Page 89 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2018

My Brother Gave Me The Blues

How’d you get turned onto the blues? We asked Blues Festival My brother took me to my first
Guide’s 200,000+ Facebook followers and discovered that, for concert... the Allman Brothers Band.
many, it was all due to their brothers! Enjoy these memories! Been in love with the blues ever since.
Kelly Gum, Peachtree Corners, GA
With an illegal smile, I climb a steep
flight of stairs in the South End into a I found an album in my brother’s
smoky, dark pew-strewn auditorium. Big collection just after I stole and smoked
Mama Thornton is on the stage stompin’ some of his weed when I was 12. It was
and wailin’ in front of a sparse, spaced, called Couldn’t Stand the Weather and
appreciative crowd. I wander and I’ve been playing guitar ever since.
wonder. Paradise found. My blues are Gene Clarke, Kempsey, New South Wales
born. I was 17, my older brother, 19, My 5 years-older-than-me brother had a John Mayall & The
had told me about the place. It was the Bluesbreakers album, the one with Eric Clapton. We wore the
original Boston Tea Party club on Berkeley cardboard off of that one. Jackie Ringersma, Johnson City, TN
Street. Albert King was the headliner on
the bill. Cliff Hankin, Boston, MA It was brothers of a different sort – a small group of guys when
I was in the Army in the early 90s, my brothers in arms. Those
I was 19. My older brother guitar player no-showed one
night, and all I could do was wing my way through “Down by the guys turned me on to Stevie Ray Vaughan. That was the spark.
From there I wanted more. Of course, you eventually figure out
River” and “Spooky Little Girl like You.” Then it hit me, “bluesy,” that the history of blues is long and vast. I heard the music SRV
yea man! Scott Balser, Wichita Falls, TX
did with Albert King! And B.B... first picked up on him when he
Two of my older brothers... one moved out of the family home played with U2. Then I had to have more. Then of course there’s
leaving Mississippi Fred McDowell and Johnny Winters albums Clapton and his reverence for Buddy Guy and Freddie King. All
when I was 11, I wore them out. Another brother had Cream’s started by that spark shared by my brothers.
Disraeli Gears and Butterfield Blues Band’s East-West albums. Allen Woodrum, Grass Lake, MI
I listened to them constantly when I was 13. I’d say I was well My brother was a radio DJ who brought blues albums home
schooled! Linda Beck, Albuquerque, NM
when I was a kid; Johnny Winter, Muddy Waters among them.
I remember my big brother, Jefferson Davis Teague, handing Been hooked since. Dwayne L. Davidson, Louisville, KY
me a copy of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Soul to Soul on cassette and
saying, “This guy is it.” Circa ‘86. Jeremy Teague, Selmer, TN My older brother, may he rest in peace, with one of my
harmonicas! Thanks bro! Farrell TyeMan Levitt, Adairsville, GA
When I was 11, my older sister made the mistake of
leaving her 12-string Epiphone unattended. That’s how it all My brother left a tape of Chicago Blues at my house in 1980.
began. Debi Jordan, Carrabelle, FL I played it the next day and it just hit me! Been hooked ever
since. It was hard to part with, but I
I was raised in Los Angeles by Tennesseans who were both found the series on vinyl – which I still
accomplished musicians. My older brother Dr. (John) Duck have. Also have it on CD and now
turned me onto Paul Butterfield in digital. That tape led me to so many
1965 and as a 14-year-old guitarist, I other blues artists, I’ve seen some of
was floored and immediately became the biggest over the years and loved
a Michael Bloomfield fan. John gave them all.
me John Mayall’s Beano album for Rosetta Stone, New Zealand.
Christmas 1966 and I was spun
bigtime. I am now 66 and have been Note from the editor: Tune in to
a lifelong blues guitarist and am in my Facebook.com/BluesFestivalGuide for
seventh year with Black Cat Mojo, a engaging blues news!
working blues band.
James Duck, Los Angeles, CA Artwork by Matt O’Brien

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