Fabrizio Poggi: The Blues is a Miracle

Fabrizio Poggi is one of Europe’s finest exponents of the blues. Hailing from the north of Italy, Fabrizio has recorded over twenty albums and has shared stages with numerous top blues artists including The Blind Boys of Alabama, Eric Bibb and John Hammond. He’s the author of four books on the blues and has been touring this year with Guy Davis, promoting their new Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee album. Down at the Crossroads was delighted to get the chance to chat to this blues enthusiast and master of the blues harmonica.

Photo by Riccardo Piccirillo

Fabrizio – you’re a blues harmonica player. Tell us a bit about how you started on this blues journey and what drew you to the harmonica.

To quote my good friend and harp legend Charlie Musselwhite, music in general “overtook me when I was a little child.” While other kids spent their spare time playing soccer or riding bicycles, I stayed inside all day long listening to records. Every kind of music. My favourite toys were a drum, a toy piano and, of course, an out of tune harmonica. Then one day I saw Paul Butterfield playing Mystery Train in a movie called “The Last Waltz” and my life changed forever.

Maybe nowadays it seems a little strange but most of the things I learnt in my younger days came from records. There were no computers, Google or YouTube, and musical instructional books were very difficult to find. It was hard, very hard. It took me six months to learn something that today a kid can learn in one day. Also with English language was the same. I always make a joke of it but my English teachers really were Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf.

What is it about this music that you find compelling or attractive? Is it just entertainment or is there more to it?

Oh yes, much more. To me the blues is a miracle and a miracle is always difficult to explain with simple words. The miracle of the blues is that it’s so full of power and wisdom that it touches every heart throughout the world.  Mine too! It doesn’t matter where you were born, what language you speak, or what colour your skin is.  Blues and spirituals, and music in general, are amazing gifts – often from wonderful unknown singers – to heal people’s souls. With the blues I have my own connection to the shared human conditions of struggle, darkness, and pain cloaked in redemption, overcoming, and freedom.

Blues taught to be simple and humble. To love and respect people that come to my shows. To be nice with them. Because often they tell me some precious words that keep me going on when the wind of life sometimes blows too hard against me.
The blues taught me to play from the heart. Always.

I know you’ve played with a lot of well-known blues artists. Tell us about some of the people your played or toured with.

I had the privilege to share the stage, and to record with The Blind Boys of Alabama, Charlie Musselwhite, Guy Davis, Marcia Ball, Ronnie Earl, Kim Wilson,  John Hammond, Sonny Landreth, Garth Hudson of THE BAND and Bob Dylan, Eric Bibb, Ruthie Foster, Mike Zito, Bob Margolin, Flaco Jiménez, Steve Cropper, Otis Taylor, Richard Thompson…

They are so many that it’s impossible to talk about them all. We’d need a big book!

Most of them were heroes of my youth (and still they are). When I was sixteen and I was in my little room in a little town in northern Italy listening to their records, I didn’t imagine that one day I would play with them. I really feel blessed.

There are not enough words to explain how moving it was to play with these people. I still have goose bumps talking about that. It was amazing. Great artists and wonderful human beings. But having the opportunity to sing with the legendary Blind Boys of Alabama was one of the highest musical privileges in my life. Every time I listen to my recordings with them I still sit in humble disbelief hearing my voice singing with theirs. Most of them called me brother and every time I think about that I am moved to tears.

And you’ve released a couple of albums with Guy Davis, one just this year, a homage to Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, which has been very well received. How did this collaboration come about, and how do you find collaborating with Guy?

My first encounter with Guy Davis dates back to 2007 when we met at a blues festival in Italy. Between us was born almost immediately a deep friendship based not only on mutual respect but also about the passion we both have for the most authentic acoustic folk blues. Over the past years, our close personal links materialized in live shows, and then Guy recorded a couple of tracks on my album Spirit & Freedom. After that we did Juba Dance which I also produced artistically and I also was a special guest on Kokomo Kidd. To play at his side is something that always amazes me and makes me proud because Guy Davis really is one of the last great masters of the blues, a direct heir of Robert Johnson and John Lee Hooker.

