PAUL RISHELL EARNS FIRST SOLO BLUES MUSIC AWARD NOMINATIONS FOR 'TALKING GUITAR' (MOJO RODEO)

New England's blues master Paul Rishell has earned his first solo Blues Music Award nominations for Acoustic Album of the Year with 'Talking Guitar' and for Acoustic Artist. He and harmonica-playing musical partner Annie Raines are previous winners as a duo.

Rishell has played with and learned from Son House, Johnny Shines, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, and Buddy Guy & Junior Wells. With Raines, he has opened for Ray Charles, Asleep at the Wheel, Susan Tedeschi, Leon Russell, Dr. John, and John Sebastian. The Boston Globe's James Reed wrote a feature on Rishell last year.

In related news, Raines and Rishell played together publicly for the first time 20 years ago December 5, marking a milestone in the fruitful musical partnership.

Here's a postable mp3 of Rishell's rendition of "Fannin' Street (Mr. Tom Hughes' Tom)."

The Blues Foundation will present the Blues Music Awards at the Cook Convention Center in downtown Memphis, TN, on May 9, 2013. Online voting is open for members and ticket sales open December 13.

Paul Rishell & Annie Raines tour dates:

January 25, 2013 – Boston, MA – Institute for Contemporary Art (w/ Woody Mann)

January 26, 2013 - Canton, CT - Roaring Brook Nature Center

February 8, 2013 - Brownfield, ME - Stone Mountain Arts Center

February 22, 2013 - Cambridge, MA – Club Passim

February 23, 2013 - N. Eastham, MA - First Encounter Coffeehouse

W.C. HANDY AWARD WINNER & LEADING FEMALE HARMONICA PLAYER ANNIE RAINES RELEASES FIRST INSTRUCTIONAL INTERACTIVE VIDEO SOFTWARE "BLUES HARMONICA BLUEPRINT" ON TRUEFIRE JULY 31

68 VIDEO LESSONS AND 263 MINUTES OF INSTRUCTION MAKE THIS MOST COMPREHENSIVE INSTRUCTION TO DATE

Blues Music Award winner and foremost of only a handful of female harmonica players Annie Raines has recorded the most comprehensive harmonica instruction to date and the only interactive video format with "Blues Harmonica Blueprint" with 263 minutes of instruction, 68 video lessons, and over 75 charts. It will be available as interactive video software available via DVD-R or download July 31. Raines is eminently qualified to teach as harmonica legend James Cotton calls Raines “James Cotton Junior” and Muddy Waters sideman Pinetop Perkins said, “She plays so good it hurts."

Here is TrueFire's Blues Harmonica Blueprint playlist, with numerous embeddable clips.

Presented for the beginner to advanced intermediate player, this revolutionary video drills deeper and wider than any blues harmonica course ever published. Over two years in the making, with hundreds of hours dedicated just to the visual notation guides and animations, "Blues Harmonica Blueprint" features animated graphics showing where the notes are as they're being played; detailed video breakdowns of songs and exercises; text descriptions; live band jam tracks so you can play along with a blues combo including guitarists Paul Rishell & Troy Gonyea; an adjustable metronome; and a guitar tuner in multiple tunings.

One of the challenges of teaching harmonica is that one cannot see what a harp player is doing and TrueFire's animation over the footage of Raines cuts through that barrier.

Finally, Raines teaches solos and repertoire in the styles of blues harmonica masters such as Sonny Boy Williamson II, Big Walter Horton, Jimmy Reed, and Little Walter.

Having learned from Jerry Portnoy who has toured with Muddy Waters and Eric Clapton, Raines has performed on three Susan Tedeschi albums and with John Sebastian over her distinguished twenty-five year career. She has been the touring and recording partner of Paul Rishell for over twenty years. They have released six albums together, including the W.C. Handy Award-winning 'Moving to the Country.'

