June 4, 2021

Bob Corritore interview

Bob Corritore interview
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Season 1 Diatonic Harmonica Blues Harmonica

Bob Corritore joins me on episode 40. 

Bob grew up around Chicago and absorbed the best blues scene in the world, attending the blues clubs in his youth, seeing his harmonica heroes in action and befriending many of them. 

He moved to Phoenix in this 20s and quickly became a record producer. Bob put his Business degree to good use, opening a blues club called The Rhythm Room. He took the unique opportunity to record many of the visiting blues artists, appearing on numerous albums alongside them.

Bob has won numerous awards for his albums, recorded with a host of different names. He has run a blues radio show since 1984, been awarded an honorary award for Keeping The Blues Alive, and the mayor of Phoenix even named September 29th, 2007 ‘Bob Corritore Day’. 


Links:
Website: https://bobcorritore.com/

KJZZ Radio Show playlists and link to listen to show:
https://kjzz.org/blues-playlist

Blues Newsletter Archive:
https://bobcorritore.com/news/newsletter-archive/2019-archives/

Billy Boy Arnold book: The Blues Dream of Billy Boy Arnold
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo119945396.html

Videos:
https://bobcorritore.com/music/videos/


Podcast website:
https://www.harmonicahappyhour.com

Donations:
If you want to make a voluntary donation to help support the running costs of the podcast then please use this link (or visit the podcast website link above):
https://paypal.me/harmonicahappyhour?locale.x=en_GB

Spotify Playlist:
Also check out the Spotify Playlist, which contains most of the songs discussed in the podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5QC6RF2VTfs4iPuasJBqwT?si=M-j3IkiISeefhR7ybm9qIQ

Podcast sponsors:
This podcast is sponsored by SEYDEL harmonicas - visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seydel1847.com  or on Facebook or Instagram at SEYDEL HARMONICAS
and Blows Me Away Productions: http://www.blowsmeaway.com/

Support the show

01:16 - Bob is from Chicago, and first discovered the blues through Muddy Waters

03:47 - Saw lots of great blues acts, including Muddy Waters at his high school

05:09 - Has produced many blues albums and played harmonica on many of them, including one for Mud Morganfield

07:45 - Bob befriended several of the blues harmonica greats in Chicago

09:07 - Played a couple of numbers with The Aces, Little Walter’s band (renamed to The Jukes)

11:28 - Dedicated himself to become a student of the harmonica and its music

12:19 - Bob’s path to become a professional blues harmonica player and the friends he’s made along the way

15:40 - The classic players had that magic because they lived the blues

17:52 - Moved to Phoenix to stay with his brother, and stayed there

20:04 - Played with Howling Wolf’s drummer, bringing the Chicago beat to Phoenix

22:06 - Produced the Kim Wilson album Smokin’ Joint

23:00 - Put together a William Clarke compilation album

23:41 - Bob became a record producer at the age of 22, first album produced was for Little Willie Anderson

25:18 - Opened a club in Phoenix called The Rhythm Room, where he recorded many of the musicians appearing

27:56 - Bob has a Business degree, which he put to good use with the club and record production

28:11 - Mayor of Phoenix proclaimed Sept 29 2007 as ‘Bob Corritore Day’

28:49 - What sound does Bob aim for in recording harmonica

30:58 - 2007 album Travellin’ The Dirt Road with Dave Riley

31:29 - Produced a Pinetop Perkins album, which was nominated for a Grammy

34:06 - Has recorded albums with John Primer

37:38 - Lots of variety in Bob’s albums because he records with so many different artists

39:35 - Spider In My Stew is latest album

40:56 - Bob has hosted a blues radio show since 1984

41:50 - Won honorary award from Blues Foundation: ‘Keeping The Blues Alive’

42:22 - Bob has written a Blues Newsletter since 2005

44:27 - Does some teaching at the Blues Foundation's annual International Blues Challenge week in Memphis

46:16 - 10 minute question

48:14 - Bob is a Hohner endorsee

49:03 - Chromatic

51:03 - Different tunings

51:55 - Overblows

53:19 - Embouchre

54:25 - Amps

55:48 - Mics

57:10 - Effects pedals

57:37 - Future plans

WEBVTT

00:00:00.162 --> 00:00:02.404
Bob Coratore joins me on episode 40.

00:00:03.065 --> 00:00:11.980
Bob grew up around Chicago and absorbed the best blues scene in the world, attending the blues clubs in his youth, seeing his harmonica heroes in action and befriending many of them.

00:00:12.740 --> 00:00:16.245
He moved to Phoenix in his 20s and quickly became a record producer.

00:00:16.907 --> 00:00:19.850
Bob put his business degree to good use opening a blues club.

00:00:20.251 --> 00:00:26.801
He took the unique opportunity to record many of the visiting blues artists, appearing on numerous albums alongside them.

00:00:27.361 --> 00:00:31.388
Bob has won numerous awards for his albums, recorded with a host of different names.

00:00:31.969 --> 00:00:38.600
He has run a blues radio show since 1984 and been awarded an honorary award for keeping the blues alive.

00:00:39.482 --> 00:00:45.613
And the mayor of Phoenix even named September 29, 2007, Bob Corritore Day.

00:01:07.906 --> 00:01:10.078
Hello, Bob Coratore, and welcome to the podcast.

00:01:10.209 --> 00:01:12.152
Neil, my pleasure and honor

00:01:12.191 --> 00:01:12.231
to

00:01:12.331 --> 00:01:12.772
be here.

00:01:13.031 --> 00:01:13.793
Thanks very much.

00:01:13.852 --> 00:01:15.495
So we'll start off about you.

00:01:16.135 --> 00:01:18.617
You were born in Chicago in Bluestown, right?

00:01:18.736 --> 00:01:23.441
And that's where you spent your early life and drew on all those blues influences of the great place.

00:01:23.742 --> 00:01:25.582
Really a great place to grow up in the blues.

00:01:25.722 --> 00:01:32.149
Of course, being in Chicago, I was born in Chicago and raised in the north suburbs, but blues was all around.

00:01:32.429 --> 00:01:35.091
And it just took a little bit of time for me to hear it.

00:01:35.272 --> 00:01:42.840
And ironically, I first heard it on the radio on a rock station where They played Muddy Waters, the song Rolling Stone.

00:01:58.274 --> 00:02:00.695
I immediately fell in love with it.

00:02:00.715 --> 00:02:03.799
I go, this is what I love about music in its purest form.

00:02:04.039 --> 00:02:16.710
So at that point in time, I think I was 12 or 13, I rode my bicycle to the downtown area of Wilmette, Illinois, and went to Paul's Recorded Music and picked up my first album, which was Muddy Waters, Stay Along.

00:02:16.810 --> 00:02:19.292
And of course, Little Waltz was playing all that great harmonica.

00:02:19.652 --> 00:02:22.775
I immediately fell in love with that, and that was the direction of the

00:02:22.835 --> 00:02:23.455
rest of my life.

00:02:23.795 --> 00:02:29.836
So Rolling Stone, of course, is a solo song with Muddy Waters with no harmonica on, So that wasn't the first thing that drew you in.

00:02:29.856 --> 00:02:31.717
It's when you heard Little Walter, the harmonica.

00:02:31.937 --> 00:02:36.504
Well, yeah, I always liked the sound of harmonica in the pop music that was going on.

00:02:36.745 --> 00:02:40.129
So I was already predisposed to like harmonica.

00:02:40.349 --> 00:02:43.675
But when I heard the combination of Muddy Waters and Lil' Walter

00:02:43.715 --> 00:02:44.056
together,

00:02:44.096 --> 00:02:45.578
it just knocked me out.

00:02:45.617 --> 00:02:46.919
There's nothing like that.

00:02:47.140 --> 00:02:48.582
And to this day, there's nothing like that.

00:02:48.622 --> 00:02:56.133
I still play that first record, Muddy Waters Fail On, and it still excites me as much as the first day that I heard it.

00:02:56.294 --> 00:02:56.394
It's

00:02:56.735 --> 00:02:57.855
just as good as it gets.

00:02:58.016 --> 00:02:58.717
Pure genius.

00:02:59.009 --> 00:03:01.614
I'm with you there because Muddy Waters is my absolute favorite.

00:03:01.895 --> 00:03:05.058
And of course, all the great harmonica players played with Muddy Waters.

00:03:05.439 --> 00:03:08.405
It truly was a legacy of great harmonica work.

00:03:08.465 --> 00:03:10.788
But of course, Lil' Walter led the pack in all of that.

00:03:11.368 --> 00:03:19.061
But, you know, of course, Junior Wells, James Cotton, Carrie Bell, Paul Osher, and Jerry Portnoy, and Mojo Buford.

00:03:19.782 --> 00:03:22.806
All those guys were fantastic harmonica players.

00:03:23.228 --> 00:03:24.330
Big Walter Horton, of course.

00:03:25.057 --> 00:03:31.271
What really came through looking into your background for this conversation was you're a real student of the blues.

00:03:31.312 --> 00:03:33.597
You've got lots of great stuff on your website.

00:03:33.616 --> 00:03:35.801
You've got archived photos of muddy waters.

00:03:35.822 --> 00:03:37.686
So, yeah, that's really important to you.

00:03:37.725 --> 00:03:39.550
You obviously got a real passion for the blues.

00:03:39.906 --> 00:03:43.590
Of course, if you're going to get into this thing, get into it all the way.

00:03:43.610 --> 00:03:51.699
Like you mentioned, I grew up in the Chicago area, so the very first blues show that I ever saw was right in my high school auditorium.

00:03:51.800 --> 00:03:59.669
It was the Sam Lee Blues Revival with Eddie Taylor and Wildchild Butler, special guests coming in for a couple numbers, Johnny Twist, Lucille Spann.

00:04:00.030 --> 00:04:07.151
But I got to see some real deal stuff right there in my high school, and it just went along with what I thought of of the Blues.

00:04:07.211 --> 00:04:12.538
Northwestern University was available for a high school student that couldn't get into bars yet.

00:04:12.859 --> 00:04:14.401
Otis Rush played at the college.

00:04:14.461 --> 00:04:16.324
Hound Dog Taylor played at Northwestern.

00:04:16.663 --> 00:04:20.009
I got to see the Memphis Blues Caravan that Steve LeVere brought.

00:04:20.048 --> 00:04:30.540
I got to see all of the classic country blues guys, the Bucket White, Sleepy John Essis with Tammy Nixon, and the King Biscuit Boys with Houston Stackhouse and Joe Willie Wilkins.