Guy and I are extremely fascinated by the primitive sound of the blues and spirituals — the music that was played “without electricity” under the front porch of those shacks scattered among cotton fields of the Southern States. Also, the acoustic sound allows us to better tell the stories that are in and around this mysterious and magical musical genre. Every album we did together is a perfect picture of the encounter, the embrace, and the total and complete fusion between two musicians from seemingly distant worlds, light years away. Sometimes I think that this happened just because probably in another life, Guy and I were brothers and already playing the blues just for fun on the porch of our house… not just for us … but thinking about what would come next.

Tell us about the album, Fabrizio, and why you wanted to record it?

It’s another album we recorded together that I produced and is titled Sonny and Brownie’s Last Train. The CD, as the subtitle says, is a “A look back to Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry.” I think that now it’s the time to celebrate them for a new generation. I completely agree with what Guy wrote in the liner notes explaining the concept of the recording: “Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry were two musicians whose work will not be surpassed, let alone improved on… It features our combined musical talents, and is not meant to compete with the originals. It’s meant to be a love letter to Brownie and Sonny signed by the both of us. They were two of my favourites.” The idea for the album came from my lovely wife Angelina. One night she told me: “I’ve seen you and Guy playing together many, many times. I love it when you play together and I think that you two need to do a record dedicated to Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. Nobody’s done it yet, so you have to do it! You and Guy are the right musicians to do that record.” Guy and I stayed for two days in a recording studio in Milan and recorded all the songs live. The album is the result and I hope people like it. We put all our passion, love and respect for those two wonderful musicians and their music into it. I felt like they were seated in the studio with me and Guy, looking and smiling at us. The title track theme was my idea, and Guy in my opinion wrote a masterpiece just on the spot. When the song Sonny & Brownie’s Last Train was finally finished and recorded, Angelina and I were in tears. It is really a wonderful love letter to them.

When people think of Italian music, they might think of great opera or classical music, but the blues maybe isn’t the first thing people think of! So tell us about the interest there is currently in the blues in Italy.

I often say that among the great miracles of the blues is that it has become an international language; so nowadays you have great musicians playing great music all over the world. It doesn’t really matter where that musician comes from.

There are many people all around the world singing great opera tunes or playing classical music so behind the stereotypes, so why shouldn’t Italians be playing the blues? The important thing is the vibe, the connection, to be honest and sincere. So yes, there are great blues players here and many blues festivals. The blues is “alive and kickin’” in the land of pasta and pizza!

Also, I know that you’re a blues historian, Fabrizio, and have discovered that there are a number of threads that link Italy and the blues – not least that Italians that lived, worked and suffered alongside African Americans in a Mississippi plantation at the turn of the nineteenth century. Perhaps you could give us a flavour of that story?

It’s a story I discovered some years ago in Mississippi about Italian farmers and fishermen who, looking for a better life, around 1895, left their homes in Northern Italy to settle down in the cotton fields of the Delta. Their life was difficult because of the extreme conditions they had to endure: the mosquitoes carrying malaria, the frequent floods, and the racial discrimination all made their existence very hard. In 1865 at the end of the Civil War when slavery was abolished, a lot of black people, already free even if just by word of mouth, left the cotton plantations to emigrate to the northern States, leaving their owners “in difficulty.” Replacing tireless workers like the African-Americans wasn’t easy; so some owners decided to try and get other workers who were badly off but at the same time were expert labourers in the fields: the Italians. But they all were victims of a terrible trick. With the promise of a better life, men without scruples brought the Italians illegally into the United States, and then sent them on a “biblical” journey to the plantation of Sunnyside near Greenville, Mississippi, the world capital of cotton. The Italians lived and worked in close quarters with the black workers, and shared with them misery and misfortune.

