Otis Unlimited

Unpublished Interview with Delbert McClinton

Last September (2009), I had the great pleasure of chatting with one of the true legends on the Texas/blues music scene, Delbert McClinton. His claims to fame are too numerous to mention. They start with teaching John Lennon how to play the harmonica - put it that way. It never saw the light of day, so I thought I would put it up here.

Jamie: I know you’ve been asked this question a million times, but could we start with the night you met John Lennon?

Delbert: Well, that story has become so incredibly romanticised. I’ve even heard that I played harp on ‘Love Me Do’. The fact of it was I was over in England in 1962 with Bruce Channel when ‘Hey Baby’ was a big song, and the Beatles were the opening act for at least one show with us. They came out to about three or four shows that we did. You have to put it in context. They hadn’t changed the world yet. We were all on common ground. We were over for about six weeks and for the first three weeks we were doing the theatres with a whole roster. The show would start rocking at one or two in the afternoon and go until late at night. Every night, somebody in one of the bands would be backstage, asking me about the harmonica. When we did the show with the Beatles, it was the same thing. Anyway, John mentioned somewhere he was influenced by the harmonica playing on ‘Hey Baby’ and from there it got chiselled in stone that I taught him everything he knew. It was a fun time. We did hang out over a period of a few days, not nobody wants to hear that. They want to hear the romanticised story. I try not to mention the story any more, because that’s probably what they will put on my gravestone! It was one of the best times in my life, because I’d never been out of Texas before. Well, I went to New Mexico once (laughs).

JH: On your new CD “Acquired Taste” you have worked again with legendary producer Don Was. How was that?

Delbert: It was great. Don I and have worked a couple of times before. The first time was with Bonnie Raitt when we did ‘Good Man, Good Woman’. We worked on another record. I hadn’t worked with him since and it had been 16 years. The guy who runs New West Records, Cameron Strang, is a friend of Don’s and he asked if he would do a record with me, and he said he’d love to. He came down here to Nashville. From the time that we agreed to do this, to the time we did it, I had finished off five songs. When we came into the studio, we were prepared. I think we made a good record.

JH: Do you still enjoy going into the studio?

Delbert: When you’re making music, you get an instant thumbs up or an instant thumbs down. It’s a fun thing to do. Writing songs is a whole different world for me. The studio is a whole different world for me. Playing live is a whole different world for me. I have these three places where I live and it’s still exciting.

JH: You grew up in Lubbock and Fort Worth. You used to play in a band called the Straightjackets in Fort Worth and opened for people like Jimmy Reed, Freddie King and Sonny Boy Williamson…

Delbert: I worked with Jimmy Reed and Freddie King a lot, and Sonny Boy, Buster Brown, Junior Parker. I grew up in a very exotic mix of Blues, country and conjunto music from Mexico, which is very provident in south Texas. It was a great time to be into music.

JH: Did those guys treat you quite well as young musicians. Did they pass on some of their knowledge and wisdom?

Delbert: They were great, but you have to put it in perspective. Those guys were not respected by the general public. Those guys could not stay in the same hotels that white folks stayed in. It was a different time. Even though they were making great strides in breaking through in music, they were still relegated to a class of music, which got very little respect in the long run. As far as getting in the public eye, it was tough.

JH: It seems incredible in this day and age that there was so much segregation…

Delbert: Oh, I know. It’s just bizarre. That’s the way the world was then. It was a different time and people were stupid (laughs), or more stupid than they are now…

JH: You hear songs about honky-tonks by Hank Williams and Billy Joe Shaver. They sounded quite romantic in a way…

Delbert: In Texas, you had to be able to play every type of music, because that’s what people wanted to hear. Rock and roll was still kind of a bad word. You had to be able to do country music, Nat King Cole songs, and cover a lot of ground in order to get work. The bands back then were playing eight nights a week just to make a living. You didn’t get much radio play, so your main gig was playing live. They weren’t any huge arenas available. Nobody was super-famous, although they should have been! All those great Blues guys, who died out by the mid sixties, never got their dues as far as I’m concerned. Willie Dixon wrote some of the best songs, ever. The people who are aware of Willie Dixon know that.

JH: You started recording back in the sixties, when producers needed everything done in one take. How do you find working in modern studios with all the latest technology?

