MIDWEST BLUES BEAT

MONTHLY COLUMN

 by Eric Steiner

WE’VE ALL GOT A FRIEND LIKE STEVE

Last month, Beat Boss Tom Lounges celebrated his 43rd birthday.  This month, I’m celebrating the 15th anniversary of my 29th birthday, just one year older than our fearless leader.  Like Tom, I’m not going gracefully into middle age by anyone’s definition.  I’m rocking and rolling into middle age, with more than a touch of blues….     

I’m pleased to report that I’ve contributed to the blues education of a real dyed in the tie-dye rocker.  I knew it had to happen, but it’s a recipe that we all can follow, one blues fan at a time.  If you’ve got a friend like my friend Steve, it’s a good place to spread the word about the blues.     

A while back, my friend Steve asked me about music. We’d bumped into each other at PTA meetings and school functions all school year since our daughters were in the same fifth grade class. At “Curriculum Night,” we’d smile and nod politely to each other as our daughters would show off their latest science or history projects.       

Late one Saturday afternoon, Steve returned Jessica home and asked me about the blues.  “What kind of music do you listen to?,” he asked.     

I told him about my passion for the blues, and brought out a couple issues of Midwest Beat – the ones with my article on Sam Lay and the one with Ted Nugent on the cover.  Being a rocker at heart, he perked right up when he saw Terrible Ted.  I turned to the CD player and played “Mannish Boy” and “Baby Please Don’t Go” (Muddy’s version, not Ted’s guitar-fueled hard rock take).       

Steve nodded his head and smiled as Calvin “Fuzz” Jones and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith propelled these two Muddy Waters classics behind Jerry Portnoy’s harp and Johnny Winter’s slide, with Muddy right out front.  Steve took the bait.  Hook, Fender Strat, and sinker.      

After a respectful minute or two passed, I lent him a few CDs that I thought would be great introductions to the blues:  “Muddy “Mississippi” Waters Live” and Hound Dog Taylor and the House Rockers’ first CD on Alligator, and the Chicago Blues Posse’s “One Shot Deal.”    

The following week, Steve asked me if I wanted to see his record collection.      

“There’s not much blues in there,” he apologized. “I’m working on it, though, ‘cause I’m beginning to get hooked on the blues.”

 Bingo, I thought.

      I turned the pages of five or six CD notebooks and was very, very impressed.  Like me, Steve’s resisting middle age in a big way.  His musical tastes were forged in the ‘70s with discs like “Paranoid” and “Master of Reality” (Black Sabbath), “Machine Head” and “Live in Japan” (Deep Purple), “Casino” (Al Dimeloa), and “Abraxas” (Santana), “Still River” (Ronnie Earl) among hundreds of others.       

Familiar names like Stevie Vai, Duke Robillard, Ted Nugent, Walter Trout, and Santana (many times over) filled his record collection.  Guitar monsters to say the least.  When I was leafing through his CDs, I didn’t know that Steve himself was a monster in training, but more about that later.       

Then, I found it.  B.B. King’s “Live at the Regal.”  I knew there was hope for Steve after all. 

         “I’m also into a Chicago guitarist named Luther Allison. Have you heard of him?,” he asked.  I almost fainted.  Here was a man who could be saved.  I almost started to cry. 

      We went into his living room for an adult beverage.  In his day job, Steve is a crane operator and he gets quite a physical workout from 9 to 5, plus overtime.  My workouts in my white collar day job usually consist of jumping to conclusions or sidestepping conflict, but if Steve pulls the wrong lever up or down up in the basket of the crane, there’s some potentially serious problems for those working beneath him on the shop floor below.    

Two guitars stood in front of his fireplace.  I saw Carlos Santana play the same Paul Reed Smith model on music videos, and the other guitar was also an American classic.  The kind that Mark Knopfler played on “Sultans of Swing,” a Fender Stratocaster. 

 I’ve written about music for years, but haven’t played an instrument since I took accordion lessons at the Symphony School of Music in Chicago Heights in the 1960’s.  After talking to local bluesman Little Johnny Moore a couple of months ago, and listening to Steve play, I’ve been thinking more and more lately about playing.  Little Johnny’s offered me some very helpful tips, and one day, I just might follow his advice.       

Steve plugged into his Mesa Boogie Heartbreaker amp and we continued our conversation.  He first picked up the guitar a few years ago, and is largely self-taught.  I was amazed at how easy Steve made it look.  His fingers danced up and down the Strat’s fretboard and he got into a blues groove that was second to none.  He put the Chicago Blues Posse on and played right along with Mike Gallemore & Co. as they went “Walkin’ The Dog” or “Up and Down the Avenue.”

     Wow!  When he played the Strat, I heard the tone, and the rhythm, of a genuine blues man.

      When he returned my discs to me a few weeks later, he asked me if I heard of Son Seals.  As Billy Bragg has said far more eloquently than I ––  “I knew then that I was preaching to the converted.”    

Last week, I saw Steve at the local CD store.  In the checkout line, he had CDs from Son Seals, Luther Allison, Rory Block, and Ronnie Earl. 

     We’ve all got friends like Steve.  Some are players and some are listeners.  If you know of anyone who’s interested in just a little bit more for their CD collection, send them over toward the blues.  A good place to start would be this month’s CD Spins. 

LOCAL BLUES TO CATCH!

 Don’t miss N.W. Indiana’s Steepwater Band when they share the stage at House of Blues on July 11 with blues rock icon, Paul Rodgers and Bad Company.     

Then Munster, Indiana hosts its’ 10th annual “Blues, Jazz and Arts on the Ridge” fest on the Town Hall Lawn on July 13th and 14th. The always remarkable Ronnie Baker Brooks is the top dog at this year’s event.  Don’t miss him!