Oct. 27, 2022
Paul Reddick interview
Paul Reddick joins me on episode 72. Paul is a singer, songwriter and harmonica player based in Toronto, Canada. He rose to prominence with his band: Paul Reddick and the Sidemen in the 1990s. Paul describes himself as not a typical blues harmonica player, often using his sparse notes with heavy delay, while also making the use of complex patterns to build interesting rhythms. Paul developed his songwriting approach using the structure of poetry, and his insightful and thoughtful blues ...
Paul Reddick joins me on episode 72.
Paul is a singer, songwriter and harmonica player based in Toronto, Canada. He rose to prominence with his band: Paul Reddick and the Sidemen in the 1990s. Paul describes himself as not a typical blues harmonica player, often using his sparse notes with heavy delay, while also making the use of complex patterns to build interesting rhythms.
Paul developed his songwriting approach using the structure of poetry, and his insightful and thoughtful blues lyrics have earned him the title of the Poet Laureate of the Blues, including winning the Maple Blues Award for songwriter of the year for his album Sugarbird in 2009.
Links:
Paul's website:
https://paulreddick.ca/
Lyrics:
https://paulreddick.ca/lyrics
Styrmon El Capistan delay pedal:
https://www.strymon.net/product/elcapistan/
Videos:
Blue Eventide (Official Music Video):
https://youtu.be/GpYU91lmS2Y
Mourning Dove:
https://youtu.be/eOrFt-aCbXU
Luna Moth and Butterfly:
https://youtu.be/HwrF_cd38aY
Paul Reddick & The Gamblers - One More Day:
https://youtu.be/V1QF8LMeXT4
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/
01:36 - Paul is a singer, songwriter and harmonica player based in Toronto, Canada
02:09 - There aren’t any dedicated blues venues remaining in Toronto
02:44 - Toronto is not far from Chicago and New York, so draws acts from there
03:08 - Blues scene in Canada is split into the different cities
04:27 - Paul received a harmonica for Christmas age 13 and started playing melodies before discovering 2nd position
06:25 - Harmonica is only instrument, apart from vocals
06:43 - Started singing in bands in High School
08:39 - Judicious approach to playing the harmonica
08:59 - Blues is Paul’s foundation, and how he listened to blues bands thinking why they played what they played
10:04 - Felt compulsion to find his own way to play
11:01 - A lot of the blues songs Paul writes aren’t a typical 12-bar and he isn’t your usual blues harmonica player
11:53 - Paul makes use of patterns a lot in his playing and influence of rhythmic Sonny Terry playing
13:45 - Ride The One album, which is based on playing over one chord
14:48 - Paul’s approach is understated and doesn’t contain many ‘tricks’
15:17 - First band was with Paul Reddick & The Sidemen, formed in 1990
15:51 - Opened up for James Cotton as part of a duo before The Sidemen was formed
16:25 - Paul Reddick & The Sidemen were very popular in Toronto with their hard driving style
17:22 - Uses a lot of delay effect
18:13 - 2001 ‘Rattlebag' album was nominated for a Juno and WC Handy Award, produced by Colin Linden
20:04 - I’m A Criminal song was used in a US Coca Cola commercial
21:25 - Toured the US, which started his career away from The Sidemen
22:51 - Villanelle album was first under his own name
24:11 - Songwriting started in earnest with Rattlebag and Villanelle albums
25:09 - Used the structure of poetry to write songs
26:14 - Paul’s lyrics are available on his website and won songwriter of the year award for Sugarbird album
28:49 - Has been described as the Poet Laureate of the Blues and documenting his lyrics
31:03 - Solo albums not conventional blues albums
31:33 - Wishbone album, Blue Wing song and use of low harps
32:23 - Doesn’t use higher pitched harmonicas and harp choice for key of C
33:04 - Ride The One album which won a Juno award in 2016
35:08 - Alive In Italia is most recent release, written as a ‘love letter to Italy’ recorded with The Gamblers
37:42 - New album under development which should be released in Spring 2023, followed by a tour in Europe
39:08 - Financials of releasing albums these days
42:31 - Has produced a fine set of music videos, some of which he released weekly during Covid
44:21 - In 2014 Paul set-up the Cobalt Prize for Contemporary Blues Composition, in Canada
47:28 - Some of Paul’s music used in film and television soundtracks
48:52 - 10 minute question
50:03 - Plays some chromatic harmonica, but mainly in the studio and not live
50:40 - Different positions used when playing diatonic
51:04 - Plays Hohner Marine Band, Deluxe and Crossovers
51:30 - Doesn’t play any different tunings
51:33 - Doesn’t use overblows
52:13 - Embouchre: tongue-block
52:55 - Amps
53:36 - Delay pedal used is El Capistan
54:29 - Mic: uses Shure Beta SM57
54:43 - Uses a Lone Wolf Harp Octave pedal sometimes
56:23 - Future plans and love of touring
WEBVTT
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Paul Reddick joins me on episode 72.