00:04:30.821 --> 00:04:39.168
And then in my senior year, after doing my junior theme on Muddy Waters, Muddy Waters was scheduled to perform in my high school gymnasium.

00:04:39.348 --> 00:04:42.812
And of course, that classic lineup with Pintop Perkins and Willie B.

00:04:42.831 --> 00:04:50.237
Guy Smith and Fuzz Jones and Jerry Portnoy and Lucy Guitar Junior Johnson and Bob Margolin.

00:04:50.617 --> 00:04:52.779
All these people would become dear friends.

00:04:52.819 --> 00:04:55.523
Bob Margolin is one of my closest friends.

00:04:55.862 --> 00:05:04.951
And little did I know that point in high school that I would ever even get to know this person, let alone be such a good friend of that person.

00:05:04.971 --> 00:05:09.216
I also worked with John Primer, who's another very close friend.

00:05:09.516 --> 00:05:13.882
I was asked to produce one Morgan Fields' Son of the Seventh Son record.

00:05:14.281 --> 00:05:22.190
I got to produce a Mojo Buford record, some sessions with Paul Osher, who we just recently lost, who's my dear friend.

00:05:22.430 --> 00:05:24.593
The whole Muddy Waters thing is such a part.

00:05:24.692 --> 00:05:32.482
I also produced a Willie Big Eye Smith record, so Again, that Muddy Waters thing is a cause that I have remained true to my whole life.

00:05:32.721 --> 00:05:39.990
Anything that's Muddy Waters, Joseph Morganfield invited Bob Margo and I to play on his record, which was not to be, because he died suddenly of a heart attack.

00:05:40.029 --> 00:05:43.252
But we were excited to carry on the Muddy Waters legacy through that.

00:05:43.473 --> 00:05:50.321
And as you mentioned there, you played on and produced the Son of the Seventh Sunday, Mud Morganfield album, which of course is Muddy Waters' son.

00:05:55.245 --> 00:06:06.461
Muddy Waters Thank you.

00:06:07.458 --> 00:06:10.040
Well, Mud had contacted me.

00:06:10.079 --> 00:06:11.261
He saw some of my posts.

00:06:11.321 --> 00:06:13.762
I think it was MySpace before Facebook.

00:06:14.204 --> 00:06:15.745
And so we started communicating.

00:06:15.764 --> 00:06:19.367
He called me up out of the blue one day and introduced himself.

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I'm like, oh, I'm so happy to meet you.

00:06:21.649 --> 00:06:24.473
And your father's had such a profound influence in my life.

00:06:24.913 --> 00:06:29.416
So we were to meet at the Blue Glass Music Awards over at Buddy Guy's Legends.

00:06:29.437 --> 00:06:30.098
We met there.

00:06:30.117 --> 00:06:35.762
After that, we were over both playing in separate sets at the Lucerne Blues Festival.

00:06:35.802 --> 00:06:36.802
We just fell in together.

00:06:36.822 --> 00:06:39.548
Yeah, we'd just be became immediate good friends.

00:06:40.028 --> 00:06:42.533
I dug Mud and his whole vibe and style.

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I think he felt the same about me.

00:06:44.377 --> 00:06:46.420
So we had a great time just hanging out.

00:06:46.560 --> 00:06:52.411
And when I got to hear him live, I'm like, this is as close to Muddy Waters as is humanly possible.

00:06:52.451 --> 00:07:00.605
I was at that show with Tomcat Courtney, and we're both just kind of amazed that this Muddy Waters phenomenon, it's like Muddy had come back to life.

00:07:00.865 --> 00:07:02.908
And so, of course, the friendship continued.

00:07:02.968 --> 00:07:07.271
Then I get a phone call from Mudd, and he said, do you want to produce my next record?

00:07:07.291 --> 00:07:09.392
And I said, yes, I would be honored to do that.

00:07:09.673 --> 00:07:11.154
So we made plans, and it happened.

00:07:11.214 --> 00:07:12.336
And it was great.

00:07:12.396 --> 00:07:19.081
Mudd had a pretty good concept of what he wanted for that, but he needed somebody to take it to the next step and a little bit further.

00:07:19.141 --> 00:07:25.687
And plus, once the session was recorded, I did all the post-production work and mixing and mastering and gave Mudd the finished product.

00:07:25.767 --> 00:07:27.749
And we worked very well together.

00:07:27.769 --> 00:07:33.423
Mudd is a great spokesman for his fathers music he's got the voice it's unbelievable

00:07:33.826 --> 00:07:36.589
Yeah, and he looks quite like him as well, doesn't he?

00:07:36.610 --> 00:07:37.471
Well, very much like him.

00:07:37.492 --> 00:07:38.512
So I've seen him playing.

00:07:38.552 --> 00:07:41.538
He comes over to Europe and he's played around the UK a lot.

00:07:41.598 --> 00:07:44.523
So yeah, like you say, the closest I'll ever get to seeing Muddy in the flesh.

00:07:44.762 --> 00:07:56.141
So, I mean, going back to Chicago then in your early years, you talked about obviously some of the names, the big names in the harmonica world, as well as Welsh were in the blues, you know, Big Walter and Junior Welsh, Kerry Ball.

00:07:56.161 --> 00:07:57.562
So you knew all these guys, yeah?

00:07:57.682 --> 00:08:02.149
So you saw them playing Maxwell Street and you got to hang out with some of them and get some tips from them?

00:08:02.593 --> 00:08:10.180
Being raised in that area and having the accessibility to all the great masters was simply amazing.

00:08:10.380 --> 00:08:13.564
I got to see Big Walter Horton on Maxwell Street while I was still in high school.

00:08:13.584 --> 00:08:17.586
I was just amazed at the whole thing that he could do sonically.

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It just had such an overwhelming tonality to it.

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I'd never heard anything like that.

00:08:23.711 --> 00:08:28.877
It made you understand the limitless tonal possibilities of the instruments.

00:08:29.237 --> 00:08:30.497
It just blew me away.

00:08:30.637 --> 00:08:33.481
And then when I first was able to get into clubs.

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At that point in time, the drinking age was 19.

00:08:35.267 --> 00:08:39.918
I had a fake ID that said I was 18 and so I could get into some bars.

00:08:39.977 --> 00:08:43.005
But if you went to the black clubs, they never...

00:08:43.265 --> 00:08:44.206
really carded you.

00:08:44.246 --> 00:08:58.499
So first I went to the Northside Clubs, Biddy Mulligan, got to see the Bob Reedy Blues Band with Carrie Bell, Little Mac Simmons, who the first time I ever played at the Chicago Blues Club was doing a harmonica duet with Little Mac Simmons, who was very encouraging.

00:08:58.558 --> 00:09:00.821
And we were friends the rest of his life.

00:09:01.000 --> 00:09:07.206
But then I got to see the Howlin' Wolf was the first time I went to a black club on the west side over at the 1815 Club.

00:09:07.506 --> 00:09:10.149
I think a week later, I went to see the Aces.

00:09:10.269 --> 00:09:13.913
They had a Monday night jam session over at Louisa Lounge.

00:09:13.932 --> 00:09:13.952
I

00:09:14.513 --> 00:09:15.374
was invited up to play.

00:09:15.413 --> 00:09:24.663
I got to play a couple numbers with the Aces at age 18, but what really was spectacular about that night, Lewis Myers got up and did a version of Juke.

00:09:25.125 --> 00:09:37.498
Now, Juke is a pretty spectacular song, and I've heard many people do it, and everybody does it really nice, but when you heard Lewis Myers do it, it just meant something, because that was what launched Little Walter's career.

00:09:37.977 --> 00:09:44.184
On the basis of the success of that song, Little Walter left Muddy's band and got the Aces and they went touring.

00:09:44.445 --> 00:09:46.847
So that particular song, I'm sure, was played quite a bit.

00:09:47.048 --> 00:09:50.951
Lewis just took control, and it was just another one of those moments.

00:09:51.072 --> 00:09:52.953
Pinch Me is just really happening.

00:09:53.215 --> 00:09:56.658
I'm hearing the closest thing I can to Little Walter right here.

00:09:56.778 --> 00:09:58.480
So that was pretty amazing.

00:09:58.500 --> 00:09:59.081
That was 1974.

00:09:59.782 --> 00:10:03.405
That was the first time I ever met Lewis, who would end up being a really good friend.

00:10:03.605 --> 00:10:05.268
I looked at him as a mentor.

00:10:05.368 --> 00:10:18.360
I was like this wide-eyed, enthusiastic little kid asking a whole bunch of questions, and I thought I was probably bothering him, but, you know, I've get invited to enjoy some rib tips with him after gigs, and we became friends.

00:10:18.441 --> 00:10:21.943
And then, you know, years later, I ended up working with him in Willie Buck's band.

00:10:22.364 --> 00:10:24.385
That was so amazing.

00:10:24.466 --> 00:10:26.988
I go, Lewis, I don't think I should be up here with you all.

00:10:27.008 --> 00:10:28.789
He goes, you plan, you plan, go on.

00:10:29.049 --> 00:10:30.571
I'm like, okay, here I am.

00:10:30.650 --> 00:10:33.774
And those were some of the funnest moments, I think, ever in my life.

00:10:33.793 --> 00:10:41.841
Just hanging out with Lewis after the gig and Moose Walker and just enjoying and, you know, just some of the after hours jokes and partying.

00:10:41.921 --> 00:10:42.942
It's just so much fun.

00:10:43.169 --> 00:10:50.782
One thing I try to get across with is the podcast and obviously talking to guys like yourself who've managed to have a career out playing the harmonica and music.

00:10:51.081 --> 00:10:56.169
It's how you did that and how you were successful in being able to do that and maybe helping some of the young people today.

00:10:56.471 --> 00:11:00.417
It's a very different scene probably, but it seems with you, you've got a lot of friends, Bob.

00:11:00.456 --> 00:11:01.899
You're obviously a very nice guy.

00:11:01.918 --> 00:11:03.802
You get on well with everybody, it seems.

00:11:04.302 --> 00:11:05.745
You befriended these.

00:11:05.764 --> 00:11:10.773
That went on to you producing many albums, as you touched on earlier on, for all the musician friends.

00:11:11.937 --> 00:11:32.845
Initially, I loved harmonica, of course, and I played in high school bands.

00:11:33.365 --> 00:11:37.269
And when I went off to college in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I got to play quite a bit.

