Stormy Monday Catches Lightning in a Bottle!

Stormy Monday Catches Lightning in a Bottle!

A Review of Stormy Monday’s “Have Blues Will Travel.”

Plus: An Interview with singer and guitarist, John Gholston.

Story and photos by Ray Proetto of Blues Power Photo

 

I caught up with John Gholston of the Stormy Monday blues band in April of 2018 during a phone interview (The interview is below following this review).

 

CD REVIEW – Stormy Monday – “Have Blues Will Travel”

I first met John in April of 2015 at the Juke Joint Festival. I was wandering through the concessions on Delta Avenue when I heard Stormy Monday playing down the street. At first I thought it was the “Blind” Mississippi Morris band because John’s singing was quite soulful. Then I heard some slide guitar reminiscent of the Allman Brothers. Now I had to see who was playing this music.

They turned out to be young local boys from the small Mississippi town of Starkville. The lead guitar player showed off some impressive slide skills and the drummer somehow played harmonica and kept the beat too. Out front was John Gholston singing his heart out and playing rhythm guitar. I really enjoyed their set. It was blues rock with a strong nod to my 1970s guitar heroes including the Allman Brothers and Eric Clapton. Their audience that day appeared to consist mainly of friends and family members.

I caught them again the next year at the 2016 Juke Joint Festival in the pouring rain. I was just as impressed. John Gholston played some lead guitar and I could see he just loved what he was doing. By this time their first CD, “Have Blues Will Travel” was completed and I bought a copy from John.

You know if I’m writing this I love live music. But I can’t count the number of times I’ve enjoyed a band live and was completely disappointed in their recorded music. I listen to a sizable amount of music, especially blues music. It’s hard for me to be impressed by what I hear. Let’s face it. I’m spoiled. If it’s not exceptional, I don’t have much time for it. Either the vocals are weak or the guitars just don’t do it for me. Maybe the band just sounds like everyone else with no real passion. Of course when I do enjoy a CD, there are usually some lousy songs that just don’t work. Even some of my lifelong favorites like Robert Cray have put out some real stinkers over the years. To make matters worse, the first effort by most bands, especially those that are not signed to a record label, are routinely weak and generally disappointing.

 

What a shock!

During the long drive from Clarksdale to my home in Florida,

I listen to all the new CDs I pick up at the festival. You can imagine my shock when I put on the Stormy Monday CD and immediately enjoyed almost every song! They did it. Stormy Monday caught the elusive lighting in a bottle on their first try!

First and foremost, I enjoyed John Gholston’s singing throughout the CD. His singing voice is smooth and satisfying without any contrived style or attempt to copy or emulate anyone else. How many blues singers have you heard with overdone vocal styling that just sounds phony? John handles a wide variety of song types and can growl or sound intense when called upon without fancy-schmancy technique.

The drumming on the CD is so good at times you barely notice it. Zac Ashmore anchors the band flawlessly. He also adds just the right amount of flavor to these songs with his harmonica playing. I especially got a kick out of his frequent use of a staccato attack technique.

I can’t say enough about the lead guitar work of Brian Malone. Any time I thought I might be losing interest in a song, Brian carried the day. He played everything and then some including fiery slide guitar, stinging Claptonesque guitar solos (think, “After Midnight”), and psychedelic workouts – often all in the same song!

With a few enjoyable exceptionsMitch Shurden’s bass playing is subdued and often in the back of the mix. This CD has a distinctly 70s feel so the vocals, guitars and to some degree the harmonica are usually the focus up front.

Note: Brian Malone and Mitch Shurden are no longer with the band. (More about that below in the interview with John Gholston.)

The Songs 

The first thing you will notice about this CD is the quality of the songs. The lyrics and song topics are interesting, varied, and flow well. I have only one minor criticism. There are a couple of songs I wish weren’t so PG-13. They could have been edgier. (More about this in the interview that follows.)

The song structures are all familiar which only adds to the enjoyment. There’s no wild experimentation going on here. Just straight ahead rock with a strong blues flavor. Stormy Monday’s songs on “Have Blues Will Travel” include a wide range of rock and blues styles. Often when a band attempts to cover too many genres they fail miserably. Not here.

