Aug. 22, 2020

Jerry Portnoy interview

Jerry Portnoy interview

Jerry Portnoy joins me on episode 20 of the podcast. Jerry grew up with the sounds of Maxwell street in his ears. It took him a few years to pick up the harp, but when he did he enjoyed a tremendous career. Starting out with Johnny Young’s band, he had only been playing for six years before his talents landed him the greatest harmonica chair there ever was, playing with the Muddy Waters Blues Band. Jerry went on to play in the Legendary Blues Band and then with guitar legend Eric Clapto...

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Season 1 Diatonic Harmonica Blues Harmonica

Jerry Portnoy joins me on episode 20 of the podcast.
Jerry grew up with the sounds of Maxwell street in his ears. It took him a few years to pick up the harp, but when he did he enjoyed a tremendous career. Starting out with Johnny Young’s band, he had only been playing for six years before his talents landed him the greatest harmonica chair there ever was, playing with the Muddy Waters Blues Band. 
Jerry went on to play in the Legendary Blues Band and then with guitar legend Eric Clapton. He’s played at the White House, Carnegie Hall and the Royal Albert Hall. 

Select the Chapter Markers tab above to select different sections of the podcast (website version only).

Links:
Jerry's website: https://www.jerryportnoy.com

Teaching:
Jerry's Masterclass tutorial: https://www.jerryportnoy.com/lessons.html
Sonic Junction: http://www.sonicjunction.com/jerry-portnoy

YouTube:
Jerry playing with Muddy Waters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu3CbGyKgiA
Jerry playing Misty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb2CZenVvp0

Amps:
http://www.victoriaamp.com/
https://memphisbluesamps.com/mini-amp-docs


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

01:22 - Father had a store on Maxwell Street

03:21 - Blues revival sparked Jerry’s interest in blues again

04:09 - Mother was a singer

04:27 - Jerry tried out a few different instruments when young

05:08 - First played harmonica

05:49 - Learnt harmonica travelling around Europe

06:18 - Bought a Sonny Boy Williamson II record

07:27 - Jerry came to harmonica comparatively late and started playing with Johnny Young

10:16 - Took some lessons with Walter Horton which led to playing with Johnny Young

11:36 - What were lessons with Big Walter like?

13:46 - Joined Muddy Waters band

19:34 - What it felt like getting the chair in Muddy’s band

21:40 - Role of harmonica in Muddy’s band

24:57 - First gig with Muddy

26:08 - The Legendary Blues Band

28:05 - Jerry made peace with Muddy after the band split up

30:49 - Jerry played with Ronnie Earl and then The Streamliners

31:20 - Then started playing with Eric Clapton

35:47 - Played with Bill Wyman

35:53 - Recorded some albums under own name

38:04 - Chromatic harmonica

38:41 - Album with Pinetop Perkins

40:03 - Played on Sesame Street

41:15 - Teaching

42:30 - 10 minute question

45:56 - Harmonica of choice

47:18 - Favourite key of diatonic

47:57 - Different tunings

50:22 - Tuning to play Layla

52:46 - Overblows

52:55 - Embouchre

53:46 - Amps

55:02 - Mics

56:36 - Future plans

WEBVTT

00:00:00.226 --> 00:00:03.912
Hey everybody and welcome to episode 20 of the Happy Hour Harmonica podcast.

00:00:04.394 --> 00:00:05.996
Jerry Portnoy joins me today.

00:00:06.798 --> 00:00:09.483
Jerry grew up with the sounds of Maxwell Street in his ears.

00:00:09.843 --> 00:00:14.272
It took him a few years to pick up the heart, but when he did he enjoyed a tremendous career.

00:00:14.311 --> 00:00:24.230
Starting out with Johnny Young's band, he'd only been playing for six years before his talents landed him the greatest harmonica chair there ever was, playing with the Muddy Waters Blues Band.

00:00:24.513 --> 00:00:30.143
Jerry went on to play in the legendary blues band and then with guitar legend Eric Clapton.

00:00:30.504 --> 00:00:34.009
He's played at the White House, Carnegie Hall and the Royal Albert Hall.

00:00:35.652 --> 00:00:42.343
A word to my sponsor again, thanks to the Lone Wolf Blues Company, makers of effects pedals, microphones and more designed for harmonica.

00:00:42.764 --> 00:00:45.929
Remember, when you want control over your tone, you want Lone Wolf.

00:01:13.537 --> 00:01:15.865
Hello, Jerry Portnoy, and welcome to the podcast.

00:01:16.227 --> 00:01:16.668
Hi, Neil.

00:01:16.769 --> 00:01:17.430
Glad to be here.

00:01:17.471 --> 00:01:26.240
Starting off a little with your background, I understand you grew up in Chicago, the blues town, and your father had a store on Maxwell Street, of all places.

00:01:26.721 --> 00:01:29.427
That is correct, and that world is gone.

00:01:29.649 --> 00:01:33.115
Yeah, as a kid, I spent a lot of time on Maxwell Street.

00:01:33.176 --> 00:01:38.128
My father had a rug store down there, and there was all kinds of music.

00:01:38.147 --> 00:01:42.718
There was every kind of humanity down there, and there was music on the street.

00:01:42.798 --> 00:01:46.206
There were gospel groups, but mostly blues.

00:01:46.786 --> 00:01:54.775
Sunday was the big day, and people would swarm onto Maxwell Street from all parts of the Midwest because you could buy almost everything.

00:01:54.814 --> 00:01:59.920
Everything was for sale, and you haggled for everything.

00:01:59.959 --> 00:02:01.121
There were no set prices.

00:02:01.221 --> 00:02:02.522
It was quite a scene.

00:02:02.563 --> 00:02:17.449
And, of course, little Walter used to play right down the street from my father's store, and I used to go into a delicatessen store, to pick up some sandwiches and Walter would play right across the street from that at the alley.

00:02:17.651 --> 00:02:19.997
So I heard blues when I was growing up.

00:02:20.638 --> 00:02:23.405
Were you aware at that age that that was little Walter playing and

00:02:24.002 --> 00:02:25.463
Oh, no, no, no, no.

00:02:25.503 --> 00:02:31.733
I mean, I call it the soundtrack to my childhood, but it was the ordinary environment.

00:02:31.812 --> 00:02:35.076
As a child, it didn't strike me as anything extraordinary.

00:02:35.116 --> 00:02:37.820
It was just what I heard running around the streets.

00:02:38.262 --> 00:02:44.931
Of course, later on, I knew who was playing down there, but at the time, it was just part of the scene.

00:02:45.230 --> 00:02:49.758
The main thing was that it imprinted the blues in my head.

00:02:50.657 --> 00:02:53.984
See, I was down there probably every Sunday morning from 1947 to 1953.

00:02:54.003 --> 00:03:10.831
In 1953, the city was building an expressway, and they bought up the block that my father's store was on to make way for the expressway, and that was the end of his business down there, and that was the end of my trips down to Maxwell Street for a while.

00:03:11.353 --> 00:03:11.673
So...

00:03:12.258 --> 00:03:34.197
I didn't hear blues for a while, and then, you know, 20 years later, when I started hearing it again in the late 60s, you know, when there was some interest in blues again, and especially in white blues when record companies were signing people like, you know, Paul Butterfield and Johnny Winter and all that, that's when I started hearing blues again.

00:03:34.236 --> 00:03:42.223
And when I heard it, it just triggered something in me because there was just a shock of recognition probably from hearing it again.

00:03:42.223 --> 00:03:45.508
so much when I was a kid, and I just went crazy for it.

00:03:46.145 --> 00:03:56.935
Well, I think we're all, you know, really envious that you're able to experience that Maxwell Street, you know, busking sessions, and what a time that must have been, yeah, so amazing to hear that first-hand account of that.

00:03:57.656 --> 00:04:02.639
I understand, then, you tried a few instruments out before turning to harmonica a little bit later.

00:04:02.941 --> 00:04:05.703
What did you try out before you, you know, you came to the harmonica?

00:04:06.002 --> 00:04:09.186
I mean, I generally like music, and my family was quite musical.

00:04:09.225 --> 00:04:10.546
My mother was a singer.

00:04:10.627 --> 00:04:17.898
She had done some cabaret singing, and she actually passed a couple auditions for of the Lyric Opera in Chicago.

00:04:17.918 --> 00:04:21.569
You know, we heard music in the house, but it wasn't blues.

00:04:21.588 --> 00:04:23.535
You know, my mother had opera records.

00:04:23.574 --> 00:04:26.644
My sister and my mother could both play the piano and sing.

00:04:27.362 --> 00:04:29.745
I tried my hand at various instruments.

00:04:30.065 --> 00:04:34.250
Back in the early 50s, you had a lot of door-to-door salesmen that would come by.

00:04:34.831 --> 00:04:38.557
One time, some guy came by sewing accordion lessons.

00:04:39.478 --> 00:04:46.466
They signed me up for that, but I was a pretty small kid, and I could hardly hold that accordion up.

00:04:46.767 --> 00:04:51.454
As I say, the world was spared another rendition of Lady of Spain.

00:04:51.473 --> 00:04:52.975
I tried that.

00:04:53.076 --> 00:04:54.939
I tried learning guitar.

00:04:54.959 --> 00:04:57.081
I tried learning piano.

00:04:57.442 --> 00:05:03.069
And my experience was that everything took a certain degree of digital dexterity.

00:05:03.088 --> 00:05:07.314
You know, you had to use your fingers or both hands or feet or whatever.

00:05:07.754 --> 00:05:11.959
And in 1968, I was over at a friend's house.

00:05:12.160 --> 00:05:13.903
I was going to take a trip to Europe.

00:05:14.163 --> 00:05:17.968
I was at a friend's house and he had a harmonica sitting on his mantelpiece.