Delbert: It’s very convenient, but technology has made it easy to take all the human aspects of recording out and make it perfect. I like to hear human-made music. I like to hear a near fatal crash and then a recovery. I think everyone likes to hear that. One of my favourite CDs is “The Tiffany Transcriptions”, when Bob Wills and his band back in 1946 recorded for two or three days straight. There are parts where people would forget the words and laugh. It makes you feel closer to them. I think that is a beautiful thing about human beings. We’re not perfect and trying to come as perfect is a situation that is untrue.

JH: In the mid seventies you recorded two albums with Glen Clark as Delbert & Glen. Neither of the two records sold particularly well, but they proved to be popular with other singers, like Bonnie Raitt. What do you remember about that time?

Delbert: When that was all happening, I was 30 years old. I was already too old to be rock and roller! We didn’t get the radio airplay. I think we were still doing music that was not suitable for the mainstream. It was the best time of my life, because when you are hungry, those are the good times. When you’re hungry, you can do anything. When you’re not hungry, then you get lackadaisical! I’ve been hungry for a long time and it feels good. They were some of the best times of my life when I was out in California, sleeping on a dirt floor in Topanga Canyon. We were living from hand to mouth, but we had everything we needed to go forward.

JH: The Blues Brothers on their album “Briefcase Full Of Blues” later covered one of those Delbert & Glen tracks, ‘B-Movie Boxcar Blues’. Do you know how they chose that song?

Delbert: We became friends with those guys before they started the Blues Brothers. John Belushi got us on Saturday Night Live, because every time we played New York at the Lone Star Café, those guys would come out and get on stage with us. One day, John called me and said they were going to make a Blues Brothers record and he wanted to use me and my band as the back-up band, but shortly after that it all changed and it was going to be Paul Shaffer and another band. Anyway, John called me and said he wanted to hear all the records I had done. We had a date coming up in New York, and when I got there he was standing in the lobby of the Plaza Hotel. I gave him four or five records, and from that he picked ‘B Movie’.

JH: What did you think of the Blues Brothers version of it?

Delbert: Well, first of all, I think those guys did a great thing for Blues music. They brought attention to it. The arrangement they did on that song, I thought was really good. But it was my song! I guess since it was my song, I had more of a critical view of it than anybody else. It was good, but I didn’t think it was great. I was glad they did it and it brought a lot of attention, not only to my music, but also to a lot of guys who didn’t have a career anymore. They brought them back into the public eye.

JH: You had a pop hit in 1980 when your version of Jerry Williams’ ‘Giving It Up For Your Love’ was released as a single…

Delbert: Jerry Williams was a good friend of mine. I was over at a friend’s house one day and they said Jerry had a new record out. He played it for me and when it came to ‘Giving It Up For Your Love’, it just stuck out like a sore thumb. I couldn’t miss it. Then I forgot about it. Then I was at another friend’s house and he asked me the same thing. I made a note that I wanted to record this song. My life was in such turmoil at that time. I was going through a divorce. I was working eight nights a week and barely making a living. It did a lot for me in getting my name out there, but it didn’t really make that much of a difference.

JH: You’ve played Austin City Limits on several occasions. How important has that show been to your career?

Delbert: It’s been very important. It’s the best live TV show I’ve ever done. Here in Nashville, you do a live TV show and they are more concerned with getting the lighting right. I remember once, we were running through a song and we were really into it. A guy with a clipboard walks up and says “hold it, hold it! You need to stand over here”. He just blew the whole groove for everything. On Austin City Limits they turn it over to the artist. It’s a very comfortable and popular show.

JH: You are also behind the hugely successful Sandy Beaches cruises. How did all that start?

Delbert: I did a cruise with some other guys for two years, before I started mine. It was all Blues music. Now, I love Blues music, but mediocre Blues music will drive you out of your mind. As you know, I’m sure! I was stuck on a ship with what I considered to be pretty uninspired music. The players were trying to be inspired. When you play the Blues, you have to put something new into it. That’s a difficult thing to do. I told a friend of mine that I could have done a better job than this. Now, it has become a great homecoming for a lot of people. It’s a week in the Caribbean with the music going non-stop. It’s a lot of fun. It’s something I would like to keep going. We’ve had people meet their best friends, get married and live their whole lives around that cruise.

JH: What bands or singers really excite you at the moment?

