out there where I was born.” Lockwood was born in Turkey Scratch, Arkansas March 27, 1915 and he smiles when he adds. “Well, I guess Robert Johnson was my choice, but I knew a whole lot of other guitar players.”

What were your first memories of Robert Johnson? “He followed my mother home. And she couldn’t get rid of him.” (laughing) He was so young when he passed. “I don’t know how old he was when he died. He was a young man, yeah.” Why do you think he remains so popular? “Why?” Lockwood repeats. “The reason he’s so popular today is because he was before his time.”

Did you learn a lot from him? “He was my teacher.”

Your road is filled with blues elders, when did you first meet Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller)? “I first met him when he came to my home in 1929.” Did you play on the street with him for awhile? “Yeah, around Arkansas and in Mississippi.” When did you start on ‘King Biscuit Time’ on KFFA? “That started in 1940. SonnyBoy had that first.”

In the 1950s you moved to Chicago, tell me a little about Roosevelt Sykes? “Well, I don’t have a favorite story, but he was a very nice man. We was like brothers, yeah. I worked with Roosevelt’s band about, close to two years. We did quite a bit of moving around, yes.”

You also worked with Eddie Boyd. “Yeah, I worked with Eddie about four years.”
Muddy? “You got everybody on there!? How’d you find all that stuff out?” (laughing)
I told you, I was a fan! (laughing) “Well, I played a little bit with Muddy’s band, not a lot. But I done a lot of recording with him.”

Sunnyland Slim? “Sunnyland and me had a trio together and a 4-piece together.”

The blues have taken you all over the world; you’ve toured in Europe and weren’t you one of the first blues players to tour in the Far East? “I was one of the first to go to Japan. My first trip to Japan was Tokyo and Osaka.” Did they give you a nice reception? “A lot better than America!” (laughing) “You trying to get me in trouble?” (laughing)

Johnny Winter once said he believed audiences overseas have more respect for American blues and American blues players because they don’t have as much access to it as the U.S. does. So, European and Asian blues fans show more appreciation for it when it comes their way.

Robert Jr. just smiles and says. “They treat me pretty good in the States, but they treat me better outside the States.”

Did you know Charlie Christian? “I never got a chance to meet him, I heard a lot about him and we were doing some of the same type of things when he was living, but Charlie was a horn player and a lot of people don’t know that. Yeah, he was an alto player.”

I didn’t know that. Do you play other instruments? “I play bass and piano a little bit.”

Tell me about the ‘Grapes of Wrath’ in Cleveland? “Ohhh! That was a little small place when I first started and tried to put a band together, I worked down there.”

Any rowdy clubs you can recall? “I don’t know…what do you mean by rowdy? 90% of the clubs have fights, how can I pick out one?” (laughing)

Can you describe Robert Jr. Lockwood’s blues? “Un-uh! My blues is so wide, my blues runs in every direction.”

Any new recordings what can we anticipate from Robert Jr. Lockwood? “I intend to do some more recording in the near future with about 9-pieces. And it’ll be jazz, too!” That’s great; jazz isn’t really new to you, is it? “Well, I’ve been playing it practically all of my life! There’s not a big difference between jazz and blues, because blues comes in all forms.”

You knew Willie Dixon? “He was a very good friend. I worked for Chess for 17 years.”

Robert Jr Lockwood on stage in France. Courtesy Lioneldecoster, Wkimedia Commons

At this festival they recreated KFFA’s ‘King Biscuit Time’ radio with Pinetop Perkins, Rufus Thomas and host, ‘Sunshine’ Sonny Paine; will you continue to perform with them? “I’ll help them out if they need it.” Do you like playing festivals? “It’s alright, it’s all work…it’s all work.”

And the man was nothing if not productive. Talking with producer, friend and fellow musician, Bob Corritore, he remembered a number of wonderful memories and time spent with Robert Jr. Lockwood. “I first met Robert in probably 1977 or ’78?” Bob says. “It was when the Paradise Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma had just opened up. I was going to college there, and Robert Lockwood whom I’d been a fan of for years at that point…from the Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson records…and he was playing in Tulsa for three or four days. So I went…everyday! I sat with him on breaks and he just kind of took me in as an adopted blues child. And that was the roll I would have with him for the rest of his life.”

Bob Corritore and Robert Jr. in studio. Photo courtesy of Dick Rice

You produced the album, ‘The Legend Live!’ “I got to take him into recording situations five times, which I feel good about!” Corritore says. “Robert was so disciplined, every time he came into town he’d ask me to bring him a practice amp so he could work on his music. He practiced every day, and he did pushups every day to stay in shape. He was filled with discipline and if you think about it, he had learned that style of Robert Johnson as a young man and that style was so physically involved, you had to have so much co-ordination between playing the bass notes and the melody lines spontaneously and he studied that every day. In the process he added his own embellishments and he actually made it more decorative than Robert Johnson had done…and I so admired him for that.”

As we wrapped up our conversation with Mr. Lockwood I asked if he’d ever thought about retirement. “It’s too late for me to retire!” He laughed. Did you ever work outside of music, other jobs? “No, no, no. I don’t know what I would have done. I started playing when I was eight years old. I started playing music at eight, yeah. So, I ain’t done too much work!”

We lost Robert Jr. Lockwood from respiratory failure November 21, 2006 at the age of 91. According to Bob Corritore the funeral held in the city of Cleveland was truly befitting “a statesman…a King’s sendoff.”And that is as it should be.