00:05:18.427 --> 00:05:23.634
And I picked it up and I put it in my mouth and there was almost like an instant epiphany.

00:05:24.134 --> 00:05:30.906
I just had an innate sense of that I could make sense out of it because I was kind of oral.

00:05:31.185 --> 00:05:37.771
I had to be talking or shoving something in my pie hole or kissing my girlfriend, something with the mouth.

00:05:37.992 --> 00:05:42.555
So when I put the harmonica in there, it just made natural sense to me.

00:05:42.975 --> 00:05:48.341
I figured low notes to the left, high notes to the right, breathe in, breathe out, I can do this.

00:05:48.882 --> 00:05:52.043
And my friend told me to take it with me when I went to Europe.

00:05:52.324 --> 00:05:58.971
I started fooling around with it, playing little melodies that I heard or little song snippets or whatever.

00:05:59.552 --> 00:06:00.031
Were you

00:06:00.091 --> 00:06:00.572
learning it

00:06:01.093 --> 00:06:02.595
while you were traveling around Europe?

00:06:02.615 --> 00:06:05.137
Is that when you first started learning on the streets of Europe?

00:06:05.738 --> 00:06:06.298
Exactly.

00:06:06.399 --> 00:06:12.646
I'd be hitchhiking and standing on the side of the road and just playing to kill the time and fool around with it.

00:06:12.726 --> 00:06:20.836
And then I met a guy who could play some blues and then I went up to Sweden and I was staying at this kind of hippie crash pad.

00:06:21.336 --> 00:06:22.557
This is 1968.

00:06:23.439 --> 00:06:25.622
And one day I went...

00:06:25.985 --> 00:06:26.786
downtown.

00:06:26.846 --> 00:06:30.634
This was in Uppsala, Sweden, which was a university town.

00:06:30.713 --> 00:06:31.716
I had a friend up there.

00:06:32.197 --> 00:06:39.468
And I went into this record store, and I found this album by Sonny Boy Williamson, number two, Rice Miller.

00:06:39.930 --> 00:06:41.151
It had stars on it.

00:06:41.372 --> 00:06:48.023
Sonny Boy's head was on the cover in profile, and he had a harp stuck in his mouth the long way.

00:06:48.964 --> 00:06:49.565
Mm-hmm.

00:06:49.858 --> 00:06:57.089
So I bought the album, took it back to the place I was staying, and put it on the turntable, and I never came back.

00:06:57.571 --> 00:07:03.079
So I was already, you know, fooling around with harmonica, but once I heard that, I just said, that's it.

00:07:03.341 --> 00:07:08.348
From that moment, I was totally focused on learning how to play.

00:07:13.677 --> 00:07:13.757
Yeah.

00:07:17.314 --> 00:07:29.005
You came to the Harmonica quite late.

00:07:29.045 --> 00:07:31.767
I think you were 24 when you started playing.

00:07:32.228 --> 00:07:33.689
Yeah, I was almost 25.

00:07:33.709 --> 00:07:34.091
You

00:07:34.550 --> 00:07:37.033
started playing professionally in 1970.

00:07:37.274 --> 00:07:40.437
So was that just a couple of years later you started playing with Johnny Young Band?

00:07:40.898 --> 00:07:41.458
Right, yeah.

00:07:41.478 --> 00:07:43.220
I played with Johnny Young for a couple of years.

00:07:43.660 --> 00:07:46.696
Played some in Chicago and a lot of Dates around the Midwest.

00:07:47.016 --> 00:07:53.307
We played at colleges and clubs in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa.

00:07:53.928 --> 00:07:56.132
I did that stuff with Johnny Littlejohn, too.

00:07:56.593 --> 00:07:58.136
I also worked with Sam Way.

00:07:58.175 --> 00:08:01.321
How did you get the first break playing with Johnny Young's band?

00:08:01.562 --> 00:08:03.985
He was a pretty big name back then, wasn't he?

00:08:04.005 --> 00:08:06.189
He was touring around and doing well for himself.

00:08:06.754 --> 00:08:11.543
Yeah, he was playing around Chicago quite a bit and around the Midwest.

00:08:11.723 --> 00:08:12.545
He played at a...

00:08:12.925 --> 00:08:18.896
There was a club on the north side of Chicago on Wrightwood Avenue called Alice's Revisited.

00:08:18.916 --> 00:08:22.242
I think Holland Wolfe cut a live album there.

00:08:22.704 --> 00:08:27.473
But anyway, Johnny was playing down there, and I first got to know him because...

00:08:28.225 --> 00:08:34.659
Shortly after I returned to Chicago in 1970, I was in Europe in 1968.

00:08:34.679 --> 00:08:40.451
I came back to the States in November of 1968, and I went back out to California for a while.

00:08:40.493 --> 00:08:45.222
Then my dad got sick, and I moved back to Chicago in 1970.

00:08:45.943 --> 00:08:55.397
Of course, By that time, I was really focused on trying to learn how to play, and it was a great move to go back to Chicago because Chicago was just full of blues everywhere.

00:08:55.417 --> 00:09:05.145
I mean, all the guys were still, you know, go see Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters and Freddie King, and I mean, just, it was an endless list because all the guys were still around back then.

00:09:05.546 --> 00:09:24.043
So when I got back to Chicago, I was down at the jazz record mart on Grand Avenue, and that was, you know, Bob Kester's place who owned Delmark Records, and I saw a in there advertising Johnny Young at a great club on the north side called the Wise Fools Pub.

00:09:24.364 --> 00:09:25.664
So I went up there.

00:09:25.684 --> 00:09:27.947
He was going to be there Friday and Saturday.

00:09:27.986 --> 00:09:29.408
So I went up there Friday night.

00:09:29.849 --> 00:09:32.831
And I'll never forget, I mean, I was walking towards the club.

00:09:32.871 --> 00:09:39.118
And as I approached the club, I could hear Big Walter's harp just pouring out of the doorway.

00:09:39.558 --> 00:09:42.942
And when I got to the door, I could hardly pull my money out.

00:09:43.105 --> 00:09:45.288
out of my pocket fast enough to get in there.

00:09:45.629 --> 00:10:00.672
And I walked in, and then the music room was to the left, and I peeked in the music room, and there was Johnny Young on stage with the Aces, with Louis Myers, Dave Myers, and Freddie Bielo, and Big Walter was playing harp.

00:10:00.932 --> 00:10:04.376
So, you know, I was completely hypnotized, and...

00:10:05.346 --> 00:10:18.809
I stuck around until the end of the night, and then I kind of went up and talked to Walter and Louis for a little bit, and I went back the next night, and eventually, I would start going over to Walter's house.

00:10:19.551 --> 00:10:22.596
I asked him if he'd give me a lesson, so he said, well, call me.

00:10:22.616 --> 00:10:24.620
He gave me his number, and I called.

00:10:24.681 --> 00:10:27.264
He said, well, come by tomorrow, and I went down there.

00:10:27.841 --> 00:10:28.403
sat around.

00:10:28.423 --> 00:10:32.027
I did that a number of times in my hat with Big Walter.

00:10:32.147 --> 00:10:36.592
Subsequently, he would play with Johnny Young again down there.

00:10:36.993 --> 00:10:42.620
One time, I went down there and I'm sitting in the audience.

00:10:43.140 --> 00:10:50.309
The bandstand wasn't that large, so the Aces and Johnny were on the stage, but Walter was standing on the floor playing.

00:10:51.490 --> 00:11:05.822
In the middle of the set, while he's playing, he walks over to my table and he hands me the the microphone, and of course I had some harps in my pocket, I had the right key, and he just gave me the mic, here, you finish the song.

00:11:06.644 --> 00:11:09.849
Because he knew I could play a little bit because I was hanging out with him.

00:11:10.269 --> 00:11:15.456
So I got up there and finished the tune, and I did another one.

00:11:15.837 --> 00:11:18.360
So that's how Johnny first knew of me.

00:11:19.073 --> 00:11:25.301
And then he was playing at Alice's Revisited one night, and I went down there and sat in with him.

00:11:25.760 --> 00:11:31.047
And he told me that he had some gigs coming up in Wisconsin, and would I play with him.

00:11:31.187 --> 00:11:35.913
So that was my first professional gig was Appleton, Wisconsin.

00:11:36.634 --> 00:11:39.976
Going back to Big Walter, you had some lessons with him.

00:11:40.017 --> 00:11:40.717
What were they like?

00:11:41.339 --> 00:11:43.360
Well, they're nothing like...

00:11:44.258 --> 00:11:57.182
Technical lessons like I would teach or any of these other guys teaching now where, you know, they tell you what holes to play and what holes to block with your tongue and what syllable to pronounce.

00:11:57.423 --> 00:11:58.245
You know, none of that.

00:11:58.806 --> 00:12:04.376
So I said something like, oh, man, show me how you play the intro to Evening Sun.

00:12:05.025 --> 00:12:07.769
which is one of his great numbers that he did with Johnny Shines.

00:12:25.427 --> 00:12:28.291
And he'd say, well, he'd go like this.

00:12:28.991 --> 00:12:30.813
And then he'd just play it.

00:12:30.913 --> 00:12:32.195
And that was the lesson.

00:12:32.534 --> 00:12:34.618
Now, I would go down there with a tape recorder.

00:12:35.073 --> 00:12:36.035
you know, take some of it.

00:12:36.216 --> 00:12:38.360
And then I'd go home and I'd listen.

00:12:38.562 --> 00:12:39.884
I mean, I'd get frustrated.

00:12:40.184 --> 00:12:42.650
I mean, Walter, his sound, there was nothing like it.

00:12:42.711 --> 00:12:45.918
I mean, he'd play a foot from my ear acoustically.

00:12:46.359 --> 00:12:47.620
It was just the greatest sound.

