Happy Hour Harmonica Podcast

Bob Corritore interview

• Neil Warren • Season 1 • Episode 40

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Bob Corritore joins me on episode 40. 

Bob grew up around Chicago and absorbed the best blues scene in the world, attending the blues clubs in his youth, seeing his harmonica heroes in action and befriending many of them. 

He moved to Phoenix in this 20s and quickly became a record producer. Bob put his Business degree to good use, opening a blues club called The Rhythm Room. He took the unique opportunity to record many of the visiting blues artists, appearing on numerous albums alongside them.

Bob has won numerous awards for his albums, recorded with a host of different names. He has run a blues radio show since 1984, been awarded an honorary award for Keeping The Blues Alive, and the mayor of Phoenix even named September 29th, 2007 ‘Bob Corritore Day’. 


Links:
Website: https://bobcorritore.com/

KJZZ Radio Show playlists and link to listen to show:
https://kjzz.org/blues-playlist

Blues Newsletter Archive:
https://bobcorritore.com/news/newsletter-archive/2019-archives/

Billy Boy Arnold book: The Blues Dream of Billy Boy Arnold
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo119945396.html

Videos:
https://bobcorritore.com/music/videos/


Podcast website:
https://www.harmonicahappyhour.com

Donations:
If you want to make a voluntary donation to help support the running costs of the podcast then please use this link (or visit the podcast website link above):
https://paypal.me/harmonicahappyhour?locale.x=en_GB

Spotify Playlist:
Also check out the Spotify Playlist, which contains most of the songs discussed in the podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5QC6RF2VTfs4iPuasJBqwT?si=M-j3IkiISeefhR7ybm9qIQ

Podcast sponsors:
This podcast is sponsored by SEYDEL harmonicas - visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seydel1847.com  or on Facebook or Instagram at SEYDEL HARMONICAS
and Blows Me Away Productions: http://www.blowsmeaway.com/

Support the show

SPEAKER_04:

Bob Coratore joins me on episode 40. Bob grew up around Chicago and absorbed the best blues scene in the world, attending the blues clubs in his youth, seeing his harmonica heroes in action and befriending many of them. He moved to Phoenix in his 20s and quickly became a record producer. Bob put his business degree to good use opening a blues club. He took the unique opportunity to record many of the visiting blues artists, appearing on numerous albums alongside them. Bob has won numerous awards for his albums, recorded with a host of different names. He has run a blues radio show since 1984 and been awarded an honorary award for keeping the blues alive. And the mayor of Phoenix even named September 29, 2007, Bob Corritore Day. Hello, Bob Coratore, and welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_00:

Neil, my pleasure and honor

SPEAKER_04:

to

SPEAKER_00:

be here.

SPEAKER_04:

Thanks very much. So we'll start off about you. You were born in Chicago in Bluestown, right? And that's where you spent your early life and drew on all those blues influences of the great place.

SPEAKER_00:

Really a great place to grow up in the blues. Of course, being in Chicago, I was born in Chicago and raised in the north suburbs, but blues was all around. And it just took a little bit of time for me to hear it. And ironically, I first heard it on the radio on a rock station where They played Muddy Waters, the song Rolling Stone. I immediately fell in love with it. I go, this is what I love about music in its purest form. So at that point in time, I think I was 12 or 13, I rode my bicycle to the downtown area of Wilmette, Illinois, and went to Paul's Recorded Music and picked up my first album, which was Muddy Waters, Stay Along. And of course, Little Waltz was playing all that great harmonica. I immediately fell in love with that, and that was the direction of the

SPEAKER_04:

rest of my life. So Rolling Stone, of course, is a solo song with Muddy Waters with no harmonica on, So that wasn't the first thing that drew you in. It's when you heard Little Walter, the harmonica.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, yeah, I always liked the sound of harmonica in the pop music that was going on. So I was already predisposed to like harmonica. But when I heard the combination of Muddy Waters and Lil' Walter

SPEAKER_03:

together,

SPEAKER_00:

it just knocked me out. There's nothing like that. And to this day, there's nothing like that. I still play that first record, Muddy Waters Fail On, and it still excites me as much as the first day that I heard it.

SPEAKER_04:

It's

SPEAKER_00:

just as good as it gets.

SPEAKER_04:

Pure genius. I'm with you there because Muddy Waters is my absolute favorite. And of course, all the great harmonica players played with Muddy Waters.

SPEAKER_00:

It truly was a legacy of great harmonica work. But of course, Lil' Walter led the pack in all of that. But, you know, of course, Junior Wells, James Cotton, Carrie Bell, Paul Osher, and Jerry Portnoy, and Mojo Buford. All those guys were fantastic harmonica players. Big Walter Horton, of course.

SPEAKER_04:

What really came through looking into your background for this conversation was you're a real student of the blues. You've got lots of great stuff on your website. You've got archived photos of muddy waters. So, yeah, that's really important to you. You obviously got a real passion for the blues.

SPEAKER_00:

Of course, if you're going to get into this thing, get into it all the way. Like you mentioned, I grew up in the Chicago area, so the very first blues show that I ever saw was right in my high school auditorium. It was the Sam Lee Blues Revival with Eddie Taylor and Wildchild Butler, special guests coming in for a couple numbers, Johnny Twist, Lucille Spann. But I got to see some real deal stuff right there in my high school, and it just went along with what I thought of of the Blues. Northwestern University was available for a high school student that couldn't get into bars yet. Otis Rush played at the college. Hound Dog Taylor played at Northwestern. I got to see the Memphis Blues Caravan that Steve LeVere brought. I got to see all of the classic country blues guys, the Bucket White, Sleepy John Essis with Tammy Nixon, and the King Biscuit Boys with Houston Stackhouse and Joe Willie Wilkins. And then in my senior year, after doing my junior theme on Muddy Waters, Muddy Waters was scheduled to perform in my high school gymnasium. And of course, that classic lineup with Pintop Perkins and Willie B. Guy Smith and Fuzz Jones and Jerry Portnoy and Lucy Guitar Junior Johnson and Bob Margolin. All these people would become dear friends. Bob Margolin is one of my closest friends. And little did I know that point in high school that I would ever even get to know this person, let alone be such a good friend of that person. I also worked with John Primer, who's another very close friend. I was asked to produce one Morgan Fields' Son of the Seventh Son record. I got to produce a Mojo Buford record, some sessions with Paul Osher, who we just recently lost, who's my dear friend. The whole Muddy Waters thing is such a part. I also produced a Willie Big Eye Smith record, so Again, that Muddy Waters thing is a cause that I have remained true to my whole life. Anything that's Muddy Waters, Joseph Morganfield invited Bob Margo and I to play on his record, which was not to be, because he died suddenly of a heart attack. But we were excited to carry on the Muddy Waters legacy through that.