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Paul is a singer, songwriter and harmonica player based in Toronto, Canada.
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He rose to prominence with his band, Paul Reddick and the Sidemen, in the 1990s.
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Paul describes himself as not a typical blues harmonica player, often using sparse notes with heavy delay, while also making the use of complex patterns to build interesting rhythms.
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Paul developed his songwriting approach using the structure of poetry, and his insightful and thoughtful blues lyrics have earned him the title of the Poet Laureate of the Blues, including winning the Maple Blues Award for Songwriting of the Year for his album Sugarbird in 2009.
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Hello, Paul Reddick, and welcome to the podcast.
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Hi, Neil.
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Thank you very much for having me here.
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That's a pleasure.
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So you're based in Toronto in Canada, yeah?
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That's right.
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Cool.
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And you're a singer, songwriter, and harmonica player, playing a combination of what, blues and sort of roots music?
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Yeah, I'd say so.
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I write all the songs that I play, and they're all based in blues, but not all traditional 12-bar or particular to a particular blues style so I guess roots is the word you use.
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So are you from Toronto originally?
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Yes I was born in Toronto but I grew up outside of Toronto from my primary school days through high school but I've been back there for 35 years or something like that.
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So what's the music scene like there and the blues scene particularly?
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Well there was a time when I was younger that there were a few dedicated blues bars and at that time the artists from Chicago would come through Toronto and play so I saw lots of people at various places but as the blues scene got older and etc etc there there actually aren't any dedicated blues venues in Toronto I tend to play at mixed alternative bars that I play in town where there are some blues bands but the scene is pretty good there are a number of blues acts that play and they find places to play in the city
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yeah so I guess Toronto it's not far from sort of Chicago and kind of New York on the other side is it so it's must be quite a draw for the musicians from there too
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I drove to to Chicago recently and it was about a nine hour drive and New York is similar.
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So we got all the Chicago guys coming up here on a regular basis when they existed.
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The ones that are there now don't tour as much.
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It's a rarity to have a And
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what about Canada itself?
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Where does Toronto stand on the music map in Canada?
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Well, there are blue scenes that exist in all the major cities.
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There's on the east side of Canada, Halifax has a pretty cool scene and a style.
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They're kind of probably more influenced by their proximity to Boston.
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Then to Toronto or Chicago, they've got a particular and pretty traditional blues style that's great.
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And then Montreal has some players, which are moving from east to west.
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Then Toronto, of course.
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Winnipeg, which is in the first part of the western plains of Canada, has an interesting blues scene and a few guys that are well-known.
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And then...
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Saskatoon is the next city where there's also a cool blues club.
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And then in Alberta, Edmonton and Calgary both have bands there and big festivals the blue scenes are somewhat insular to the city that we live in and occasionally people will tour in and out but i don't get a lot of bands from halifax playing in toronto or a lot of bands from edmonton playing in toronto you go there and you see them and they tour in their province in their region but not far not often nationally these days it's touring is cost prohibitive
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so great so um say you're a you're a singer and songwriter is very important so we'll get on to that but also of course this is a harmonica podcast so uh What got you started playing harmonica?
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Well, I guess like a lot of people when I was a kid, probably 13, I actually just was at a family reunion and my uncle had a, there was a blues harp in a little blue plastic case.
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They used to come in and I was curious as to what that blue plastic case was.
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And I opened it up and somehow decided that I could play the thing.
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And I asked my mum to get me one.