00:12:48.097 --> 00:12:49.840
you ever heard come out of that instrument.

00:12:50.059 --> 00:12:53.823
So I go home and I listen to the tape and I kind of get mad.

00:12:53.884 --> 00:12:56.947
I'd say to myself, well, you know, he's just a human being.

00:12:57.027 --> 00:13:03.072
He's got lungs, he's got lips, he's got a tongue, he's a mouth, just like I do.

00:13:03.133 --> 00:13:05.416
So there's got to be a way I can figure this out.

00:13:05.875 --> 00:13:10.301
Obviously, nobody really exactly matches anybody's tone.

00:13:10.360 --> 00:13:23.155
You know, I mean, I don't sound exactly like Big Walter, but I managed to figure out The basics of how to get good sound on a harmonica, I learned all my tongue blocking and things like that.

00:13:23.196 --> 00:13:25.539
I learned how to bend with my tongue on the harp.

00:13:26.061 --> 00:13:33.676
I was a pretty good technical player, but obviously that's not the end-all and be-all of playing.

00:13:33.975 --> 00:13:38.806
The technical ability is one aspect, but knowing how to play blues is the other.

00:13:40.193 --> 00:13:45.922
So you played with John Young then, so it gave you a break playing professional level with blues bands.

00:13:46.543 --> 00:13:53.773
And then in 1974, you got the greatest gig known to any harmonica player, which is playing with Muddy Waters Band.

00:13:53.832 --> 00:14:00.381
So maybe tell us what led up to that time, maybe what you were doing before then, and then of course how you ended up joining Muddy's Band.

00:14:01.090 --> 00:14:02.273
Well, it's quite a story.

00:14:02.332 --> 00:14:09.447
Well, of course, after Johnny, I stayed with Johnny Young for a couple of years and then I played with Johnny Littlejohn for a year and a half or so.

00:14:09.568 --> 00:14:13.135
And he was a wonderful player and he's very underappreciated.

00:14:13.758 --> 00:14:16.043
And like I said, I played with Sam Lay for a while.

00:14:16.844 --> 00:14:19.169
I had a day job at Cook County Jail.

00:14:19.778 --> 00:14:22.383
you know, I would play around town at night.

00:14:22.783 --> 00:14:31.840
I was starting to get my own band together, and I had rented some rehearsal space, so I was just starting on that little project.

00:14:32.520 --> 00:14:39.572
I got word that Johnny Young had passed away, and there was going to be a benefit for him at a club called On Broadway.

00:14:39.592 --> 00:14:53.722
The morning of the benefit, I went to work at the jail, and I put a few harmonicas in my pocket because I figured after I got off of work, I'd grab some dinner and go down to this benefit, you know, get up there and play with somebody.

00:14:53.743 --> 00:14:58.128
I knew all the guys around Chicago and I figured I'd get up with whoever was there.

00:14:58.148 --> 00:15:01.850
I had no idea that Muddy himself was going to be there.

00:15:02.331 --> 00:15:05.394
So after work, I grabbed some dinner and then I went up to this club.

00:15:05.914 --> 00:15:10.639
When I walked in, the place was packed solid, wall to wall.

00:15:11.721 --> 00:15:45.725
I had the urge to turn around I just didn't feel like dealing with all those people and a big massive crowd and I really thought about turning around but just as I was about to do it I looked towards the bandstand and at the table next to the bandstand there was Muddy Waters and he was looking directly at me and there was no doubt about it he locked eyes with me so I'm looking at him and he motions with his little forefinger like come over here that was like a uh a royal summons and uh...

00:15:46.229 --> 00:15:53.106
obviously i I put all thoughts of leaving out of my mind, and I elbowed my way towards his table.

00:15:53.167 --> 00:15:56.490
When I got there, he looked up and he asked me if I would play his set with him.

00:15:56.809 --> 00:15:58.731
Now, I had sat in with Muddy before.

00:15:58.751 --> 00:16:04.235
I used to hang out with Paul Osher, who used to play with him beforehand.

00:16:04.677 --> 00:16:14.225
So Muddy knew me, and I had sat in with him before, and I looked around and I saw all the other guys in his band, except Mojo Buford, who was his harp player at the time.

00:16:14.826 --> 00:16:26.697
So anyway, when it came time for him, I went up there and played his set with him, and when I came down, he was quite pleased with my play, and he told his manager to get my number.

00:16:26.716 --> 00:16:29.379
I thanked him for letting me play with him.

00:16:29.460 --> 00:16:30.260
It was an honor.

00:16:31.261 --> 00:16:39.169
And then I left, and I walked outside the door of the club, and there was a little awning over the door, and it was raining.

00:16:39.210 --> 00:16:52.168
So I decided to wait under the awning, not only for the rain to lighten up, but also because I knew that Muddy, having finished his set, wouldn't be wasting any time there and he'd be leaving.

00:16:52.229 --> 00:16:54.312
And I could thank him again for letting me play with him.

00:16:54.711 --> 00:17:03.582
So sure enough, a minute or two later, Muddy came out with his manager and he looked at me and he said, I get emotional every time I say this.

00:17:03.602 --> 00:17:05.945
He looked at me and he said, can you travel?

00:17:05.986 --> 00:17:08.449
These are the exact words I said to him.

00:17:08.489 --> 00:17:14.259
I said, Muddy, wherever in this world you want me to be, You just tell me and I'll be there.

00:17:15.040 --> 00:17:16.642
He looked at me and said, you're going to hear from me.

00:17:17.683 --> 00:17:20.326
I went home and I'm 10 feet off the ground.

00:17:20.346 --> 00:17:21.647
I'm fantasizing.

00:17:23.309 --> 00:17:26.874
Eventually, I decided, okay, let's get back to reality.

00:17:26.894 --> 00:17:28.536
It's probably not going to happen or whatever.

00:17:28.556 --> 00:17:31.038
A couple days passed.

00:17:31.058 --> 00:17:32.180
That was on a Tuesday.

00:17:32.200 --> 00:17:33.582
I remember that was on a Tuesday.

00:17:33.821 --> 00:17:37.226
Friday, I came back from work at the jail.

00:17:37.465 --> 00:17:40.470
I was in my little studio apartment and the phone rang.

00:17:40.801 --> 00:17:44.906
The voice on the other end, Jerry, I said, yes, this is Jerry.

00:17:45.107 --> 00:17:48.632
And he said, this is Scott Cameron, Muddy Waters' manager.

00:17:49.452 --> 00:17:59.326
And when he said that to me, time stopped because I knew there was only one reason he could possibly be calling me, but it was too big to stare in the face.

00:17:59.366 --> 00:18:03.792
So I just kind of went on automatic pilot and let him talk.

00:18:03.853 --> 00:18:06.259
And he said, well, Muddy wants you to call him.

00:18:06.500 --> 00:18:07.240
Do you have his number?

00:18:07.320 --> 00:18:07.902
Which I did.

00:18:08.563 --> 00:18:11.547
And he said, call me back as soon as you talk to him.

00:18:11.787 --> 00:18:13.368
So I said, OK.

00:18:13.409 --> 00:18:15.551
And I hung up and I dialed Muddy's number.

00:18:16.053 --> 00:18:17.996
And he said, hello.

00:18:18.236 --> 00:18:22.801
And I said, hey, Muddy, this is Jerry, you know, the harmonica player.

00:18:23.363 --> 00:18:28.369
And he said, well, we start May 25th in Indianapolis, Indiana.

00:18:29.057 --> 00:18:32.241
And the boys are playing down at Queen Bee's this weekend.

00:18:32.281 --> 00:18:34.345
You might want to go down there and get used to them.

00:18:34.805 --> 00:18:36.788
And I'm just standing there holding the phone.

00:18:37.127 --> 00:18:38.829
I didn't even know what else to say.

00:18:38.890 --> 00:18:41.452
I said, okay, Marty, I'll be down there.

00:18:41.472 --> 00:18:42.634
Thanks a lot.

00:18:43.336 --> 00:18:43.895
I hung up.

00:18:44.317 --> 00:18:56.011
And then I immediately called Scott Cameron back and he told me, you know, I asked for my social security number, told me to get a passport because we were going to be playing on the French Riviera the following month.

00:18:56.311 --> 00:19:03.708
So, and then I said to him, Because I had a real job at Cook County Jail, and I said to him, you know, I got to quit my job.

00:19:03.907 --> 00:19:07.352
It's no problem, but there's no chance of this falling through, is there?

00:19:07.893 --> 00:19:10.855
And Scott told me, look, he said, money's worth as good as gold.

00:19:10.935 --> 00:19:11.777
It's a done deal.

00:19:12.458 --> 00:19:16.362
And then when I hung up with Scott, I just went crazy, man.

00:19:16.442 --> 00:19:18.324
I ran out of my apartment.

00:19:18.503 --> 00:19:19.865
I didn't even close the door.

00:19:19.965 --> 00:19:31.284
I was just running the burn-off steam, and I ran up Sheridan Road toward this record store that A friend of mine had, and I burst in the door and said, Muddy Waters just hired me.

00:19:31.585 --> 00:19:33.368
And that's how it went down.

00:19:34.070 --> 00:19:35.294
That's amazing, isn't it?

00:19:35.334 --> 00:19:38.582
So the best gig you can get is playing with Muddy Waters.

00:19:38.662 --> 00:19:39.724
I'm a massive fan as well.

00:19:39.765 --> 00:19:41.409
It must have been such a thrill to get that.

00:19:42.337 --> 00:19:42.858
Well, yes.

00:19:43.179 --> 00:19:45.162
I mean, it's a total one-off.

00:19:45.221 --> 00:19:47.105
I mean, there's only one job like that.

00:19:47.405 --> 00:19:52.133
Like I say, you can want to be a brain surgeon, and there's a path to be a brain surgeon.