SPEAKER_04:

And as you mentioned there, you played on and produced the Son of the Seventh Sunday, Mud Morganfield album, which of course is Muddy Waters' son.

UNKNOWN:

Muddy Waters Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, Mud had contacted me. He saw some of my posts. I think it was MySpace before Facebook. And so we started communicating. He called me up out of the blue one day and introduced himself. I'm like, oh, I'm so happy to meet you. And your father's had such a profound influence in my life. So we were to meet at the Blue Glass Music Awards over at Buddy Guy's Legends. We met there. After that, we were over both playing in separate sets at the Lucerne Blues Festival. We just fell in together. Yeah, we'd just be became immediate good friends. I dug Mud and his whole vibe and style. I think he felt the same about me. So we had a great time just hanging out. And when I got to hear him live, I'm like, this is as close to Muddy Waters as is humanly possible. I was at that show with Tomcat Courtney, and we're both just kind of amazed that this Muddy Waters phenomenon, it's like Muddy had come back to life. And so, of course, the friendship continued. Then I get a phone call from Mudd, and he said, do you want to produce my next record? And I said, yes, I would be honored to do that. So we made plans, and it happened. And it was great. Mudd had a pretty good concept of what he wanted for that, but he needed somebody to take it to the next step and a little bit further. And plus, once the session was recorded, I did all the post-production work and mixing and mastering and gave Mudd the finished product. And we worked very well together. Mudd is a great spokesman for his fathers music he's got the voice it's unbelievable

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, and he looks quite like him as well, doesn't he? Well, very much like him. So I've seen him playing. He comes over to Europe and he's played around the UK a lot. So yeah, like you say, the closest I'll ever get to seeing Muddy in the flesh. So, I mean, going back to Chicago then in your early years, you talked about obviously some of the names, the big names in the harmonica world, as well as Welsh were in the blues, you know, Big Walter and Junior Welsh, Kerry Ball. So you knew all these guys, yeah? So you saw them playing Maxwell Street and you got to hang out with some of them and get some tips from them?

SPEAKER_00:

Being raised in that area and having the accessibility to all the great masters was simply amazing. I got to see Big Walter Horton on Maxwell Street while I was still in high school. I was just amazed at the whole thing that he could do sonically. It just had such an overwhelming tonality to it. I'd never heard anything like that. It made you understand the limitless tonal possibilities of the instruments. It just blew me away. And then when I first was able to get into clubs. At that point in time, the drinking age was 19. I had a fake ID that said I was 18 and so I could get into some bars. But if you went to the black clubs, they never... really carded you. So first I went to the Northside Clubs, Biddy Mulligan, got to see the Bob Reedy Blues Band with Carrie Bell, Little Mac Simmons, who the first time I ever played at the Chicago Blues Club was doing a harmonica duet with Little Mac Simmons, who was very encouraging. And we were friends the rest of his life. But then I got to see the Howlin' Wolf was the first time I went to a black club on the west side over at the 1815 Club. I think a week later, I went to see the Aces. They had a Monday night jam session over at Louisa Lounge.

SPEAKER_03:

I

SPEAKER_00:

was invited up to play. I got to play a couple numbers with the Aces at age 18, but what really was spectacular about that night, Lewis Myers got up and did a version of Juke. Now, Juke is a pretty spectacular song, and I've heard many people do it, and everybody does it really nice, but when you heard Lewis Myers do it, it just meant something, because that was what launched Little Walter's career. On the basis of the success of that song, Little Walter left Muddy's band and got the Aces and they went touring. So that particular song, I'm sure, was played quite a bit. Lewis just took control, and it was just another one of those moments. Pinch Me is just really happening. I'm hearing the closest thing I can to Little Walter right here. So that was pretty amazing. That was 1974. That was the first time I ever met Lewis, who would end up being a really good friend. I looked at him as a mentor. I was like this wide-eyed, enthusiastic little kid asking a whole bunch of questions, and I thought I was probably bothering him, but, you know, I've get invited to enjoy some rib tips with him after gigs, and we became friends. And then, you know, years later, I ended up working with him in Willie Buck's band. That was so amazing. I go, Lewis, I don't think I should be up here with you all. He goes, you plan, you plan, go on. I'm like, okay, here I am. And those were some of the funnest moments, I think, ever in my life. Just hanging out with Lewis after the gig and Moose Walker and just enjoying and, you know, just some of the after hours jokes and partying. It's just so much fun.

SPEAKER_04:

One thing I try to get across with is the podcast and obviously talking to guys like yourself who've managed to have a career out playing the harmonica and music. It's how you did that and how you were successful in being able to do that and maybe helping some of the young people today. It's a very different scene probably, but it seems with you, you've got a lot of friends, Bob. You're obviously a very nice guy. You get on well with everybody, it seems. You befriended these. That went on to you producing many albums, as you touched on earlier on, for all the musician friends.