00:11:37.528 --> 00:11:50.961
But when I come back to Chicago, I would take on the role of a humble student because I could hear the Lewis Myers and Lester Davenports and the Kerry Bells and the Junior Wells and the big Leon Brooks and the Louis Anderson's.

00:11:51.020 --> 00:11:56.865
I realized that there was so much I had to learn before I would feel worthy of that instrument.

00:11:57.326 --> 00:12:00.929
There was something that the older guys had Thank you.

00:12:02.511 --> 00:12:04.453
Thank you.

00:12:19.234 --> 00:12:23.157
Also, in my upbringing, I wasn't taught to be a blues harmonica player.

00:12:23.177 --> 00:12:26.340
I always thought that I was supposed to have a career in business.

00:12:26.519 --> 00:12:29.503
I went to college also to have a business career.

00:12:29.582 --> 00:12:33.927
And I remember one time I used to sit in with Coco Taylor's band a little bit.

00:12:34.147 --> 00:12:39.471
And Coco and her husband, Pops, invited me to audition for the band at a rehearsal.

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And I asked my parents if I could borrow the car.

00:12:41.833 --> 00:12:43.014
And they're like, no.

00:12:43.054 --> 00:12:44.936
You have to go back to school.

00:12:44.975 --> 00:12:45.876
What are you going to do?

00:12:45.937 --> 00:12:48.239
Go around the country touring in this blues band?

00:12:48.379 --> 00:12:49.200
And I go, no.

00:12:49.200 --> 00:12:51.967
Well, yeah, absolutely not.

00:12:52.089 --> 00:12:54.154
I was still, of course, under their jurisdiction.

00:12:54.475 --> 00:12:57.323
But that played in my mind for a long time.

00:12:57.565 --> 00:13:03.922
So for me to get to the point of considering this as a vocation It took some years after that.

00:13:04.162 --> 00:13:11.336
And then when I started doing some gigs around Chicago with Willie Buck and some other people, Tail Dragger, and I used to play at the fish market.

00:13:11.397 --> 00:13:24.062
It wasn't really a gig, but I was one of Tail Dragger's boys that would back him up.

00:13:36.193 --> 00:13:46.302
The point is that it took me a while to get my head to the place where I felt like this was what I needed to do in my life without the guilt of my upbringing.

00:13:46.363 --> 00:13:57.192
So when I finally came to that conclusion, it was after I'd moved to Phoenix and Louisiana Rev was living with me and I saw the purity of his passion for this music, which I shared with him.

00:13:57.392 --> 00:13:59.333
And I realized there was no other thing I could do.

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And so I had to confront my parents and say, this is the life path that I want to be on, which I was 25 years old.

00:14:06.580 --> 00:14:10.965
Maybe I should have been more grown up before then, but that was my path.

00:14:11.004 --> 00:14:13.748
That's when I came into the realization this is where I had to go.

00:14:14.048 --> 00:14:19.735
And then once I went there, you know, I already had established such a great friendship with so many people.

00:14:19.995 --> 00:14:25.320
And, you know, the friends that I had from way back when, I'm still close friends with Tail Dragger.

00:14:25.801 --> 00:14:28.123
I consider him among one of my great friends.

00:14:28.224 --> 00:14:31.606
I have a place to stay if I'm in Chicago at his house.

00:14:31.626 --> 00:14:34.009
He has a guest room and I've stayed there a number of times.

00:14:34.289 --> 00:14:37.673
I mean, these are friendships that that it goes beyond the music.

00:14:37.813 --> 00:14:42.719
I think that that's part of what it is, too, is that this is not just you getting together and playing music.

00:14:42.778 --> 00:14:47.264
This is who you are in your life and how you relate to people.

00:14:47.344 --> 00:14:57.934
So I think that if you really love this music, then you love the people in this music and all of their humor and their faults and their fantastic qualities.

00:14:57.975 --> 00:15:00.557
All of it leads to the character of this music.

00:15:00.677 --> 00:15:02.519
And you can't have one without the other.

00:15:03.100 --> 00:15:11.052
So if you hear somebody playing their instruments then whoever they are as a human being comes out and especially comes out in the genre of the blues.

00:15:11.352 --> 00:15:14.037
So I think that that is a very important thing.

00:15:14.057 --> 00:15:17.361
And then you can't be halfway in this music.

00:15:17.461 --> 00:15:22.910
I mean, Louisiana Red came out to Phoenix and he found himself in a situation where he needed a place to stay.

00:15:22.951 --> 00:15:28.379
He ended up living with me for a year and then went off to Germany and married his wife.

00:15:28.399 --> 00:15:29.322
He had a tour over there.

00:15:29.634 --> 00:15:33.476
And that was, again, a bond that we had for the rest of his life.

00:15:33.717 --> 00:15:34.538
He was an orphan.

00:15:34.758 --> 00:15:35.678
And then I took him in.

00:15:35.698 --> 00:15:39.923
It was so important to him that we were family from that point forward.

00:15:40.423 --> 00:15:47.909
There's one thing interesting to pick up on in what you said there is that, you know, some of these blues greats, you know, have a real feel for the music.

00:15:48.009 --> 00:15:52.594
You know, we all turn back to the great players, Little Walter, you know, James Cotton, etc.

00:15:52.634 --> 00:15:54.215
We can go through all the names you've mentioned.

00:15:54.475 --> 00:15:56.456
But there's something about them and their playing, isn't there?

00:15:56.476 --> 00:15:58.658
I mean, do you think there's something particular about them?

00:15:58.698 --> 00:16:04.567
You know, there's lots of great Great harmonica players around now, but there's something about the feel, though, isn't it, with those guys that we all turn back to?

00:16:04.886 --> 00:16:06.649
It's just an irreplaceable thing.

00:16:06.950 --> 00:16:11.095
And right now, Billy Boy Arnold is like the last man standing of the old school.

00:16:11.316 --> 00:16:12.857
I just love the way he plays.

00:16:13.057 --> 00:16:17.624
I'm really excited that there's going to be a book of interviews and historical recollections.

00:16:17.803 --> 00:16:24.894
But there's a guy that nobody sounds like.

00:16:32.481 --> 00:16:38.751
He was there helping to define the music.

00:16:38.792 --> 00:16:49.370
But so many of these guys, they all had their sound and it all was based in this environment of where they had come from, where they were at, what was happening in Chicago at that point in time.

00:16:49.690 --> 00:16:59.005
You know, the influences of the Sonny Boy 1, the Sonny Boy 2, the Little Walter and other things that were going on at that point in time that would shape their sound.

00:16:59.330 --> 00:17:11.618
I think the people coming up now, there's a different place that, especially with the younger generation, because I hear the next version of that filtered through the experiences of the next generations.

00:17:12.019 --> 00:17:16.108
But if you go to the source, you're going to get something that's so rich and pure.

00:17:16.450 --> 00:17:24.675
And that leads to another discussion point, which is that so much of this, too, there's this black Southern heritage that's the blues.

00:17:25.238 --> 00:17:28.788
And if you can't embrace that, then you really can't embrace the sound.

00:17:29.028 --> 00:17:30.232
It all goes hand in hand.

00:17:30.657 --> 00:17:43.865
Those are some hard-earned dues right there that were paid by the people before myself, and I have to walk that path with a deep respect for that history, or none of this seems to really matter.

00:17:44.146 --> 00:17:51.000
So when I'm feeling the best about my own playing, I feel like I'm really connecting to the spirituality of that.

00:17:51.362 --> 00:17:52.262
Yeah, absolutely, yeah.

00:17:52.503 --> 00:17:59.013
So you mentioned there that you moved to Phoenix, which is in the west of America, in 1981.

00:17:59.193 --> 00:18:02.819
You moved across from Chicago, Louisiana, lived there for a year.

00:18:02.859 --> 00:18:05.804
So you're still living in Phoenix, and what's it like?

00:18:05.844 --> 00:18:07.907
What's the music scene like around Phoenix?

00:18:08.509 --> 00:18:13.336
Moving to Phoenix was a strange move, you would think, because I was so involved in the Chicago Blues.

00:18:13.556 --> 00:18:17.422
At that point in time, I was just entrenched in that whole scene.

00:18:17.501 --> 00:18:18.944
It was just a great, great scene.

00:18:19.404 --> 00:18:23.303
But You know, at age 24, I quit drinking by choice.

00:18:23.323 --> 00:18:25.431
I just was like, I'm getting way too hungover.

00:18:25.490 --> 00:18:26.153
I don't like this.

00:18:26.193 --> 00:18:27.357
And I just...

00:18:27.458 --> 00:18:32.945
felt that it was taking away from my true passion of playing and studying music.

00:18:33.185 --> 00:18:45.884
So at that point, I was looking around, and I go, well, I've got a couple gigs here and there with Willie Bucks playing in one of the greatest bands, but I'm playing in these very impoverished neighborhoods.

00:18:46.003 --> 00:18:47.244
There's not a lot of pay.

00:18:47.306 --> 00:18:48.788
What is going on?

00:18:48.827 --> 00:18:52.172
What am I supposed to be doing here in this life of mine?

00:18:52.231 --> 00:18:54.335
I needed to get away for a little bit.

00:18:54.394 --> 00:19:00.807
My brother had gone to ASU, and Arizona State University and invited me to come out and stay with him.

00:19:00.847 --> 00:19:09.988
So I'm like, well, okay, I'll come out for a year and hang out and just do a little reflection in that year and then come back to Chicago and carry on where I left off.

00:19:10.048 --> 00:19:11.310
That was my full intention.

00:19:11.612 --> 00:19:14.117
So was this the brother who gave you your first harmonica?

00:19:14.402 --> 00:19:15.522
Yes, my younger brother.

00:19:44.367 --> 00:19:46.892
always and to this day loves that music.

00:19:47.211 --> 00:19:48.775
It's home to him.

00:19:49.675 --> 00:19:51.759
So Arizona was not my intention.

00:19:52.099 --> 00:19:56.186
It just happened that I came here and I started to develop some roots.

00:19:56.928 --> 00:20:00.874
After I played with Luciano Rett, I was firmly established in town.

00:20:00.953 --> 00:20:03.979
I worked with Tommy Dukes and Big Pete Pearson.

00:20:04.058 --> 00:20:10.621
And in 2006, Chico Chisholm, who I had met when Chico was playing drums with Harlem Wolf.

00:20:10.980 --> 00:20:14.685
I gave Chico his ticket to come out here to do six months of gigs.

00:20:14.705 --> 00:20:16.568
He said, Bob Courtauld, give me six months.