00:19:52.173 --> 00:19:56.980
You can study, and you do your internship, and eventually you're a certified brain surgeon.

00:19:57.501 --> 00:20:03.351
But if you want to play harmonica with the Muddy Waters Blues Band, that's a one-off.

00:20:03.570 --> 00:20:10.382
The stars have to align for that, and fortunately for me, they did, and I'll be forever grateful.

00:20:10.945 --> 00:20:12.830
Yeah, well, and Test went to a great point as well.

00:20:12.851 --> 00:20:17.061
It's like you say, they've only been playing for six years, so to get hired by Muddy's band, fantastic.

00:20:17.544 --> 00:20:23.259
But then you went on, I think, and you played with Muddy through the 70s, well, from 1974 to about 1980.

00:20:23.740 --> 00:20:27.088
And you released what I think are some of Muddy's best albums, certainly...

00:20:27.650 --> 00:20:54.205
following from his early sort of classic you know little walter chest time you know obviously we don't look at those albums being the really classic muddy albums but those albums in the 70s you know you played on the i'm ready album you played on the uh the muddy mississippi waters live album and also the king b album those three three really great albums in that period in the 1970s i think muddy was really a you know at a really great level at that stage and the band wasn't it

00:20:59.905 --> 00:21:19.798
It was a great band.

00:21:19.817 --> 00:21:27.369
I mean, we had the sound of that band, that lazy lope in the rhythm section and all the air and space in that band.

00:21:27.682 --> 00:21:31.147
You know, I'm not a fan of frantic-sounding music.

00:21:31.429 --> 00:21:33.051
That band was the opposite of it.

00:21:33.333 --> 00:21:39.723
It had that kind of a lazy lope to it and a lot of space and air, a very relaxed sound to it.

00:21:40.326 --> 00:21:43.551
What was the sort of role of the harmonica in the band?

00:21:43.571 --> 00:21:46.517
How was that explained to you, maybe by anybody himself?

00:21:47.479 --> 00:21:51.326
Well, we never rehearsed, ever, ever.

00:21:51.521 --> 00:21:53.202
And nothing was ever explained.

00:21:53.222 --> 00:22:01.770
I mean, he hired you because he figured you knew enough about his music and you had the chops and whatever and the sensibility to be able to do the job.

00:22:02.270 --> 00:22:04.593
So you didn't really have any direction.

00:22:04.834 --> 00:22:08.175
But, you know, the direction was in the classic records.

00:22:08.336 --> 00:22:11.179
And obviously I had immersed myself in those.

00:22:11.419 --> 00:22:13.000
I knew where to put it.

00:22:13.141 --> 00:22:21.488
I mean, the function of Otis Spann's famous dictum that the harmonica is the mother of the band, that's true in a Chicago blues band.

00:22:21.488 --> 00:22:21.748
It is.

00:22:21.768 --> 00:22:25.573
It's the second voice to the actual vocal.

00:22:26.054 --> 00:22:28.557
Generally, you want to get in and out.

00:22:28.777 --> 00:22:34.544
You want to answer the vocal line or comment on it or embellish it and then get out.

00:22:34.924 --> 00:22:45.097
What Muddy Wood says, he would say, give me the send back, which means after you do your fill, you finish the fill in a way that sets up the singer to come back.

00:22:45.730 --> 00:22:46.810
Yeah, absolutely.

00:22:47.330 --> 00:22:51.174
Because like you said, the harmonica features very heavily in Muddy's music.

00:22:51.255 --> 00:22:56.159
So in many ways, you're probably playing more than you might do with some other bands.

00:22:56.439 --> 00:22:58.181
But Muddy obviously wanted that, didn't he?

00:22:58.221 --> 00:23:04.205
As you say, you're not stepping on the singing, but it's weaving in and out the singing a lot, isn't it, the harmonica on those songs you're playing?

00:23:04.266 --> 00:23:04.526
Right, it's

00:23:04.546 --> 00:23:10.070
weaving in and out and it's knowing how to get in and get out and how to get out in the right way, like to set him up.

00:23:10.490 --> 00:23:24.192
Sometimes you can play while the singing is going on, but you have to make sure that you're supporting underneath the vocal that you're not kind of cross-cutting it, because if he did that, you might get a look from Muddy that he wasn't Cleave.

00:23:24.573 --> 00:23:31.285
Yeah, and then you talk about obviously knowing the music, which as harmonica players we all do, particularly that early sort of 1950s stuff.

00:23:31.425 --> 00:23:37.917
So a song like Baby Please Don't Go, which has got a very recognizable six-solo, which you play...

00:23:57.218 --> 00:24:02.904
Did he just choose to kind of try and stick reasonably close to the original solo, or was that instructed to

00:24:02.924 --> 00:24:03.726
do so?

00:24:03.766 --> 00:24:07.390
No, he never told you, but he liked it when you played Walter's parts.

00:24:07.651 --> 00:24:10.554
If you got close to the original, that was a good thing.

00:24:10.753 --> 00:24:12.916
You know, he didn't really stop you from playing your own.

00:24:13.057 --> 00:24:17.481
You know, I mean, I didn't play everything like Walter, and I have my own solos or whatever.

00:24:18.143 --> 00:24:23.710
You know, a lot of his classic versions that were done in the early 50s, that was the template.

00:24:23.874 --> 00:24:29.482
And the closer you could get to that on a lot of the songs, the better he liked it.

00:24:30.203 --> 00:24:30.964
Yeah, and super.

00:24:30.986 --> 00:24:37.415
Like you say, that lazy feel to that band and your style, very smooth, but fitted really nicely into that sound.

00:24:37.435 --> 00:24:38.498
I think it's all fantastic.

00:24:38.817 --> 00:24:40.461
So you played with Muddy for six years.

00:24:40.520 --> 00:24:41.682
You toured all around the world.

00:24:42.263 --> 00:24:44.708
You'd take it with him and did lots of gigs.

00:24:44.988 --> 00:24:47.311
It was a full-time job for you during those six years, was it?

00:24:47.792 --> 00:24:48.574
Oh, yeah, yeah.

00:24:48.769 --> 00:24:49.711
This has been a real thrill.

00:24:49.731 --> 00:24:55.981
I heard you talking about the first time you appeared and they announced you were in the Muddy Waters band, and that was a great feeling.

00:24:56.021 --> 00:24:57.023
Maybe tell us about that.

00:24:57.765 --> 00:24:58.326
Well, yes.

00:24:58.906 --> 00:25:07.461
On the very first gig, when I called Muddy to Scott's instructions and he said, we start May 25th in Indianapolis, that was the gig.

00:25:07.541 --> 00:25:09.105
It was at a baseball stadium.

00:25:09.645 --> 00:25:11.249
We walked out on stage.

00:25:11.890 --> 00:25:13.932
It was a hot summer day.

00:25:14.465 --> 00:25:24.101
We took our places in front of our amps and I'm standing there and I'm holding the mic and the harp and I'm waiting for the PA announcer to give us our intro.

00:25:24.682 --> 00:25:34.237
And finally, this disembodied voice over the PA system said, ladies and gentlemen, the Muddy Waters Blues Band.

00:25:34.817 --> 00:25:37.241
When I relate that story, it just thrills me.

00:25:37.721 --> 00:25:46.751
To hear those words for the very first time and know that I was part of it I mean, I played at the White House and Carnegie Hall and the Royal Albert Hall.

00:25:46.792 --> 00:25:47.874
I did all this other stuff.

00:25:48.355 --> 00:25:54.945
But honest to God, that was the single greatest thrill I ever had, was hearing those words for the very first time.

00:25:54.987 --> 00:26:00.796
And then I just kicked off the wall, and we were off to the races.

00:26:01.577 --> 00:26:03.942
But that thrill has never been surpassed.

00:26:04.865 --> 00:26:05.866
So yeah, amazing.

00:26:05.926 --> 00:26:10.172
So you played with Muddy for six years, and then in 1980, you left the band.

00:26:10.251 --> 00:26:12.755
I think you went on to form the Legendary Blues Band.

00:26:12.775 --> 00:26:14.616
Is that the reason you left Muddy?

00:26:15.037 --> 00:26:15.778
What happened there?

00:26:16.338 --> 00:26:21.203
Well, it's a long story, and if I've ever finished my book, the truth will finally come out.

00:26:21.344 --> 00:26:29.814
But suffice it to say that we had some business disagreements, at the root of which were his manager.

00:26:30.402 --> 00:26:32.586
It got to be an untenable situation.

00:26:32.625 --> 00:26:35.770
They would try and divide and conquer and all this kind of stuff.

00:26:35.810 --> 00:26:39.135
And so the band, we decided we were going to stick together.

00:26:39.175 --> 00:26:45.928
You know, we were all technically independent contractors, but we decided we're going to stick together as a band.

00:26:46.347 --> 00:26:49.353
So we had a bit of a dispute with them.

00:26:49.986 --> 00:26:58.863
I'll just say it led to the breakup of the band, and we went off on our own as the legendary blues band, but it was just the four of us.

00:26:58.942 --> 00:27:05.575
It was me, Willie Big Eye Smith on drums, Calvin Jones, Fos Jones on bass, and Pinetop.

00:27:05.955 --> 00:27:11.125
Guitar Junior went his own way, and Bob Margolin went his own way, but the four of us stuck together.

00:27:11.617 --> 00:27:23.556
I wasn't really in favor of that name, but Willie kept insisting that when we were with Muddy, we would frequently be introduced as Muddy Waters and his legendary blues band.

00:27:23.655 --> 00:27:27.362
So Willie said, well, we'll just be the legendary blues band.

00:27:27.982 --> 00:27:32.670
I thought it was a bit self-aggrandizing, but nonetheless, it actually worked out.