Black people and Italians were not officially enslaved, but their life conditions were like real slavery. They lived in poor shacks on the sides of swamps infested by mosquitoes. Malarial fever was widespread and a lot of children died. The burden of debts oppressed Italian poor emigrants who worked hard, but were unable to emerge from a life made of “insects, scanty food and non-potable, green and stinking water.”

The Italians were often treated, if it is possible, as badly as the former slaves. And the African-Americans were the only ones who were gentle with them; they had passed through that hell, too. Together they withstood the racist vexations of the white ruling class. The Ku Klux Klan didn’t persecute just the black community, but also Italians. In the first decades of the 20th century, despite their sacrifice and their dignified misery, the Italians were considered just “ugly, dirty and bad.” In addition, some of them had dark skin and were thought of as black. In rural America, in the state of Mississippi, in that period of history, it often happened that groups of fanatical racists burned the houses, the stock pens, the schools, or the harvest of some poor Italian family. Together with black people, the Italians survived not only this, but nature’s fury: the frequent storms and floods that destroyed their poor houses.

Mississippi Juke Joint

So Italians were there when the blues were “invented.” In one book it says that “…outside Tribbett road, at Dean Plantation, there was a long wooden shed. In the first years of the 20th century, that was one of the places where black people met for playing and dancing the blues on Saturday evening, and the sound of blues was taking care of the pain of the Italians’ souls, too….” I don’t know if there are threads that link Italy and the blues. What I know for sure is that certainly the story of the “Delta Italians” is fascinating and proves that Italians along with black people, living and working together, have suffered strain and pain which gave rise to their singing. And for sure, African Americans and Italians sang in the fields. Maybe each one sang his own song. But they worked side by side in the same cotton fields, and perhaps the songs were mixed among themselves. Because music is like that; it is like the wind – it can’t be stopped.

You recorded an album with your band Chicken Mambo, entitled Mercy, which is mostly spirituals or gospel blues. Do you see some connection between the blues and faith or spirituality?

A few years ago, I read that for someone, “Hell is the experience of being separated from God.” After coming out of my deep depression, my own personal “hell on earth,” I realized that for me singing Blues and Spirituals was a way of staying connected to what I call “Heaven.”  Just as it was for African slaves in America, blues and spirituals, to me are sides of the same coin, and are my key to carrying on in this “mean ol’ world.”

What’s next for you Fabrizio?

I know that maybe it sounds pretty corny but what I really wish for my future is to play my harp until the day I’ll die. I hope on a stage! But if you want to stay tuned with my world and keep updated please visit my website www.chickenmambo.com

Fabrizio and Guy Davis are on tour during November and December in the UK.  http://guydavis.com/wp/tour/

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Sidemen: Long Road to Glory.

(Dir: Scott D. Rosenbaum)

Hubert Sumlin

Sidemen, narrated by Marc Maron, is a splendid tribute to three legendary bluesmen – pianist Pinetop Perkins, drummer Willie “Big Eyes” Smith and guitarist Hubert Sumlin. Over an hour and twenty minutes we get brief life histories of the three men, interviews and live performances by them, and tributes from a who’s who of the blues world, including Bonnie Raitt, Greg Allman, Joe Bonamassa, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, to name but a few. It’s a beautifully crafted film, utterly engaging and an overdue appreciation of three musicians who left an indelible mark not only on the blues, but on rock’n roll. Their role was to support, and yet their contribution was foundational for both Muddy Waters’ and Howlin’ Wolf’s bands. Today’s musicians interviewed in the film leave us in no doubt that these three helped redefine modern music as we know it.

The beauty of the film is in the intimate interviews and live performances shot shortly before Perkins, Smith and Sumlin passed away in 2011, though there is a wealth of concert footage of Waters, Wolf, Hendrix and the Rolling Stones over the years too. Both Perkins and Smith died a few months after their Grammy success for the “Joined at the Hip,” album. Perkins was 97, the oldest Grammy winner, and Smith 75. It was indeed a long road to glory.