SPEAKER_00:

Initially, I loved harmonica, of course, and I played in high school bands. And when I went off to college in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I got to play quite a bit. But when I come back to Chicago, I would take on the role of a humble student because I could hear the Lewis Myers and Lester Davenports and the Kerry Bells and the Junior Wells and the big Leon Brooks and the Louis Anderson's. I realized that there was so much I had to learn before I would feel worthy of that instrument. There was something that the older guys had Thank you. Thank you. Also, in my upbringing, I wasn't taught to be a blues harmonica player. I always thought that I was supposed to have a career in business. I went to college also to have a business career. And I remember one time I used to sit in with Coco Taylor's band a little bit. And Coco and her husband, Pops, invited me to audition for the band at a rehearsal. And I asked my parents if I could borrow the car. And they're like, no. You have to go back to school. What are you going to do? Go around the country touring in this blues band? And I go, no. Well, yeah, absolutely not. I was still, of course, under their jurisdiction. But that played in my mind for a long time. So for me to get to the point of considering this as a vocation It took some years after that. And then when I started doing some gigs around Chicago with Willie Buck and some other people, Tail Dragger, and I used to play at the fish market. It wasn't really a gig, but I was one of Tail Dragger's boys that would back him up. The point is that it took me a while to get my head to the place where I felt like this was what I needed to do in my life without the guilt of my upbringing. So when I finally came to that conclusion, it was after I'd moved to Phoenix and Louisiana Rev was living with me and I saw the purity of his passion for this music, which I shared with him. And I realized there was no other thing I could do. And so I had to confront my parents and say, this is the life path that I want to be on, which I was 25 years old. Maybe I should have been more grown up before then, but that was my path. That's when I came into the realization this is where I had to go. And then once I went there, you know, I already had established such a great friendship with so many people. And, you know, the friends that I had from way back when, I'm still close friends with Tail Dragger. I consider him among one of my great friends. I have a place to stay if I'm in Chicago at his house. He has a guest room and I've stayed there a number of times. I mean, these are friendships that that it goes beyond the music. I think that that's part of what it is, too, is that this is not just you getting together and playing music. This is who you are in your life and how you relate to people. So I think that if you really love this music, then you love the people in this music and all of their humor and their faults and their fantastic qualities. All of it leads to the character of this music. And you can't have one without the other. So if you hear somebody playing their instruments then whoever they are as a human being comes out and especially comes out in the genre of the blues. So I think that that is a very important thing. And then you can't be halfway in this music. I mean, Louisiana Red came out to Phoenix and he found himself in a situation where he needed a place to stay. He ended up living with me for a year and then went off to Germany and married his wife. He had a tour over there. And that was, again, a bond that we had for the rest of his life. He was an orphan. And then I took him in. It was so important to him that we were family from that point forward.

SPEAKER_04:

There's one thing interesting to pick up on in what you said there is that, you know, some of these blues greats, you know, have a real feel for the music. You know, we all turn back to the great players, Little Walter, you know, James Cotton, etc. We can go through all the names you've mentioned. But there's something about them and their playing, isn't there? I mean, do you think there's something particular about them? You know, there's lots of great Great harmonica players around now, but there's something about the feel, though, isn't it, with those guys that we all turn back to?

SPEAKER_00:

It's just an irreplaceable thing. And right now, Billy Boy Arnold is like the last man standing of the old school. I just love the way he plays. I'm really excited that there's going to be a book of interviews and historical recollections. But there's a guy that nobody sounds like. He was there helping to define the music. But so many of these guys, they all had their sound and it all was based in this environment of where they had come from, where they were at, what was happening in Chicago at that point in time. You know, the influences of the Sonny Boy 1, the Sonny Boy 2, the Little Walter and other things that were going on at that point in time that would shape their sound. I think the people coming up now, there's a different place that, especially with the younger generation, because I hear the next version of that filtered through the experiences of the next generations. But if you go to the source, you're going to get something that's so rich and pure. And that leads to another discussion point, which is that so much of this, too, there's this black Southern heritage that's the blues. And if you can't embrace that, then you really can't embrace the sound. It all goes hand in hand. Those are some hard-earned dues right there that were paid by the people before myself, and I have to walk that path with a deep respect for that history, or none of this seems to really matter. So when I'm feeling the best about my own playing, I feel like I'm really connecting to the spirituality of that.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, absolutely, yeah. So you mentioned there that you moved to Phoenix, which is in the west of America, in 1981. You moved across from Chicago, Louisiana, lived there for a year. So you're still living in Phoenix, and what's it like? What's the music scene like around Phoenix?

SPEAKER_00:

Moving to Phoenix was a strange move, you would think, because I was so involved in the Chicago Blues. At that point in time, I was just entrenched in that whole scene. It was just a great, great scene. But You know, at age 24, I quit drinking by choice. I just was like, I'm getting way too hungover. I don't like this. And I just... felt that it was taking away from my true passion of playing and studying music. So at that point, I was looking around, and I go, well, I've got a couple gigs here and there with Willie Bucks playing in one of the greatest bands, but I'm playing in these very impoverished neighborhoods. There's not a lot of pay. What is going on? What am I supposed to be doing here in this life of mine? I needed to get away for a little bit. My brother had gone to ASU, and Arizona State University and invited me to come out and stay with him. So I'm like, well, okay, I'll come out for a year and hang out and just do a little reflection in that year and then come back to Chicago and carry on where I left off. That was my full intention.

SPEAKER_04:

So was this the brother who gave you your first harmonica?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, my younger brother. always and to this day loves that music. It's home to him. So Arizona was not my intention. It just happened that I came here and I started to develop some roots. After I played with Luciano Rett, I was firmly established in town. I worked with Tommy Dukes and Big Pete Pearson. And in 2006, Chico Chisholm, who I had met when Chico was playing drums with Harlem Wolf. I gave Chico his ticket to come out here to do six months of gigs. He said, Bob Courtauld, give me six months. I'm like, all right, Chico. Anyway, when Chico got here, it immediately was completely successful, and we ended up playing for the rest of his life together. And here was this great drummer and great singer and great personality that was personifying the music and became an immediate hero in town, and not only to the blues people, but to every genre, they all just looked at Chico as like the ultimate wonderful character that he was. So Chico was filled with wit and humor and personality, and he was a great player. So to have the Chicago beat in Phoenix, you know, Chico and I were partners in all of that.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm sorry, I was going to make that point because a lot of the West Coast players you associate with this kind of West Coast swing style. Whereas listening to you, I think you've got a very strong Chicago sound. So you think you have, you know, you kind of maintain that Chicago sound over there.