Stormy Monday handles all of it well. They do bluesy Allman Brothers slide guitar rock, heavy “Mannish Boy” type blues, swingy blues, a Chuck Berry style rocker, a straight up love song, a sensitive what I’ve learned from you love song, a Deep Purple inspired instrumental jam, a lost-love song with a twist that could play on country radio, and a bare bones blues song about loss featuring only harmonica and vocals.

Somehow, it all works!

The CD opens with “A Cold Feeling.” This is a mid tempo rock song that begins with a simple guitar rhythm and lyrics about feeling he’s about to lose his girl. Soon the harmonica begins filling in some of the spaces between lyrics. As the song picks up energy slide guitar is added in the background. On the break, a slide guitar solo arrives front and center. Brian Malone’s playing here would make Duane Allman proud. Slide guitar is featured more prominently the rest of the way with the harmonica also adding energy to the mix throughout.

“I’ve Got My Friends” begins with a heavy drumbeat and an even heavier rhythm guitar riff. The song has a nice sentiment about losing everything but still having your friends. Despite this theme, it’s played heavy handed and hard all the way through. Slide guitar arrives quickly with a wild slide guitar solo before the first lyrics. Slide guitar work continues to intermingle with the lyrics giving the song a bluesy Allman Brothers feel. The first break in lyrics features another wild and screaming slide guitar solo. For the second break, Brian Malone switches from slide guitar to a psychedelic firestorm! He fuzzed out his sound just a smidge as his guitar screamed and cried. Then he hit the wah wah pedal hard doing his best Hendrix imitation before crash landing the song to an end.

Wow! And we are only two songs into the CD!

“Come On Over Here Baby” uses a fast Texas shuffle and hyperactive harmonica playing. Once the lyrics begin, Zac Ashmore’s staccato harmonica attack continues in all the spaces between lyrics. The song concerns itself with a man who sees a woman in a dance hall and decides she can obviously do better with him than the loser who brought her. The break in the middle of the song features some fine Texas blues guitar with more than a nod to Stevie Ray Vaughan. As the lyrics pick up again it’s only drums, bass, and John Gholston singing. Suddenly both guitars join in again sharing the rhythm. Then John sings the song to its conclusion accompanied by Zac’s turbo-charged harmonica attack.

Quiet wah wah guitar sounds and a slow rhythm set the mellow mood of this song about a cheating lover. “One Woman Man” features the chorus line, “You’re the best thing I ever had, now I know we’re through.” Later the line changes to “I’m the best thing you ever had…   John Gholston sings with resigned indignation rather than pain as he explains, “I’m a one woman man and I don’t like to share.” Brian Malone captures the sadness of the song with an elegant guitar solo on the break. Then the mellow song meanders to its end as John stretches out the line, “Now I know we’re through.”

“Stranger Man” could be a standard 1970s rock song. It’s only bluesy because of its liberal use of the harmonica in the first half of the song. The lyrics are about a band coming to town, “to rock you down” and them going on their way. Once again, what could have been just a very good song is further elevated by Brian Malone’s guitar playing. His fretwork in between some of the lyrics punches the energy level into orbit. Late in the song the entire band breaks down the volume. Using the break to slowly build the energy back up for another fantastic Brian Malone guitar solo. After the solo, John picks up the vocals, but Brian never stops his killer jamming right through to the end of the song. After listening to this one you might wonder if you just heard a brand new Deep Purple song.

The first of two love songs, “When I See You Smile” once again brings to mind that 70s sound. Harmonica flavors the relaxed mood considerably. The first break guitar solo is subdued but captures the melody dead on. Later in the song, Brian’s Malone’s stinging guitar licks and biting guitar solo bring the song to a beautiful conclusion. Written about his wife, John Gholston sings this one like he means it.

“Better Than Myself” is not so much a love song but one about becoming a better person due to losing love. This one calls to mind a John Mayer tune. This song uses brush drums, an acoustic guitar and has a funky feel that grows on you quickly. John’s singing seems to improve when he doesn’t have to compete with the volume of the electric band. There’s also some beautiful acoustic guitar work that channels Eric Clapton’s “Unplugged” album.

