It was around 1990, I was learning my way around the blues, and my friend Kathe had a CD she wanted me to hear.
Bless Kathe's heart. She had a killer voice and good stage presence, and we'd hit the jam sessions together. I'm still amazed at how she was able to belt out a song like that though she was confined to a wheelchair -- you'd really have to adjust your air column to do something like that. Shoot, just blowing a wind instrument, I can't do it sitting down. I have to play standing up.
Anyway, this album was Bonnie Raitt's first, and it had the feeling of a front-porch picking party. But Kathe wanted me to hear the harmonica player. "He kind of sounds like you," she said.
That was the first time I'd really listened to Junior Wells.
Junior's been dead since 1998, but if he was still around he'd be celebrating his 75th birthday this week. He was a gang kid when he was known as Amos Wells Blakemore Jr., but developed a reputation as a harmonica player. Still in his teens, he was with a group called The Aces.
Among Chicago blues harp players, there was one job in the world to have -- playing in Muddy Waters' band. Muddy knew talent, he knew blues, and he knew harp players. During Wells' Aces days, Muddy had Little Walter Jacobs in the harp slot -- the guy that all harmonica players try to emulate. We have 50 years' worth of harp players using Fender Bassman amps and Shure Green Bullet microphones -- modeled after a taxi mic -- for gear, and they're all trying to replicate the honking, distortion-heavy Little Walter sound.
For some reason, though, Little Walter and Wells traded jobs. Walter got The Aces, and Junior, by virtue of his seat in Muddy's band, became the heavyweight champion of harps.
After his time with Waters, Wells struck out on his own, recording songs like "Messin' With The Kid" and "Hoodoo Man Blues." But it was a long association with guitarist Buddy Guy that kept Junior active and in the forefront.
I have some tracks of Junior and Buddy together, a live set at the House Of Blues in Chicago. It was just those two, playing and singing with no real heavy equipment. Their blues were about as lean as you can get, with Guy alternating between chords and single-note runs, and Wells playing in short bursts, phrasing his stuff. Really an unconventional recording, without filler. A little hard to listen to at first because it's so stripped down, but once you get accustomed to the feel of it, an enjoyable recording.
And no, Junior didn't sound like me. He'd never even heard of me. I wouldn't mind sounding like Junior, if I couldn't sound like myself. Or something. But he was right up there with the Little Walters and Sonny Boy Williamsons in the harp world.
###
No comments:
Post a Comment