SPEAKER_00:

I think that if you're from Chicago, you're always going to be from Chicago. You cannot get that out of you. Now, I've lived at this point in time in Arizona longer than the time I spent in Chicago, but I still feel that the whole root of where I'm coming from, of course, is that Chicago sounds. That's my upbringing. But at the same time, as time moves on, you find yourself in different situations where the assignment of the song is to do a West Coast swing or to do something a little bit different. So through my Chicago upbringing, I adapt what I know to that particular song assignment, and I play it through the Bob Porter filter. But that filter also has been affected by some of the other things that I've listened to and I've enjoyed. Kim Wilson, of course, he came into everybody's world, and he opened some gates. He kind of created a higher bar that we all then had to grow into, and that was cool.

SPEAKER_04:

So

SPEAKER_00:

you

SPEAKER_04:

produced Kim Wilson's Smoking Joint now, didn't you in 2001.

SPEAKER_00:

I met Kim Susazo in 1980, and we immediately fell in together. And then when I moved out to Phoenix, it kept going from there. Ironically, Kim just married Shannon, who I was friends with for 30 years, while I was friends with Kim for almost 40 years. Now I've been friends with Kim for 40 years. It was fun to see two of my dear friends get together and form a beautiful marriage. Did you also produce the William Clarke album I read somewhere? Not exactly produced. I compiled it. Bear Family asked me if I would do that. So I worked with Jeanette Clarke. I put together, with her permission, one of those deluxe LPs. That was a limited edition that Bear Family was there. And so I felt really good about the songs that we chose. Jeanette felt really good about it. And the label felt really good about it. And I was honored to do that in honor of William, who would play my nightclub a whole bunch of times. And I got to know him, although he was a hard person to get too close to. He wasn't all that talkative, but we connected on a number of levels, and I always really respected what he did.

SPEAKER_04:

So I think you became a record producer at the age of 22, yeah? So pretty young, and the first album I've got you down as producing is your 1999 album, The Old Star Blues Sessions, which is from the club that you own in Phoenix, The Rhythm Room, yeah?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes and no. I think it wasn't exactly from there, but to go through the whole process At age 22, I produced Little Willie Anderson. And an album that had Robert Lockwood and Freddie Bealow and Jameela Robinson and Sammy Lawhorn. That's a pretty good place to start.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But yeah, that was what was around in Chicago. And you could hire those guys who would come in and hire guns. And of course, Willie was friends with all of them. And it was a reunion of that little Walter alumni sound. And it was just a beautiful session. So what a great way to start. I had no idea what I was doing as a producer. A couple of years later, Steve Weiser and I would co-produce it by Big Leon Brooks. And, you know, around Chicago, we had a lot of help and encouragement. People like Dick Sherman and Bob Kester were on hand. Jim O'Neill, everybody was there to help. So, you know, they saw this as, you know, as a task bigger than self to try and document this music while it was so prevalent. And there's only so many options of people wanting to and willing to invest in it. So I did that. And that was great. I came out to Phoenix and then I started a career. And part of the career started with the opportunities of the rhythm room. Because when I opened up the club, I realized at that point in time that I would have a pipeline of all these great musicians that were coming through. And I could offer somebody coming through a gig. And if they'd like, I had the great house band with Chico Chisholm and John Fapp and Paul Thomas. I could put together some really cool sessions and they could come in on that same afternoon and knock out a few songs and get a few extra dollars. And it worked really well for everybody and it made for some really good friendships and some really good music. So I started compiling that when The Rhythm Room opened up in 1991. That album didn't come out until 1999. And I'm sure you'll say, well, why did it take so long? Well, the reason for that was that my parents had moved out to Arizona. They were both in not very good health. And for me to start something that might take me on a path, it didn't seem like the right thing to do until my responsibility as a son to my parents was done in 1991. 1994, my dad passed away in 1998. My mom at that point, I'm like, okay, now is the time. So in 1999, I put together a compilation of some of the stuff that I recorded with the artists that had come through to the rhythm room. And I, you know, it was a pretty amazing little package and people were like, well, this is a good album, but who the hell is Bob Kortor?

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm the guy that came out of nowhere to put out this album with Harold Burnside and Jimmy Rogers and Robert Lockwood and Bo Diddley. These are people I had gotten to work with through the whole time. I really do feel blessed for that opportunity, and I didn't take that opportunity lightly, obviously. I did everything I could to record and document as much as I could with the people coming through, and also to get a closeness to that music by participating

SPEAKER_03:

in it.

SPEAKER_00:

This was something that I I'm glad I did because there's so much stuff that I was able to record during that time period.

SPEAKER_03:

I

SPEAKER_00:

think it sounds pretty good even to this day. Even though I wasn't the player I am now, I still think I had the thing. And I'm very proud of those recordings and that moment in time that I got to participate in this beautiful legacy of this rich blues tradition.

SPEAKER_04:

you got to use your business degree. I'm sure your parents were proud, you know, opening a club and becoming a record producer and being able to work in music, which you loved. So I'm sure your parents were pleased to see you to use that business degree in that way as well. And I mean, talking about Phoenix as well, you were, there's a Bob Corritore day announced by the mayor of Phoenix in 2007. You have your services to the city.

SPEAKER_00:

That was a big honor. It was like, okay, wow, I have my own day. I was presented to me. I had my birthday party, and there were tons of people. I go, wow, what an amazing honor. There's a popcorn tour day. Well, next day, I woke up. I had a little bit of a headache. I was tired. I go, well, I guess today's just not my day. It's a wonderful honor. It's a little bit absurd, but it's great. So I'm the happy recipient of my own day in Phoenix.