00:20:16.808 --> 00:20:18.131
I'm like, all right, Chico.

00:20:18.411 --> 00:20:25.901
Anyway, when Chico got here, it immediately was completely successful, and we ended up playing for the rest of his life together.

00:20:26.922 --> 00:20:44.698
And here was this great drummer and great singer and great personality that was personifying the music and became an immediate hero in town, and not only to the blues people, but to every genre, they all just looked at Chico as like the ultimate wonderful character that he was.

00:20:44.778 --> 00:20:50.205
So Chico was filled with wit and humor and personality, and he was a great player.

00:20:50.326 --> 00:20:55.973
So to have the Chicago beat in Phoenix, you know, Chico and I were partners in all of that.

00:20:56.289 --> 00:21:01.648
I'm sorry, I was going to make that point because a lot of the West Coast players you associate with this kind of West Coast swing style.

00:21:01.669 --> 00:21:04.660
Whereas listening to you, I think you've got a very strong Chicago sound.

00:21:04.900 --> 00:21:08.553
So you think you have, you know, you kind of maintain that Chicago sound over there.

00:21:08.961 --> 00:21:12.085
I think that if you're from Chicago, you're always going to be from Chicago.

00:21:12.125 --> 00:21:13.786
You cannot get that out of you.

00:21:13.965 --> 00:21:26.237
Now, I've lived at this point in time in Arizona longer than the time I spent in Chicago, but I still feel that the whole root of where I'm coming from, of course, is that Chicago sounds.

00:21:26.457 --> 00:21:27.637
That's my upbringing.

00:21:27.718 --> 00:21:39.367
But at the same time, as time moves on, you find yourself in different situations where the assignment of the song is to do a West Coast swing or to do something a little bit different.

00:21:39.429 --> 00:21:47.436
So through my Chicago upbringing, I adapt what I know to that particular song assignment, and I play it through the Bob Porter filter.

00:21:47.857 --> 00:21:53.443
But that filter also has been affected by some of the other things that I've listened to and I've enjoyed.

00:21:54.084 --> 00:21:58.828
Kim Wilson, of course, he came into everybody's world, and he opened some gates.

00:21:58.929 --> 00:22:05.777
He kind of created a higher bar that we all then had to grow into, and that was cool.

00:22:06.156 --> 00:22:06.436
So

00:22:06.477 --> 00:22:06.877
you

00:22:06.917 --> 00:22:09.821
produced Kim Wilson's Smoking Joint now, didn't you in 2001.

00:22:36.321 --> 00:22:40.809
I met Kim Susazo in 1980, and we immediately fell in together.

00:22:40.890 --> 00:22:44.096
And then when I moved out to Phoenix, it kept going from there.

00:22:44.416 --> 00:22:51.890
Ironically, Kim just married Shannon, who I was friends with for 30 years, while I was friends with Kim for almost 40 years.

00:22:51.930 --> 00:22:54.615
Now I've been friends with Kim for 40 years.

00:22:55.276 --> 00:23:00.546
It was fun to see two of my dear friends get together and form a beautiful marriage.

00:23:00.738 --> 00:23:03.941
Did you also produce the William Clarke album I read somewhere?

00:23:04.240 --> 00:23:05.422
Not exactly produced.

00:23:05.501 --> 00:23:06.222
I compiled it.

00:23:06.403 --> 00:23:08.384
Bear Family asked me if I would do that.

00:23:08.424 --> 00:23:09.846
So I worked with Jeanette Clarke.

00:23:10.246 --> 00:23:15.691
I put together, with her permission, one of those deluxe LPs.

00:23:15.830 --> 00:23:18.053
That was a limited edition that Bear Family was there.

00:23:18.272 --> 00:23:21.336
And so I felt really good about the songs that we chose.

00:23:21.435 --> 00:23:22.836
Jeanette felt really good about it.

00:23:23.076 --> 00:23:24.659
And the label felt really good about it.

00:23:24.878 --> 00:23:30.344
And I was honored to do that in honor of William, who would play my nightclub a whole bunch of times.

00:23:30.423 --> 00:23:34.127
And I got to know him, although he was a hard person to get too close to.

00:23:34.167 --> 00:23:41.035
He wasn't all that talkative, but we connected on a number of levels, and I always really respected what he did.

00:23:41.375 --> 00:23:44.238
So I think you became a record producer at the age of 22, yeah?

00:23:45.038 --> 00:23:55.309
So pretty young, and the first album I've got you down as producing is your 1999 album, The Old Star Blues Sessions, which is from the club that you own in Phoenix, The Rhythm Room, yeah?

00:23:55.951 --> 00:23:56.431
Yes and no.

00:23:56.471 --> 00:24:04.000
I think it wasn't exactly from there, but to go through the whole process At age 22, I produced Little Willie Anderson.

00:24:16.662 --> 00:24:23.011
And an album that had Robert Lockwood and Freddie Bealow and Jameela Robinson and Sammy Lawhorn.

00:24:23.353 --> 00:24:24.976
That's a pretty good place to start.

00:24:26.317 --> 00:24:26.397
Yeah.

00:24:26.529 --> 00:24:29.534
But yeah, that was what was around in Chicago.

00:24:29.634 --> 00:24:32.876
And you could hire those guys who would come in and hire guns.

00:24:32.958 --> 00:24:35.200
And of course, Willie was friends with all of them.

00:24:35.240 --> 00:24:39.605
And it was a reunion of that little Walter alumni sound.

00:24:39.704 --> 00:24:41.928
And it was just a beautiful session.

00:24:42.167 --> 00:24:43.569
So what a great way to start.

00:24:43.609 --> 00:24:45.412
I had no idea what I was doing as a producer.

00:24:45.432 --> 00:24:50.198
A couple of years later, Steve Weiser and I would co-produce it by Big Leon Brooks.

00:24:50.498 --> 00:24:53.721
And, you know, around Chicago, we had a lot of help and encouragement.

00:24:53.740 --> 00:24:56.522
People like Dick Sherman and Bob Kester were on hand.

00:24:56.623 --> 00:24:58.565
Jim O'Neill, everybody was there to help.

00:24:58.765 --> 00:25:06.172
So, you know, they saw this as, you know, as a task bigger than self to try and document this music while it was so prevalent.

00:25:06.271 --> 00:25:12.576
And there's only so many options of people wanting to and willing to invest in it.

00:25:12.916 --> 00:25:13.678
So I did that.

00:25:13.877 --> 00:25:14.519
And that was great.

00:25:14.618 --> 00:25:18.221
I came out to Phoenix and then I started a career.

00:25:18.261 --> 00:25:22.746
And part of the career started with the opportunities of the rhythm room.

00:25:23.027 --> 00:25:30.815
Because when I opened up the club, I realized at that point in time that I would have a pipeline of all these great musicians that were coming through.

00:25:31.236 --> 00:25:34.278
And I could offer somebody coming through a gig.

00:25:34.479 --> 00:25:40.645
And if they'd like, I had the great house band with Chico Chisholm and John Fapp and Paul Thomas.

00:25:40.965 --> 00:25:49.255
I could put together some really cool sessions and they could come in on that same afternoon and knock out a few songs and get a few extra dollars.

00:25:49.375 --> 00:25:53.895
And it worked really well for everybody and it made for some really good friendships and some really good music.

00:25:54.178 --> 00:25:59.041
So I started compiling that when The Rhythm Room opened up in 1991.

00:25:59.603 --> 00:26:01.924
That album didn't come out until 1999.

00:26:01.944 --> 00:26:04.267
And I'm sure you'll say, well, why did it take so long?

00:26:04.547 --> 00:26:08.170
Well, the reason for that was that my parents had moved out to Arizona.

00:26:08.210 --> 00:26:10.372
They were both in not very good health.

00:26:10.731 --> 00:26:24.144
And for me to start something that might take me on a path, it didn't seem like the right thing to do until my responsibility as a son to my parents was done in 1991.

00:26:24.144 --> 00:26:26.828
1994, my dad passed away in 1998.

00:26:27.028 --> 00:26:30.315
My mom at that point, I'm like, okay, now is the time.

00:26:30.335 --> 00:26:38.329
So in 1999, I put together a compilation of some of the stuff that I recorded with the artists that had come through to the rhythm room.

00:26:38.349 --> 00:26:47.066
And I, you know, it was a pretty amazing little package and people were like, well, this is a good album, but who the hell is Bob Kortor?

00:26:47.086 --> 00:26:47.165
Yeah.

00:26:47.298 --> 00:26:55.144
I'm the guy that came out of nowhere to put out this album with Harold Burnside and Jimmy Rogers and Robert Lockwood and Bo Diddley.

00:26:55.164 --> 00:26:58.468
These are people I had gotten to work with through the whole time.

00:26:59.167 --> 00:27:04.512
I really do feel blessed for that opportunity, and I didn't take that opportunity lightly, obviously.

00:27:04.573 --> 00:27:15.321
I did everything I could to record and document as much as I could with the people coming through, and also to get a closeness to that music by participating

00:27:15.402 --> 00:27:15.603
in it.

00:27:15.722 --> 00:27:27.518
This was something that I I'm glad I did because there's so much stuff that I was able to record during that time period.

00:27:29.794 --> 00:27:37.982
I

00:27:38.042 --> 00:27:40.105
think it sounds pretty good even to this day.

00:27:40.164 --> 00:27:44.569
Even though I wasn't the player I am now, I still think I had the thing.

00:27:45.130 --> 00:27:55.781
And I'm very proud of those recordings and that moment in time that I got to participate in this beautiful legacy of this rich blues tradition.

00:27:56.066 --> 00:27:58.208
you got to use your business degree.

00:27:58.307 --> 00:28:05.374
I'm sure your parents were proud, you know, opening a club and becoming a record producer and being able to work in music, which you loved.

00:28:05.413 --> 00:28:10.659
So I'm sure your parents were pleased to see you to use that business degree in that way as well.

00:28:11.138 --> 00:28:18.885
And I mean, talking about Phoenix as well, you were, there's a Bob Corritore day announced by the mayor of Phoenix in 2007.

00:28:18.905 --> 00:28:21.728
You have your services to the city.

00:28:22.209 --> 00:28:23.108
That was a big honor.

00:28:23.170 --> 00:28:24.730
It was like, okay, wow, I have my own day.

00:28:25.230 --> 00:28:26.392
I was presented to me.

00:28:26.412 --> 00:28:29.036
I had my birthday party, and there were tons of people.

