John Primer Blues Band
Aliant Mobility Sounds Fantastic & The Tantramarsh Blues Society Present Grammy and Handy Awards Nominee THE JOHN PRMER BLUES BAND - 9 pm, Friday, March 3rd, at Georges Roadhouse in Sackville.
Tickets: $8 in advance (Ducky’s) and $10 at the door. Special Student Price
(ID required) $6 at the door.
It was the night before New Year’s Eve in Chicago many years ago and that was probably why there were only three people in the audience behind the chicken-wire fence at the old Checkerboard Lounge in the feral south-side. This didn’t seem to bother the John Primer blues band which came on stage and started playing its music without much fuss. But there was nothing unassuming about the music right from the start, and it had all the brooding intensity associated with the Westside sound. Very soon the small audience began to feel like it was standing in the path of a blowing gale, a feeling that was only alleviated when the band stopped playing for the night an hour and a half later. And they only stopped because Primer had broken more strings on his guitar than he could replace, such was the intensity with which he played that night.
Born in 1945 in Camden, Mississippi, on sharecropper land, Primer says he went to school in the morning and worked the fields when he got back. In ’63 he moved with his family to Chicago and started playing with the Maintainers and then The Brotherhood dishing out soul, blues and R&B at a time when the urban Chicago blues sound was being forged. His big break came in ’74 he replaced John Watkins as the house guitarist at the famous Theresa’s Lounge. As Primer tells it, Watkins quit because Theresa threw a can of beer at him for playing a rock song, and this allowed Primer to play with many of the greats of the era: Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Sammy Lawhorne (who had a great influence on Primer’s guitar sound), Bonnie Rait, and many more. In ’79 the next step in Primer’s career evolved as he spent a year playing in Willie Dixon All Stars, and then in Muddy Waters’ last band as his band leader and opening act. He stayed with Muddy till his death in 1983, and then spent more than a decade with the great Magic Slim and the Teardrops before he went out on his own in 1995 on the back of rousing disc with Mike Vernon’s Code Blue/Atlantic label.
Primer had been recording solo before this, and his first and only outing with the Chicago Earwig label in 1991 entitled “Stuff You Gotta Watch” deserves special mention, as does the outing with Wolf that year called “Poor Man Blues.” Both albums showcase Primer’s intensely low-down biting guitar and finely balanced bands, and are great examples of Chicago blues at its unpretentious best. Eight more albums followed including the fine “Real Deal” on Atlantic that is already mentioned, and “Knocking on Your Door” from Telarc, as well as others on Wolf. Primer plays regularly at the best clubs in Chicago (which in itself is high praise given the blues talent in that city) and therefore doesn’t travel as much as other bands do. So please don’t miss this rare opportunity to see one of the last great practitioners of the Chicago style blues play in your backyard.
Tickets: $8 in advance (Ducky’s) and $10 at the door. Special Student Price
(ID required) $6 at the door.
It was the night before New Year’s Eve in Chicago many years ago and that was probably why there were only three people in the audience behind the chicken-wire fence at the old Checkerboard Lounge in the feral south-side. This didn’t seem to bother the John Primer blues band which came on stage and started playing its music without much fuss. But there was nothing unassuming about the music right from the start, and it had all the brooding intensity associated with the Westside sound. Very soon the small audience began to feel like it was standing in the path of a blowing gale, a feeling that was only alleviated when the band stopped playing for the night an hour and a half later. And they only stopped because Primer had broken more strings on his guitar than he could replace, such was the intensity with which he played that night.
Born in 1945 in Camden, Mississippi, on sharecropper land, Primer says he went to school in the morning and worked the fields when he got back. In ’63 he moved with his family to Chicago and started playing with the Maintainers and then The Brotherhood dishing out soul, blues and R&B at a time when the urban Chicago blues sound was being forged. His big break came in ’74 he replaced John Watkins as the house guitarist at the famous Theresa’s Lounge. As Primer tells it, Watkins quit because Theresa threw a can of beer at him for playing a rock song, and this allowed Primer to play with many of the greats of the era: Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Sammy Lawhorne (who had a great influence on Primer’s guitar sound), Bonnie Rait, and many more. In ’79 the next step in Primer’s career evolved as he spent a year playing in Willie Dixon All Stars, and then in Muddy Waters’ last band as his band leader and opening act. He stayed with Muddy till his death in 1983, and then spent more than a decade with the great Magic Slim and the Teardrops before he went out on his own in 1995 on the back of rousing disc with Mike Vernon’s Code Blue/Atlantic label.
Primer had been recording solo before this, and his first and only outing with the Chicago Earwig label in 1991 entitled “Stuff You Gotta Watch” deserves special mention, as does the outing with Wolf that year called “Poor Man Blues.” Both albums showcase Primer’s intensely low-down biting guitar and finely balanced bands, and are great examples of Chicago blues at its unpretentious best. Eight more albums followed including the fine “Real Deal” on Atlantic that is already mentioned, and “Knocking on Your Door” from Telarc, as well as others on Wolf. Primer plays regularly at the best clubs in Chicago (which in itself is high praise given the blues talent in that city) and therefore doesn’t travel as much as other bands do. So please don’t miss this rare opportunity to see one of the last great practitioners of the Chicago style blues play in your backyard.
posted by Kellie at 10:58 AM
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