SPEAKER_04:

That's super. So as you say, you recorded lots of people coming through the Rhythm Room, the club that you owned. You play on the harmonica on many of these recordings as well. So how do you approach recording the harmonica? I know you try and go for a sort of live feel in your albums. What sort of sound are you looking for out of the harmonica specifically?

SPEAKER_00:

I think the best thing that you can do is to try to serve the song and the style of the artist that you're backing. So within each artist, everybody has their own tendencies, and you try and find your niche with those people. And oftentimes, too, it's what we had done on the bandstand the night before. It's taking that into the studio the next day. Sometimes it's not, but more often than not, that's the case. Sometimes people would be coming through, and we'd just throw some things together, and I'd have some ideas, they'd have some ideas, and we'd just let it rip and put it on the tape machine, and what we got was what we got. And did you have a studio in the club itself or

SPEAKER_04:

somewhere else?

SPEAKER_00:

Not exactly, but I worked with a guy named Clark Rigsby, who I became friends with immediately when I came into town. And, you know, he at that point in time hadn't developed his recording, but we both developed in our recording world kind of simultaneously. I mean, Clark's still an entrepreneur. some amazing Grammy-nominated stuff and some of the coolest jazz and roots stuff that you can imagine. And we've been close associates through all of that. So Clark would bring his equipment to the club and we'd do some live recordings. Again, it was just another opportunity to do that. So the album Smoking Joint was recorded mostly at the Rhythm Room. There's a Robert Lockwood album. That was his last album, Record Live at the Rhythm Room. There's a couple compilations that had come out. It's just stuff that was recorded live at the room. So we did whatever we could whenever we could. It was a big undertaking to bring a recording studio into a mobile mode and then record in the club. I think we made some really great recordings.

SPEAKER_04:

And again, getting on some of your albums. So you've had various nominations and awards for some of your albums. So talking through some of the people you play with in 2007, Travelling the Dirt Road with Dave Riley was nominated for a Blues Music Award.

SPEAKER_02:

Dirt Road.

SPEAKER_04:

And then you played and produced a Grammy-nominated album with Pinetop Perkins.

SPEAKER_00:

I played on one track and produced that track. And they liked it, and they wanted to add that to the record, and it was great. I was with Pinetop that year at the Grammys, and we had a blast. He won a Grammy, but not for that record. I'll never forget, you know, afterwards, hanging out with Pinetop.

SPEAKER_04:

And in 2010, you did a Bob Carter and Friends on Monica Blue's album, which, again, won a Blues Music Award. So... This is another one where you're playing with lots of the musicians that you know. Was this recorded in the club or somewhere else?

SPEAKER_00:

This was all recorded at Tempest Recording with my friend Clark Grigsby that I mentioned. This is an album that when people are coming through, I would record them. Many of the people, like Henry Gray, I had a very close relationship with. Really a pretty spectacular record. There's one session that wasn't done in Phoenix. It was done in Chicago. That was the Coco Taylor song.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I like it, I like it. I like it this way. Hey, hey!

SPEAKER_00:

I got to do that record with Coco and we were all really pleased. It just felt like a great time and I got to have Willie Big Eye Smith and Bob Stroger and Bob Margolin and little Frank on that one. And I thought we knocked it out the park. We just really killed it on that. And Coco was really happy. And she wrote me a really nice letter afterwards, thanking me for the session. It was a great moment.

SPEAKER_04:

Being able to play these great musicians, superb. So, you know, how were you able to attract them to do this? Is it because you knew them? Is it because you were producing the album? Is it your great harmonica playing? You know, was it a combination of these things?

SPEAKER_00:

You know, Coco... It's always been very, very kind. And again, I arranged this through Bruce Iguar, who's an astute businessman and a friend. I've known Bruce since the Chicago days. And so Bruce and I was taking this very seriously. And then I went and I hired the band and did all the stuff that a producer would do. I used Bruce's suggestion for a recording studio. And we went and we just knocked it out. I was in town for the Chicago Blues Festival. And so a lot of those people lived in Chicago and Bob Margolin flew in and we just went and did what we needed to do and it was it's just what we do but having the combination of all those people it brought out the best in all of us you know Coco is is and will always be the queen of the

SPEAKER_04:

boys Another person you mentioned earlier on, you've been associated with John Primer, and you've done a few albums with him, again, winning some awards with albums. So, yeah, the 2013 Knocking Around These Blues, you won the best album in 2013 in Germany, and a few recently, well, you did one recently, was it last year, the Gypsum one, done told me as well.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, John and I, it's interesting because I used to go see him at Teresa's when he was just getting started. And so, you know, we knew each other a little bit, but we had never played together for years and years and years. And then I'm traveling in Brazil with Dave Riley and the promoter who had a long history with John, he said, why don't you play with John Primer? You know, he says, I don't know. Well, ironically, a couple months later, I get a phone call from Jay Ryle, who's a booking agent, and he says, you know, John would like come to your club and play with you and I said let's do that while he's in town why don't we knock out a recording session so John was cool we did that but we got in the recording studio and we just from the first song on it was just pure fire and we go oh we got something here and next thing you know we were putting an album out together and later on that same year that we did that we'd go on a five week tour of Europe together so immediately we just found a lot of utility in our relationship relationship. Tom uses a harmonica player that plays in Chicago blues style. The combination of all that went really well. John really likes the way that I produce. After we got done with the first record, we got number one in living blues. We're in Memphis at the Blues Music Awards kind of saying, isn't that cool? John says, you want to do another one? I go, you want to do another one? I go, okay, let's do another one. So I go, okay, I guess we have this going there. And so all this, John and I have become very close friends. I've been on the road with him and, That last record that we did, we're like, wow, I think we just, you know, we both felt like we reached a whole other place with that last one. We'd like all three of our records. But Gypsy Woman told me this has a special thing. It's all the years of us getting to know each other and putting that to work in the studio. And half that record was done over at Greaseland after a wonderful Southwest tour that we were doing. And we were finishing up in San Francisco, so I'm like, let's just go and spend another day and do this session in San Jose over at Greaseland, which is a studio I've heard a lot of good things about. So we went in. It's this, you know, Kit Anderson has this great studio and so many great sessions have happened over there. And we walk in and it's basically a studio is this living room. We went in and just knocked out this living room session and just killed it. But, you know, Kit has all sorts of great equipment. He's got such a great vibe. And of course, the Bay Area has such a great group of talent. And I knew a lot of those guys. So, you know, we put, you know, we put a great band together. And then John and I were just, We were really on from our tour. We had just played six days in a row together, and so we just took that into the session and just nailed it. But I had done two other sessions to finish out that record, too, and so we had a wonderful array of some great sounds on there.