Over the past 20 years, TrueFire has worked with over 600 top artists and educators building what Guitar Player magazine calls "the planet's largest and most comprehensive selection of guitar lessons. Over 220,000 students from 140 countries are enrolled in various TrueFire educational programs"

PAUL RISHELL LAUNCHES BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSIC COUNTRY BLUES PROGRAM AS VISITING ARTIST/PROFESSOR

NEW ALBUM 'TALKING GUITAR' (MAY 8 / MOJO RODEO) ALSO SERVES AS PRIMER FOR STUDENTS

Paul Rishell – the blues master with the 45+ year career who is returning to the songs that originally inspired him on 'Talking Guitar' (May 8 / Mojo Rodeo) – has been sharing his deep knowledge of pre-war country blues styles with a new generation as a Visiting Artist at Berklee College of Music, alongside fellow Visiting Artist/Professor Woody Mann.

He says, "We talk about how country blues has been an influence on popular music ever since it became a recorded art form. I also teach how to listen to the recordings and pick out the guitar parts, the tunings, and which strings to use. Some of the techniques would be difficult to notate, so they need to be demonstrated."

Of his own learning process, he says, "I've been fascinated with Leadbelly's 'Fannin' Street' for years. Like all the country blues masters, he came up with a unique way of playing the guitar. It took 50 years of it being in my head before I got to the place where I could perform it well enough to record it. I was re-stringing the guitar one day and it was tuned down to B, which made it sound like a 12-string, so it made me think of that song and I started fooling around with it." Hear Rishell's version of "Fannin' Street'": http://nicklosseaton.blogspot.com/2012/03/paul-rishell-mp3.html

In 2011, Berklee's American Roots Music Program launched the Robert Davoli - Eileen McDonagh Country Blues Visiting Artist Program. Now Rishell is passing on lessons he learned by getting to know elders like Son House and Howlin' Wolf. "It's a wonderful opportunity to expose people to this music in depth, to help them discover all the great musicans and stories that make up the world of country blues. I was attracted to the music at a very early age and it was always a source of great comfort and inspiration to me."

Early word on 'Talking Guitar' has been stellar. Living Blues called the music "exceptionally rendered prewar blues songs that retain the sound, and, more importantly, the spirit of the original artists," continuing, "Rishell has really mastered prewar blues—even his singing has an incredible ease and authenticity. For modern ears, the record makes the genre both fascinating and highly accessible… It’s often like Rishell is washing windows—letting in the sunlight and revealing the mystique of these early recordings… After hearing Paul Rishell’s blues, you’ll have a hard time denying the power of such bare, organic, and emotive sound."

LONGTIME CANTABRIDGIAN BLUESMAN PAUL RISHELL TO PERFORM AT ALBUM RELEASE CELEBRATION MAY 6 AT TEMPLE ISAIAH IN LEXINGTON AND CATERED BY BLUE RIBBON BB

ACOUSTIC GUITAR SHARES FIRST MP3 FROM 'TALKING GUITAR,' OUT MAY 8

Longtime Cantabridgian and Blues Music Award winner Paul Rishell, who sat in with Howlin' Wolf at a club in Inman Square in the '70s and is a patriarch of the Boston blues and folk scenes, will celebrate the release of his new album 'Talking Guitar' (May 8 / Mojo Rodeo Records) with a concert May 6 at Temple Isaiah in Lexington, MA. Rishell will be joined by longtime musical partner Annie Raines on harmonica, Jesse Williams (Duke Robillard, Joe Louis Walker) on bass, and other special guests to be announced. The event will kick off with a reception catered by Blue Ribbon Bar-B-Que

Acoustic Guitar Magazine , whose review of the album is forthcoming, shared the first mp3, a rendition of Lead Belly's "Fannin' Street (Mr. Tom Hughes Town").

'Talking Guitar' also sports interpretations of songs from the repertoires of Blues Hall of Famers Skip James, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, and others in addition to two Rishell originals.