00:28:29.236 --> 00:28:31.578
I go, wow, what an amazing honor.

00:28:31.618 --> 00:28:33.381
There's a popcorn tour day.

00:28:33.500 --> 00:28:35.063
Well, next day, I woke up.

00:28:35.103 --> 00:28:35.983
I had a little bit of a headache.

00:28:36.044 --> 00:28:36.704
I was tired.

00:28:36.865 --> 00:28:38.807
I go, well, I guess today's just not my day.

00:28:40.829 --> 00:28:41.750
It's a wonderful honor.

00:28:41.810 --> 00:28:43.893
It's a little bit absurd, but it's great.

00:28:44.113 --> 00:28:47.857
So I'm the happy recipient of my own day in Phoenix.

00:28:48.538 --> 00:28:49.118
That's super.

00:28:49.759 --> 00:28:54.526
So as you say, you recorded lots of people coming through the Rhythm Room, the club that you owned.

00:28:54.817 --> 00:28:59.425
You play on the harmonica on many of these recordings as well.

00:28:59.486 --> 00:29:02.632
So how do you approach recording the harmonica?

00:29:02.751 --> 00:29:05.096
I know you try and go for a sort of live feel in your albums.

00:29:05.136 --> 00:29:08.221
What sort of sound are you looking for out of the harmonica specifically?

00:29:08.884 --> 00:29:14.433
I think the best thing that you can do is to try to serve the song and the style of the artist that you're backing.

00:29:14.882 --> 00:29:21.390
So within each artist, everybody has their own tendencies, and you try and find your niche with those people.

00:29:21.810 --> 00:29:25.836
And oftentimes, too, it's what we had done on the bandstand the night before.

00:29:25.875 --> 00:29:28.358
It's taking that into the studio the next day.

00:29:28.640 --> 00:29:31.442
Sometimes it's not, but more often than not, that's the case.

00:29:31.502 --> 00:29:42.778
Sometimes people would be coming through, and we'd just throw some things together, and I'd have some ideas, they'd have some ideas, and we'd just let it rip and put it on the tape machine, and what we got was what we got.

00:29:43.137 --> 00:29:45.820
And did you have a studio in the club itself or

00:29:46.122 --> 00:29:46.582
somewhere else?

00:29:47.002 --> 00:29:54.152
Not exactly, but I worked with a guy named Clark Rigsby, who I became friends with immediately when I came into town.

00:29:54.532 --> 00:30:03.304
And, you know, he at that point in time hadn't developed his recording, but we both developed in our recording world kind of simultaneously.

00:30:03.324 --> 00:30:04.925
I mean, Clark's still an entrepreneur.

00:30:05.153 --> 00:30:12.884
some amazing Grammy-nominated stuff and some of the coolest jazz and roots stuff that you can imagine.

00:30:12.924 --> 00:30:15.387
And we've been close associates through all of that.

00:30:15.729 --> 00:30:20.335
So Clark would bring his equipment to the club and we'd do some live recordings.

00:30:20.655 --> 00:30:22.557
Again, it was just another opportunity to do that.

00:30:22.878 --> 00:30:26.544
So the album Smoking Joint was recorded mostly at the Rhythm Room.

00:30:27.125 --> 00:30:29.440
There's a Robert Lockwood album.

00:30:29.460 --> 00:30:31.683
That was his last album, Record Live at the Rhythm Room.

00:30:32.085 --> 00:30:33.968
There's a couple compilations that had come out.

00:30:33.988 --> 00:30:35.951
It's just stuff that was recorded live at the room.

00:30:36.751 --> 00:30:39.416
So we did whatever we could whenever we could.

00:30:39.436 --> 00:30:46.910
It was a big undertaking to bring a recording studio into a mobile mode and then record in the club.

00:30:47.431 --> 00:30:49.193
I think we made some really great recordings.

00:30:49.857 --> 00:30:52.601
And again, getting on some of your albums.

00:30:52.641 --> 00:30:56.305
So you've had various nominations and awards for some of your albums.

00:30:56.345 --> 00:31:03.693
So talking through some of the people you play with in 2007, Travelling the Dirt Road with Dave Riley was nominated for a Blues Music Award.

00:31:27.682 --> 00:31:28.257
Dirt Road.

00:31:29.506 --> 00:31:33.910
And then you played and produced a Grammy-nominated album with Pinetop Perkins.

00:31:34.230 --> 00:31:37.133
I played on one track and produced that track.

00:31:37.594 --> 00:31:40.777
And they liked it, and they wanted to add that to the record, and it was great.

00:31:41.376 --> 00:31:45.060
I was with Pinetop that year at the Grammys, and we had a blast.

00:31:45.280 --> 00:31:47.222
He won a Grammy, but not for that record.

00:31:47.623 --> 00:31:51.507
I'll never forget, you know, afterwards, hanging out with Pinetop.

00:31:52.248 --> 00:31:58.333
And in 2010, you did a Bob Carter and Friends on Monica Blue's album, which, again, won a Blues Music Award.

00:31:58.373 --> 00:31:58.653
So...

00:31:59.137 --> 00:32:03.143
This is another one where you're playing with lots of the musicians that you know.

00:32:03.182 --> 00:32:06.105
Was this recorded in the club or somewhere else?

00:32:06.727 --> 00:32:11.912
This was all recorded at Tempest Recording with my friend Clark Grigsby that I mentioned.

00:32:12.814 --> 00:32:18.119
This is an album that when people are coming through, I would record them.

00:32:19.820 --> 00:32:23.486
Many of the people, like Henry Gray, I had a very close relationship with.

00:32:23.905 --> 00:32:25.829
Really a pretty spectacular record.

00:32:25.849 --> 00:32:28.476
There's one session that wasn't done in Phoenix.

00:32:28.516 --> 00:32:29.458
It was done in Chicago.

00:32:29.478 --> 00:32:31.221
That was the Coco Taylor song.

00:32:32.144 --> 00:32:40.001
Yeah, I like it, I like it.

00:32:40.021 --> 00:32:41.665
I like it this way.

00:32:42.448 --> 00:32:43.549
Hey, hey!

00:32:50.337 --> 00:32:53.755
I got to do that record with Coco and we were all really pleased.

00:32:53.835 --> 00:33:02.906
It just felt like a great time and I got to have Willie Big Eye Smith and Bob Stroger and Bob Margolin and little Frank on that one.

00:33:02.946 --> 00:33:05.050
And I thought we knocked it out the park.

00:33:05.111 --> 00:33:06.593
We just really killed it on that.

00:33:06.653 --> 00:33:08.035
And Coco was really happy.

00:33:08.075 --> 00:33:11.641
And she wrote me a really nice letter afterwards, thanking me for the session.

00:33:11.941 --> 00:33:12.741
It was a great moment.

00:33:13.363 --> 00:33:15.446
Being able to play these great musicians, superb.

00:33:15.487 --> 00:33:17.609
So, you know, how were you able to attract them to do this?

00:33:17.650 --> 00:33:18.692
Is it because you knew them?

00:33:18.751 --> 00:33:20.413
Is it because you were producing the album?

00:33:20.453 --> 00:33:21.915
Is it your great harmonica playing?

00:33:21.977 --> 00:33:23.659
You know, was it a combination of these things?

00:33:24.160 --> 00:33:25.161
You know, Coco...

00:33:25.602 --> 00:33:27.163
It's always been very, very kind.

00:33:27.703 --> 00:33:33.328
And again, I arranged this through Bruce Iguar, who's an astute businessman and a friend.

00:33:33.409 --> 00:33:35.349
I've known Bruce since the Chicago days.

00:33:35.431 --> 00:33:38.252
And so Bruce and I was taking this very seriously.

00:33:38.333 --> 00:33:42.276
And then I went and I hired the band and did all the stuff that a producer would do.

00:33:42.376 --> 00:33:45.819
I used Bruce's suggestion for a recording studio.

00:33:45.900 --> 00:33:47.441
And we went and we just knocked it out.

00:33:47.701 --> 00:33:49.782
I was in town for the Chicago Blues Festival.

00:33:49.863 --> 00:34:05.855
And so a lot of those people lived in Chicago and Bob Margolin flew in and we just went and did what we needed to do and it was it's just what we do but having the combination of all those people it brought out the best in all of us you know Coco is is and will always be the queen of the

00:34:05.896 --> 00:34:14.570
boys Another person you mentioned earlier on, you've been associated with John Primer, and you've done a few albums with him, again, winning some awards with albums.

00:34:14.971 --> 00:34:27.090
So, yeah, the 2013 Knocking Around These Blues, you won the best album in 2013 in Germany, and a few recently, well, you did one recently, was it last year, the Gypsum one, done told me as well.

00:34:27.521 --> 00:34:33.007
Yeah, John and I, it's interesting because I used to go see him at Teresa's when he was just getting started.

00:34:33.146 --> 00:34:38.431
And so, you know, we knew each other a little bit, but we had never played together for years and years and years.

00:34:38.532 --> 00:34:48.480
And then I'm traveling in Brazil with Dave Riley and the promoter who had a long history with John, he said, why don't you play with John Primer?

00:34:48.719 --> 00:34:50.442
You know, he says, I don't know.

00:34:50.981 --> 00:35:28.161
Well, ironically, a couple months later, I get a phone call from Jay Ryle, who's a booking agent, and he says, you know, John would like come to your club and play with you and I said let's do that while he's in town why don't we knock out a recording session so John was cool we did that but we got in the recording studio and we just from the first song on it was just pure fire and we go oh we got something here and next thing you know we were putting an album out together and later on that same year that we did that we'd go on a five week tour of Europe together so immediately we just found a lot of utility in our relationship relationship.

00:35:28.260 --> 00:35:33.467
Tom uses a harmonica player that plays in Chicago blues style.

00:35:34.568 --> 00:35:37.251
The combination of all that went really well.

00:35:37.831 --> 00:35:39.693
John really likes the way that I produce.

00:35:39.793 --> 00:35:43.998
After we got done with the first record, we got number one in living blues.

00:35:44.559 --> 00:35:48.003
We're in Memphis at the Blues Music Awards kind of saying, isn't that cool?

00:35:49.364 --> 00:35:51.324
John says, you want to do another one?

00:35:51.344 --> 00:35:53.009
I go, you want to do another one?

00:35:53.108 --> 00:35:55.014
I go, okay, let's do another one.

00:35:55.394 --> 00:35:58.021
So I go, okay, I guess we have this going there.

00:35:58.302 --> 00:36:01.210
And so all this, John and I have become very close friends.