SPEAKER_04:

I know you've got lots of albums out. I think you try and get one out every year. What's really... interesting listening to your music is there's so much variety because you're playing with so many different people. We mentioned the various artists you play with and different people singing the vocals on your songs. It really gives your albums a really different feel for everyone and almost every different song is quite different, isn't it? Because of that in a lot of cases.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, you know, early on, especially when I came to Phoenix, when you're in Chicago, you can do nothing but Chicago blues. That was what it was. But then when I came to Phoenix, you know, I played with Red, and even playing with Red, I had to really learn a lot more about playing country blues, because a lot of the gigs we did were just duets. And so we developed a whole different sound there. And then the next big stretch that I had was with big Pete Pearson. And half the set was done by the guys he had, and they were great musicians that were also versed in soul and jazz and R&B. And so I found myself playing in a lot of non-traditional harmonica roles, and I had to find my way of making sense of all those different things. So I became adaptable in a lot of ways. And working with great horn players that were very jazz-like, I had to really study some stuff. And I got to hear things that the average harmonica player might not get to hear because they're not put in those situations. So, you know, it helped my musicality quite a bit to do that. And then Lazy Lesser, when he came to town, he often was a guest at my house, so the Louisiana sound. And then King Carl moved to Phoenix, and then I got to put that Louisiana sound to work, you know? So I find that being a non-singing harmonica player, which would normally be a disadvantage, has actually worked to my advantage because every record that I make is like a different chapter in my book. It's just me bringing what I do to the various situations and seeing which ones I thrive in. And so I work hard to thrive in all of

SPEAKER_04:

them. And I'm just finishing off on your recording, because I think your most recent album is Spider in My Stew.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I'm really proud of that one. And this one seems to be doing better than maybe anything else I've ever recorded. I think part of it is, you know, I have this great relationship with this wonderful illustrator, Vince Ray, and he just knocked it out of the park with the cover. So I've sold a ton of t-shirts with that design. But on top of that, I've gotten more confident as a producer. And, you know, with each of these Bob Corton Friends things, I think I've gained more and more credibility. So I'm like, hey, you want to come and do this, Johnny Rawls or Francine Reed, who was a dear friend of mine. She was based in Phoenix and was in Phoenix now, but, you know, lived in a few different places over the years. But, yeah, it's like, yeah, we've known each other for so long. We should really do something. So, yeah, we went in and I think I brought out a different side of Francine and she brought out a different side of me.

SPEAKER_03:

So bad.

UNKNOWN:

So bad.

SPEAKER_00:

It was a pretty cool thing, you know, when you get to merge the energies together and find that sweet spot that you share between you.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. So another thing you've done, Major Lee, is you've had a radio show since, I think, 1984, those Lowdown Blues in Phoenix, yeah?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes.

UNKNOWN:

Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

And that's another one of my joys in life. I get to have five hours on the radio where I get to study historic blues and present it in different ways. And somehow there's a loving audience that embraces that with me. So I almost feel like it's a guilty, selfish pleasure because I get to play all this music I love. And I have five hours set aside for the presentation of that, which I spend a bunch of hours in preparation to do that every week.

SPEAKER_04:

Excellent. Yeah. And can that be found on the internet, that radio show?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, real time. So in the United States, we have what's called, we have different time zones, mountain standard time. You can hear it 6 to 11 p.m. on Sunday nights at kjzz.org.

SPEAKER_04:

Superb. And you won an honorary award from the Blues Foundation for keeping blues alive. And is that partly down to the radio show?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. Yeah, that was a big honor. And it's nice to be considered in all these different aspects that I do for the blues. It was a really wonderful thing to be awarded. And ironically, it happened right as we lost Chico Chisholm. So my acceptance speech was about Chico a lot of times because he had just passed away the week before and we had done his services and all of that. It was a tough time for me, but at the same time, very gratifying to be honored in that way.

SPEAKER_04:

Another thing, your devotion to the blues is you write a newsletter, a blues newsletter, which you've written since 2005. Again, you're putting a lot of your knowledge into this newsletter, yeah?

SPEAKER_00:

You know, I have to say I'm not as good at the newsletter as I used to be. At one point in time, though, it was a really good career thing for me because all of a kind of had to create my own media. So I was able to bring out some of the aspects of blues that I thought weren't necessarily getting the attention. The Chicago blues, the down-home blues, the harmonica blues, they all had priority on my newsletter. So it was a kind of entertaining newsletter. There were a couple of things, though, that happened. Number one, once Facebook started to happen, I felt that it as a news source became irrelevant, where prior to that, people were getting some of their news the fastest through my newsletter. But, you know, if Facebook you get literally immediate news within the blues if somebody passes away. The other part of that that was really tough for me, and at a point I had to stop doing it, was I was doing so many obituaries, and each one of those just tore a part of my heart, and it was just hard to do that. And it continues to be hard to say goodbye to so many people, but if I had to then summarize their life and try and put in writing the best summary of their contributions, their lifelong contributions to this music, that's a lot of pressure to do that. And there were some years, of course where I'd just be on the road nonstop. And it'd be hard to imagine keeping up with it the way I did. So at a point, I somewhat retired it as a newsletter, and it still is a newsletter of what's happening with me, but it's more of a tout sheet at this point than a summary of the weekly news that had just happened and what records were coming out in the bigger scope of the industry. That's what it used to be, but I can't say that I've maintained that. And part of that is all the different aspects and how different things have evolved