A Rishell guitar pupil, Susan Tedeschi recorded an "unplugged" version of Paul's "Blues on a Holiday" with Paul on guitar. With Raines, he has opened for Ray Charles, Asleep at the Wheel, Susan Tedeschi, Leon Russell, Dr. John, and John Sebastian. They were also featured members of the J Band, led by John Sebastian of the Lovin' Spoonful.

WHO: Paul Rishell and Annie Raines
WHAT: Album release show for 'Talking Guitar'
WHERE: Temple Isaiah, 55 Lincoln Street, Lexington, MA
WHEN: 6pm, May 6, 2012
TICKETS: $20, via Brown Paper Tickets

PAUL RISHELL REFINES ORIGINAL INSPIRATION WHEN CREATING 'TALKING GUITAR,' OUT MAY 8 ON MOJO RODEO

MEETING SON HOUSE PIVOTAL MOMENT FOR FUTURE BLUES MUSIC AWARD-WINNER

When he was 13, Paul Rishell first heard Son House's "County Farm Blues." "It was a revelation. I didn’t know how old he was, but here was this guy who was an adult, and he was rocking out. He was not an old geezer. He wasn’t making Lawrence Welk music. He was playing Rock and Roll music. He was playing stuff with a beat and he was making the beat; he was the beat; he was the whole thing. I thought, 'Listen to this guy. He’s unbelievable; he’s like a whole band!'"

"Soon afterward, he heard Lead Belly's hard-driving "Fannin' Street (Mr. Tom Hughes' Town)." I wanted to learn it from the first time I heard it. But I had to get in shape to do it."

On his new album 'Talking Guitar,' he performs some of the songs that originally inspired him but which have taken a lifetime to master. "Most country blues records were compendiums then," he recalls, continuing, "It was rare to find an album by the more obscure artists like Scrapper Blackwell or Charley Patton. For years I thought Charley Patton only recorded one song, 'Hang it On the Wall,' because that was the one that showed up on all of the compilations."

An introduction to Son House facilitated by Dick Waterman furthered the young Rishell's growth: "I was blinded by sitting across from this guy. It was like meeting Abraham Lincoln. I shook the same hand that had shaken Charley Patton's hand. I asked him about his life. He told me about his travels, which included places as far-flung as California and Louisiana. At one point he worked in Algiers, Louisiana, picking the Spanish moss off of trees to fill mattresses."

Paul Rishell mp3

SITTING IN WITH HOWLIN' WOLF, PAUL RISHELL LEARNS EARLY LESSONS ON MUSIC, LIFE

At the age of 23 and 24 Paul Rishell opened for and sat in with Howlin' Wolf in Cambridge, MA, experiences that set him on the path to becoming the blues master he is today. Rishell recalls, "There'd be no set list and no arrangements. It was extemporaneously done. It was about making things work, making connections quickly, and not worrying about the particulars. These guys didn’t count off. They'd just start playing. It was in your blood, in your feet, it was ethereal. By the time they were finished, the whole room bent in half. It was galvanizing, hypnotic, and unbelievable."

The young Rishell had to think fast in that situation. He says, "You had to come up with a part. Wolf might turn around and say 'too loud' or 'too fast.' He'd tell the key if it was specific song. And you'd find yourself playing with Hubert Sumlin: that guy was a monster!"

He continues, "Meeting these guys meant so much to me. I used them as a model: the way they handled themselves, the way they did their work and went about it. You've got to have your own style."

'Talking Guitar' comes out May 8 on Mojo Rodeo Records.

ONE MAN'S TRASH IS ANOTHER MAN'S DEPRESSION-ERA RESONATOR GUITAR

COUNTRY BLUES MASTER PAUL RISHELL'S 'TALKING GUITAR' RELIES ON VINTAGE RESONATORS, ACOUSTICS

For his new country blues album 'Talking Guitar,' Paul Rishell relied on a 1928 National Triolian resonator, a 1931 National Style O resonator, a circa 1956 Martin 00018, as well as several newer acoustics and resonators. He first acquired the Style O in the mid-1970s.