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This was a Christmas party for Christmas and I got one and I could play, you know, jingle bells and, Stuff like that.
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By the end of the day, which I felt encouraged and kept practicing, I played just songs like that in the first part.
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Just played Oh Susanna and Jingle Bells and On Top of Old Smoky so I could find the positions of where the notes were.
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And then eventually I did have one blues record.
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I think it was the Segal Schwall Blues Band from Chicago.
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...
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...
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And I began listening to that and trying to play along.
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And then eventually someone told me about, you know, that you needed to have second position.
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I just began with that.
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And then someone at the music store, when I asked for records appropriate to harmonica, gave me double albums of Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Sonny Williamson and Helen Wolfe.
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And that set me on the course of my life.
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Great.
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Any particular songs that really grabbed you?
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All of them.
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I found all those artists amazing.
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I guess Muddy might have been my favorite as a singer and his songs, but I mean, really they're, they're all masterpieces and I consider every song
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a
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masterpiece.
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So were you playing any other instruments?
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Sounds like harmonica was probably your first instrument, was it?
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It is.
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And I don't play any other instruments.
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I, We had a piano in our house, and I would noodle on it, but for some reason the harmonica is the thing which I found natural and could play.
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And what about the singing?
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Did you take that up after the harmonica?
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I sang because I started a band in high school, like when I was 15, 16 years old, and no one else would sing.
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So I sang a little bit, and then when eventually I started a proper band in my 20s, it was the same situation, and I...
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just took for granted that I would sing.
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I had, in studying harmonica, not really paid too close attention to the singing part or the guitar or the drums or the bass.
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I mean, you hear them, but they weren't a thing that I was focused on learning.
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So I didn't really learn the lyrics to the songs, but eventually I began to sing and did covers when we were early in our career.
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But the singing part has become a big part of what I do.
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I love singing.
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I'm getting better at it as I get older.
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Definitely, yeah, you've got a good gravelly blues voice these days,
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I think.
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Yeah, my voice does have some roughness in it, but not always, but it is nice to have that.
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It depends on the type of song where it...
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the volume of the song, how much air is going over your, your vocal cords.
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But I, I am pleased that it has that, it has some personality sometimes.
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Yeah, definitely.
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Yeah.
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It sounds great.
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And so when you started singing in high school, obviously then, then you were playing harmonica, you, you saw those two going together, obviously.
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And that was something, you know, did you feel that you needed to sing as a harmonica player to make you a, you know, more central to the band and you wanted to be a band leader or?
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I think I wanted to be a band leader, and singing was something I could do, seeing as I was incapable.
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As I say, I'm guitar player dependent, and I'm lucky to play with great guitar players, but I guess singing was something that I could do.
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So your harmonica playing, I think you've termed it as being judicious.
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You're quite selective with your notes.
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You don't overplay a lot of the time.
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piano plays
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And I think you would describe yourself not necessarily as a blues harmonica player, yeah?
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All the music I play, blues is my foundation.
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One, four, and five are tattooed in my brain as chord changes, although I force myself to look at the other numbers.
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When I started listening to Little Walter when I was 13, 14 years, and playing along with him.
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One of the things I remember wondering was, why did the musicians make the decisions that they did at that time?
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Like, why did they play what they played, let alone how did they play what they played?
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I was always fascinated and never had anyone to ask that question at that age.
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But I assumed that there was, because amongst those guys that I had, and there were others too, but Howlin' Wolf and Sonny Williamson and Little Walter and Junior Wells or whoever it might be, they played in such a distinctive style.
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They had really their own voices.
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When Junior played with Muddy and Walter played with Muddy, they played a certain way that made them seem similar, but there was still a uniqueness to what they did.
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And I think I felt, I don't know if the word is responsibility, but a compulsion to try to play my own way as well, to find the voice that I could play a solo, which I would be able to make the correct decisions.
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And so I've always tried to find a way to do my own thing within using the vocabulary that you glean from the pre-existing harmonica players, you know, the riffs and the licks.
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But I think one of the things that allowed me to be unique is that I believe that I suffer from some sort of maybe a learning disability or a Something very difficult for me to memorize things.
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And even to this day, I just made a new record.
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And to learn the lyrics, my memory is like Teflon.
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It's not like Velcro.