SPEAKER_04:

and taken more time. Well, social media, as you say, has kind of replaced that medium to some extent, hasn't it? So it's understandable. But yeah, again, looking at your website, there's a great resource there for lots of information about the blues and that's part of it. So I'll put a link onto that. And now you do some teaching as well. You teach a harmonica masterclass in Memphis, the Blues Challenge, a week there. Is that something you're still doing?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I would have to do that three years. We'll see if the new, you know, we haven't had, it was during the IBC week, which is an international blues competition, and they haven't had that now for two years. So I imagine they'll resume in 2022, and I would be honored if they asked me to do it again. It's pretty cool because I would do that simultaneously with my dear friend Bob Margolin, who would be doing a guitar masterclass in the adjoining club. Then we would put that together and do a harmonica guitar seminar, and I found it to be really rewarding and well-received. So if you jump into the IBC, you see a younger generation in the blues all trying to get a foothold, a blues career started through this wonderful event. So the energy that's around that week is pretty spectacular. And so if I do these harmonica masterclasses, I get to speak of my philosophy of the harmonica. And I make a mention, I go, look, everyone in this class has something that I could learn from. So I'm not the final word here. I'm not the guy that you get this from, but I can offer you whatever I have. I've got 50 years of harmonica playing under my belt, and whatever I have is yours in this seminar. So I would go through some demonstrations, and I'd leave it open for questions. And it's really gratifying to meet some of the younger players that have been influenced by my work. And I'm like, wow, this is full circle. I mean, I used to get the attaboys, and now apparently I'm giving them. I used to look to the older guys for my approval. And now I guess some of the other people are looking to me. So you're one of the older guys now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

So that leads nicely onto my 10 minute question, Bob, which is if you had 10 minutes to practice, what would you spend those 10 minutes doing?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, when I get going, it's usually, if I get to exploring harmonica, it's usually at least an hour. Oftentimes what I do when I rehearse, and this is a little bit evasive of your question, but I'll find some aspect, and a lot of times it's from the little Walter mind, but sometimes it's from a big Walter or Sonny Boy, Warner Sonny Boy 2, or any of the other great harmonica players. So I'll find something I really enjoy about what they do, and I grab onto it, and I try and understand what they're doing. I try and learn to verbatim, and then I try and reallocate it so it has my own personality in it. And that might be just taking the intention of what they're doing. It might be taking a part of what they're doing and adding some of my own things to it. But I try and find some way that I can explore through that lens. So if I had 10 minutes, I'd probably go to the Muddy Waters, the first record I had, Muddy Waters Sail On, because every time I hear it, I hear something new. and Lil Walter's playing that. I'd probably take that and study that, because you could never learn that all the way. The lessons of Lil Walter, that guy was such a genius, and every time you go back to that well, it's a whole other thing. You could study something and then go back to a year later and hear all sorts of different things a year later than you heard the first time that you were studying it. So it's an endless journey to study harmonica, and that's what makes it great, is that the work is never done.

SPEAKER_02:

Let's go back to New Orleans boys

SPEAKER_04:

So we've moved on to the last section now. We'll get old harmonica geeky and talk about gear. So you're a

SPEAKER_00:

honer and Dorsey. Yes, and I particularly love the honer Marine Band Deluxe, and I love the modified honers that Joe Polisco has been so kind. So it takes a Marine Band and it just kind of ups the game a little bit. You know, the tone and the accessibility of the notes, it gives a little bit more movement ability when you play. Kim Wilson turned me on to Joe. of Felisco's harps, I asked him a bunch of questions. He goes, here, take one of these. So he gave me one. I go, oh. And it helped me understand a little bit more how Kim has such mobility on this instrument because that particular Felisco harp is just made to play. It's a pretty cool thing. And likewise, I really like that Marine Band Deluxe. I love the Marine Bands. I have some straight-ahead Marine Bands. But the Marine Band Deluxe has a little extra zest to it. So those are my two favorite jamalacas. And I just bought this chromatic, which I'm playing on the title track of Spider-Man 2 Pretty spectacular, the Super 64 performance. So that is such a wonderful richness and tone. And, you know, from the top to the bottom, it's just very, really a great sound to it.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, so you mentioned chromatic there. You play some blues chromatic dotted through your albums. Don't you say that's something you've done for a long time and you like the third position chromatic playing?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, there's guys that play much better than me in chromatic. I mean, if you listen to Rod Piazza or William Clark or Kim Wilson, those guys have, they can really, really do some stuff. And I think I do well with it. There's things I do in chromatic that are uniquely mine. But there's some people that just kill on it. Billy Watson's another great chromatic player. And there's a bunch more, too. I love the chromatic, especially if you're doing like a position in D. It kind of plays itself. And it has a tone. that's so different and especially when you hit the chords they're just so warm and rich and they just they come across in a way that it takes you to a whole other world kind of doomy minor-esque sound that puts you in a zone that when you're playing it like that and especially if you're playing with a singer that's really responsive to that it puts them in the zone too it just kind of reflects a particular mood of a song so I love that particular style of blues I've recorded a number of songs over the years on Chromatic that I'm proud of.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, no, definitely. I think it's definitely every blues player should have a bit of chromatic to play because, you know, it's just a bit of different flavor, isn't it? What about different tunings? Do you use any different tunings on diatonics?

SPEAKER_00:

I don't, but I would be open to that. I did play in Tulsa, Oklahoma. They've got the Route 66 Harmonica Club, and Tim Gonzalez came on as one of the speakers of that, and he spoke of the attributes of the minor tuned harmonicas and demonstrated that. It was beautiful, and And then Charlie McCoy came on and told of the attributes of the country-tuned harmonicas, and both of them did spectacular performances demonstrating why all of that worked. The country tune is a more major-tuned harmonica thing, but each of those would be great. I actually would like to purchase that and study that a little bit, but I haven't. I kind of stick with the tradition overall, but again, I'm open to some of these different harmonicas. I just haven't gotten to them yet.