00:27:32.834 --> 00:27:41.977
To our benefit, especially initially, you know, getting off the ground, we got a contract with Rounder Records and we put out our first album.

00:28:05.410 --> 00:28:06.134
had been...

00:28:06.173 --> 00:28:08.867
Well, I knew this about Muddy.

00:28:09.530 --> 00:28:13.510
Muddy was very upset that we left, but I knew...

00:28:14.241 --> 00:28:20.633
that he took great pride in the people that came out of his bands, that he turned out stars.

00:28:20.913 --> 00:28:22.295
I mean, if you think about B.B.

00:28:22.435 --> 00:28:29.126
King and his long career, you can ask even blues fans, you can ask people, well, name somebody that was in B.B.

00:28:29.207 --> 00:28:31.210
King's band, and they can't name a...

00:28:31.490 --> 00:28:34.194
Maybe they can name Sonny Freeman, his drummer, maybe.

00:28:34.515 --> 00:28:37.480
But most people can't name anybody that was ever in B.B.''s band.

00:28:37.519 --> 00:28:38.060
But Muddy...

00:28:38.625 --> 00:28:41.328
turned out blues stars all over the place.

00:28:41.489 --> 00:28:43.631
You know, Otis Spann and James Cotton.

00:28:43.691 --> 00:28:51.078
I mean, people that were with Muddy, Junior Wells, Big Walter, George Smith, all these guitar players, I mean, Pat Hare.

00:28:51.480 --> 00:28:52.340
The list is endless.

00:28:52.500 --> 00:28:54.623
If you were in Muddy's band, that put you on the map.

00:28:55.084 --> 00:29:02.751
So I knew that if we proved our point and were successful, that Muddy would take great pride in that.

00:29:02.912 --> 00:29:03.512
I knew that.

00:29:04.374 --> 00:29:07.076
I knew that Muddy would say, those are my boys.

00:29:07.656 --> 00:29:08.278
I trained them.

00:29:08.577 --> 00:29:10.461
You know, he'd take pride in our success.

00:29:11.001 --> 00:29:15.471
After our first album came out, Life of Ease, I went to Muddy's house.

00:29:15.851 --> 00:29:18.095
Door opened and he threw his arms around me.

00:29:18.134 --> 00:29:21.141
And I went in there and we ate.

00:29:21.181 --> 00:29:27.893
And he brought up a couple of bottles of champagne and told me how proud he was of us and how much he liked the record.

00:29:27.913 --> 00:29:32.401
And that was a great thing because a month later, he was gone.

00:29:32.993 --> 00:29:39.186
For me, it was so important to have that meeting and, so to speak, bury the hatchet.

00:29:39.207 --> 00:29:51.532
There was no real hatchet, but the upset of the band breaking up, that totally healed it, and I was glad I had that opportunity to be with Muddy in that circumstance.

00:29:52.258 --> 00:29:53.440
Yeah, so then moving on.

00:29:53.480 --> 00:29:57.386
So you were with the legendary blues band for another six years.

00:29:57.406 --> 00:30:02.173
I think you got, was it an album that you got nominated for a Grammy, was it?

00:30:02.714 --> 00:30:05.861
Was that with the You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Dead and Gone album?

00:30:05.881 --> 00:30:08.684
That was a tribute to Muddy Waters' album, I think, actually.

00:30:08.846 --> 00:30:09.886
Oh, yeah, yeah, that was a

00:30:09.967 --> 00:30:10.268
Grammy.

00:30:10.327 --> 00:30:11.589
Yeah, that was a Grammy nominee.

00:30:11.609 --> 00:30:16.317
Yeah.

00:30:22.849 --> 00:30:41.435
And then you played with Ronnie Earl's band in the late 80s before forming your own band in the Streamliners.

00:30:42.217 --> 00:30:42.297
Well,

00:30:42.396 --> 00:30:48.306
actually, first I had a band called the Sidewinders before the Streamliners.

00:30:48.609 --> 00:31:01.580
But at any rate, that went on for a few months, and then Ronnie Earl came to me asking to start a band, because he wanted to leave roomful, and he had left once before trying to go on his own, and it didn't work out.

00:31:01.882 --> 00:31:48.144
So he came to me asking me to put a band together, and so I did, and we were successful, but he wanted to go in some other direction, and so that didn't work out, and so then I put together the Streamliners, and I worked at for about four years and then I got the call from Eric to go to play with him at the Royal Albert Hall in 1991 and that was the year he did the 24 nights he did six six nights with a small rock band six nights with a big band with a big rock band that included horns and he had six nights with a blues band and and six nights with an orchestra.

00:31:48.724 --> 00:31:50.007
So that was his 24 nights.

00:31:50.047 --> 00:31:54.711
So I was part of the six nights with the All-Star Blues Band.

00:31:54.951 --> 00:32:09.910
We had Johnny Spampanato on bass, Jamie Oldacre on drums, Johnny Johnson on keyboards, and then the guitar players were Eric, Buddy Guy, Albert Collins, Robert Cray, and Jimmy Vaughn.

00:32:10.433 --> 00:32:11.415
It was quite a thrill.

00:32:11.676 --> 00:32:12.538
It was a great show.

00:32:12.659 --> 00:32:13.662
And he invited me.

00:32:13.682 --> 00:32:16.387
He was quite taken with my playing, I guess.

00:32:16.508 --> 00:32:22.141
And at any rate, before I even left, he invited me back for the shows in 92.

00:32:22.301 --> 00:32:24.205
He wanted me to come back the following year.

00:32:24.226 --> 00:32:28.856
So I left England, I think, in March.

00:32:29.698 --> 00:32:33.027
We played at the Albert Hall every year, February, March.

00:32:33.387 --> 00:32:40.366
At any rate, I came home, and I think it was two weeks later that the accident happened where his son fell out the window.

00:32:40.406 --> 00:32:44.337
So the shows in 92 didn't happen.

00:32:45.057 --> 00:32:56.511
But he called me back to do the Albert Hall in 93, and I became a part of his regular band because he devoted himself exclusively to blues for a while.

00:32:56.531 --> 00:33:01.878
So I stayed with him almost four years, and we did the From the Cradle album.

00:33:02.479 --> 00:33:08.066
So how did it compare playing to a big rock band like Eric Clapton and playing with Muddy Waters?

00:33:08.145 --> 00:33:10.990
Did it feel different or kind of similar?

00:33:11.150 --> 00:33:11.230
Yeah.

00:33:12.289 --> 00:33:15.653
Well, it wasn't quite as loose.

00:33:16.114 --> 00:33:17.556
We actually did rehearse.

00:33:19.498 --> 00:33:22.862
But as a band leader, Eric was very similar to Muddy.

00:33:23.001 --> 00:33:29.189
I mean, he hired you because he thought you could do the job, and he let you do it according to your own lights.

00:33:30.049 --> 00:33:34.674
In that respect, he was similar to Muddy as far as being fairly laissez-faire.

00:33:34.714 --> 00:33:37.938
He didn't really give you a lot of specific instruction.

00:33:37.958 --> 00:33:40.781
I mean, occasionally he'd say, can you play this line?

00:33:41.410 --> 00:33:47.142
And, you know, if I could play it, I'd do it or I'd find a substitute, you know, node or something like that.

00:33:47.743 --> 00:33:50.809
But there wasn't a lot of instruction.

00:33:51.751 --> 00:33:56.040
What about your kind of equipment playing in such a big setup, you know, playing these massive stadiums?

00:33:57.564 --> 00:34:00.391
Did you just use your own amp and mic and then they just mic'd it up?

00:34:00.431 --> 00:34:02.013
Was there any particular setup?

00:34:02.786 --> 00:34:10.554
No, I mean, I'd use my own mic and amp, and his crew doesn't get any better than Eric's crew.

00:34:10.614 --> 00:34:13.436
They know what they're doing, and they'd mic it up.

00:34:14.077 --> 00:34:21.744
Actually, they tended to put my mic, they'd have a baffle on it or something because they thought it was very loud.

00:34:22.264 --> 00:34:25.007
It was just an ordinary 410 bassman.

00:34:25.748 --> 00:34:26.809
That was their job.

00:34:26.849 --> 00:34:28.471
My job was to play the harmonica.

00:34:28.510 --> 00:34:31.134
Their job was sound reinforcement, so...

00:34:31.521 --> 00:34:33.445
They took care of that end of it.

00:34:34.826 --> 00:34:36.588
One time, I forget where we were flying to.

00:34:36.628 --> 00:34:43.918
We were in London, and we went to the airport and got on the private jet to fly somewhere.

00:34:43.938 --> 00:34:55.574
I was sitting on the airplane, and I realized that I had forgotten my harps, my harp case, which I had left sitting in front of the hotel on the sidewalk.

00:34:56.130 --> 00:35:01.699
And I panicked, and I told Peter Jackson, the road manager, and he was not happy.

00:35:02.199 --> 00:35:22.231
So he got up and jumped in a limo and ran back to the hotel, and my harp case was still sitting there on the sidewalk in front of the hotel, and he grabbed it and brought it back to the airplane, and he said, you're not touching your equipment again, because I would carry my own stuff around.

00:35:22.271 --> 00:35:23.333
After that...

00:35:23.746 --> 00:35:39.563
The roadies to carry, they assigned me a roadie, and when I'd finish playing, instead of packing up my own stuff and carrying my harp case off the stage, I just left everything sitting there, and the roadies would pack it up, and it would be sitting there the next time I walked on stage.

00:35:41.244 --> 00:35:41.925
Yeah, so brilliant.

00:35:41.945 --> 00:35:46.751
So playing with Muddy Waters, then playing with Eric Klatt, some tremendous gigs you've had there.