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So I did a lot of things which were...
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I would play something around what they were playing rather than what they were playing without knowing that it would serve me well in terms of developing a style.
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I mean, I can play blues harmonica style, but a lot of the songs that I wrote weren't specifically...
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of a 12-bar Chicago stylistically.
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To be a stylist wasn't something I was capable of doing or wanted to do.
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So the songs that I wrote and the way that I approached playing, I kind of avoided doing something that seemed familiar to me.
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I thought, I don't want to sound like Little Walter.
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I don't want to be my Little Walter.
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And so that allowed me to create my own style.
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And whereas I'm not a blues harmonica player, I would say I'm not one who is able to pull off a really great chicago style harmonic instrumental
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yeah i think listening to you know music as i have been doing for the preparation for this you know it is it is quite a unique style you have definitely you know i can't i was listening sort of trying to think who you sound like and i don't think there are that many people who you do sound like you've got these you know you have have quite these kind of spacious sort of solos or you have sort of use of patterns which you use quite a lot as well so Just on that use of patterns, how you develop that.
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I remember when I was young and had Sonny Terry records and listening to Sonny Terry play it and trying to learn what he was doing.
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It's sort of miraculous what Sonny Terry does.
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I found it very unpleasant to try to emulate the muscularly in the motion of your chest and your throat, his patterns that he did.
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And I think perhaps rhythmic harp playing may be unique to each person that plays it, depending on how they feel when they're doing it.
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So I would do kind of a variation upon a Sonny Terry theme to do, as I was playing in a bluegrass band when I was in high school, which is pretty rhythmic to play.
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You know, the mandolins or the banjos going chunk, chunk, chunk, chunk.
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It's all rhythmic.
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So I tried to create, you know, things to go on top of that.
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And in the soloing, we're largely rhythmic solos, probably based on my interpretation of the way that Sonny Terry would have played.
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That evolved through my life.
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It was something that I use and go to.
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And I like playing rhythmic patterns in quite a few songs.
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Yeah.
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And the patterns are, you know, just to explain kind of what a pattern is as well.
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So a pattern is like a sequence of notes, you know, like a repeated pattern that you might play over, you know, over some bars that maybe either sort of shifts the time a little bit between the bars, doesn't it?
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Or it kind of repeats the pattern in like adjacent notes, you know, different approaches, but it's that sort of thing, isn't it?
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So that's something that, you know, you use quite a bit, isn't it?
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So, you know, did you deliberately sort of practice specific patterns to put in there?
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It depends on the song.
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I made a record a few years ago, about five years ago, and the title of the record was Ride the One, which refers to playing one chord, which is very common in blues.
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Bo Diddley or John Lee Hooker or Fred McDowell, just the hypnotic repetitions.
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.
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And so on that record, when I wrote the songs, many of the guitar parts, I just said, this is the guitar part and you play that.
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It'll be played from start to finish, that repeating riff.
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And then it'd be another one to a counter part.
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And I wanted it just to be very repetitive.
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This song still has...
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goes through stages or gears for, you know, first, second, third year, or there are chordal inversions and things like that.
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But I like the, the effective repetition.
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So I suppose some of the patterns and as well, their habits, you know, there are a lot of fantastic harmonic players who are so technically sophisticated.
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I wouldn't say that I'm, I have a lot of tricks or do things, you know, in the high register that are, or whatever that are, showpiece type playing I tend to play pretty somewhat understated and play inside the song I'm not a really great narrative player all the time or a momentum player as compared to some harmonicas that I've seen
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Yeah I think your use of harmonicas again that word judicious isn't it you make it fit nice with the song a lot of the time so let's talk through your music career the band you were associated with certainly in your early years was the Sidemen so Paul Riddick and the Sidemen yeah so was this your first sort of major band I think you formed in 1990
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yes it was I was sitting in with bands in Toronto here and there and I lived outside of about an hour away but I met a fella guitar player at one of those at a gig and He and I got together.
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His name is Kyle Ferguson.
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He's a great guitar player, and we played two nights ago.
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We do a duo act, and he plays my band presently.
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We've been playing together for 31 years, I guess.
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We were given the opportunity to open up for James Cotton at a bar called the El Macombo in Toronto as a duo.