SPEAKER_04:

So you don't use overblocks? lows, particularly than playing more traditionally?

SPEAKER_00:

I've never been able to make sense of that. I don't know that it feels all that traditional, although there's a... I guess one of the earlier versions, I think it's a guy named Blues Birdhead, and I talked to Joe Felisco, and he gave me this chart. He's got a way of charting harmonica, and I'm like, oh, I don't even know how I can wrap my head around this chart like that, because it's so foreign to the way that I think of harmonica. But within that is this beautiful first position, and he's hitting apparently a bunch of overblows that I'm very intrigued by, because it really sounds wonderful, and obviously it's been part of the tradition. So some of the guys that do this, The Overblows, it just seems to take it too far away from the tradition for me. And that's their style. I respect it, but it's not something I feel would suit who I am and what I'm trying to get across. But I'm not opposed to learning that skill to see if that would take me where I might need to go in a particular song assignment. But again, it's not something I felt a huge amount of motivation to get involved in. After hearing that blues bird head, I'm like, you know, I need to give that a second thought.

SPEAKER_04:

So much to learn, as you say, isn't it? So what about embouchure-wise?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm mainly a tongue blocker. I first learned about, you know, you heard about tongue blocking. It's within the little instruction sheets. And I bought this harmonica instruction book by Tony Little's son, Glover, who said, oh, no, don't do that. And so my first years of playing, I was a lip fucker. And then I heard Dave Waldman, you know, obviously heard on old records, but Dave Waldman showed me up close and personal how it went. And At that point, I just, I completely switched over and went to pretty much 100% tongue blocking. And now I'm doing some things, you know, if you're going to do like, you know, one of those little machine gun kind of things, you have to have your tongue to be able to do that. Junior Wells used that particular thing where they'd switch back and forth. And I've learned a little of that, but overall, I prefer the sound of the tongue block to the lip piercing. Kim Wilson and I have had discussions on this. He really likes switching back and forth and He has made that an advantage to himself that really works for him and his style. But to me, I'm just more the old-school fun blocker. What about amplification? Well, you know, application is obviously an asset. It's really nice to have a wonderful amp. You know, in the studio, I oftentimes use a mid-50s Tweed Deluxe. Live at my own gigs, I have a 58 Bassman. But when you're on the road, you play to whatever you get. So I think so much of the sound you have comes before the amplifier and the microphone and all that. So you just try and find your way that you can make it work, that you can get across. But when you do have an amp that's working for you, when you're able to override it to a place of both clarity and distortion and go back and forth between that. That's when it's really a good thing. I also really liked one of the Gibson CA-40s over at Tempest. They've got a really nice one. I have one that's a good one. It doesn't sound as good as the one over at Clark Rees-Peace Tempest recording. So I've used that on some recordings. That was the amp I used on the title track of Deep Hip Shake, baby. That thing will bite your head off. It just comes across with this biting power tone. It's not something you want to use in every situation, but when you use it in the right song, it really works well. And microphone wise? I own several, but the JT Aesthetic with a crystal is my go-to one. And then there's this, sure, I think it's a unidime. Somebody said it's what Paul Butterfield used to use. That's kind of a cool thing that I've used, and it gets a whole different thing. It's worked for me on a couple sessions where if you want to do the vibrato, that right there will just respond in a second for you. I think the first time he was on a session was a session I did with John Brim, and it had just such a great vibrato. I ended up finding myself in Snooki Prior mode because you could just get those Snooki Prior vibratos so easily with that type of microphone. I like the Slim-X sometimes in certain situations. I think that's a nice thing, and Martin Lang turned me on the attributes of that, and that's a really nice microphone for its purposes. I've had that on certain sessions, and it certain situations where it's really come across that that's a very clear trebly microphone so again you choose what you have and occasionally you know if i have a few microphones with me and there's a song i'll i'll switch up the microphones right on the spot but oftentimes you have to change your amplifier settings also to accommodate the different mic but it's fun to to see what the possibilities are in different sounds

SPEAKER_03:

yeah

SPEAKER_00:

and do you use any effects pedals I do like to have an echo or a delay pedal, and that's pretty much it. And then if I'm playing through an amp with a good reverb, I don't have to do any of that. So I do like to have a little bounce in there, but hopefully not too much where it takes over, just enough to make it feel like you're kind of hearing a little of the after effect of what you're playing. That, I think, boosts it a little bit for me.

SPEAKER_04:

And last question now, Bob, and again, thanks so much for your time. What about your future plans? Has the Rhythm Room reopened and are you back out gigging now?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I'm excited to get back and do some gigging. I'm beginning to book a few things. I've got a few festivals lined up and stuff even for 2022 that I'm excited about. I'm excited to go back to the King Biscuit Blues Festival, which has always been a great meeting place and a good way to reconnect with my friends down south. That's a really fantastic time over there. And then, of course, the Bobs of the Blues were formed over over at that festival. And then we do an annual thing the day after the festival over at the Pinetop Perkins Foundation event, which is called the Pinetop Homecoming. It's over at the commissary at Hobson's Plantation in Clarksdale. So you got three people that played with Pinetop Perkins, which are getting harder and harder to find. And we're all named Bob. So we kind of grew into the Bobs of the Blues and get to do some shows that way.

SPEAKER_04:

Thanks so much, Bob Corris, for joining me today and sharing all your great breadth of knowledge about the blues and your long career.

SPEAKER_00:

Neil, it's been really my pleasure. Thank you for allowing me to just talk about stuff like this. It's really nice when somebody asks very informative questions about what we love, which is blues harmonica. Thank

SPEAKER_04:

you so much. Thank you, Bob. That's episode 40 in the can. Thanks so much, everybody. Be sure to check out the Spotify playlist, which contains most of the songs discussed in the show. Now it's over to Bob. Take us on a harmonica

SPEAKER_03:

joyride.

UNKNOWN:

. so