Music |
Charlie Musselwhite
By
Published: Apr 01, 2015
Category:
Blues
He was born in Mississippi, a poor kid, an only child. One day he heard a black man sing as he worked. The blues surrounded the boy and soothed him. He didn’t know why. He didn’t see the blues was his destiny.
His family moved to Memphis when he was a teenager. He slicked his hair and got invited to parties at Graceland, home to another kid born poor and white in Mississippi. From his bio, this delicious start of a sentence: "After a rocky adolescence which included running moonshine in his 1950 Lincoln…."
He moved to Chicago at 18 because his friends had gone there, scored factory jobs and returned home in hot cars. He played harmonica, so he hung out at Muddy Waters’ home club, where a waitress friend told Muddy, "You ought to hear this boy." Muddy liked his style and the way he didn’t push himself on his betters; he had the kid sit in. And, inevitably, Muddy shared some secrets.
Little Walter came next: "We became friends right away. He had me sit in with him. He wouldn’t invite me or anything — he’d just walk up and hand me his harp and microphone and say ‘Play, boy,’ and leave me so he could go over to the bar or talk to some woman or something."
It was a great life. Music, women, booze — the South Side of Chicago had everything but money. "My feet would be wet from walking in the snow," he recalls. "I had great big holes in my shoes and I remember that really well…once you’ve been there you don’t forget."
But by 1967, when he was just 23, he got a record contract. He assembled a band that would become legend — Bob Anderson (bass), Fred Below (drums), Barry Goldberg (keyboards) and 21-year-old Harvey Mandel (guitar) — and recorded "Stand Back!" [To buy the CD from Amazon, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.]
It didn’t matter that they spelled his name wrong on the cover or stiffed him on royalties. He was launched. And what a launch: the Charlie Musselwhite band was young, brash, in your face — this was blues for the rock ‘n roll era.
For the listener, that means high-octane pleasure. If these songs were singles, you’d love to see them on a jukebox; they conjure whiskey and smoke, late nights and hot connections. Not dirty, not bawdy, just straightforward male desire, bluntly spoken.
And then there are the exceptions. I can hear ‘Cha Cha the Blues’ over and over; it’s flawless. The guitar solo gives new meaning to ‘scorching,’ the organ’s tastier than chili, Charlie’s harp is a blast of raw energy, and underneath it, Fred Below pounds away without ever losing that cha cha beat. When it all comes together, it’s exciting, energizing music. And then, right after it, is ‘Christo Redemptor,’ slow and sad; the organ, guitar and harp solos pretty much define heartbreak.
Charlie Musselwhite has gone on to make a shelf of highly regarded blues records. Now in his ’60s, he’s still recording, still collecting awards. (He cleaned up his habits in the 1980s. "I am," he boasts, "the only guy to move to Napa and give up drinking.") Happily, he has never lost connection with his roots: John Lee Hooker — best man at Musselwhite’s wedding — was a close friend until his death in 2001. And he has never lost his sense of fun: "People think about the blues as something sad, slow; but they don’t know what blues is. We’re strictly serious, but you can have a good time too."
‘Stand Back!’ is a very good time.
BONUS VIDEO