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We learned 10 songs, covers.
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We practiced really hard.
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and went and did the gig, and we opened up for Cotton, and we got a standing ovation, and it went really well.
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We didn't know what to expect, really.
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So we quickly put a band together, and then that band found great success.
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We played with tremendous energy, and our tempos were fast.
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Both Kyle and I had a tendency to really drive the grooves and drive the songs hard.
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And that made us very popular in Toronto for a number of years.
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We had a band that was really on fire.
00:16:32.046 --> 00:16:36.913
It wasn't something that we tried to create consciously, and we really took it for granted.
00:16:37.033 --> 00:16:42.642
Casually, we didn't have great aspirations to be famous or anything like that, but we were pretty successful.
00:16:42.662 --> 00:16:47.429
And when we listened to the old recordings, I get out of breath just hearing them.
00:16:48.071 --> 00:16:50.134
Kyle was into Johnny Winter at that time.
00:16:50.562 --> 00:16:51.625
He's not as much now.
00:16:51.664 --> 00:16:54.370
We did some Johnny, and we did Little Walter.
00:17:06.240 --> 00:17:08.726
James Cotton, Muddy.
00:17:09.794 --> 00:17:13.659
Yeah, because obviously as you progressed, you started writing your own songs, it became very important.
00:17:14.420 --> 00:17:19.865
But with the Sidemen, again, I think one of your most popular songs was Smokehouse.
00:17:20.406 --> 00:17:24.351
And this is an example of you using a lot of delay in your harmonica.
00:17:24.432 --> 00:17:28.537
It's very common for you to use lots of delay when you're playing.
00:17:29.718 --> 00:17:30.719
I have in the last few years.
00:17:30.858 --> 00:17:40.094
I did a harmonica workshop in Toronto one time, and the guy Sugar Ray Norcia said, was there and he said, I use a delay pedal, just a little bit of delay.
00:17:40.375 --> 00:17:41.156
So I bought one.
00:17:41.878 --> 00:17:52.064
They tend to enrich the tone of the note, but I think through the delay, there's a compound, like the note gets somewhat fattened up through being layered somewhat.
00:18:06.849 --> 00:18:08.412
I really like that tone.
00:18:08.813 --> 00:18:13.179
I also just like the way in which it creates space and landscape.
00:18:13.499 --> 00:18:17.904
And so one of the big albums, probably the biggest album with Sidemen was Rattleback.
00:18:18.086 --> 00:18:21.309
And was this your last album with them?
00:18:21.410 --> 00:18:25.655
You were nominated for a Juno, which was the Canadian Grammy.
00:18:26.176 --> 00:18:35.710
Yes, we had made a record in 91, which was, we had a few original songs, I think three or four out of 10, maybe 15.
00:18:35.905 --> 00:18:41.432
And then we did another one called When the Sun Goes Down, which was also nominated for a Juno in 95.
00:18:41.992 --> 00:18:45.376
It was produced by Joe Louis Walker, which was an interesting experience.
00:18:45.416 --> 00:18:47.259
And then we made another one after that.
00:18:47.318 --> 00:18:54.488
But all those three records, the sound, there was something about the way they were engineered that never seemed satisfying.
00:18:54.508 --> 00:18:59.993
And I think at that time, there was a sort of preoccupation with close-miking things.
00:19:00.013 --> 00:19:01.856
I didn't think they sounded very good.
00:19:01.896 --> 00:19:02.938
I never liked it.
00:19:03.170 --> 00:19:04.192
any of those records.
00:19:04.593 --> 00:19:13.067
But then when we rattled back with a producer from Canada called Colin Linden, who now lives in Nashville, and he's very much associated with T-Bone Burnett.
00:19:13.107 --> 00:19:14.450
He played in Bob Dylan's band.
00:19:14.971 --> 00:19:19.599
He's one of the great blues authorities in the world and knows how to record music.
00:19:20.060 --> 00:19:22.806
So we all of a sudden had this record that sounded great.
00:19:23.170 --> 00:19:26.472
I went to him and asked him how to make a good sounding record cheaply.
00:19:26.772 --> 00:19:30.516
He said, well, hire me to do it, write all the songs, and I'll produce it.