The film strongly makes the case for Hubert Sumlin’s induction into the Rock’n Roll Hall of Fame. Not only was he an outstanding guitarist – number 43 in Rolling Stone’s Top 100 Guitarist list, but rated by Derek Trucks as much, much better than that – but he was, according to Kenny Wayne Shepherd, “an extraordinary example of a human being.”

Sidemen is an affectionate, but never sentimental, tribute to three top class musicians who were overshadowed by two titans of blues history, Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. Any music fan ought to enjoy this film; any blues fan will be delighted – indeed for them it is required viewing.

 

 

Racism is Evil

Racism is evil. That’s always been our stance at Down at the Crossroads. Anyone who knows anything about the blues knows that the blues grew up in the iniquity of the Jim Crow era in the United States and were a visceral response to the suffering and afflictions of the black community. Skip James’s Hard Time Killin’ Floor Blues captures the grim reality of the time for his community:

 

“Hard times is here
An’ everywhere you go,
Times are harder than ever been before.”

Leadbelly’s 1930 Jim Crow bemoaned the social situation he was in and pleaded, “Please get together, break up this old Jim Crow.” In Bourgeois Blues, he takes issue with the idea of America being the “land of the free” and “home of the brave” – for Leadbelly, it was somewhere he was “mistreated” by the “bourgeoisie.”

And Josh White’s Trouble in 1940 says bluntly, “Well, I always been in trouble, ‘cause I’m a black-skinned man.” All he could expect from life was “Trouble, trouble, ever since I was born.”

Despite the gains made since those days, racism has patently not gone away, and it’s been heartening to hear some of today’s artists putting it firmly in their sights. Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars takes a look at the current state of race in his country in Pray for Peace, and wonders just what is going on:

“I think our grandmothers would be broken hearted
To see their children’s children right back where we started…
Makes me want to holler, makes me want to moan.”

Other artists have recently echoed this theme: Jason Isbell in White Man’s World confronts the privileges and disadvantages inherent in American society because of race, and his own complicity in it:

“I’m a white man looking in a black man’s eyes
Wishing I’d never been one of the guys
Who pretended not to hear another white man’s joke.”

For a good summary of the problems of race in the US, check out Nicholas Kristof’s series of articles in the New York Times, entitled “When Whites Just Don’t Get It.” Outside of the evident problem of the shootings of unarmed blacks by law enforcement and the problems in the criminal justice system (just read Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy to understand more about this), Kristof points out that “overwhelming research show[s] that blacks are more likely to be suspended from preschool, to be prosecuted for drug use, to receive longer sentences, to be discriminated against in housing, to be denied job interviews, to be rejected by doctors’ offices, to suffer bias in almost every measurable sector of daily life.” The statistics tell their own story – and yet around 50% of white Americans today say that discrimination against whites is as big a problem as discrimination against blacks.

Which narrative feeds the hate and vileness spewing from the neo-Nazis and white supremacists who turned up in force last weekend in Charlottesville. And whose views and actions are given succour by the reaction of the American president. White separatist David Duke declared that this show of unity by the alt-right “fulfils the promises of Donald Trump.” The statements by Trump since Charlottesville have been quite simply shocking. Despite a half hearted attempt to condemn racism, he has doggedly held on to his narrative of “many sides” being responsible, thus effectively equating out and out hated-filled racism with protest, and lamented the removal of the “beautiful” statues and monuments that celebrate and glorify the defence of slavery – structures that for the most part were erected long after the civil war to bolster the Jim Crow system and opposed the Civil Rights movement.

Michael Eric Dyson is worth quoting at length here:

“Such an ungainly assembly of white supremacists rides herd on political memory. Their resentment of the removal of public symbols of the Confederate past — the genesis of this weekend’s rally — is fueled by revisionist history. They fancy themselves the victims of the so-called politically correct assault on American democracy, a false narrative that helped propel Mr. Trump to victory. Each feeds on the same demented lies about race and justice that corrupt true democracy and erode real liberty. Together they constitute the repulsive resurgence of a virulent bigotocracy.