00:36:01.230 --> 00:36:11.016
I've been on the road with him and, That last record that we did, we're like, wow, I think we just, you know, we both felt like we reached a whole other place with that last one.

00:36:11.036 --> 00:36:12.358
We'd like all three of our records.

00:36:12.599 --> 00:36:15.023
But Gypsy Woman told me this has a special thing.

00:36:15.382 --> 00:36:20.210
It's all the years of us getting to know each other and putting that to work in the studio.

00:36:32.449 --> 00:36:42.811
And half that record was done over at Greaseland after a wonderful Southwest tour that we were doing.

00:36:43.210 --> 00:36:55.181
And we were finishing up in San Francisco, so I'm like, let's just go and spend another day and do this session in San Jose over at Greaseland, which is a studio I've heard a lot of good things about.

00:36:55.221 --> 00:36:55.902
So we went in.

00:36:56.081 --> 00:37:02.570
It's this, you know, Kit Anderson has this great studio and so many great sessions have happened over there.

00:37:02.871 --> 00:37:06.456
And we walk in and it's basically a studio is this living room.

00:37:06.615 --> 00:37:10.181
We went in and just knocked out this living room session and just killed it.

00:37:10.221 --> 00:37:12.483
But, you know, Kit has all sorts of great equipment.

00:37:12.503 --> 00:37:13.646
He's got such a great vibe.

00:37:13.985 --> 00:37:17.230
And of course, the Bay Area has such a great group of talent.

00:37:17.331 --> 00:37:19.112
And I knew a lot of those guys.

00:37:19.213 --> 00:37:21.695
So, you know, we put, you know, we put a great band together.

00:37:21.856 --> 00:37:24.860
And then John and I were just, We were really on from our tour.

00:37:24.880 --> 00:37:31.170
We had just played six days in a row together, and so we just took that into the session and just nailed it.

00:37:31.331 --> 00:37:37.961
But I had done two other sessions to finish out that record, too, and so we had a wonderful array of some great sounds on there.

00:37:38.382 --> 00:37:40.467
I know you've got lots of albums out.

00:37:40.487 --> 00:37:41.849
I think you try and get one out every year.

00:37:41.949 --> 00:37:42.409
What's really...

00:37:42.786 --> 00:37:46.713
interesting listening to your music is there's so much variety because you're playing with so many different people.

00:37:46.733 --> 00:37:51.744
We mentioned the various artists you play with and different people singing the vocals on your songs.

00:37:51.804 --> 00:37:56.875
It really gives your albums a really different feel for everyone and almost every different song is quite different, isn't it?

00:37:56.894 --> 00:37:58.378
Because of that in a lot of cases.

00:37:58.978 --> 00:38:04.927
Well, you know, early on, especially when I came to Phoenix, when you're in Chicago, you can do nothing but Chicago blues.

00:38:05.208 --> 00:38:06.389
That was what it was.

00:38:06.469 --> 00:38:17.509
But then when I came to Phoenix, you know, I played with Red, and even playing with Red, I had to really learn a lot more about playing country blues, because a lot of the gigs we did were just duets.

00:38:17.748 --> 00:38:20.072
And so we developed a whole different sound there.

00:38:20.112 --> 00:38:24.195
And then the next big stretch that I had was with big Pete Pearson.

00:38:24.474 --> 00:38:32.842
And half the set was done by the guys he had, and they were great musicians that were also versed in soul and jazz and R&B.

00:38:32.902 --> 00:38:42.471
And so I found myself playing in a lot of non-traditional harmonica roles, and I had to find my way of making sense of all those different things.

00:38:42.751 --> 00:38:45.893
So I became adaptable in a lot of ways.

00:38:45.994 --> 00:38:52.739
And working with great horn players that were very jazz-like, I had to really study some stuff.

00:38:53.139 --> 00:38:58.505
And I got to hear things that the average harmonica player might not get to hear because they're not put in those situations.

00:38:58.626 --> 00:39:02.650
So, you know, it helped my musicality quite a bit to do that.

00:39:02.769 --> 00:39:08.096
And then Lazy Lesser, when he came to town, he often was a guest at my house, so the Louisiana sound.

00:39:08.496 --> 00:39:13.541
And then King Carl moved to Phoenix, and then I got to put that Louisiana sound to work, you know?

00:39:13.561 --> 00:39:25.014
So I find that being a non-singing harmonica player, which would normally be a disadvantage, has actually worked to my advantage because every record that I make is like a different chapter in my book.

00:39:25.556 --> 00:39:32.047
It's just me bringing what I do to the various situations and seeing which ones I thrive in.

00:39:32.186 --> 00:39:34.851
And so I work hard to thrive in all of

00:39:34.911 --> 00:39:35.072
them.

00:39:35.954 --> 00:39:40.661
And I'm just finishing off on your recording, because I think your most recent album is Spider in My Stew.

00:39:41.474 --> 00:39:42.914
Yeah, I'm really proud of that one.

00:39:42.974 --> 00:39:46.918
And this one seems to be doing better than maybe anything else I've ever recorded.

00:39:47.458 --> 00:39:55.987
I think part of it is, you know, I have this great relationship with this wonderful illustrator, Vince Ray, and he just knocked it out of the park with the cover.

00:39:56.327 --> 00:39:58.949
So I've sold a ton of t-shirts with that design.

00:39:58.989 --> 00:40:02.612
But on top of that, I've gotten more confident as a producer.

00:40:02.913 --> 00:40:08.536
And, you know, with each of these Bob Corton Friends things, I think I've gained more and more credibility.

00:40:08.617 --> 00:40:14.782
So I'm like, hey, you want to come and do this, Johnny Rawls or Francine Reed, who was a dear friend of mine.

00:40:15.302 --> 00:40:21.309
She was based in Phoenix and was in Phoenix now, but, you know, lived in a few different places over the years.

00:40:21.369 --> 00:40:23.451
But, yeah, it's like, yeah, we've known each other for so long.

00:40:23.490 --> 00:40:24.532
We should really do something.

00:40:24.572 --> 00:40:30.376
So, yeah, we went in and I think I brought out a different side of Francine and she brought out a different side of me.

00:40:33.280 --> 00:40:33.400
So bad.

00:40:40.106 --> 00:40:40.286
So bad.

00:40:41.922 --> 00:40:55.567
It was a pretty cool thing, you know, when you get to merge the energies together and find that sweet spot that you share between you.

00:40:56.989 --> 00:40:57.068
Yeah.

00:40:57.088 --> 00:41:04.603
So another thing you've done, Major Lee, is you've had a radio show since, I think, 1984, those Lowdown Blues in Phoenix, yeah?

00:41:05.664 --> 00:41:05.945
Yes.

00:41:06.146 --> 00:41:06.206
Yes.

00:41:06.434 --> 00:41:08.295
And that's another one of my joys in life.

00:41:08.376 --> 00:41:16.286
I get to have five hours on the radio where I get to study historic blues and present it in different ways.

00:41:16.387 --> 00:41:21.094
And somehow there's a loving audience that embraces that with me.

00:41:21.173 --> 00:41:26.119
So I almost feel like it's a guilty, selfish pleasure because I get to play all this music I love.

00:41:26.320 --> 00:41:32.748
And I have five hours set aside for the presentation of that, which I spend a bunch of hours in preparation to do that every week.

00:41:33.070 --> 00:41:33.449
Excellent.

00:41:33.469 --> 00:41:33.610
Yeah.

00:41:33.690 --> 00:41:36.293
And can that be found on the internet, that radio show?

00:41:36.577 --> 00:41:37.903
Yes, real time.

00:41:37.943 --> 00:41:43.208
So in the United States, we have what's called, we have different time zones, mountain standard time.

00:41:43.650 --> 00:41:45.572
You can hear it 6 to 11 p.m.

00:41:45.632 --> 00:41:49.795
on Sunday nights at kjzz.org.

00:41:50.235 --> 00:41:50.635
Superb.

00:41:50.695 --> 00:41:55.099
And you won an honorary award from the Blues Foundation for keeping blues alive.

00:41:55.119 --> 00:41:56.760
And is that partly down to the radio show?

00:41:56.961 --> 00:41:57.202
Yes.

00:41:57.322 --> 00:41:58.543
Yeah, that was a big honor.

00:41:58.722 --> 00:42:03.527
And it's nice to be considered in all these different aspects that I do for the blues.

00:42:03.547 --> 00:42:05.929
It was a really wonderful thing to be awarded.

00:42:06.230 --> 00:42:09.132
And ironically, it happened right as we lost Chico Chisholm.

00:42:09.172 --> 00:42:16.858
So my acceptance speech was about Chico a lot of times because he had just passed away the week before and we had done his services and all of that.

00:42:16.900 --> 00:42:21.284
It was a tough time for me, but at the same time, very gratifying to be honored in that way.

00:42:21.704 --> 00:42:28.552
Another thing, your devotion to the blues is you write a newsletter, a blues newsletter, which you've written since 2005.

00:42:28.612 --> 00:42:32.456
Again, you're putting a lot of your knowledge into this newsletter, yeah?

00:42:32.476 --> 00:42:37.041
You know, I have to say I'm not as good at the newsletter as I used to be.

00:42:37.061 --> 00:42:44.969
At one point in time, though, it was a really good career thing for me because all of a kind of had to create my own media.

00:42:44.989 --> 00:42:50.534
So I was able to bring out some of the aspects of blues that I thought weren't necessarily getting the attention.

00:42:50.554 --> 00:42:56.541
The Chicago blues, the down-home blues, the harmonica blues, they all had priority on my newsletter.

00:42:56.902 --> 00:42:59.264
So it was a kind of entertaining newsletter.

00:42:59.304 --> 00:43:01.027
There were a couple of things, though, that happened.

00:43:01.086 --> 00:43:12.239
Number one, once Facebook started to happen, I felt that it as a news source became irrelevant, where prior to that, people were getting some of their news the fastest through my newsletter.

00:43:12.679 --> 00:43:17.543
But, you know, if Facebook you get literally immediate news within the blues if somebody passes away.

00:43:17.945 --> 00:43:28.916
The other part of that that was really tough for me, and at a point I had to stop doing it, was I was doing so many obituaries, and each one of those just tore a part of my heart, and it was just hard to do that.

00:43:29.277 --> 00:43:42.090
And it continues to be hard to say goodbye to so many people, but if I had to then summarize their life and try and put in writing the best summary of their contributions, their lifelong contributions to this music, that's a lot of pressure to do that.

