Dear John,
Sorry about the skinny left-hand column. My computer has a mind of its own. I'll try to fix this week.
It's good so see so many of our friends working this time of the year. That means there's plenty of shows for us listeners to see and hear all over town. Some on my list get overlooked because I don't have info.
Sunday is the second-annual BuzzFest jam at the RR. There's a huge list of players who want to get in and pay their respects to our old friend Buzz Fowler. Proceeds for this event go to the PBS general fund to help finance Blues Blast '17, of which Buzz would have been knee deep.
We were saddened to learn of the passing of Barrelhouse Chuck this week. He was a legendary keyboard player who had the respect of all who knew him.
Sincerely,
Jim Crawford, PBS
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 | | | The legendary piano man passed away on Monday after a long battle with cancer. He was 58
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Piano Man
by Howard Reich
Chicago Tribune There was no mistaking the sound of Barrelhouse Chuck: raucous piano playing, urgent vocals and a relentlessly passionate approach to the blues. The history of the genre coursed through his music, for he studied with the greats: Sunnyland Slim, Pinetop Perkins, Little Brother Montgomery and other past masters. Barrelhouse Chuck was one of the last links to a majestic lineage of Chicago blues, and his death Monday afternoon, at Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, ends one of the more remarkable stories in the city's blues culture. He was 58 and died of complications from prostate cancer, said Betsy Goering, his wife. Charles Goering found his way to the blues via a seemingly improbable path. At an early age, Goering was kicked out of his music class, where he was learning to play the drums. Then his piano teacher refused to teach him after a couple of lessons because she felt that he wasn't very good. Somewhere along the way, Goering became "Barrelhouse" Chuck and a legendary blues piano player. While living in Florida, Barrelhouse Chuck became enamored with the blues when heard his first Muddy Waters record featuring Otis Spann on piano. While still a teenager, he formed his own band and opened for Willie Dixon, B.B. King, and Muddy Waters. Eventually, he caught the attention of Bo Diddley and they began playing shows together. "Bo Diddley would come around just to see me play and invite me to his house. He said to me 'Chuck, you got that Chess sound," reminisced Barrelhouse Chuck. "And as a kid, I got to open up for B.B. King. I was about 18 and it was a huge thing to open up for him!" Born in Columbus, Ohio, "he was a half Cherokee, half French-Canadian orphan" who was adopted by "straightforward, very kind, Mennonite parents," said Betsy Goering. "As a boy in school, he came across a picture of Muddy Waters - not even the sound," she added, referring to the Chicago blues icon. "He said: That guy looks interesting. He went to the library, found out what he did and found some music of his. And instantly was enamored." Chuck was living in Florida when he heard his first Muddy Waters record with Otis Spann on piano. This was a major turning point in Chuck's life. After that Chuck started buying the records of every blues artist he could find. A quick study on the keyboards it wasn't long before Chuck had formed his own band and began opening for the likes of Willie Dixon, B.B. King and Bo Diddley. It was also during this time (the late 70's) that Chuck and some of his friends began following Muddy Waters around to get some first hand exposure to both Muddy and his then current piano player, Pinetop Perkins. Then realizing he needed to immerse himself in blues piano he deciding to go directly to the source. In 1979 he drove 24 hours straight from Florida to Chicago and went directly to B.L.U.E.S on Halsted specifically to see Sunnyland Slim. Chuck spent the next 16 years studying with the living legend, who Chuck called "the great-granddaddy of all the blues piano players". Through Sunnyland he met all the great blues musicians in Chicago, and often ended up playing with and hanging out with them. People like Pinetop Perkins, Lafayette Leake and Little Brother Montgomery took Chuck under their wings, invited him into their homes and made him feel a part of their families. During that time Chuck developed his immense mastery of blues piano and went on to perform and record with most of the notable blues musicians in Chicago--people like Louis Myers, Jimmy Rogers, Jimmy Dawkins, Billy Boy Arnold, Hubert Sumlin, Henry Townsend, S.P. Leary, Detroit Jr. and Big Smokey Smothers, among others. During the past two decades Chuck played all over the U.S., Canada, Mexico, South America and tours Europe regularly. He also appeared more than a half dozen times at the Chicago Blues Festival. "I took a gamble and came to Chicago, and went directly to B.L.U.E.S. on Halsted," Barrelhouse Chuck wrote in his biography on his website. "I walked in the door, and there was Sunnyland Slim. I went right up to him and said, 'I've just driven 24 hours straight to see you.'" Thus began Barrelhouse Chuck's induction into the inner circle of Chicago blues giants, the young man spending the next 16 years in Sunnyland Slim's orbit, asking questions, learning repertoire, mastering techniques, forging a style of his own. Before long he was absorbing lessons from Pinetop Perkins, Blind John Davis, Detroit Junior and Little Brother Montgomery, meanwhile trying to get close to the man whose music started it all for him: Muddy Waters. "We used to follow Muddy all around down South," Barrelhouse Chuck wrote. "We would wait in the parking lots for the van with