This bigotocracy overlooks fundamental facts about slavery in this country: that blacks were stolen from their African homeland to toil for no wages in American dirt. When black folk and others point that out, white bigots are aggrieved. They are especially offended when it is argued that slavery changed clothes during Reconstruction and got dressed up as freedom, only to keep menacing black folk as it did during Jim Crow. The bigotocracy is angry that slavery is seen as this nation’s original sin. And yet they remain depressingly and purposefully ignorant of what slavery was, how it happened, what it did to us, how it shaped race and the air and space between white and black folk, and the life and arc of white and black cultures.”

We’re grateful for the music artists that are prepared to stand firmly against all of this. Wilco, for example, has just released a song in the wake of last weekend’s unrest. It’s called All Lives, You Say and takes on the “All Lives Matter” slogan which seeks to protest the Black Lives Matter movement.
“I can see you are afraid
Your skin is so thin
Your heart has escaped
All lives, all lives you say

…But you don’t know how to sing anything anyway
So all lives, all lives you say”

We can applaud too the broad coalition of local faith leaders called the Charlottesville Clergy Collective who resisted the racism in their town last weekend. “I’m trying to lead a church whose Christian identity leads my members to their politics, and not to have their politics lead them to the church,” said Rev. William Peyton, Rector of St. Paul’s Memorial Church, a mostly white Episcopalian congregation.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice

They are reflecting the God revealed in the Bible as one who “loves justice” and cares for the poor and oppressed. Just read the Psalms and the Hebrew prophets if you’ve any doubt about that. Jesus declared those blessed who sought after justice and peace. The apostle Paul said that a key component of the gospel for him and the other Christian leaders was “remembering the poor,” and that the kingdom of God consisted of “justice, peace and joy.” He also said that equality in Christ trumped all human divisions.

As Buddy Guy says in Skin Deep, “Skin Deep, Skin Deep, Underneath we’re all the same.”

That being the case, “We all gotta be careful, how we treat one another.” And Josh White in Free and Equal Blues: “Every man, everywhere is the same, when he’s got his skin off…That’s the free and equal blues!”

To quote Nicholas Kristof again:  “A starting point is for us whites to wake from our ongoing mass delusions, to recognize that in practice black lives have not mattered as much as white lives, and that this is an affront to values that we all profess to believe in.”

Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’ – Seven Things We Learned

Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ have teamed up for an album and tour under the name TajMo. We caught their gig at the lovely old theatre, the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London, which was packed with appreciative fans.

1. What a fabulous idea to bring two blues masters together in this way. Two performers with great stage presence, two very different but complementary singing styles and two people clearly with a love of life and music. Add to that mix an outstanding band with drums, bass, saxophone, brass, keyboards and two wonderful singers – and you have a recipe for a hugely entertaining night. Oh, and stir in Keb’ Mo’s guitar virtuosity (and his dazzling range of guitars – that PRS Semi!)

2. At 75, Taj Mahal’s still got his groove. He jiggled and shook his way onto the stage, shaking a pair of maracas, beaming broadly, as the band played him in, clearly delighted at the raucous reception from the London crowd. And, oh my, that voice – still strong, with a throaty rasp. The man can sing the blues – and play the guitar, harmonica, banjo and ukulele.

3. Keb’ Mo’ is a hugely talented songwriter, singer, guitarist and performer, but even he seemed to be delighted to be on the same stage as Taj Mahal. Mahal, of course, is a legendary artist who has been performing since the late 60s. As we waited to get into the venue I chatted to Randolph from New York City, who’d first seen and heard Taj Mahal at Woodstock in 1969. Mahal has released more than two dozen studio albums, as well as live albums, and contributions to other people’s records. He’s been nominated for nine Grammy awards, and won two Grammy’s for Best Contemporary Blues Album. Nobody was in any doubt that we were in the presence of a blues legend.