“We Goin Out Tonight” is a good old rock-n-roll song that could have been written by Chuck Berry. I love the lyrics and I love how John sings this one with relaxed abandon. He sings, “we’re gonna have another round and go paint the town and just when you think it’s over we’re gonna burn it down!” The song bounces with fantastic energy leading to Brian Malone’s long Claptonesque guitar solo. Once again, the band uses that common 70s vehicle (the break down) to lower the energy for another buildup and one last explosion of sound.

It’s clear Brian Malone wrote the jam “Dark Moon” as a vehicle to stretch out his guitar skills. At seven minutes and thirty seconds he has time to do it all. A bass line begins and maintains the heavy feeling of this song. There is also a dual guitar riff right out of the Deep Purple handbook (Think, “Highway Star”).

Although the song has multiple breaks downs and a two minute drum/bass solo, it’s really all about Brian’s guitar. His first solo features screaming slide guitar. After the drum and bass solo, he lets loose for two full minutes of guitar pyrotechnics at least partially inspired by Jimi Hendrix.

“Going Down to Memphis” is not a song I expected to hear on this CD. Employing only guitar, vocals and harmonica, this is not a blues band song. It sounds more like an acoustic country blues song. The song opens with a simple medium paced rhythm and some background harmonica as John sings sadly of another lost love. Out of the sadness comes joy in his response to the situation. In the chorus he’s leaving on a plane to Memphis. There’s a nice twist in the lyrics that I won’t give away (You have to listen to the song.) In my opinion, this is the most well written song on the CD. It’s also got the best hook, the one that sticks in your brain the most.

Once again, without having to compete with the whole band, John’s singing is at its best as he exquisitely conveys the bittersweet joy of loss and renewed freedom. As the song progresses, Zac Ashmore’s harmonica playing becomes more pronounced. There is no guitar solo but Zac’s harmonica solo is nothing short of brilliant as it captures the song’s mixed emotions.

Zac Ashmore hit on something special again on the CD’s conclusion with “Brother Brother.” It’s his ode to his lost brother who died in his twenties. With just Zac singing and playing harmonica, this primitive sounding song really grabs  your attention.

So You’re Still Reading?

If you are still reading, you realize that on their first effort, this band caught lightning in a bottle! “Stormy Monday” created something really special. Their CD is fun, bluesy, rocking, and just plain enjoyable from beginning to end.

When I learned the band lost Brian Malone on lead guitar, I began to wonder if that magic would be lost?

I interviewed John Gholston to find out how they created such a fantastic CD and to ask him what’s new with Stormy Monday? He explained why he thinks Stormy Monday is continuing better than ever. Read my interview (below) to find out why.

The Stormy Monday CD, “Have Blues Will Travel” can be purchased through CD Baby or iTunes and can be streamed on Spotify or Apple Music.

 

 

Interview: John Gholston of the Stormy Monday blues band

By Ray Proetto of Blues Power Photo

 

“I feel like when I started playing blues I had found where I belonged. Even though I don’t have any direct historical ties to the blues culture, I can feel it in my heart and I can play it from the heart and I love this music. That’s what its all about. To me the blues is about playin from your heart, playin from your soul, and gettin down and dirty.”                                                                                                                                    

John Gholston

 

Interview:

Ray– What was the inspiration for the name of the band?

John– When I started learnin how to play blues music, one of the first songs that really grabbed me was Albert King singing “Stormy Monday” even though that’s a T-Bone Walker song. Albert King was the first person that I really heard sing that song. When we got the band started, we were primarily playin all covers. We didn’t really have much original material when we started. “Stormy Monday” was one of the first two or three songs we learned to play as a band. If you’re trying to think of a name that says somethin aboutchya, it can leave you scratchin your head sometimes. That’s kind of a blues standard. So I thought if some one saw the name Stormy Monday that would click with them and they would say, hey this is a blues group. And I’ve always really enjoyed that song. We’ve played it at a lot of our gigs and we’ve played it two or three different ways dependin on what the feelin’s like. That’s where the name of the band came from.