00:35:47.231 --> 00:35:52.557
And then you also went on, you did a bit of recording with Bill Wyman, the bass player from the Rolling Stones as well.

00:35:53.378 --> 00:35:56.826
And then you recorded a few albums under your own name as well.

00:35:56.846 --> 00:36:01.998
You released the Poison Kisses album, which was reissued as home run hitter in 1991.

00:36:02.177 --> 00:36:08.452
And then another album in 2001, which is your second solo album, I think it's Down in the Mood Room.

00:36:08.994 --> 00:36:12.297
which contains quite a different eclectic sort of mix of songs, isn't it?

00:36:12.318 --> 00:36:13.759
Quite a few jazzy songs on there.

00:36:13.798 --> 00:36:16.762
You've got Doodling, I think it was Horace Silver, the first one.

00:36:16.782 --> 00:36:19.344
You've got Stormy Weather, Lullaby of Birdland.

00:36:19.385 --> 00:36:24.610
So yeah, as well as blues and other music, you've got a few sort of jazz tunes on there as well.

00:36:38.126 --> 00:36:38.206
Yeah.

00:36:57.057 --> 00:37:01.693
Yeah, there were some tunes that I always wanted to fool around with or record.

00:37:02.456 --> 00:37:07.112
And, you know, they were the kinds of things that you couldn't really do with a straight-ahead blues band.

00:37:07.521 --> 00:37:16.490
But of course, my great friend, Duke Grobelard, who can play any kind of American music, he helped produce it and we recorded it at his studio.

00:37:16.871 --> 00:37:18.532
Yeah, I was quite pleased with the result.

00:37:18.913 --> 00:37:25.159
And I wanted to show off just some other aspects to the diatonic harmonica, what it could do.

00:37:25.199 --> 00:37:32.726
I wanted to record with horns and I wanted to make the harmonica stand up against the horns, be as muscular.

00:37:32.766 --> 00:37:36.030
And I think I was pretty successful with that.

00:37:36.802 --> 00:37:38.545
Yes, yes, a great album, as you say.

00:37:38.585 --> 00:37:48.240
So you obviously have that interest in jazz standards, and were there, you know, Stormy Webber and Lullaby of Birdland, were those songs that you played for a long time you wanted to get down?

00:37:49.061 --> 00:37:52.186
No, I just really did them for that album.

00:37:52.688 --> 00:38:00.420
Although Misty, which isn't on that album, which is on the other album, I do that live in my show.

00:38:01.402 --> 00:38:03.646
And this is all on diatonic harmonica, as you say?

00:38:04.322 --> 00:38:08.268
Yeah, I only play chromatic on a need-to basis.

00:38:09.010 --> 00:38:13.898
All the songs that Muddy did, you know, I'm Ready or I Just Want to Make Love to You.

00:38:15.001 --> 00:38:18.025
So, you know, I learned to play those songs.

00:38:18.487 --> 00:38:26.221
I was never all that enamored of the chromatic, and it always felt like somebody put a baseball bat in my mouth.

00:38:27.041 --> 00:38:32.547
So it's not something I ever really concentrated on.

00:38:32.588 --> 00:38:35.331
I learned to use it well when I needed to.

00:38:36.351 --> 00:38:39.996
Yeah, so you could certainly get around playing some third position blues stuff on the chromatic.

00:38:40.016 --> 00:38:41.038
That's how you used it.

00:38:41.838 --> 00:38:44.842
And then you also did an album with Pintop Perkins as well.

00:38:45.362 --> 00:38:47.925
Kidney Stew was one of the songs on there in 2005.

00:38:47.965 --> 00:38:48.045
Yeah.

00:39:16.577 --> 00:39:19.822
You carry on guesting with other people through the years as well.

00:39:19.983 --> 00:39:20.804
Oh, yeah.

00:39:20.864 --> 00:39:23.989
I played on something with Bo Diddley, too.

00:39:25.110 --> 00:39:25.510
So, yeah.

00:39:25.590 --> 00:39:27.713
So, fantastic crew, playing with some fantastic people.

00:39:27.733 --> 00:39:28.014
So, yeah.

00:39:28.054 --> 00:39:28.976
Congratulations, Joe.

00:39:28.996 --> 00:39:32.121
You also played at the White House as well and at Carnegie Hall.

00:39:32.161 --> 00:39:35.144
So, did you play for a president at the White House?

00:39:35.346 --> 00:39:35.826
Who was that?

00:39:35.925 --> 00:39:36.186
Yes.

00:39:36.306 --> 00:39:37.728
I played for Jimmy Carter.

00:39:37.768 --> 00:39:43.376
I'm sitting at my desk actually looking at a picture of me at the White House with Jimmy Carter shaking my hand.

00:39:43.969 --> 00:39:49.295
Yeah, I played at the White House, Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, the Royal Albert Hall.

00:39:50.456 --> 00:39:52.579
It's very strange when I think about it.

00:39:54.021 --> 00:39:58.045
It seems like another world, like it happened to a different person.

00:39:58.766 --> 00:40:02.530
It's very strange when I think about my own career and how fortunate I've been.

00:40:03.371 --> 00:40:04.974
And you also played on Sesame Street.

00:40:05.474 --> 00:40:06.115
Yeah, I did.

00:40:06.195 --> 00:40:06.896
I wrote a song.

00:40:07.657 --> 00:40:11.342
Actually, the very first song I ever wrote was the song for Sesame Street.

00:40:11.969 --> 00:40:14.371
Then I realized I had a little bit of a gift for it.

00:40:14.853 --> 00:40:19.476
Yeah, in 1977, when I was marrying my first wife, she was Canadian.

00:40:19.496 --> 00:40:32.447
She was an artist, and a friend of hers was a producer for Sesame Street, and he asked me if I could write a song, gave me the visuals, what it was going to be appearing with.

00:40:32.768 --> 00:40:39.954
So I wrote a clever little song, and then I did a little harmonica thing for the letter Z.

00:40:40.655 --> 00:40:41.615
Yeah, my daughter was...

00:40:41.936 --> 00:40:44.298
I think maybe four or five.

00:40:44.559 --> 00:40:58.938
And I had my daughter and a bunch of her little friends in the studio, and I had them shout into the microphone, Zed! Z! You know, it's part of the Sesame Street thing.

00:40:59.597 --> 00:41:02.461
I had some little jingle I played for the letter Z.

00:41:02.690 --> 00:41:04.271
And I still get royalty checks.

00:41:05.514 --> 00:41:06.996
They're only for a few pence.

00:41:07.215 --> 00:41:14.326
But royalties are the greatest thing ever invented because you only do the work once and you get paid forever.

00:41:15.387 --> 00:41:18.010
So as well as your playing, you've done some teaching.

00:41:18.070 --> 00:41:23.757
I remember listening to your, when I was young, your Jerry Portnoy's Blues Harmonica Masterclass.

00:41:24.059 --> 00:41:27.724
I think that was an audio recording, wasn't it, rather than a video at that time?

00:41:27.824 --> 00:41:29.706
Yes, it's three audio CDs.

00:41:30.106 --> 00:41:31.228
So is that still available

00:41:31.369 --> 00:41:32.170
on your website?

00:41:32.898 --> 00:41:38.605
At the moment, it's not available on my website because I've got some kind of problems with PayPal.

00:41:39.226 --> 00:41:45.875
I've been remiss in addressing that, but when I do, eventually it'll be available on my website.

00:41:46.054 --> 00:41:53.704
It is actually available on Amazon, but I'd rather people order it through me so I actually make something on it.

00:41:54.505 --> 00:41:58.391
Yeah, and also you do some teaching now through Sonic Junction.

00:41:59.211 --> 00:42:00.614
I have some lessons there.

00:42:01.121 --> 00:42:06.009
I haven't done any fresh lessons in a while, but there's quite a library of my lessons.

00:42:06.088 --> 00:42:11.996
And when I stopped doing them live, I turned it over to Dennis Grunling and to my buddy Rick Estrin.

00:42:12.358 --> 00:42:15.262
So they still contribute new material.

00:42:15.862 --> 00:42:27.038
Most of my lessons, I break down classic songs, you know, Key to the Highway or Juke or, you know, a bunch of stuff from the classic Chicago Blues songbook.

00:42:27.778 --> 00:42:28.480
Yeah, that's great.

00:42:28.500 --> 00:42:29.521
I'll put some links up to that.

00:42:29.889 --> 00:42:39.407
And the question I ask each time, Jerry, talking, you know, sort of linked a little bit to teaching, is if you had 10 minutes to practice, just 10 minutes in the day, what would you spend those 10 minutes working on?

00:42:40.188 --> 00:42:41.369
The two-hole draw.

00:42:41.771 --> 00:42:46.820
I once walked around my house for almost two weeks playing nothing but the two-hole draw.

00:42:47.199 --> 00:42:50.226
It's the tonic note, and it's your root note.

00:42:50.561 --> 00:42:52.726
It's where you come back to all the time.

00:42:53.085 --> 00:42:54.208
Playing long tones.

00:42:54.228 --> 00:42:57.193
You know, note selection is very important.

00:42:57.233 --> 00:43:02.222
I mean, I've never particularly cared about impressing people with technique.

00:43:02.402 --> 00:43:05.487
The point of playing music is to communicate emotion.

00:43:06.088 --> 00:43:12.360
And so whatever tools you need to accomplish that is what you should use.

00:43:12.440 --> 00:43:15.326
And you don't need to use anything more or anything less.

00:43:15.746 --> 00:43:24.882
To me, what moves people, what moves people emotionally, what reaches them inside and stirs them is the sound of the note.

00:43:25.483 --> 00:43:38.143
While your note selection is important because the combination of notes and where it's leading can create moods and feelings, it's the actual sound of the note that gets up in people's chest.