4. At ten years his junior, Keb’ Mo’ must have been delighted when, after another tasteful guitar solo, the older master called for a reprise with, “One more time, son.”

5. The collaboration of these two artists dispels the notion that the blues are downbeat or depressing. Friday evening was two solid hours of unmitigated joy. As Taj Mahal says, “Some people think that the blues is about being down all the time, but that’s not what it is. It’s therapeutic, so you can get up off that down.” The blues faces life head on, calls it like it is, but it’s a way to work through trouble and hard times. This performance was fun, even uplifting, and more than a thousand people went away after the performance with huge smiles on their faces and optimism in their souls.

6. Backing singers needn’t take a back seat. Taj Mahal’s two daughters, Zoe Moon and Deva Mahal smiled, grooved, danced, and of course – sang – their way into the audience’s affections throughout the course of the evening. Their joy in the music was infectious.

7. Keb’ Mo’ had obviously read our review of his concert last year in Union Chapel, where I bemoaned the fact that he hadn’t played a personal favourite of mine, Life is Beautiful. He, Taj and the band duly rectified that with a sweet version of the song. The setlist overall covered most of the songs on the TajMo album – which I’d highly recommend, by the way – a few Keb’ Mo’ songs and a couple more songs done by Taj Mahal in the past. At the beginning of the concert we had the up tempo Don’t Leave Me Here, a longing for the blues heartland of Mississippi, which drew the audience from the get-go. The band disappeared for a few songs along the way to allow Mahal on acoustic guitar and Mo’ on a Resonator to give us some nice country blues, including the Sleepy John Estes number Diving Duck Blues, which was particularly enjoyable. As the concert drew to a close, the Empire crowd sang and clapped along to Soul, with its African rhythms and world music feel. And let’s not forget All Around the World, with its indomitable optimism:

“What’s all the fuss about, why can’t people just get along?

Maybe we ought to talk about all the good we got goin’ on

Everybody knows there’s a better way

And we’re all hopin’ and prayin’ that one day

There’ll be love all Around the world

There will be peace and understanding All around the world

There will be joy All around the world

There will be happy children singing All around the world.”

There’s a lot of heartache, pain and suffering going on around the world. But New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff pointed out recently that, “Despite the gloom, the world truly is becoming a better place.” Indeed, 2017 is likely to be the best year in the history of humanity.” He pointed to the large gains we’ve seen in combating disease and poverty, even in the developing world. Scourges like leprosy, malaria, worm infestation are receding and that’s before we starting thinking about the decline in extreme poverty. Yes, there are still huge challenges and many millions living in desperate conditions – so we must never be complacent or stop the fight for justice. But, there is hope – especially when we strive for peace and understanding. Thanks for the reminder, Keb’.

Jackson Browne in Dublin: 5 things we learned.

Jackson Browne played five sold-out nights at Vicar Street in Dublin. There’s a lovely, intimate feel to this venue, although it does hold about 1,000 people. Down at the Crossroads went on night 2 and here’s what we learned:

1. Jackson Browne, though pushing 70, still puts on an outstanding show, bantering with the audience, utterly at ease with his band and his extensive back catalogue of songs, and able to hold his audience utterly captivated for over two hours. He’s a great musician as well as a great songwriter, showing off considerable piano and guitar chops along the way.

2. Jackson Browne’s catalogue of songs, going back over forty years, is as good as you’ll hear from any other artist. He played songs from every era of his career, many in response to requests from the audience. He basically abandoned his set list after a couple of songs and performed whatever he could hear shouted out to him (or understand, given the broad Dublin accents of some). Most of these songs have a timeless, enduring quality to the music and an on-going relevance in the lyrics. I’ve lived with some of them for most of these past forty years – they are like old, favourite shirts that you just love to pull on. They’re comfortable, they fit you, they’re just part of you. That said, they’re not dad-rock. A young friend of mine who was unfamiliar with Jackson Browne, told me this week he had checked out his early albums after my enthusiastic Facebook posts about the concert. His comment – simply, “wow.”