R- That’s ironic because I’m not a musician but the song that got me into the blues was the The Allman Brother’s live version of “Stormy Monday.” I didn’t even know what blues was but I loved it so much that’s when I started investigating, you know, what is this music?

J- I really like the Allman Brother’s version. They kinda take it back old school whereas Albert King was more of just a straight ahead, I, IV, V. And the Allman Brothers version is a lot jazzier, has a lot of flavor. We play it like that sometimes. In fact recently when we’ve played it, we’ve kinda taken that approach to it.

R- How old are you now John?

J- I am 36.

R- OK, so you’re a baby to me, but… you’re a man.

J- (Laughing) We play “Mannish Boy” sometimes too. I tell people that I’m a man.

R- What is your musical background, when did you start playing, how did you get into it, what’s it all about? Where’s this come from?

J- I grew up in Mississippi. I lived here my whole life except during college I lived in Middle TN for some time. I was born and raised in Starkville MS where I live now. I was not born into the blues. Of course growin up in MS it’s always around, you hear it whisperin through the wind, hear it on the radio. Growin primarily as a younger person in Middle School and High School, I enjoyed country music a lot and I got into playing music, believe it or not… Van Halen inspired me to pick up guitar and learn how to play guitar and start playin music. My brother introduced me to classic rock and he put on a Van Halen CD one day and I heard Eddie Van Halen playin guitar and I decided that I wanted to be able to play like that.

(Laughing) I still can’t play like Eddie Van Halen but I try. But never the less, I grew up listenin to country and classic rock. I went to school at Middle TN State University and after that moved up to Nashville and worked in the recording industry for a few years.

I started playing guitar when I was just about 15. I got into tryin to learn classic rock tunes. I got into AC/DC, Van Halen and things like that. Enjoyed it but never really could wrap my head around some of those type of things as far as from a musicianship standpoint.

Then when I was in my mid twenties, 24, 25 years old. Livin in Nashville I was workin in a company on music row, I did pro audio rentals and I was managing that company. And one day I was sittin in my office and there was some Pandora on my computer and I remember a song by Buddy Guy came on and it was called “Damn Right I Got the Blues.”

I heard that song come on and I was the only one in the office and it just kinda stopped me in my tracks! I stopped and listened to it and I was just floored! It got me real excited just listenin to it. It got my blood pumpin and got me excited about playing guitar and I was like, man, I’ve got to have that!

So I went out to Tower Records in Nashville when I got off work and I bought a Buddy Guy Album that had that song on it. And I listened to it a lot that evenin and that inspired me. I think my guitar playing and my musicianship had gone kinda stagnant over the past few years.

That got me excited and when I heard that Buddy Guy Album I was like, I want to learn how to play the blues, I felt like it just jumped out at me.

 So I talked to a friend of mine who was a good guitar player and he recommended a teacher in the Nashville area, he’s a real good guitar teacher. A guy named Andrew Hooker who actually grew up in West Point MS. I got in touch with him and he taught me how to play blues guitar. I took lessons from him for the better part of two years. He got me a lot of the way I am as far as a guitar player. I never really had any vocal training. That’s what I do in the band, I sing and play a little bit of lead. I’ve always been able to sing but as far as playing guitar I’ve had to scratch and claw for everything. It’s not somethin that comes naturally to me all the time.

But never the less, I learned how to play the blues in Nashville, moved back to Starkville MS in 2011, and a friend of mine named Scott Munsell and I got to hangin out. He had grown up in the Memphis area and is a heck of a blues musician, a good guitar player and bass player. He and I had been friends for a long time. We went to the Howlin Wolf Memorial Blues Festival in West Point in 2012. We were enjoying listenin to some blues and I told him that night, Man, I want to get a blues band goin.

He and I had played in a cover band before. And he told me, “if you can round up the rest of the guys, I’ll play bass for you.” So he and I started the band. That’s how it started after we went to the festival. It’s now called the Black Prairie Blues Festival. I guess they had some kind of dispute using the name. This part of blues country is referred to as the black prairie.

