It doesn’t sound bluesy- a Wyoming native, resident and wandering troubadour appears at a jazz club, playing an array of guitars including a cigar-box-shaped anomaly fashioned after the posh Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City. Yet Spencer Bohren’s July 17 show at Snug Harbor defied any superfluous expectations, as the New Orleans expatriate-Bohren called the Crescent City home from 1975-1983 -returned to his “spiritual home” and found a packed house waiting to welcome him back. Bohren’s old friends Camile Baudoin of the Radiators and Tipitina’s emcee and guitarist Ricky Castrillo were among the well-wishers, and if the atmosphere inside the room got any warmer, it would have made the typically oppressive New Orleans summer night seem like a stroll on the frozen tundra of Alaska.
“I’m really flattered that the people and press of New Orleans still consider me a New Orleans musician,” Bohren said the day after his performance. While his musical inspirations and witty stage presence suggest a strong debt to folk legend Arlo Guthrie and Piedmont-style blues pioneer Blind Blake alike, Bohren’s held close of the lessons of his New Orleans residency. “New Orleans music really taught me the use of space in music,” says Bohren. “It’s like when you listen to Zig [Modeliste, original drummers for the Meters], and he’s not really playing that much- you’re waiting for the next beat- but it’s still so damn funky. You’re going, how is this so funky?”
Modeliste’s open-air feel surfaces regularly in Bohren’s compositions, whether he’s playing solo or with a rhythm section. At the Snug Harbor show, the highlights included his lap-steel playing, for which Bohren uses one vintage 1930’s-make six-string that predates the electric guitar. The instrument looks like a futuristic synthesizer aberration, but produces a magical sound built on the pre-war sounds of the Mississippi Delta. The multi-colored body design is modeled after the floor plan of NYC’s famed Waldorf Astoria, but none of that institution’s strict attention to form applies to the playing of its namesake instrument. “I translated all my Robert Johnson and Son House licks for it,” says Bohren, “and you cannot play frets on it; all mathematical approaches to music go out the window.”
Playing slide like a pedal steel isn’t uncommon in the country music capitol of Nashville, but Bohren is one of only a handful of blues players- including Sonny Rhodes and lately, Kenny Neal- who pay lap service to their guitars. Bohren produces a soaring sustain using this technique, and when coupled with his astute songwriting skills, the effect is powerful. There’s the frightening racism of “Darkness,” the party’s over chronicle “Middle of the Day,” and the unabashed pledge of “Long As I Have You.”
Those songs can be found on Bohren’s recent release Present Tense, which features the muscular rhythm section of bassist Reggie Scanlan and drummer Frank Bua of the Radiators. Present Tense isn’t a straight blues record by any means, but is deftly colored with Bohren’s influences and slide work, and features a lecherous and sizzling cover of Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love” that is simply great American rock and roll. The record is available in limited markets currently on Bohren’s own label Zephyr Records, as negotiations are being finalized for a national release on another label. If you have trouble finding it or wish to be put on Bohren’s mailing list, write to Zephyr Records, 1104 South David, Casper, WY 82601.
Hopefully in a future mail-out Bohren will be announcing a domestic release for his album Full Moon, which features an all-star New Orleans cast including members of the subdudes and funky drummer extraordinaire Herman Ernest. While the record did well overseas, Bohren has been locked in a no-win legal battle with the European label that released it for domestic distribution. The prognosis doesn’t look good currently. Bohren says, “I fought it and fought it and fought it, and finally just had to let it go. Their rights to the masters expire in the year 2001, so if I have to wait that long, so be it.”
Sadly, the case of Bohren’s Full Moon is not unusual. Walter “Wolfman” Washington’s masterpiece Blue Moon Rising still hasn’t seen a state-side issue, and now Baton Rouge’s Larry Garner appears to be the victim of a similar situation. Gamer’s follow-up to his stellar Verve debut You Need to Live a Little is now available in Europe, but a source at Verve confirmed that no U.S. release is currently slated, leading to speculation that Garner has been dropped from the label. On a brighter note, following the American release of Marva Wright‘s Born With the Blues, tentative studio time for Matva’s new release on Virgin/Pointblank Records is scheduled sometime before the end of the year.
One new signee to the Virgin/Pointblank label, harmonica master Charlie Musselwhite, recently came to New Orleans and spent time at Keith Keller’s Chez Flames studio, recording possible tracks for his Pointblank debut. Stavin’ Chain guitarist John Lawrence played guitar on the new songs, which reportedly have a pronounced Brazilian feel. Lawrence also landed the guitar duties for an upcoming Alaskan tour with Musselwhite, and word is that long-time Musselwhite guitar foil Andrew Jones Jr. has left the band.
In other record news, Dr.John steals the show with his sublime piano and drawl-heavy vocals driving his version of “Cold Shot” on A Tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan, available August 6 on Epic Records. Recorded live in Austin, Texas, this homage to the late guitar hero also features guest turns by brother Jimmie Vaughan (who organized the show), Bonnie Raitt, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton and Robert Cray. The performances are hit and miss, with Cray’s Chuck-Berry like version of “Love Struck Baby” and B.B. King’s forceful version of “Telephone King” outright winners, while Guy’s inexplicable vocal re-working of “Long Way From Home” falls far short of the mark. As a compare-and-contrast showcase of some of the most influential blues performers of today, A Tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan succeeds admirably; the record closes with an instrumental nine-minute-plus shuffle with each participant taking a solo turn and weaving rhythm lines behind their peers.
On the reissue front, album of the month is the two-CD collection That Did It! The Duke Recordings Volume 3 (MCA Records), by the masterful Bobby “Blue” Bland. Bland appears at House of Blues on August 2, and this compilation is further irrefutable proof that Bland is one of the blues’ all-time greatest vocalists- his body of work on Duke from 1952-1972 stands as tall as his mentor and friend B.B. King’s seminal work from the same decades. The Duke Recordings Volume 3 serves as a companion piece and final installment to I Pity the Fool/The Duke Recordings Volume 1, and Turn on Your Love Light/The Duke Recordings Volume 2, and while some of the material is culled from such classic Bland LP’s as Spotlighting the Man, the inclusion of alternate takes and previously unreleased tracks on each volume makes these collections a must for aficionados and neophytes alike. Standouts on Volume 3 include the urgent testimony of “Gotta Get to Know You,” the sanctified and poignant “Poverty,” and the self-doubt of “I Ain’t Myself Anymore,” but that’s just scratching the surface of hours of listening pleasure.