The post Robert Jr. Lockwood: ‘My Blues Is So Wide, It Runs in Every Direction’ appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Luther Tucker loved the blues. Born in Memphis in 1936 his path in life seemed pre-destined when he moved to Chicago in the early 1940s. His mother played piano and she would eventually introduce young Luther to some of Chicago’s most legendary bluesmen. Luther remembers, “It was very exciting. My mother took me over to the club of Mr. Big Bill Broonzy, he had a club over on the Southside, and my first introduction to the blues was Mr. Muddy Waters.” That meet and greet would leave an indelible mark on Luther’s direction. When we sat down in the late 1980’s, Tucker was touring with the James Cotton band behind Cotton’s ‘Take Me Back’ album.

You’ve been around the music a very long time, what are the blues to Luther Tucker? “The Blues will never die, everybody’s got the blues. I had some pretty good times and some pretty rough times and it’s all in life, every day brings a change.” And when pressed, the most memorable of those two, were of course, “the good times; I had the pleasure of recording with some very famous musicians; Mr. Little Walter, Mr. Muddy Waters, Mr. Sonny Boy Williamson and Mr. James Cotton also. It was a pleasure having the opportunity to express my feeling toward the blues. I loved every minute.”

You were part of Little Walter’s band in the 50s. “He was quite some character, a very lively fellow, outspoken sometimes. A very beautiful musician, he had a beautiful talent for the harmonica. He was one of the best at the time.”

You’re currently playing with James Cotton on the ‘Take Me Back’ tour. And you’ve backed on guitar some of the greatest bluesmen that ever lived. Muddy loved you, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson and more recently Kim Wilson and Charlie Musselwhite? “Yes, I’ve played with Charlie. About ten years ago I was in his band, for maybe about a year and a half. He’s a very fine musician.”

Let’s talk a little about your road. “In my younger days, I enjoyed running up and down the road, you know? It was exciting to see different cities and the different atmosphere. It was great, but now that I’m getting older, I want to settle down and kick back!” (laughing) “I’ve been living in California for the last 22 years since I left the James Cotton blues band. I think Marin County is my spot. I’m trying to get away from that snow!” (laughing) “I lived in Chicago for 29 years.”

Bet you have some great Chicago club stories? “It was very exciting. When I was getting started my mother took me over to the club of Mr. Big Bill Broonzy, he had a club over on the Southside, 37th and Cottage Grove and my first introduction to the blues was Mr. Muddy Waters. He was playing at this club, Mr. Sunnyland Slim was playing piano, Mr. Robert Lockwood, Jr. was playing guitar and they had some little fella’ named Shorty, he used to be with the band, this was years ago, like 1951 or something like that. And my mom introduced me to these gentlemen playing in this nightclub, Mr. Muddy Waters, Mr. Sunnyland Slim and Mr. Robert Jr. and I loved the way they sound, you know? And I said, ‘Hey, I’d like to be a musician, I like that sound and I’d like to be a part of it.’ That helped me make my decision and my feeling toward the music and it really kept me outta’ trouble, too. I used to run up and down the street, you know? Young and nothing to do, but that gave me something to do, and I started practicing.”

Did you ever play out on the street? “I went to Belgium about five or six years ago and I did it for fun. In the piazza’s to see how exciting it was… and it was beautiful.”

You’re originally from Memphis? “That’s where I started from. I left Memphis when I was about eight years old.” Memphis is known as the ‘home of the blues.’ “I’ve always had thoughts to go back there and check it out just one more time, maybe someday I will.”

You worked with John Lee Hooker a few times? “Aw, he’s another beautiful musician. I worked on two or three of his albums, something like that. It was a pleasure playing with the gentleman. He was a very fine gentleman and very fine musician.”

Your road has taken so many directions; do you feel good about how things have turned out? “Well, I’m still learning. Right now, I’m learning how to learn.” (laughing) “And it feels great. I’m learning how to be a musician and it’s so beautiful to be playing music. I’m learning more each day, practice makes perfect.”

This tour with Cotton you are playing both clubs and theaters? “About half and half and each time it’s different. It’s a good feeling and it seems like every crowd enjoys it more, until the next crowd, and then the crowd after that, it’s just beautiful. We opened for John Lee Hooker last night.”

After this tour, you head back home? “Yeah, each one of us has our own band, mine is the Luther Tucker band and we’re in Marin County.”

The fact that you meet Muddy so early in your career, what do remember the most from that Chess era? “He was a very beautiful musician; he really made an impression on my music playing. It was always a pleasure playing and recording with him.”

How about Willie Dixon? “He was in the studio almost every time I was in there. Every time you look around, Mr. Willie Dixon was there. He was a great producer and wrote a lot of good blues. He wrote for Muddy, he wrote for Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson and so many people.”

You also worked with Otis Rush. “Yes, I played with him about three years. He’s a very fine musician. I love his voice.” And you knew Sonny Boy Williamson II? “Yes, I had the pleasure of recording with him. Quite some harmonica player and had a feeling for it, too. Blues with a feeling? Nobody could do it like Little Walter!” He smiles. “Nobody could do it like Mr. Little Walter.”

How about Big Walter, Shakey Walter Horton? “He was one of the greatest, just like Little Walter. Unfortunately, some people have bigger appetites than the others.”

One more, Otis Spann. “Oh, he was quite some piano player. I worked with him with Mr. Muddy Waters, Mr. Sonny Boy Williamson and Mr. Little Walter. He recorded with quite a few musicians. He and my mom used to sit down at the piano and play together and that was some playing… I’ll never forget that. It really got me interested in playing. My mother she played piano, one of those unknown musicians, you know? That’s the way it goes sometimes.

We lost Luther Tucker from cardiac arrest in June of 1993, he was just 57 years old.

The post Luther Tucker – Everybody’s Got the Blues 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.)

The post Carey Bell Blues appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Ayacucho, Peru

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Trulli, Alberobello, Italy

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