LESSONS FROM EARLY MENTORS LIKE BIG WALTER HORTON, OTIS RUSH, ROOSEVELT SYKES, ETC. TO PLAY WITH DEEP FEELING STICK WITH SUGAR RAY AND THE BLUETONES

“THAT’S THE WAY HARMONICA IS SUPPOSED TO BE PLAYED”
-MUDDY WATERS

"SUGAR RAY HAS GREAT TONE AND GREAT PHRASING, SINGING AND PLAYING THE HARP. ONE OF MY FAVORITES!"
-CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE

SUGAR RAY & THE BLUETONES’ NEW ALBUM ‘LIVING TEAR TO TEAR’ OUT NOW ON SEVERN RECORDS TO RAVES FROM GUITAR WORLD, ELMORE

Three-time GRAMMY nominee Sugar Ray Norcia still draws on lessons he learned from playing with Muddy Waters, Otis Rush (who turned 80 this year), Hubert Sumlin, Jimmy Rogers, Big Walter Horton, Roosevelt Sykes, Big Mama Thornton and others in the 1970s and ‘80s, most of all to play with deep feeling. The leader of Sugar Ray & The Bluetones says, “We were in awe of them! Sometimes there’s a myth about old blues guys that they’re gun toting and gruff. But they were open with their ideas and had no prejudices. They could hear our love of the music immediately and feel our soul. They accepted us.”

Sugar Ray & The Bluetones have played shows with B.B. King. “He treats everyone with dignity. That’s always rubbed off on me,” says Norcia. “I sat in with Muddy Waters one time and he told me, ‘Son, now that’s the way the harpmonica is supposed to be played.’” (Ray confirms that he used the word “harpmonica.”)

Backing Roosevelt Sykes led directly to the band having the assurance to go into the studio for the first time in 1979 after the gigs led to Baron Records signing the band, making 2014 the 35th anniversary since that vinyl EP. “We backed Roosevelt Sykes at the Speakeasy [in Cambridge] before we ever made a recording. He said, ‘You fellows sound so good. You ought to capture that great sound in a recording studio.’”

The band toured extensively with harmonica great Big Walter Horton and Norcia remembers him fondly, “I learned so much from him, the way he handled himself on stage as well as the tonal qualities of the harp. Walter just stood up there and addressed the audience directly. It doesn’t take theatrics all the time; it takes deep inner feeling. Walter carried his harmonicas in a drawstring sack. He’d coil the cord after every show and carefully put it in his sack with his harps. We’d go to Ronnie Earl’s apartment and Walter would sleep on the floor, just unfurl the old mattress.”

Far less unassuming was slide master J.B. Hutto, who played in a flashy suit and used a 100 foot guitar cord to wander into the audience while the Bluetones backed him.

Bassist Mudcat Ward says he learned early from the masters “how to play with a drummer, how to make a pocket, make a groove,” continuing, “It was exciting to us.” He recalls the early Bluetones – the same lineup as now with one exception: Monster Mike Welch plays guitar in a spot once held by Ronnie Earl – as a band that took learning the craft seriously, saying, “The blues is serious as a heart attack. We always gravitated to the deep stuff, the lowdown stuff. If someone put on a tape or record of Robert Johnson, say, at an after-gig get-together or in the van, we'd shut up, just stop talking and things would get quiet. Why? Because we'd be listening. This was serious stuff to us."

Pianist Anthony Geraci says, “One time when we were backing the great Memphis Slim, we played a few numbers and then we called him up to do his show. He placed his arm on my shoulder and said ‘you play, I’ll sing.’ That was a thrill.”

Sugar Ray & The Bluetones’ new album ‘Living Tear To Tear’ (Severn Records) came out last month. Damian Fanelli writes, “The hard-swinging band fully absorbed the lessons learned from Chicago blues masters.” Elmore Magazine said, "(Sugar Ray Norcia's) voice is soulfully engaging, in sync with Welch's guitar and his own masterful harmonica playing." Twangville called it “a gem,” saying, “The album is a pleasure to hear.”

Norcia strives to return the favor to his early mentors. When Big Walter Horton’s family didn’t have the money for a tombstone for the master musician, Sugar Ray & The Bluetones played several benefit concerts to raise the money. “I have his amplifier and his microphone. That’s pretty special.”

He encourages young blues musicians to explore its roots and give the music space to breathe, saying, “Slow down, take a minute, think about it, play it with more feeling.”

HOW KEVIN GORDON'S '56 GIBSON ES-125 CHANGED HIS SONGWRITING, CULMINATING IN FIRST NEW ALBUM IN 7 YEARS 'GLORYLAND' (FEB 14 / CROWVILLE MEDIA)

Kevin Gordon – the rock and roller with the masters degree in poetry whose songs have been covered by Levon Helm and Keith Richards – let his songwriting and recording evolve through his use of a '56 Gibson ES-125, culminating in the stunning new album 'Gloryland' (February 14 / Crowville Media). Here's Kevin:

"Not long after moving to Nashville, I found my 1956 Gibson ES-125 in my friend Pat Gallagher’s apartment, propped in a corner, without a case, gathering dust. I picked it up and played it; it immediately felt right, natural. I borrowed it for a weekend’s gigs, not knowing exactly how I’d use it--I was just attracted to it. It showed its age: the binding yellowed, the finish on the back of the neck worn away in places, pick-guard gone, battle scars here and there. The heads on the original tuning keys were brittle and weak as chalk.

I loved the chunky low end and the responsiveness of the P-90. When I got back, Pat agreed to sell me the guitar, for what now seems like a bargain: $350.

But I’d been trying to figure out a way to play solo gigs, beyond the usual acoustic-through-the-P.A. kind of sound--which I was hearing a lot of in Nashville at that time, and which always sounded thin to me, no matter how good the guitar or the sound engineer. And I wanted a sound that reflected where my songs were coming from--a lot of the songwriters/performers who influenced me played electric guitars: Chuck Berry, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Muddy Waters, Elmore James.

To make it adaptable to more of my songs, I put it in open-D tuning, using a capo and gradually finding other chord shapes/voicings that took advantage of open strings. I love the wideness of the sound when I mask the 3rd of the chord--playing all 1s and 5s. For the solo gig I use a blackface Princeton (the one with white knobs--’63?) and, if it’s appropriate for the room, a second amp: an old Epiphone Pathfinder or a late 40s Gibson BR-9 that’s been modified to accept a non-fieldcoil speaker. Tremolo, a little delay from an old Boss DM-3 pedal, and that’s it.

Though I originally bought the guitar as a way in to playing solo, it’s greatly influenced my songwriting--since circa 2001 most of my songs have been written using it. Eight of the twelve tracks recorded for the new release, 'Gloryland,' are songs written on the 125; it’s also one of the main guitars used on the record."