Delbert: Not a whole lot. I wish there was more music that excites me. I don’t know if I’ve become more jaded. I’m sure you have to wade through a lot of stuff, which is just awful. I know a lot of people who don’t need bells, whistles or smoke machines. They don’t have to be a teenage girl with a ring in your bellybutton. They get up there, plug in and blow you away with good music. These are people without radio careers. They are mostly known in a specific area. It usually consists of a two or three state area. It’s been fun for me to bring people on the cruise that nobody has heard of. This cruise has boasted a lot of my friend’s careers.

JH: Sadly, the musician Stephen Bruton, who you worked with on several occasions, passed away earlier this year. What do you remember about him?

Delbert: Stephen Bruton was one of those guys that if he walked into a room, the whole place lit up. He was a very charismatic guy and was always there for anybody. He saved me a thousand times by coming out and playing with me. For most of my career, I have not been able to pay for good players. Keeping guys on the road is very difficult, especially when they are not making money. I didn’t make any money until I was 53 years old. Back in the late seventies, I had a pick-up truck with a camper top on it. The mattress I was born on was in the back, where three guys in the band could lay down. Nobody was making any money. When you can’t pay the guys, you are not in a position to get the better players, so you have to work with knuckleheads!

JH: You’ve had quite a colourful life. Do feel quite lucky to be alive?

Delbert: Oh I do. I went through the same s**t that everyone else did and survived. I know a hell of a lot of people who didn’t. I’ve always a little voice inside my mind, which somehow kept me from going too far. I’ve had a lot of good times. I’ve had a very exciting career. JH

1 year ago

Top 10 Blues Albums of 2010

Allrighty then! It’s time to draw up that list of runners/riders and the best records that I’ve reviewed (and in a lot of cases interviewed too) of 2010. So here we go gang! My thanks are always go to the editors and PR people who let me blag free records.

1.) Joanne Shaw Taylor - Diamonds In The Dirt (Ruf Records)

Without a doubt, Joanne’s record - only her second album - is the best album released by a British artist this year. Produced by Jim Gaines and recorded in the US, it’s a stunning collection of tracks. This woman can seriously play the guitar. She was also the cover star of Blues Revue in the US this autumn.

Spotify link

2.) 24 Pesos - Busted Broken and Blue (Ourgate)

24 Pesos are one of my favourite British outfits at the moment and all the praise they can get. They’re lean, mean and funky. They also don’t murder ‘Sweet Home Chicago’ or rip off Stevie Ray Vaughan on a regular basis. Other bands should take note.

3.) Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed - Come And Get It! (Parlophone)

Barely an evening goes by on British television without the title track of this album being used as a soundtrack for something. It’s an insanely energetic record, with Eli channelling James Brown, Sam Cooke and Sharon Jones all at the same time.

4.) Oli Brown - Heads I Win, Tails You Loose (Ruf Records)

Make no mistake, it’s been a good year for Ruf Records. They got legendary producer Mike Vernon (Bluesbreakers) out of retirement for this one and it’s a corker. He might be in his early 20s and as British as bangers and mash, but Oli Brown is the real deal.

5.) Various - Hipshakers Volume 1: Teach Me To Money (Vampisoul)

There are millions of blues/R&B compilations out there, but this one is a bit special. It’s a collection of cuts from the vaults of King and Federal, featuring vintage recordings by Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson, Charles Brown and Willie Dixon, among others. It also comes with some superb liner notes and is damn funky.

6.) Grace Potter & The Nocturnals (Hollywood)

Obviously, this is not a straight blues album, but Grace Potter is one of the finest singers out there at the moment. Tracks like ‘Medicine’ and ‘Tiny Light’ are jaw-droppingly good. I just wish they would come to the UK soon!

7.) JJ Grey & Mofro - Georgia Warhouse (Alligator)

I’ve been a huge fan of JJ Grey since ‘Country Ghetto’ a few years back. His latest album does not disappoint. It’s swamp rock, with plenty of soul and funk. It also features guest appearances by Toots Hibbert and Derek Trucks.

8.) The Ace Story Volume 1 (Ace Records)

Another compilation, but this time is the turn of Ace Records. It’s got 24 classics, by the likes of Frankie Ford, Huey Smith and many more. Blues historians will love the 16 page booklet, which comes complete with a 6,000 word essay on the label.

9.) Oil City Confidential: The Story of Dr. Feelgood (EMI)

One of the finest films of the year was Julien Temple’s documentary on the rise and fall of British legend’s Dr. Feelgood. The soundtrack, which includes some of the Feelgood’s greatest moments is essential listening. There are a couple of Johnny & The Pirates songs for good measure.

