Tonight’s Special: The Blues, Hold The Mac and Cheese

Tonight’s Special: The Blues
Hold The Mac and Cheese

by Mike Easton
Photos by Mike Easton

In between their recording sessions, lessons, breaks on the gig, and baby-sitting, I was able to connect with four of the area’s premier bluesmen. Guitarists Gary Harrington from the Howlers, Mitch "Tiny" Ivanoff from Krypton City Blues Review, Rev. Joey Chase (on hiatus due to playing with sharp objects), and harmonica man, Pete "The Jukester" Sheridan of The Belvederes and The Triple A blues band.

MODE: What keeps you committed to playing the blues despite the lousy pay and lack of commercial recognition?

Harrington: The pay has gone down considerably from what I made 25 years ago. But playing the blues is what I’m committed to doing. Blues gives you a chance to work on your craft, as an artist, rather then a musician. Blues is a creative challenge. How do you take a medium where the songs are really old, try to keep the idea, but make it your own, yet keep it in the tradition. To do that, you have to approach it as an artist, not a musician. Once you take away from the tradition it is no longer the blues.

MODE: Do you think that the conservative environment of this area has a lot to do with the small yet appreciative audience for this African American art form we call Blues?

Harrington: Well we live in a smokestack area. Up until this school year Steel-High school hasn’t had a marching band in years. The kids in this district would really like to participate in a school program, but, it wasn’t happening. When a school district doesn’t accept the need for even a conventional form of musical instruction where does that leave room for blues.

MODE: Do you think you could keep an audience if you did an acoustic set? Would you just like to lay back and forget about the noise in the room?

Ivanoff: Yes. In fact, on our last 10 gigs people have been asking us to do more acoustic blues. We’ve been starting our first set by going from Robert Johnson, to Elmore James, to Muddy Waters, to the current generation of blues artist.

Sheridan: Yes, but the bands I play in aren’t about volume. We do some acoustic tunes.

MODE: Has modern electric blues and blues-rock lost the personal statements conveyed in traditional pre and post-war blues? It seems to me that the vocals are just fill-ins for pyrotechnic solos that follow.

Chase: I think it takes away from those that try to play it traditionally, especially in educating the audience, and having a venue to perform the music. The younger people are watching, and you have to show them right from wrong. Those who learn from blues-rockers tend to be rockers themselves.

MODE: What advice would you give a student or novice to what the blues are about? Can you define blues music?

Harrington: To know what blues music is you have to listen to black artists who play the music and weren’t trying to make a fortune from it. They were playing music and songs they felt would mean something to their peers. If you are a student of the blues don’t play it cheap, don’t sell it short, and don’t limit the scope of it. Go to the root of the music and make it your own. But, keep in the back of your mind, would the person that wrote it, like it? Blues is truth.

Ivanoff: Blues is real and interactive. Starting at the beginning is the key to becoming a real artist. By working past the crudeness of the early recording you can learn to appreciate the genius of the player. An inexpensive way to learn about the blues artist and the history is to listen to the blues programs on public radio. They give a wealth of information.

Sheridan: Go to the source. Being a true blues musician today means being in the minority. You are going to have a tough time finding people to play with on a true artistic level. Dress sharp. Being a blues artist is being a professional.

Chase: Go to the source. Listen to Robert Johnson, Son House, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson and Willie Dixon. It’s real.

MODE: What would be your ideal club setting?

Sheridan: Blues clubs are few and far between, but I would like one that could hold about 200 people that are there solely for the music. I would want the pay to be good.

Harrington: The ideal club setting is where people come to hear what I have to say, not to hear someone else’s interpretation of a particular song, but for arts sake to hear an artist. I would like a receptive audience and club owner who cares about the quality of the music in their establishment and pay well for it.

On that note let’s step outside for a minute. (We step outside his Steelton home and walk about 40 feet to the corner for some enlightenment).

You see those two buildings there, (he points to two buildings a block each from his house) as a black man, I will never be allowed to play in those social clubs. I have a very close white musician friend that confided in me that the social club "powers" would not hire him if he hires blacks in his band. Now they like black music in the clubs, they just don’t want any of us playing it. It’s not so much that I want to play there, said Harrington, as it would be nice to get a gig that I could walk to.

Blues is made of life’s experiences. It’s truth in its naked form. Blues is not a pubescent white girl moaning for macaroni and cheese, nor was it born of sitcom and movie soundtracks. Blues is for those who know the troubles in life and yet can come away laughing.

Currently a blues society is being formed in Harrisburg to help educate and provide an outlet for blues enthusiast. Long live the blues and the truth it speaks.