00:43:42.251 --> 00:43:45.514
And there were some years, of course where I'd just be on the road nonstop.

00:43:45.994 --> 00:43:49.057
And it'd be hard to imagine keeping up with it the way I did.

00:43:49.097 --> 00:44:04.855
So at a point, I somewhat retired it as a newsletter, and it still is a newsletter of what's happening with me, but it's more of a tout sheet at this point than a summary of the weekly news that had just happened and what records were coming out in the bigger scope of the industry.

00:44:04.914 --> 00:44:08.639
That's what it used to be, but I can't say that I've maintained that.

00:44:08.838 --> 00:44:12.902
And part of that is all the different aspects and how different things have evolved

00:44:13.003 --> 00:44:13.945
and taken more time.

00:44:14.304 --> 00:44:18.269
Well, social media, as you say, has kind of replaced that medium to some extent, hasn't it?

00:44:18.289 --> 00:44:19.110
So it's understandable.

00:44:19.150 --> 00:44:25.518
But yeah, again, looking at your website, there's a great resource there for lots of information about the blues and that's part of it.

00:44:25.538 --> 00:44:26.679
So I'll put a link onto that.

00:44:27.340 --> 00:44:29.063
And now you do some teaching as well.

00:44:29.103 --> 00:44:33.887
You teach a harmonica masterclass in Memphis, the Blues Challenge, a week there.

00:44:33.967 --> 00:44:35.050
Is that something you're still doing?

00:44:35.393 --> 00:44:38.016
Well, I would have to do that three years.

00:44:38.356 --> 00:44:47.605
We'll see if the new, you know, we haven't had, it was during the IBC week, which is an international blues competition, and they haven't had that now for two years.

00:44:47.864 --> 00:44:53.690
So I imagine they'll resume in 2022, and I would be honored if they asked me to do it again.

00:44:53.730 --> 00:45:02.237
It's pretty cool because I would do that simultaneously with my dear friend Bob Margolin, who would be doing a guitar masterclass in the adjoining club.

00:45:02.498 --> 00:45:11.365
Then we would put that together and do a harmonica guitar seminar, and I found it to be really rewarding and well-received.

00:45:11.626 --> 00:45:21.117
So if you jump into the IBC, you see a younger generation in the blues all trying to get a foothold, a blues career started through this wonderful event.

00:45:21.237 --> 00:45:25.541
So the energy that's around that week is pretty spectacular.

00:45:25.581 --> 00:45:30.987
And so if I do these harmonica masterclasses, I get to speak of my philosophy of the harmonica.

00:45:31.047 --> 00:45:36.373
And I make a mention, I go, look, everyone in this class has something that I could learn from.

00:45:36.512 --> 00:45:38.534
So I'm not the final word here.

00:45:38.635 --> 00:45:43.681
I'm not the guy that you get this from, but I can offer you whatever I have.

00:45:43.721 --> 00:45:50.248
I've got 50 years of harmonica playing under my belt, and whatever I have is yours in this seminar.

00:45:50.268 --> 00:45:55.333
So I would go through some demonstrations, and I'd leave it open for questions.

00:45:55.413 --> 00:46:00.478
And it's really gratifying to meet some of the younger players that have been influenced by my work.

00:46:00.858 --> 00:46:02.961
And I'm like, wow, this is full circle.

00:46:03.202 --> 00:46:06.545
I mean, I used to get the attaboys, and now apparently I'm giving them.

00:46:06.726 --> 00:46:09.489
I used to look to the older guys for my approval.

00:46:09.871 --> 00:46:12.914
And now I guess some of the other people are looking to me.

00:46:12.934 --> 00:46:14.898
So you're one of the older guys now.

00:46:14.958 --> 00:46:16.340
Yeah.

00:46:16.541 --> 00:46:22.610
So that leads nicely onto my 10 minute question, Bob, which is if you had 10 minutes to practice, what would you spend those 10 minutes doing?

00:46:22.882 --> 00:46:29.047
Well, when I get going, it's usually, if I get to exploring harmonica, it's usually at least an hour.

00:46:29.387 --> 00:46:44.059
Oftentimes what I do when I rehearse, and this is a little bit evasive of your question, but I'll find some aspect, and a lot of times it's from the little Walter mind, but sometimes it's from a big Walter or Sonny Boy, Warner Sonny Boy 2, or any of the other great harmonica players.

00:46:44.079 --> 00:46:51.887
So I'll find something I really enjoy about what they do, and I grab onto it, and I try and understand what they're doing.

00:46:51.907 --> 00:46:57.876
I try and learn to verbatim, and then I try and reallocate it so it has my own personality in it.

00:46:57.976 --> 00:47:00.981
And that might be just taking the intention of what they're doing.

00:47:01.021 --> 00:47:05.447
It might be taking a part of what they're doing and adding some of my own things to it.

00:47:05.847 --> 00:47:09.753
But I try and find some way that I can explore through that lens.

00:47:10.014 --> 00:47:19.690
So if I had 10 minutes, I'd probably go to the Muddy Waters, the first record I had, Muddy Waters Sail On, because every time I hear it, I hear something new.

00:47:20.034 --> 00:47:21.295
and Lil Walter's playing that.

00:47:21.396 --> 00:47:26.521
I'd probably take that and study that, because you could never learn that all the way.

00:47:26.541 --> 00:47:32.851
The lessons of Lil Walter, that guy was such a genius, and every time you go back to that well, it's a whole other thing.

00:47:32.911 --> 00:47:40.621
You could study something and then go back to a year later and hear all sorts of different things a year later than you heard the first time that you were studying it.

00:47:40.721 --> 00:47:47.449
So it's an endless journey to study harmonica, and that's what makes it great, is that the work is never done.

00:47:47.842 --> 00:48:06.237
Let's go back to New Orleans boys

00:48:08.673 --> 00:48:10.094
So we've moved on to the last section now.

00:48:10.315 --> 00:48:13.898
We'll get old harmonica geeky and talk about gear.

00:48:13.998 --> 00:48:15.039
So you're a

00:48:15.559 --> 00:48:16.481
honer and Dorsey.

00:48:16.800 --> 00:48:25.869
Yes, and I particularly love the honer Marine Band Deluxe, and I love the modified honers that Joe Polisco has been so kind.

00:48:25.949 --> 00:48:29.331
So it takes a Marine Band and it just kind of ups the game a little bit.

00:48:29.891 --> 00:48:37.318
You know, the tone and the accessibility of the notes, it gives a little bit more movement ability when you play.

00:48:37.378 --> 00:48:38.639
Kim Wilson turned me on to Joe.

00:48:38.639 --> 00:48:40.983
of Felisco's harps, I asked him a bunch of questions.

00:48:41.003 --> 00:48:42.063
He goes, here, take one of these.

00:48:42.083 --> 00:48:42.905
So he gave me one.

00:48:42.965 --> 00:48:43.625
I go, oh.

00:48:43.846 --> 00:48:51.753
And it helped me understand a little bit more how Kim has such mobility on this instrument because that particular Felisco harp is just made to play.

00:48:52.153 --> 00:48:53.396
It's a pretty cool thing.

00:48:53.516 --> 00:48:55.958
And likewise, I really like that Marine Band Deluxe.

00:48:55.998 --> 00:48:56.960
I love the Marine Bands.

00:48:57.019 --> 00:48:58.581
I have some straight-ahead Marine Bands.

00:48:58.721 --> 00:49:01.324
But the Marine Band Deluxe has a little extra zest to it.

00:49:01.403 --> 00:49:03.286
So those are my two favorite jamalacas.

00:49:03.385 --> 00:49:32.797
And I just bought this chromatic, which I'm playing on the title track of Spider-Man 2 Pretty spectacular, the Super 64 performance.

00:49:32.961 --> 00:49:37.250
So that is such a wonderful richness and tone.

00:49:37.490 --> 00:49:43.282
And, you know, from the top to the bottom, it's just very, really a great sound to it.

00:49:43.742 --> 00:49:45.246
Yeah, so you mentioned chromatic there.

00:49:45.527 --> 00:49:48.251
You play some blues chromatic dotted through your albums.

00:49:48.331 --> 00:49:53.061
Don't you say that's something you've done for a long time and you like the third position chromatic playing?

00:49:53.442 --> 00:49:56.204
Yes, there's guys that play much better than me in chromatic.

00:49:56.224 --> 00:50:04.911
I mean, if you listen to Rod Piazza or William Clark or Kim Wilson, those guys have, they can really, really do some stuff.

00:50:04.972 --> 00:50:06.532
And I think I do well with it.

00:50:06.733 --> 00:50:09.135
There's things I do in chromatic that are uniquely mine.

00:50:09.675 --> 00:50:12.318
But there's some people that just kill on it.

00:50:12.358 --> 00:50:14.300
Billy Watson's another great chromatic player.

00:50:14.880 --> 00:50:16.442
And there's a bunch more, too.

00:50:16.461 --> 00:50:20.005
I love the chromatic, especially if you're doing like a position in D.

00:50:20.385 --> 00:50:21.666
It kind of plays itself.

00:50:22.067 --> 00:50:23.407
And it has a tone.

00:50:23.407 --> 00:50:55.304
that's so different and especially when you hit the chords they're just so warm and rich and they just they come across in a way that it takes you to a whole other world kind of doomy minor-esque sound that puts you in a zone that when you're playing it like that and especially if you're playing with a singer that's really responsive to that it puts them in the zone too it just kind of reflects a particular mood of a song so I love that particular style of blues I've recorded a number of songs over the years on Chromatic that I'm proud of.

00:50:55.746 --> 00:50:56.847
Yeah, no, definitely.

00:50:56.887 --> 00:51:03.652
I think it's definitely every blues player should have a bit of chromatic to play because, you know, it's just a bit of different flavor, isn't it?

00:51:03.713 --> 00:51:05.414
What about different tunings?

00:51:05.454 --> 00:51:07.516
Do you use any different tunings on diatonics?

00:51:07.775 --> 00:51:09.557
I don't, but I would be open to that.

00:51:09.818 --> 00:51:11.960
I did play in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

00:51:11.980 --> 00:51:24.610
They've got the Route 66 Harmonica Club, and Tim Gonzalez came on as one of the speakers of that, and he spoke of the attributes of the minor tuned harmonicas and demonstrated that.

00:51:24.650 --> 00:51:36.744
It was beautiful, and And then Charlie McCoy came on and told of the attributes of the country-tuned harmonicas, and both of them did spectacular performances demonstrating why all of that worked.