10.) Imelda May - Mayhem (Decca)

I think I probably prefer her first album, but there’s no doubt that Imelda May is one of the most extraordinary acts out there. She takes 50s R&B and gives it a 21st century makeover. Her videos rock too.

1 year ago

A bit of corking Blues to cheer us all up. It’s the great Jimmie Vaughan in all his glory.

2 years ago

I interviewed The Heavy for Blues Matters (it’s in the current issue) and they appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman a couple of nights ago. Their appearance is all the more notable, because the horn section are normally part of a certain Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. Enjoy…

2 years ago

The current incarnation of Dr. Feelgood are one of the most famous examples of a band with no original members whatsoever, but having said that - they put on one hell of a live show! Of course, the original Dr. Feelgood were something else. Put punk band. Put R&B machine. I’m rather looking forward to the new documentary Oil City Confidential, which tells their story…

2 years ago

So here’s the cover of issue 52 of Blues Matters. Look out for the awesome Kill It Kid feature. Oh and The Heavy & Tom Allalone ones too. I wrote them. Hurray for me…

2 years ago View high resolution

How Animal House Saved The Blues

“When I first met John Belushi, he was very into heavy metal music! The louder the better,” says film director John Landis. “While driving across country, Danny Ackroyd would play Stax records in the car and John was seduced. Danny really educated John about this music, but while in Eugene, Oregon John did meet a local musician named Curtis Salgado who also encouraged him.”

Believe it or not, the most important film in the history of blues music is not the Blues Brothers. Now don’t get me wrong, I love that film, but without National Lampoon’s Animal House, there would be no Blues Brothers. That is because John Belushi, the heavy metal loving comedian and all-round force of nature was bitten by the blues bug while he was filming Animal House in Eugene, Oregon and the world would never be the same again.

The filming of the Animal House was anything but straightforward. Lampoon writers Doug Kenney, Chris Miller and future Ghostbuster/director Harold Ramis had come up with a truly anarchic script, filled with memories from their own college experiences. The film was being produced by relative newcomer Ivan Reitman and directed by Landis, who had just been working on the Kentucky Fried Movie.

With the notable exception of Belushi and Donald Sutherland, who was brought in as a bonafide star to keep the studio happy, the cast were all total unknowns. Many of them would go on to have highly successful careers, not least Kevin Bacon, Tim Matheson and Karen Allen, but at the time no one had heard of them.

To make matters worse, colleges were reluctant to play host to the filmmakers. The crew were turned down by every college they approached, until they sent the script to the University of Orgeon in Eugene. According to Reitman, the university president had turned down a request to film The Graduate on campus, while working at another university during the 1960s and had been regretting the decision ever since. So he welcomed the crew with open arms and even let them filmmakers use his own office, which doubled as the office for Dean Wormer, who was played by John Vernon.

So cast and crew moved up to Eugene and they needed extras. Lots of extras and Landis started hiring local students.

“We had to hire local black students to play the Knights behind Dewayne Jessie, the actor playing Otis Day,” recalls Landis. “It wasn’t until years later that it was pointed out to me that one of them, and he was going to the University of Oregon at the time, was Robert Cray!”

The five times Grammy award-winning bluesman, who has toured regularly with the likes of Eric Clapton and BB King, was then a jobbing musician and a student on the east coast. He had started the Robert Cray Band in 1974 with bassist Richard Cousins and they had built up a solid reputation playing live on the local circuit.

“We hung out with John Belushi a little bit,” says Cray. “He would come in and see our band. We had a splinter band that was a combination of the Cray band and a group called the Nighthawks, which was fronted by a guy called Curtis Salgado.

“The whole thing led up to the beginning of the Blues Brothers, because Belushi wasn’t into the blues at all. Curtis was schooling him. It was Curtis who wore the prescription Ray Ban sunglasses. Curtis would take Belushi to his house, play all these records and tell him about all these musicians. He told him that Ray Charles played alto-saxophone and then a little bit later, you would see Ray Charles on Saturday Night Live playing alto-saxophone. They did give Curtis a credit on the Blues Brothers records.”

The good news is that Curtis Salgado is still singing and playing the blues, having fought off liver cancer three years ago. Both he and Belushi gave an interview to the local paper, the Register Guard in January 1979, in which they both spoke to reporter Fred Crafts about the Blues Brothers.