Rishell recalls, "I had it when I started playing solo gigs in '75. The guy who sold it to me told me that he found it somewhere down South in a garbage can upside down. He said the neck had rotted away, and he had replaced it and refinished the body. The body is in almost perfect shape."

Rishell added a Piezo pickup to his 1928 National. "If you boost the bass, it sounds great going through my Trace Acoustic Amp. I just got an old Peavey Reno 400 and the National sounds really big through that."

Paul Rishell – the W.C. Handy Award-winning blues master singer and guitarist who played with and learned from Son House, Johnny Shines, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, and Buddy Guy, and Junior Wells – has come full circle in creating his new album 'Talking Guitar' (May 8 / Mojo Rodeo Records) returning to the music which inspired him to play the blues in the first place when he began honing his craft over 45 years ago. It is his first solo album since 1993 and his first all-acoustic outing.

Rishell has reached what Boston Phoenix writer Ted Drozdowski called "a place deep as resonant as Robert Johnson’s crossroads, where authenticity, soul, and a sense of purpose and commitment ring out in every note he sings and plays." Billboard Magazine says, "Rishell is a master of country/blues styles, particularly slide played on a National steel guitar."

Paul Rishell Publicity Photos & Album Art

Credit for all below: Eric Antoniou

AFTER MEETING SON HOUSE, PAUL RISHELL DREAMS COUNTRY BLUES ORIGINAL

NEW ALBUM 'TALKING GUITAR' OUT MAY 8 ON MOJO RODEO

One of the most intriguing songs from blues master Paul Rishell's new album 'Talking Guitar' came to him in a dream following his experience of meeting and playing with Son House.

Of the driving song "Louise," Rishell says, "I woke up in the middle of the night and in my head was a bass part. I got up and learned it in the dark and went back to sleep. Then I woke up in the morning with a melody in my head." A scholar of country blues, he also adapted one of the chords in the song from Bo Carter's "Bumble Bee." The result is a highlight of 'Talking Guitar,' standing alongside works by Lead Belly, Skip James, Charley Patton, and Blind Lemon Jefferson.

GRAMMY Winner David Holt, who frequently accompanies Doc Watson, recorded the song with Sam Bush (Alison Krauss, John Prine, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris) on mandolin on his 'Let it Slide' album in 2005.

'Talking Guitar' comes out May 8 on Mojo Rodeo.

A WC Handy Award winner, Rishell has reached what Boston Phoenix writer Ted Drozdowski called "a place deep and resonant as Robert Johnson’s crossroads, where authenticity, soul, and a sense of purpose and commitment ring out in every note he sings and plays." Downbeat said, "He makes the masters like Son House and Robert Johnson speak to us across time."

Paul Rishell bio

Paul Rishell, a W.C. Handy Award-winning singer, guitarist, songwriter, historian, and educator, has dedicated his life for the past half century to bringing recognition and respect to prewar blues, what he refers to as “the bedrock of all American music.” His latest album, “Talking Guitar,” (Mojo Rodeo, 2012) is his first solo project in 19 years and a reconnection with his Country Blues roots.

The album offers a powerful mix of songs from Blues Hall of Famers such as Leadbelly, Skip James, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Blake and others. To round out the collection, “Talking Guitar” includes two original songs by Rishell. It also includes Annie Raines, his partner and critically acclaimed harmonica virtuoso, appearing on three songs, including "Big Road Blues" and the rousing original "I'm Gonna Jump and Shout."

Rishell’s original music has been used in plays, films, and countless television shows including Friends, Oprah, and A&E’s Biography. He and Raines have appeared on the cover of Blues Revue and performed on various radio and TV shows including A Prairie Home Companion, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and PBS’s Arthur. They received the W.C. Handy Award for Acoustic Blues Album of the Year in 2000 for “Moving to the Country” and earned two nominations for their albums “Goin’ Home”(2004) and “A Night in Woodstock” (2008). As a duo, Rishell & Raines have opened for Ray Charles, Asleep at the Wheel, Susan Tedeschi, Leon Russell, Little Feat, Dr. John, and John Sebastian. They were also featured members of the J Band, led by John Sebastian of the Lovin' Spoonful, and appear in the 2007 jug band music documentary, Chasin’ Gus’ Ghost.

Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1950, Paul Rishell was named after his grandfather, a Methodist Minister who was pastor of the South Congregational Church. He moved around with his family to New Jersey, England, and finally Connecticut. There, at the age of 13, captivated by a recording of Son House singing “County Farm Blues,” Rishell began a lifelong study of the music and its progenitors. He moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts in the early 1970’s and began to perform with and learn from blues greats such as Son House, Johnny Shines, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, and Buddy Guy and Junior Wells. He soon became a well-known blues artist in his own right headlining Boston-area clubs and opening for his musical heroes. “I loved them because they were all there for me on their records when I was a kid.” explains Rishell. “It made me feel better to listen to their music.”

His first albums, Blues on a Holiday (1990) and Swear to Tell the Truth (1993) received critical acclaim and launched Rishell’s career as a recording artist. “My first record was a dream come true - I began to dream about making records as soon as I started listening to them. Making a solo album feels good because I’m a much more seasoned person and musician and I feel like I’ve grown into this material. I was probably 13 when I first heard Leadbelly’s recording of Fannin’ Street but I was 61 when I recorded it. It took me 47 years to figure out how to play the thing.”

In 1992 Rishell met and partnered up with Annie Raines. Born in 1969, Raines began playing the blues harp at 17 and went on to play the New England club circuit with local bands, and traveled to Chicago where she met and played with many of her musical idols including Pinetop Perkins, Louis Myers, and James Cotton. She has been hailed by fans and peers as one of the world’s top blues harp players, but it is the duo’s chemistry that steals the show. As Jerome Clark of rambles.net explains, “…Paul Rishell and Annie Raines in stratospheric form, which means that some of the most satisfying blues around these days are wafting down on your head and into your being, courtesy of a partnership the theologically inclined may suspect to have been conceived in heaven…”

Though they always perform together, Raines encouraged Rishell to record a solo album. “I was making an instructional video for harmonica, and it was taking forever,” she said. “Meanwhile, I really wanted to hear Paul do more of that unadulterated, pure blues that he does like nobody else. I got to step back and watch his working process and appreciate all the amazing things he can do with his voice and his guitar. So many of these techniques are in danger of disappearing. And they’re part of what made blues such an influential music to begin with: songs that make you stop what you’re doing and say ‘What the hell is THAT?’”

Rishell recorded “Dirt Road Blues,”an instructional video of country blues songs (Truefire, 2008) and is currently serving as a Visiting Artist at Berklee College of Music. “Among other reasons, I made ‘Talking Guitar’ for a generation of kids who may not ever have had a chance to hear country blues.” In his 45 years as a performer, teacher, historian, and torchbearer of the country blues tradition, he has drawn students and professionals (including Susan Tedeschi and Michael Tarbox) who want to learn the techniques required to do justice to the originals and hear his first-hand accounts of meeting iconic prewar blues legends. Sometimes they just come to hear to him talk, about singing, about music, about history.

Rishell likes to point out that the music industry and blues music were rocked in the same cradle, as musicians, businessmen and electrical engineers were drawn together by opportunities to make a living off of an emerging technology. In his live shows, his historical narration is built on his fascination with the people on both sides of the microphone. He’ll often introduce a song by telling you it was recorded in August of 1929 in Memphis, that it was probably mighty hot in the studio and the engineers kept the wax mastering disc on ice until it was time to record, or that Charley Patton was recruited by one of the first A&R men, a storekeeper named H.C. Speir, or how during prohibition, when thirsty Americans turned to patent medicines, hair tonic or Sterno, Tommy Johnson fancied the latter so much he wrote the “Canned Heat Blues.” These are entertaining glimpses into the past, but Rishell has an uncanny ability to summon this lost world into the present when he touches the strings. Boston Phoenix writer Ted Drozdowski wrote, “Paul has reached a place as deep and resonant as Robert Johnson’s crossroads, where authenticity, soul and a sense of purpose ring out in every note he sings and plays.”