00:43:38.585 --> 00:44:16.907
And so the first order of business is in playing music is to make a good sound come out of your instrument that's the first thing and then know where to put it and that is really what music is about make a beautiful sound come out of your instrument and know where to place it just getting your note to sound good you know if i had 10 minutes i'd just sit on one note and try and make it make it beautiful make it sound different ways, put different vibratos on it, tongue floaters, make it sharp sounding, trebly, try and make it more bass sounding.

00:44:17.347 --> 00:44:18.748
Learn how to control that note.

00:44:19.469 --> 00:44:34.108
If you have an hour a day to practice, whatever you're going to practice, you're better off, if you have 60 minutes to devote to practicing, then you're better off bringing that up into practicing four times a day for 15 minutes.

00:44:34.786 --> 00:44:39.170
or three times a day for 20 minutes because it's all about muscle memory.

00:44:39.512 --> 00:44:47.581
And the more times you come back to reinforce it, the more effective it will be in imprinting that muscle memory.

00:44:47.942 --> 00:44:59.516
So if you've got 60 minutes, you're better off doing three sessions of 20 minutes spaced through the day or four sessions of 15 minutes because each time you come back, you're reinforcing that muscle memory.

00:44:59.615 --> 00:45:04.161
If you just practice once for an hour every day, I don't think you get the same result.

00:45:04.929 --> 00:45:06.373
Yeah, no, thanks very much.

00:45:06.414 --> 00:45:08.298
And the harmonica, of course, that's your vocal instrument.

00:45:08.338 --> 00:45:10.443
Getting that tone is so key to it, isn't it?

00:45:10.503 --> 00:45:11.286
Yeah, so great.

00:45:20.489 --> 00:45:20.670
Thank you.

00:45:54.081 --> 00:45:56.146
A few questions about gear to talk through now.

00:45:56.405 --> 00:45:59.351
The first question is, what is your harmonica of choice?

00:45:59.371 --> 00:46:06.182
I like to play either the Marine Band Deluxe or the Marine Band Crossover.

00:46:06.643 --> 00:46:09.449
Either one of those is fine by me.

00:46:09.528 --> 00:46:10.650
Those are the ones I play.

00:46:11.291 --> 00:46:12.233
Yeah, both great ones.

00:46:12.594 --> 00:46:13.797
I really like the crossover myself.

00:46:14.077 --> 00:46:17.063
What about back in the day with the 70s when you were playing with Muddy?

00:46:17.083 --> 00:46:18.766
Was it the Marine Bands back then?

00:46:19.202 --> 00:46:22.987
Yeah, just stock marine bands right out of the box.

00:46:23.166 --> 00:46:26.351
Although, you know, later, Felisco was making them for me.

00:46:27.030 --> 00:46:33.298
But I had to really adjust my playing to play those Feliscos because they're so quick and so responsive.

00:46:33.760 --> 00:46:35.902
I had to kind of back off my attack.

00:46:36.463 --> 00:46:42.289
I just play them out of the box now, just regular marine band deluxes or crossovers.

00:46:42.786 --> 00:46:51.697
In the 90s, or I forget when it was, when the quality of the stock marine bands went down because they weren't being machined.

00:46:51.717 --> 00:46:54.800
I think the things they were being machined on were old.

00:46:54.940 --> 00:46:59.085
At any rate, they were leaky, and they just didn't play well.

00:46:59.206 --> 00:47:12.041
But due to a lot of noise being made by some of the professional players, Steve Baker and Rick Epping and Joe Felisco, and Hohner paid attention.

00:47:12.449 --> 00:47:17.519
And they got the quality of their instruments back up to snuff.

00:47:18.360 --> 00:47:20.364
Do you have a favorite key of diatonic?

00:47:20.806 --> 00:47:24.012
I never leave the house without an A harmonica in my pocket.

00:47:25.795 --> 00:47:32.909
I generally like to play, well, at least for instrumentals, between an A flat and a C.

00:47:33.505 --> 00:47:38.552
Really between A-flat and B-flat is my favorite, but C is okay too.

00:47:38.893 --> 00:47:40.215
I like the lower key harps.

00:47:40.235 --> 00:47:44.481
I mean, they're a bit warmer, not quite as stiff.

00:47:45.322 --> 00:47:49.128
And it's just a warmer, richer sound, especially on the chords.

00:47:49.909 --> 00:47:53.275
So I like that range from A-flat to C.

00:47:54.016 --> 00:47:56.739
Yeah, that's the popular answer to that question, yeah.

00:47:56.760 --> 00:48:01.065
And you talk about playing stock chords, so say you don't play any different tunings.

00:48:01.793 --> 00:48:02.996
Well, no.

00:48:04.818 --> 00:48:11.346
Oh, well, there's one song I play, an original of mine called Can't Remember to Forget.

00:48:11.365 --> 00:48:20.818
I use a harp on that where I file the five draw so that it's raised a half step.

00:48:21.518 --> 00:48:26.545
And actually, I think they make a commercial harmonica with that tuning.

00:48:26.664 --> 00:48:28.266
I don't know what they call it.

00:48:28.387 --> 00:48:29.869
I'm not much of a gear person.

00:48:30.626 --> 00:48:36.052
I do raise that five draw a half step because it gives me a note I really want.

00:48:36.932 --> 00:48:39.576
That's the only one I use on a regular basis.

00:48:40.597 --> 00:48:51.710
Now, I do have a complete, I've got all kinds of different tunings because there's the mad genius of the harmonica is a fellow named Pierre Beauregard.

00:48:51.791 --> 00:48:53.512
I don't know if you ever heard his name.

00:48:54.032 --> 00:48:55.375
He actually lives close to me.

00:48:55.434 --> 00:48:57.818
He lives on Cape Cod where I reside.

00:48:58.210 --> 00:49:08.362
He's a terrific harmonica player and a great musician, and he builds all these harmonicas with different tunings, and some of them are really, really useful.

00:49:08.882 --> 00:49:17.293
The analogy I can give you to that is that, let's say you're a touch typist, and you can type 90 words a minute or something.

00:49:18.034 --> 00:49:23.161
Now, somebody presents you with a typewriter where the keys are all in a different place.

00:49:23.740 --> 00:49:24.021
Well...

00:49:24.545 --> 00:49:27.771
Now you have to hunt and peck what you're looking for.

00:49:28.431 --> 00:49:34.402
So on a standard Richter tuning harmonica, diatonic harmonica, I can improvise.

00:49:34.481 --> 00:49:35.583
I know where all the notes are.

00:49:36.063 --> 00:49:46.179
But when you have a harmonica where the note layout is completely different, in order to freely improvise on that, you have to really know that harmonica and spend a lot of time with it.

00:49:47.585 --> 00:49:51.177
I have a lot of different tunings that Pierre has made for me.

00:49:51.197 --> 00:49:57.536
I have all his prototypes, his soul band and the jazz band and the folk minor band.

00:49:57.576 --> 00:50:00.724
He's got all these tunings because he understands how chords work.

00:50:02.402 --> 00:50:10.570
For specific things, if I were called on to do a session and I had to listen, well, that's not going to be easy on a regular Marine band.

00:50:10.989 --> 00:50:18.036
And I would sometimes fool around and see, well, maybe one of these other tunings I can get what I want to play on it.

00:50:18.898 --> 00:50:23.302
So apropos of that, I will tell you a quick little story.

00:50:23.342 --> 00:50:28.666
I called up Pierre just before I was going over to play with Eric one time.

00:50:29.106 --> 00:50:30.909
I think it was before I went over in 1993.

00:50:32.034 --> 00:50:37.463
And at any rate, I called Pierre up and I said, hey, I'm going over to play with Eric.

00:50:38.204 --> 00:50:40.688
Do you have a harmonica I can play Layla on?

00:50:40.728 --> 00:50:44.054
So he said, yeah, I think so.

00:50:44.094 --> 00:50:44.614
Come on over.

00:50:45.135 --> 00:50:49.983
So I go over to his house and sure enough, he gives me this harp and it's all there.

00:50:50.023 --> 00:50:52.748
So cut to England.

00:50:52.768 --> 00:51:02.304
I'm sitting on stage at our rehearsal and and we would rehearse in like an airplane hangar with the full stage and the full sound and all that.

00:51:03.105 --> 00:51:16.541
We were taking a break, but Eric starts fooling around with Layla, because he used to do that with his rock band, and sometimes when we do a mixed show, he'd do an acoustic version.

00:51:17.001 --> 00:51:25.255
At any rate, we're sitting on stage at rehearsal, And he starts playing Layla, and I grabbed this harp, and I started playing it with him.

00:51:25.916 --> 00:51:27.237
And it blew his mind.

00:51:28.498 --> 00:51:29.280
And he looked at me.

00:51:29.300 --> 00:51:32.043
He said, how are you doing that on a harmonica?

00:51:32.824 --> 00:51:34.907
I'm going to confess on your show now.

00:51:35.347 --> 00:51:37.451
I didn't tell him that I had a special.

00:51:37.610 --> 00:51:40.114
I just said, well, you hired Jerry Portnoy.

00:51:40.134 --> 00:51:41.715
I just said, I come prepared.

00:51:41.735 --> 00:51:43.498
Did

00:51:43.518 --> 00:51:46.461
you know what that tuning was, particularly to play that?

00:51:47.010 --> 00:51:50.293
I can't really recall what Pierre called it.

00:51:50.815 --> 00:51:51.856
I'm not really sure.

00:51:51.876 --> 00:51:51.916
It

00:51:52.496 --> 00:51:53.898
can remain your secret, Jerry.

00:51:53.938 --> 00:51:54.559
That's okay.

00:51:55.280 --> 00:51:57.463
Yeah.

00:51:57.483 --> 00:52:01.047
But I play other songs when we do mix shows.