00:51:36.923 --> 00:51:41.849
The country tune is a more major-tuned harmonica thing, but each of those would be great.

00:51:41.989 --> 00:51:46.434
I actually would like to purchase that and study that a little bit, but I haven't.

00:51:47.135 --> 00:51:52.760
I kind of stick with the tradition overall, but again, I'm open to some of these different harmonicas.

00:51:52.820 --> 00:51:54.443
I just haven't gotten to them yet.

00:51:54.762 --> 00:51:55.664
So you don't use overblocks?

00:51:55.664 --> 00:51:58.155
lows, particularly than playing more traditionally?

00:51:58.556 --> 00:52:00.003
I've never been able to make sense of that.

00:52:00.043 --> 00:52:04.202
I don't know that it feels all that traditional, although there's a...

00:52:05.121 --> 00:52:12.411
I guess one of the earlier versions, I think it's a guy named Blues Birdhead, and I talked to Joe Felisco, and he gave me this chart.

00:52:12.811 --> 00:52:22.483
He's got a way of charting harmonica, and I'm like, oh, I don't even know how I can wrap my head around this chart like that, because it's so foreign to the way that I think of harmonica.

00:52:22.923 --> 00:52:32.795
But within that is this beautiful first position, and he's hitting apparently a bunch of overblows that I'm very intrigued by, because it really sounds wonderful, and obviously it's been part of the tradition.

00:52:33.096 --> 00:52:38.304
So some of the guys that do this, The Overblows, it just seems to take it too far away from the tradition for me.

00:52:39.085 --> 00:52:40.327
And that's their style.

00:52:40.427 --> 00:52:46.336
I respect it, but it's not something I feel would suit who I am and what I'm trying to get across.

00:52:46.436 --> 00:52:53.807
But I'm not opposed to learning that skill to see if that would take me where I might need to go in a particular song assignment.

00:52:53.847 --> 00:52:59.697
But again, it's not something I felt a huge amount of motivation to get involved in.

00:52:59.938 --> 00:53:05.172
After hearing that blues bird head, I'm like, you know, I need to give that a second thought.

00:53:17.121 --> 00:53:18.923
So much to learn, as you say, isn't it?

00:53:19.224 --> 00:53:21.485
So what about embouchure-wise?

00:53:21.885 --> 00:53:23.226
I'm mainly a tongue blocker.

00:53:23.306 --> 00:53:26.570
I first learned about, you know, you heard about tongue blocking.

00:53:26.590 --> 00:53:29.211
It's within the little instruction sheets.

00:53:29.353 --> 00:53:34.677
And I bought this harmonica instruction book by Tony Little's son, Glover, who said, oh, no, don't do that.

00:53:35.137 --> 00:53:38.280
And so my first years of playing, I was a lip fucker.

00:53:38.440 --> 00:53:46.447
And then I heard Dave Waldman, you know, obviously heard on old records, but Dave Waldman showed me up close and personal how it went.

00:53:46.827 --> 00:53:52.273
And At that point, I just, I completely switched over and went to pretty much 100% tongue blocking.

00:53:52.313 --> 00:54:01.422
And now I'm doing some things, you know, if you're going to do like, you know, one of those little machine gun kind of things, you have to have your tongue to be able to do that.

00:54:01.724 --> 00:54:05.847
Junior Wells used that particular thing where they'd switch back and forth.

00:54:06.128 --> 00:54:12.074
And I've learned a little of that, but overall, I prefer the sound of the tongue block to the lip piercing.

00:54:12.335 --> 00:54:14.336
Kim Wilson and I have had discussions on this.

00:54:14.376 --> 00:54:21.672
He really likes switching back and forth and He has made that an advantage to himself that really works for him and his style.

00:54:21.733 --> 00:54:25.043
But to me, I'm just more the old-school fun blocker.

00:54:25.925 --> 00:54:27.248
What about amplification?

00:54:27.873 --> 00:54:30.896
Well, you know, application is obviously an asset.

00:54:30.916 --> 00:54:32.577
It's really nice to have a wonderful amp.

00:54:32.777 --> 00:54:36.300
You know, in the studio, I oftentimes use a mid-50s Tweed Deluxe.

00:54:36.621 --> 00:54:40.065
Live at my own gigs, I have a 58 Bassman.

00:54:40.304 --> 00:54:43.427
But when you're on the road, you play to whatever you get.

00:54:43.608 --> 00:54:48.351
So I think so much of the sound you have comes before the amplifier and the microphone and all that.

00:54:48.652 --> 00:54:53.456
So you just try and find your way that you can make it work, that you can get across.

00:54:53.695 --> 00:55:01.884
But when you do have an amp that's working for you, when you're able to override it to a place of both clarity and distortion and go back and forth between that.

00:55:01.943 --> 00:55:03.744
That's when it's really a good thing.

00:55:04.144 --> 00:55:08.028
I also really liked one of the Gibson CA-40s over at Tempest.

00:55:08.068 --> 00:55:09.090
They've got a really nice one.

00:55:09.130 --> 00:55:10.391
I have one that's a good one.

00:55:10.411 --> 00:55:14.233
It doesn't sound as good as the one over at Clark Rees-Peace Tempest recording.

00:55:14.353 --> 00:55:16.556
So I've used that on some recordings.

00:55:17.077 --> 00:55:27.806
That was the amp I used on the title track of Deep Hip Shake, baby.

00:55:29.442 --> 00:55:38.577
That thing will bite your head off.

00:55:38.858 --> 00:55:42.244
It just comes across with this biting power tone.

00:55:42.585 --> 00:55:47.793
It's not something you want to use in every situation, but when you use it in the right song, it really works well.

00:55:48.514 --> 00:55:49.818
And microphone wise?

00:55:50.210 --> 00:55:56.559
I own several, but the JT Aesthetic with a crystal is my go-to one.

00:55:56.778 --> 00:56:00.844
And then there's this, sure, I think it's a unidime.

00:56:00.864 --> 00:56:02.907
Somebody said it's what Paul Butterfield used to use.

00:56:03.188 --> 00:56:07.954
That's kind of a cool thing that I've used, and it gets a whole different thing.

00:56:08.554 --> 00:56:15.806
It's worked for me on a couple sessions where if you want to do the vibrato, that right there will just respond in a second for you.

00:56:16.226 --> 00:56:22.351
I think the first time he was on a session was a session I did with John Brim, and it had just such a great vibrato.

00:56:22.391 --> 00:56:30.557
I ended up finding myself in Snooki Prior mode because you could just get those Snooki Prior vibratos so easily with that type of microphone.

00:56:30.918 --> 00:56:33.340
I like the Slim-X sometimes in certain situations.

00:56:33.420 --> 00:56:43.108
I think that's a nice thing, and Martin Lang turned me on the attributes of that, and that's a really nice microphone for its purposes.

00:56:43.148 --> 00:57:09.170
I've had that on certain sessions, and it certain situations where it's really come across that that's a very clear trebly microphone so again you choose what you have and occasionally you know if i have a few microphones with me and there's a song i'll i'll switch up the microphones right on the spot but oftentimes you have to change your amplifier settings also to accommodate the different mic but it's fun to to see what the possibilities are in different sounds

00:57:09.690 --> 00:57:10.211
yeah

00:57:10.231 --> 00:57:17.768
and do you use any effects pedals I do like to have an echo or a delay pedal, and that's pretty much it.

00:57:17.889 --> 00:57:21.835
And then if I'm playing through an amp with a good reverb, I don't have to do any of that.

00:57:22.016 --> 00:57:31.554
So I do like to have a little bounce in there, but hopefully not too much where it takes over, just enough to make it feel like you're kind of hearing a little of the after effect of what you're playing.

00:57:31.833 --> 00:57:33.737
That, I think, boosts it a little bit for me.

00:57:34.210 --> 00:57:36.992
And last question now, Bob, and again, thanks so much for your time.

00:57:37.112 --> 00:57:38.253
What about your future plans?

00:57:38.313 --> 00:57:41.737
Has the Rhythm Room reopened and are you back out gigging now?

00:57:42.077 --> 00:57:44.398
Well, I'm excited to get back and do some gigging.

00:57:44.599 --> 00:57:45.900
I'm beginning to book a few things.

00:57:45.980 --> 00:57:50.985
I've got a few festivals lined up and stuff even for 2022 that I'm excited about.

00:57:51.005 --> 00:57:58.110
I'm excited to go back to the King Biscuit Blues Festival, which has always been a great meeting place and a good way to reconnect with my friends down south.

00:57:58.311 --> 00:58:00.773
That's a really fantastic time over there.

00:58:00.833 --> 00:58:05.538
And then, of course, the Bobs of the Blues were formed over over at that festival.

00:58:06.018 --> 00:58:14.634
And then we do an annual thing the day after the festival over at the Pinetop Perkins Foundation event, which is called the Pinetop Homecoming.

00:58:14.693 --> 00:58:17.960
It's over at the commissary at Hobson's Plantation in Clarksdale.

00:58:18.260 --> 00:58:22.288
So you got three people that played with Pinetop Perkins, which are getting harder and harder to find.

00:58:22.547 --> 00:58:23.650
And we're all named Bob.

00:58:23.690 --> 00:58:28.038
So we kind of grew into the Bobs of the Blues and get to do some shows that way.

00:58:28.322 --> 00:58:34.929
Thanks so much, Bob Corris, for joining me today and sharing all your great breadth of knowledge about the blues and your long career.

00:58:35.449 --> 00:58:36.851
Neil, it's been really my pleasure.

00:58:36.891 --> 00:58:39.554
Thank you for allowing me to just talk about stuff like this.

00:58:39.735 --> 00:58:44.960
It's really nice when somebody asks very informative questions about what we love, which is blues harmonica.

00:58:45.041 --> 00:58:45.181
Thank

00:58:45.201 --> 00:58:45.621
you so much.

00:58:46.402 --> 00:58:47.063
Thank you, Bob.

00:58:47.382 --> 00:58:48.965
That's episode 40 in the can.

00:58:49.005 --> 00:58:50.086
Thanks so much, everybody.

00:58:50.106 --> 00:58:55.072
Be sure to check out the Spotify playlist, which contains most of the songs discussed in the show.

00:58:55.693 --> 00:58:56.554
Now it's over to Bob.

00:58:56.833 --> 00:58:58.235
Take us on a harmonica

00:58:58.275 --> 00:59:22.217
joyride.

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000
.

00:59:42.561 --> 00:59:47.262
so