“I’ve tried represent him in the most respectful way possible,” Belushi says at the time. ‘Being from TV and being known for comedy, it’s hard to sell it musically. That was real difficult to do, but I promised I wouldn’t mess with it.”

Salgado said the first time they met was after a show he had done with the Cray Band.

“He didn’t know who the hell I was,” adds Belushi. “Someone said that’s John Belushi. He said ‘oh sure man’. We got talking and I said how much I liked him. I don’t think he believed it was me.”

Apparently the two men hit it off and talked all night about the blues.

“Belushi just opens up,” Salgado told the reporter. “I get carried away with blues things and pretty soon, hey yeah, he’s into it. Pretty soon I’m going over to his house and turn him onto some records.”

The first record Salgado played Belushi was ‘Hey Bartender’ by Floyd Dixon. A few month’s later, the Blues Brothers band would play the same song as the supported Steve Martin at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles. The track also made it onto the Blues Brother’s first ever album, a live recording of that concert, called “Briefcase Full Of Blues”.

That album was phenomenally successful and went on to sell 3.5m copies. It also helped paved the way for Belushi’s next project – the Blues Brothers movie.

And while Curtis did not appear in the film, Belushi honoured him by making sure the character played by Cab Calloway bore the name ‘Curtis’.

“The Blues Brothers was a development deal even before we finished shooting Animal House! The insane success of the album was a huge surprise and certainly accelerated the production of the film,” adds Landis. “No one, certainly not us, expected the first record to be that big.”

Jamie Hailstone - 2009

2 years ago

Here’s another interview that never saw the light of the day. It’s a real shame, because I love this guy’s music. But here it is - Mike Farris in all his glory..

JH:You’ve been on quite a journey, both musically and personally. What stage does ‘Shout Live!’ represent to you as a person and as an artist?

MF: I would have to say that SHOUT! Live represents the finale to the Salvation In Lights era of my life. When we recorded “SIL” we didn’t have the luxury of seasoning the songs with a band over a extended period of time. Having the chance to document the songs after being performed live for a year is interesting and exciting to me- to see how they’ve grown into this very electric experience.

JH: Did you ever think when you were fronting Screamin Cheetah Wheelies that you would be, one day, making a record like this?

MF:I somehow always knew that I would be going back to the basics. It’s like when I first sat down to map out “SIL”- I had a real clear concept in my head of what I wanted to do, but once the recording process got underway and things began to unfold the music took on a life of its own. We are, in many ways, facilitators of the music. We simply aim toward something and then let the wind and currents do their part.

JH: Why did you choose the Station Inn to record this album?

MF: The Station Inn is, unfortunately, the only place in town that’s been untouched and unbridled by “progress” in the last 30-40 years. It looks and sounds just like it did many many years ago. Many people don’t know that it started out as a R&B joint. I think it just really frames the music well, and that’s important for the overall experience. If you’re a punk band, you wanna play CB’s (though it’s closed now..), if you’re country then you wanna play the Ryman…If you’re black spiritual music and you’re in the UK you wanna play Royal Albert Hall.

JH: Can you tell me a bit about the McCrary Sisters and how you came to sing with them?

MF: About the same time we were gearing up to record for “SIL”, a friend gave me a copy of a Buddy Miller record that they had sang on. I loved it, particularly the girls. So I called up Buddy and asked for their number. The album actually only has Ann singing, along with Gayles Mayes, another outstanding singer. Brenita Reid is featured on “Oh, Mary Don’t You Weep”. Brenita was made for that song because she was NOT a professional singer. Her voice has that old church style singing quality to it that I loved. It was only after the album was recorded that I finally got all the McCrary’s together to sing with us. Regina, who’d spent years singing with Bob Dylan, had been out of town for the winter, so I was really taken with the idea of having all the sisters sing together, as were they. There’s some intagible thing that happens when siblings, or fathers or mothers sing with their children. Down south here we call that “Blood Harmony”.

JH: What is it about gospel and spiritual songs which appeals to you?

MF: Spirituals convey the unrest in our hearts and souls and minds. They also have this amazing ability to lift us up and give us courage and to simply make us happy! To me, the very definition of “spirituals” is very broad. When I hear Klezmer music, or Gypsy music, and Ethiopian music and Celtic music- to me, a lot of that stuff falls into the category of “spiritual music”. American Black spiritual music has always moved me above and beyond any other sounds. It speaks directly to me and whatever my spiritual condition is at the time.