3. The band Jackson Browne has assembled for this tour is top notch. Of particular note are Val Callum, who’s played guitar with Jackson for some time, and Greg Leisz, lap steel, pedal steel and all round guitar genius who has joined the band for this tour. Grammy award winner Leisz has played with a who’s who of rock, country and Americana artists and is a jaw-droppingly good musician. His slide guitar and pedal steel work throughout the evening was nothing short of sensational. Val Callum is the sort of guitarist who plays wonderfully and tastefully, maybe unnoticed unless you’re a guitarist and realize just how good the understated stuff is, and then who suddenly, when he gets the nod from Jackson, will dazzle with fast, syncopated runs up and down the fretboard. And spare a thought for Bob Glaub, the bass player – another top class musician – who played bass on the song “The Pretender,” back in 1976, but who was never credited. Browne made that right just before the band launched into the song, to the delight of the crowd.

4. He didn’t play “The Rebel Jesus,” despite repeated calls for it from one member of the audience. Couldn’t remember it, he said. Fair enough, it’s a cover of a Chieftains song (which appears on The Next Voice You Hear). But I’d love to have heard it. The song gets to important matters about the person and mission of Jesus:

“Well we guard our world with locks and guns
And we guard our fine possessions
And once a year when Christmas comes
We give to our relations
And perhaps we give a little to the poor
If the generosity should seize us
But if any one of us should interfere
In the business of why there are poor
They get the same as the rebel Jesus.”

5. And finally – Dublin is a remarkably welcoming city. I managed to get myself hopelessly lost driving to Dublin and was starting to worry about getting to Vicar Street in time for the concert. At a set of traffic lights I rolled down the window and asked directions from a taxi driver in the next lane. “Follow me,” he said and led me all the way to my destination. I tried to pay him but he resolutely refused. Then, after the gig I was sitting in my car desperately fiddling with Google to try and find my way out of the city. Then came a knock on the window and a guy said, “Do you know where you’re going?” He then said, “Follow me.” He jumped into his car and I followed him through Dublin until he got me on the main road to Belfast. The kindness of strangers.

Ruthie Foster talks spirit music and celebration

Described by Rolling Stone as “pure magic to watch and hear,” Texas singer/songwriter and three-time Grammy Nominee, Ruthie Foster has been singing solo since she was 14 years old. She’s shared the stage along the way with the Allman Brothers Band, Susan Tedeschi, Blind Boys of Alabama, Warren Hayes and Eric Bibb.

She has ten albums to her credit, including the recently released Joy Comes Back, which is both a joyous celebration of life and reflection on the wider world.

DATC: Ruthie, congratulations on the new album, which has been very well received. You’ve been pleased about that?

RF: Yes I am! It was a challenging and rewarding personal journey recording it so I’m extremely pleased to hear that folks are really enjoying it as much as I do.

DATC: Tell us what you wanted to achieve with this album and a bit about how it came about.

RF: The CD actually took about two and a half years to do. I took my time obviously finding songs that expressed what I wanted to say; from letting go of a relationship to exploring what love means to me, redemption and forgiveness. It’s really about my life experience during that period of time.

DATC: Joy Comes Back, the title track, sounds celebratory and…joyful! And it’s got a wonderful gospel feel and sentiment. Can you say something about the song and also about the continued gospel influence to your music?

RF: Joy Comes Back is very much about celebrating. I wasn’t quite there yet but really needed this song. What is says is simple and to the point, set Joy as your intention and know that it’s on the way! As for my gospel influence,  I grew up with inspiring singers in my extended family who sang gospel all over Texas and my mother was a beautiful singer too. So I suppose that anything that comes out of my mouth is going to sound close to gospel music at this point in my life!