Illinois plates to roll up. Pinetop Perkins and Willie Smith would recognize me and get me into their concerts. Then invited me backstage with Muddy and the band. Afterward, I'd go out to breakfast with them. I was just in awe." Reverence for blues tradition and knowledge of its performance practices radiated through Barrelhouse Chuck's music, but with twists of his own. He addressed the piano quite aggressively, his keyboard attacks fierce, his rhythms surging. "His feeling was very deep, and he knew what to do," said fellow blues-and-boogie pianist Erwin Helfer. "He knew where the spaces were, and he knew where the grease went." As a pianist, "He was very percussive - he learned that from Sunnyland Slim," said Steven Dolins, whose Sirens Records released five albums by Barrelhouse Chuck, including his last, "Remembering the Masters" (2016). "He'd play these chords with both hands really hard. ... There was a lot emotion in his playing." And in his vocals, too. During a February concert celebrating Helfer's 80th birthday at the Old Town School of Folk Music, Barrelhouse Chuck sang lamenting phrases, accompanying himself with considerable technical bravura at the piano. When he played piano four hands with Helfer, the duo created the effect of at least three musicians celebrating a distinctly American sound. "He was a tireless, relentless promoter of his mentors and their music," Sirens Records owner Dolins wrote in an email. "Every gig, every interview, every recording, he would always honor his mentors and other pianists who influenced him." The liner notes to Barrelhouse Chuck's last album includes a photo of a letter from Little Brother Montgomery reading: "To Chuck, after he is old and gray, think about the old master each and every day." He surely did. |
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| Out & About Tuesday, December 13 Wednesday, December 14 Carvin Jones, 8 p.m., Culinary Dropout, Tempe Bad News Blues Band, Every Wed., 9:30 p.m., Chicago Bar, Tucson Thursday, December 15 Harmonica Blowdown, 7 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Hans Olson, 7 p.m., Handlebar, Apache Junction Carvin Jones, 8:30 p.m., The Lounge, Phoenix M&M Duo, 6 p.m., Camelback Inn, Scottsdale Friday, December 16 Dave Riley/Bob Corritore, 9 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Hans Olson, 6 p.m., Fatso's Pizza, Phoenix Rocket 88s, 8 p.m., Rosie McCaffery's, Phoenix Sugar Thieves, 7:30 p.m., Janey's, Cave Creek Hoodoo Casters, 6 p.m., Desert Eagle Brewing Co., Mesa Thermal Blues Express, 8 p.m., Brass Rail, Phoenix Chuck Hall (acoustic), 6 p.m., Bryan's BBQ, Cave Creek Outback Blues Band, 6 p.m., Dillon's Thunderbird, Peoria Carvin Jones, 8 p.m., TC's Pub, Queen Creek Blues Review Band, 9 p.m., Rosati's, Scottsdale BluZone, 6 p.m., Birt's Bistro, Surprise Mother Road Trio, 9 p.m., Gopher Hole, Flagstaff Paris James, 7 p.m., D'Vine Wine, Mesa Saturday, December 17 Sugar Thieves, 9 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Hans Olson, 6 p.m., Fatso's Pizza, Phoenix Rocket 88s, 8 p.m., Rosie McCaffery's, Phoenix JC & the Juke Rockers, 7 p.m., Handlebar, Apache Junction Hoodoo Casters, 9 p.m., Momma Juggs, Coolidge Blues Review Band, 7:30 p.m., Janey's, Cave Creek Chuck Hall (acoustic), 6 p.m., Bryan's BBQ, Cave Creek Outback Blues Band, 9 p.m., Maverick, Phoenix Carvin Jones, 7:30 p.m., The Gym, San Tan Valley Mother Road Trio, 1 p.m., Aspen Loft Artists, Flagstaff Paris James, 7 p.m., D'Vine Wine, Chandler Sunday, December 18 BuzzFest, 2 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Carvin Jones, 6 p.m., Desert Eagle Brewing Co., Mesa Two Flavor Blues, NOON, Copper Star, Phoenix Monday, December 19 Carvin Jones (acoustic), 6 p.m., Monastery, Mesa |
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| Weekly Jams
Rocket 88s, 6 p.m., Saint Nick's Tavern, Phoenix THIS JAM IS NO LONGER 88s are looking to relocate...
Ray Ray & BluZone, 5 p.m., Wild Willy's, Avondale
R.d. Olson JAM, 2 p.m., Sally's BBQ, Prescott
Bourbon Jack's JAM w/Kody Herring, 6 p.m., Chandler Ray Ray & Bluzone Every other Monday, Opa Life Cafe, Tempe
Bam Bam & Badness Open JAM, 9 p.m., Char's, Phoenix
TUESDAY
Gypsy's Bluesday Night JAM, 7 p.m. Pho Cao, Tempe
Front Page Blues Band, EVERY THIRD Tuesday, 6 p.m., Far >From Folsom, Prescott
Tailgaters JAM, 7 p.m., Glendale
WEDNESDAY Rocket 88s, 7 p.m., Chopper John's, Phoenix Tool Shed JAM Party, 7 p.m., El Dorado, Scottsdale
Bumpin' Bud's 1st & 3rd Wednesdays JAM, 7 p.m., Marc's, Glendale
THURSDAY Tool Shed JAM Party, 7 p.m., Steel Horse Saloon, Phoenix Jolie's Place JAM w/Adrenaline, 8 p.m., Chandler Brad's Place JAM, 7 p.m., Ahwatukee (Every other Week) |
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Moved? Changed email addresses? Please let us know of any changes in your address, email, or phone number so we can keep you informed about the Blues community in Arizona. Email us at: info@phoenixblues.org or write to: Phoenix Blues Society P.O. Box 36874 Phoenix, Arizona 85067 |
GOT BLUES? If you are a Blues musician, a group, or a club that features Blues music, and would like to be listed, please send your info to info@phoenixblues.org and we'll be happy to list your event in our weekly Out & About section of the newsletter |
Phoenix Blues Society presents Blues Blast 17! This Family Friendly event, held annually at MT Hance Park, brings together the best of local and national Blues artists to ensure a great day of music. As always, children under age 16 are FREE! Artists for this year's event are: Eric Ramsey Sistahs Too, Mike Eldred Trio, Karen Lovely & the Pacific Northwest Allstars and the 2016 IBC winners, The Delgado Brothers. |
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