JH:You once fronted Double Trouble. How scary was that?

MF: The first show I did with Double Trouble was at a outdoor festival in Dallas/Fort Worth- Stevie’s hometown- you can imagine how frightful that must have been!! When I was asked to join them, Chris, Tommy and Reese hadn’t played any Stevie songs together since the night Stevie died. I told them that we had to play at least a few each show, because there were a lot of artists and bands out there playing those songs and they were really the only ones QUALIFIED to perform them!! Their concern was they wanted to feel like they could stand on their own, and they very well could, and that they had great respect for what had been achieved with Stevie and wanted to maintain a sense of high regard for that era and didn’t want to come across as a “tribute band”, of sorts. I think the way we were able to pull it off was tasteful and the crowds absolutely loved seeing those guys play those songs!!! I still talk to Chris and Tommy all the time and visit them every time I’m in Texas. Reese lives here in Nashville and is a very successful session guy.

JH: Who are the singers who have influenced you and why?

MF: Mavis Staples and Pops Staples are at the top for me. Beyond that, Solomon Burke, Jackie Wilson, Louis Armstrong, Ella, Aretha, Donny Hathaway, Son House, Skip James, Al Green, Lou Rawls. Paul McCartney and Prince are two singers who always amazed me because of their ranges and diversity. There’s just so so many great singers and interpretors. I think if Dylan would have had a great technical voice, then his words would have risked being lost. Neil Young is another. My wife works with Emmylou Harris. Emmy’s voice is just beautiful and pure. I love Odetta. I just did a session for Patty Griffin’s new album. Patty is in that same category as Emmy, with a hint of soul. Cyril Neville is one of the great singers of our time and nobody knows it. Little Richard is one the greatest ever, as is Tina Turner. The Everly Brothers remind me of that “blood harmony”. I love all the great Italian singers. I got to do a session last year with Howard Tate, which was amazing. I love Levon Helm’s voice. Ibrahim Ferrer is one of the great Cuban singers. Toots Hibbert has a great soul voice and very spiritual as well. Ann, Regina, and Freida McCrary!! I get to share the stage with 3 of the best singers that I know! Life ain’t bad!! Any singer that I hear who sounds like they are singing because their very life depends on it, moves and inspires me.

JH: You spent many years in hard rocking band. Do you miss those old days?
MF: I get asked this a lot and I have to say the answer is no, I don’t. As much as I love the guys in the Screamin’ Cheetah Wheelies, I feel like I’ve really found my place, musically and spiritually. I never was a rock and roll singer anyway. I’m not sure when the last time I even listened to anything resembling “modern” rock. On second thought, I did pull out and listen to the first Queens of the Stone Age album a few weeks back. I’ve just grown really bored with rock music in general. I’m now fascinated with peeling back facades and and getting down to the core of music and why we feel it’s important to us. When Mick and Keith, and Clapton and The Beatles and Page and Plant and John Mayall and Peter Green and so many others discovered American Blues music, they felt like they’d found the true core, or at least they may have felt like they found what essentially moved them like nothing else. If they’d gone back one more generation, they would have found the absolute source of this great music that has permeated the four corners of the world. This is the music that moves me, but I would not have found it if not for their intitial search, so in that regard, I am extremely grateful for the British Invasion and the efforts to show the world this incredible music. My own personal mission now is not at all unlike theirs.

2 years ago

A quick shout out to Kill It Kid. I’ve just reviewed their new CD for Blues Matters and it is exceptionally good. They are like a younger and slightly more hip version of Gomez. Read into that what you will, but this new CD is exceptional and unlike anything else you will hear this year.

I also did an interview with lead singer Chris Turpin during the summer, which (fingers crossed) will be out in BM soon. Here’s a little sneak preview - just don’t tell anyone you read it here….

Do you think Robert Johnson was the greatest Delta blues singer, or just one of a number of great singers from around that time?
Out of the recorded artists that I’ve heard from that period, I think he is the greatest. He has such a varied and educated guitar style and plays with such flair, and also the venom in his voice, offset with the sensibility of his delivery, make for some seriously arresting recordings. If I listened to ‘Up Jumped the Devil’, and didn’t get goose bumps, then I’d think there was something very wrong! It’s not difficult to see why in his lifetime they believed him to be in league with the devil.