BLUES MASTER PAUL RISHELL TO RELEASE 'TALKING GUITAR' APRIL 17, FEATURING INTERPRETATIONS OF PRE-WAR SONGS BY LEAD BELLY, SKIP JAMES, BLIND LEMON JEFF

FIRST SOLO ALBUM SINCE 1993 FOR W.C. HANDY AWARD WINNER, WHO PLAYED WITH SON HOUSE, HOWLIN' WOLF, AND JOHN LEE HOOKER

"He makes the masters like Son House and Robert Johnson speak to us across time."

- Frank-John Hadley, Downbeat

Paul Rishell – the W.C. Handy Award-winning blues master singer and guitarist who played with and learned from Son House, Johnny Shines, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, and Buddy Guy, and Junior Wells – has come full circle in creating his new album 'Talking Guitar' (May 8 / Mojo Rodeo Records) returning to the music which inspired him to play the blues in the first place when he began honing his craft over 45 years ago. It is his first solo album since 1993 and his first all-acoustic outing.

'Talking Guitar' sports interpretations of songs from the repertoires of Blues Hall of Famers Lead Belly, Skip James, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, and others in addition to two Rishell originals. His musical partner of the past 18 years Annie Raines guests on harmonica for three songs including "Big Road Blues" and the rousing original "I'm Gonna Jump and Shout."

Rishell has reached what Boston Phoenix writer Ted Drozdowski called "a place deep and resonant as Robert Johnson’s crossroads, where authenticity, soul, and a sense of purpose and commitment ring out in every note he sings and plays." Billboard Magazine says, "Rishell is a master of country/blues styles, particularly slide played on a National steel guitar."

Here's video of Rishell teaching and playing "Down the Dirt Road Blues" and talking about Charley Patton from his instructional DVD by the same name on True Fire (performance starts at 1:23):

He is also a blues historian and educator, who is currently a Visiting Artist at Berklee College of Music. Born in Brooklyn, NY, Rishell has long lived in Cambridge, MA.

A Rishell guitar pupil, Susan Tedeschi recorded an "unplugged" version of Paul’s "Blues on a Holiday" with Paul on guitar. With Raines, he has opened for Ray Charles, Asleep at the Wheel, Susan Tedeschi, Leon Russell, Dr. John, and John Sebastian. They were also featured members of the J Band, led by John Sebastian of the Lovin' Spoonful.

The duo has played on A Prairie Home Companion and PBS’s Arthur and Rishell has performed at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. They have performed and recorded with Tedeschi, Sebastian, Hubert Sumlin, and Pinetop Perkins.

Paul Rishell – Talking Guitar

1. Fannin' Street (Leadbelly)

2. Special Rider Blues (Skip James)

3. M & O Blues (Willie Brown)

4. Down the Dirt Road Blues (Charley Patton)

5. Big Road Blues (Tommy Johnson).feat. Annie Raines, harmonica

6. I'm Gonna Jump and Shout (Paul Rishell).feat. Annie Raines, harmonica

7. Police Dog Blues (Blind Blake)

8. One Dime Blues (Blind Lemon Jefferson)

9. Weeping Willow Blues (Blind Boy Fuller)

10. Screamin' and Cryin' Blues (Blind Boy Fuller)

11. Tired of Being Mistreated (Clifford Gibson)

12. Louise (Paul Rishell)

13. Michigan Water Blues (Clarence Williams, adapted & arranged by Paul Rishell).feat. Annie Raines, harmonica

http://www.paulandannie.com

http://www.reverbnation.com/paulrishellannieraines

http://nicklosseaton.blogspot.com

For more information on Paul Rishell, please contact Nick Loss-Eaton at nick.losseaton@gmail.com or 718.541.1130.