DATC: There are some nice bluesy songs on the album – the kind of down-home version of Richland Woman Blues with Warren Hood is very cool – you’re clearly very much at home in the blues. But other songs are more soulful, or have a gospel feel – how would you define your music? Do you have a niche, or even want a niche?

RF: There are many shades to the blues for me. I consider some tunes a lot lighter in spirit and delivery than others, such as Mississippi John Hurt’s style. His piedmont style of guitar playing is just fun to play. I do enjoy the deeper, soulful version of the blues as well. It gives me a chance to open up vocally in a totally different way! But my overall niche is more about capturing the spirit from my point of view in a song. I just call it spirit music!

DATC: One of the songs is Abraham, Shawnee Kilgore’s elegy to President Lincoln, which talks about fighting for freedoms. Does this song, do you think, have a resonance just at the moment?

RF: Yes, I agree that the song has much to say about where we are today. But the essence of why I wanted to record it is about the chorus, “when I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad.” It’s a simple statement and it’s the truth about how I try to live and go about making my own decisions.

DATC: Black Sabbath’s War Pigs is a bit of a surprise! It’s a powerful antiwar song from 1970. How relevant do you think it is today, and why did you decide to include it?

RF: I did put a lot of work into the arrangement of this one as a special surprise! Being a vocalist myself, I’ve always appreciated awesome (and charismatic!) lead singers of rock bands. The War Pigs vocal opening has always sounded like a blues line to me and I love playing slide on the resonator so I thought I’d try it. The message is very relevant and needs to brought up.

DATC: With the way things are at home and in the wider world, what role does music and musical artists have to play?

RF: I think we as musical artists do have a unique and important platform that can lift a cause to another level, whatever that may be; if we genuinely care about it. It’s not my place to say that it’s our duty to do so, but I will say in my own experience that singing and performing for a cause that’s important to me has been the most rewarding work I’ve ever done.

DATC: Ruthie Foster, Thank you very much!

 

The Robert Cray Band at the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival Belfast – 6 things we learned.

Robert Cray made a welcome return to Belfast after too long an absence and wow’ed a packed main marquee at the Cathedral Arts Festival.

1. Sexagenarians can rock as hard as anyone. Three of the four members of the band are in and around 60 years old – so what? This is a superb blues quartet delivering as tight and as cool as sound as you’ll hear.

 

2. Bass players with dreadlocks and bare feet are pretty cool. Richard Cousins, wielding a selection of four and five string basses, is surely the hip-est bass player around, as he jumps around dreadlocks flying. He seemed to appreciate the shag carpet laid on for him in Belfast.  And – the crack between him and Robert during the evening was great fun.

Bass Player Richard Cousins

3. Robert Cray is one of the best male singers you’ll ever hear. His singing is molasses sweet and boy, can he hit those high notes. With a career going back to the 70s, five Grammy awards and numerous nominations, he’s shared stages with luminaries like Albert Collins,  Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy,  and Stevie Ray Vaughan. But who can both sing and play quite  like Robert?

 

4. The tone he gets from his Strat and Matchless amps is so glassy you could slip on it. He is one seriously good guitarist, mixing jazzy chords and lines with the blues in a quite distinctive style. You hear a few notes and you know you’re listening to Robert Cray. And the man can fret across six -six! – frets.

 

5. You don’t have to make a mushy face when you launch into a guitar solo, but, clearly, it helps.

6. And finally – twenty odds years between visits to Belfast is far too long. The standing ovations Robert Cray got at the end of the evening hopefully will persuade him to come back soon.

Lee Hedley

Post script: The supporting act, the Lee Hedley Band was terrific. They treated a hugely appreciative audience to a set of well-known Chicago blues. Tight rhythm section, cool lead guitar from the excellent Frank Carberry and the charismatic Lee Hedley in front, with his tasteful blues harp and well phrased singing.