00:19:30.717 --> 00:19:34.940
So I realized that this was an opportunity for me to make a great record, a great sounding record.
00:19:35.300 --> 00:19:38.282
And so I worked very hard on the songs for about four months.
00:19:38.663 --> 00:19:42.527
Every day, I wrote every day, and I re-entered listening to blues.
00:19:42.707 --> 00:20:04.010
I used the Alan Lomax Field Recordings, the Library of Congress Field Recordings, as my main source of music, blues inspiration, sort of as a way to avoid getting too close to little bolter muddy waters whoever and that record worked out to be somewhat changed my life because it was it was good and it was recognized and it was a great thing
00:20:04.571 --> 00:20:11.261
a song off this album was a i'm a criminal which i believe was used for a a coca-cola commercial in the u.s that's right
00:20:14.165 --> 00:20:14.205
so
00:20:22.625 --> 00:20:25.730
So that got you some notice, did it?
00:20:26.231 --> 00:20:26.451
Yes.
00:20:26.551 --> 00:20:30.397
I mean, I was with a small record company and they didn't solicit this.
00:20:30.577 --> 00:20:43.738
I think whatever the ad agency was for Coca-Cola, they probably Googled songs about criminal because the premise of the commercial was a guy filling up his cup at a store off of a fountain.
00:20:44.239 --> 00:20:47.023
And then it overflows and he takes a couple of sips and fills it up again.
00:20:47.084 --> 00:20:51.230
So it's saying sip stealing is not illegal anymore.
00:20:51.362 --> 00:20:56.011
So they found me somehow, used it, but your name's not attached to it.
00:20:56.051 --> 00:20:57.596
So it isn't like a lot of people.
00:20:57.615 --> 00:21:01.865
That commercial ran for a year and was popular, and it was only played in the States.
00:21:02.326 --> 00:21:09.622
My only measure of its effect on recognition came from someone on YouTube put together...
00:21:09.986 --> 00:21:24.765
took the song from my album and put a little video together and it was seen a bunch of times and there was a few people covered the song and made videos of themselves covering it i made a lot of money from the commercial itself which was good enough but it didn't really translate into any kind of recognition
00:21:25.105 --> 00:21:29.130
did this then lead you on to touring the u.s uh sort of on the back
00:21:29.431 --> 00:21:37.263
that album was nominated for a thing called a blues music or wc handy award which now are the Blues Music Awards.
00:21:37.503 --> 00:21:38.305
They changed the name.
00:21:39.006 --> 00:21:40.768
So it was nominated as Best New Artist.
00:21:41.388 --> 00:21:45.634
An agent in Missouri contacted me and said, let's go.
00:21:45.653 --> 00:21:53.242
So I went, and they were good agents, and I played in the States for about three years all the time.
00:21:53.262 --> 00:22:00.211
I would go down for six weeks, come home for two weeks, go down for six weeks, come home for two weeks, and just played constantly everywhere.
00:22:00.231 --> 00:22:05.298
I went through quite a few different band members because of the amount of playing, but it was a lot of fun.
00:22:05.538 --> 00:22:10.305
I was playing small venues and some festivals, but it was just gritty old grinding.
00:22:10.705 --> 00:22:14.131
But I wanted to do that at the time and it was fun.
00:22:14.511 --> 00:22:17.175
But the commercial wasn't directly related to that.
00:22:17.576 --> 00:22:20.140
It may have even come up after that period of my life.
00:22:20.359 --> 00:22:28.353
So was this the start of you, then your solo career and then moving away from the Sidemen, you're saying you were playing with different musicians in the US?
00:22:28.712 --> 00:22:32.578
Well, prior to that Rattlebag record, we were just the Sidemen.
00:22:32.778 --> 00:22:44.787
But when I made the Rattlebag, My band, everybody had kids and stuff, so I kind of had to, and I did too, but the rest of them were more responsible than me, although my family's forgiven me now.
00:22:45.147 --> 00:22:47.250
So I had to find myself within it.
00:22:48.230 --> 00:22:50.212
And then after that, I've just been under my own name.
00:22:50.673 --> 00:22:51.073
Sure, yeah.
00:22:51.093 --> 00:22:54.557
And then I think the first album you released under your own name was Villanelle.
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