00:52:01.126 --> 00:52:06.713
I play Tears in Heaven, but I played that on a regular harmonica.

00:52:07.275 --> 00:52:12.260
But I think we did My Father's Eyes, and I had some special harmonica for that.

00:52:12.340 --> 00:52:15.905
So as a musician, I try and do whatever...

00:52:16.610 --> 00:52:17.992
the job calls for.

00:52:18.032 --> 00:52:30.148
So if it's something I can't play on a standard tuning, you know, I'll look, if I have a harmonica that can get closer to what I want, I'm not averse to using it.

00:52:30.248 --> 00:52:35.976
But what happens is that I learn a specific part and can play that part.

00:52:36.898 --> 00:52:42.766
I would have trouble just completely improvising on one of those harmonicas off the top of my head because...

00:52:42.965 --> 00:52:44.628
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense,

00:52:44.789 --> 00:52:44.889
yeah.

00:52:44.909 --> 00:52:45.630
Totally, yeah.

00:52:46.210 --> 00:52:46.269
Do

00:52:46.289 --> 00:52:46.590
you use

00:52:46.630 --> 00:52:47.733
any overblows, Tom?

00:52:48.614 --> 00:52:49.454
Not a single one.

00:52:49.996 --> 00:52:50.157
No

00:52:50.257 --> 00:52:51.900
overblows, no overdraws.

00:52:52.541 --> 00:52:54.204
Can't teach an old dog new tricks.

00:52:55.144 --> 00:52:56.407
And what about your embouchure?

00:52:56.668 --> 00:52:59.411
You mentioned that you play tongue-blocking.

00:52:59.612 --> 00:53:00.693
Is that your favorite embouchure?

00:53:01.436 --> 00:53:03.920
I use both, and I switch seamlessly.

00:53:04.460 --> 00:53:11.552
You know, obviously tongue-blocking is essential for certain kinds of things and sounds and whatever, and octaves and...

00:53:12.481 --> 00:53:17.710
Other things, you get that big fat chord for a split second under your lead note.

00:53:18.132 --> 00:53:22.358
But also, you know, I also use my lips for certain things, you know, triple tonguing.

00:53:22.679 --> 00:53:25.684
And also, it's a treble-ier sound than tongue blocking.

00:53:25.844 --> 00:53:31.014
But at any rate, I can bend with my tongue on the harp or with my lips.

00:53:31.173 --> 00:53:32.536
I can do pretty much...

00:53:32.556 --> 00:53:35.041
I can play out of both sides of my mouth.

00:53:35.561 --> 00:53:37.704
I just switch seamlessly, just whatever...

00:53:38.210 --> 00:53:43.188
I just sing about the music and let my mouth execute it, whichever way it wants to go.

00:53:43.289 --> 00:53:45.155
And it usually chooses the good way.

00:53:45.175 --> 00:53:48.789
And amplifiers, you mentioned the bassman for your big amp.

00:53:48.849 --> 00:53:49.652
Is that still your...

00:53:50.018 --> 00:53:50.739
large amp

00:53:50.798 --> 00:53:51.179
of choice?

00:53:51.338 --> 00:53:57.483
Well, I have a, it's actually a boutique copy of a 410 basement.

00:53:57.565 --> 00:54:02.329
I used to have a real 410 basement, and then I had the reissue I had.

00:54:02.369 --> 00:54:03.429
I still have it.

00:54:03.510 --> 00:54:05.831
It's actually serial number 00005.

00:54:07.954 --> 00:54:14.338
The amp I use now is a Victoria, which is made by a guy in Illinois, and it's a fabulous amp.

00:54:14.418 --> 00:54:28.318
It's all hand-wired, it's all handmade, and it's made to the original specifications of the original 1959 410 Bassman and Mark Bayer, who owns the company and who builds these.

00:54:28.539 --> 00:54:34.068
He got the original specs from the guy who originally built the amp.

00:54:35.449 --> 00:54:37.313
And what about a small amp?

00:54:37.333 --> 00:54:39.597
Do you use a small amp that it's called for?

00:54:40.193 --> 00:54:44.101
If I have a little gig, I really don't like to drag the big thing around.

00:54:44.141 --> 00:54:47.467
It hasn't gotten any heavier, but I've gotten weaker.

00:54:47.487 --> 00:54:51.152
I'll be 77 in November, so I don't like dragging that thing around.

00:54:51.974 --> 00:54:58.284
So I've got a little Memphis Mini, which does the job, and it's got a line out, so I can plug it into...

00:54:58.914 --> 00:55:01.077
into the PA system if I need to.

00:55:01.117 --> 00:55:03.402
What about microphones?

00:55:03.842 --> 00:55:06.887
I still use a JT-30, a static JT-30.

00:55:06.969 --> 00:55:09.733
I mean, I've used various microphones over the course of my career.

00:55:09.773 --> 00:55:23.068
You know, I've used a Shure Green Bullet, you know, the 520, and I've used tape recorder mics and AKGs and, you know, mostly earlier in my career, but I don't vary from the JT30.

00:55:23.208 --> 00:55:24.269
I've had the same one.

00:55:24.309 --> 00:55:28.135
I've used the same one probably for the last 20 years at least.

00:55:28.835 --> 00:55:30.197
Is that got a crystal element?

00:55:30.938 --> 00:55:32.260
I believe it's a crystal, yes.

00:55:32.740 --> 00:55:40.351
I've got quite a nice microphone collection that I have on display in my bookcases, but I don't use any of them.

00:55:40.572 --> 00:55:44.938
I've got all kinds of Assures and Turners and Aesthetics.

00:55:46.699 --> 00:55:47.641
Cool-looking microphones.

00:55:47.681 --> 00:55:50.846
They look cool, but I just use my Aesthetic JT30.

00:55:51.873 --> 00:55:57.139
And what about when you're recording, when you have been recording, do you use any particular microphones for that?

00:55:57.619 --> 00:56:02.606
No, if I'm playing amplified, I just use my own, generally my own rig, certainly my own mic.

00:56:02.806 --> 00:56:17.201
When I recorded the Down in the Mood Room album, originally I brought my Victoria down there, but Duke had this beautiful old Gibson, and it was very warm sounding, and I really liked it, and I recorded all the...

00:56:17.954 --> 00:56:22.498
amplified harmonica down in the mood room is on that old Gibson.

00:56:24.260 --> 00:56:28.744
Yeah, so you generally play through the amp and then capture that sound during recordings.

00:56:28.844 --> 00:56:28.925
Yeah,

00:56:29.045 --> 00:56:33.369
I'm playing acoustic and then whatever mic they set up for me.

00:56:34.289 --> 00:56:34.769
Yeah, brilliant.

00:56:34.809 --> 00:56:46.802
So you mentioned obviously we're in pandemic time now and so none of us are very busy at the moment, but have you got any particular plans coming up for during now, what you're doing during this time or anything afterwards?

00:56:47.746 --> 00:56:49.489
Nothing really planned.

00:56:49.989 --> 00:56:51.773
I don't really look for gigs anymore.

00:56:51.793 --> 00:56:55.179
I mean, I've got a beautiful wife down here on Cape Cod.

00:56:55.199 --> 00:56:59.585
I've got a beautiful house a couple hundred meters from the ocean.

00:56:59.626 --> 00:57:01.849
I've got kids.

00:57:01.909 --> 00:57:05.036
I've got four grandkids, four beautiful granddaughters.

00:57:05.076 --> 00:57:06.438
I've got a nice life.

00:57:06.478 --> 00:57:10.364
So whatever I do musically now...

00:57:11.266 --> 00:57:14.809
comes to me, so to speak, over the transom.

00:57:16.012 --> 00:57:20.077
People contact me by email or call me or whatever.

00:57:20.277 --> 00:57:24.583
And if it's something I want to do for whatever reason, then I'll do it.

00:57:24.643 --> 00:57:26.905
But I don't really search out gigs.

00:57:27.266 --> 00:57:31.791
But I try and pick up the harp enough to keep my chops in reasonable shape.

00:57:32.052 --> 00:57:33.253
I mean, it's hard.

00:57:34.014 --> 00:57:43.568
Listen, when you play every day and you're on the bandstand a couple hours every night, you never need to practice because your practice is up there.

00:57:43.588 --> 00:57:47.655
You keep your muscles sharp and strong and quick to grab.

00:57:48.637 --> 00:57:50.820
Also, you keep your mental flow going.

00:57:50.920 --> 00:57:56.371
So if you're working all the time, it's easy to just keep on doing it.

00:57:56.510 --> 00:58:04.606
But when you don't, I mean, I have to make a conscious effort to pick up the harmonica every day and just do something.

00:58:05.250 --> 00:58:15.644
But I try and keep my chops in reasonable shape so that if something comes along that I want to do, that I can still get up there and do it.

00:58:16.666 --> 00:58:19.230
Yeah, and it's great to hear you're still playing as well, Jerry.

00:58:19.269 --> 00:58:22.695
So, yeah, thanks very much, Jerry Portnove, for speaking to me.

00:58:22.735 --> 00:58:24.378
It's been a real pleasure to speak to you today.

00:58:25.378 --> 00:58:26.119
Well, thank you, Neil.

00:58:26.179 --> 00:58:27.181
I enjoyed it very much.

00:58:28.514 --> 00:58:30.097
Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

00:58:30.117 --> 00:58:31.259
It wouldn't be the same without you.

00:58:31.338 --> 00:58:36.289
And thanks again for my sponsor, the Long Wolf Blues Company, helping me keeping this thing going.

00:58:36.769 --> 00:58:40.818
They build great purpose-built equipment for the harmonica, so be sure to check them out.

00:58:41.778 --> 00:58:44.925
Jerry, let's hear some doodling on that there harmonica of yours.

00:59:05.186 --> 00:59:05.757
Thank you.