I put out a add on Craig’s List lookin for members to start a blues band and a guy named Brian Malone answered my add late in the winter of 2012. He and I agreed to meet and talk it over. I’d never heard of him before, didn’t know who he was. He and I met in a coffee shop in Columbus MS and talked and figured out we like a lot of the same kinds of blues music. He is a really good guitar player. So he and Scott and I got together and started jammin some. Then we were lookin for a drummer. There was a guy named Ailen Blatney who went to church with my wife and I. I found out at a Sunday School get together that he played drums. I was talkin about the band I wanted to get together and he said he’d like to get involved. So he was our first drummer. We put that group together and we formed up the whole group in the early part of 2013. We played our first show in May of 2013 at a restaurant called Rosie Baby’s in Starkville. And the rest is history but that’s how I got goin in it.

As far as this music, (blues) I feel like I grew up around it, never really paid attention to it, I wasn’t born in it, I don’t have any direct ties to blues culture as far as growin up or anything like that or where my family comes from. But I love this music and I feel like when that Buddy Guy song grabbed me it just got inside me about playin this music…

I feel like when I started playing blues I had found where I belonged. I feel like even though I don’t have any direct historical ties to the blues culture, I can feel it in my heart and I can play it from the heart and I love this music.

I’ve even had people when I’ve done a couple interviews before. I’ve had a couple different people ask me, “Do you think you guys have the right to play this music?” Kinda insinuating you don’t necessarily come from that background. And I said:

 “well I think if you love this music you have an obligation to play it.”

Because a lot of people that built blues music and created it, they’re not around anymore. And the culture that they came from is not necessarily around anymore either. So if those of us who love this music don’t carry it on because we feel like that we don’t have that right, well then that music disappears.

So to me that’s where I feel like we fit in. Everybody in this band loves blues music. We play from our heart and we want to keep the blues alive. We love this music and we want to play it.

R- Thanks for that. That was very informative. One of the things I noticed immediately when I started listening to your CD “Have Blues Will Travel” was that these are really good songs. So I was wondering. Are they your songs, are they the band’s songs? How did these songs get written?

J- Well, we’re workin on material for a new album but, that album we have out right now which we released in July of 2016 is all original and those songs were all written by the band members. There are no co-writes on that album. I wrote 5 of the songs on it, our original lead guitar player Brian Malone wrote three of em, and our current drummer whose been with us for the majority of the existence of the band, Zac Ashmore wrote three of those songs. I wrote “A Cold Feeling,” “We Goin Out Tonight,” “When I See You Smile,” “Come On Over Here Baby,” and “Going Down to Memphis.” Those were the five that I wrote. Zac wrote “Brother Brother.” That’s a pretty cool song because Zac’s brother died when he was in his early twenties and that song was inspired by his death.

R- I got the feeling listening that one that it was about some one real.

J- Yeah absolutely. There’s a couple songs on that album were just inspired by feelins but there’s a lot of it that was inspired by actual events. Zac’s brother Eric had a heart transplant in his late teens and lived with it for a couple a years and then contracted pneumonia and passed away I believe he was twenty or twenty-one years old. And that song is about him. That’s one of those songs if and when we ever play it, we really just do it just like it was on the album.

We let everybody step off the stage and let Zac play it and sing it. On the Album, that’s Zac singing that song. We tried it with me first. We thought let’s try it with the lead vocalist on the vocals and the harmonica player on the harmonica. But when it boiled down to it in the studio, ya know it was soundin good, but that song just needed to be sung by the guy who could really feel it the most. Zac had lived through that experience and that was his family so he ended up bein the one to sing that song and put a lot of feelin into it.

R- So when you say, I wrote five, Malone wrote three, Zac wrote three, does that mean they wrote the lyrics and the music and brought them to the band or did the band figure out the music? How did this process work?

J- A couple of those songs for me, like “Going Down to Memphis,” I wrote that back in 2003 when I was in college and that was long before this band was ever thought of. It just seemed to fit the band. All those songs were brought as individual ideas. So the songs that I wrote, the songs that Brian wrote, the songs that Zac wrote we all did it on our own. And when we felt like we had an idea, ya know like I’d be at home workin on a song and say hey, this will work for us. Most times what we’d do is get with the guys. After it’s written I would take it to the guys in the band practice and say hey I wanna play you’all this wong I wrote and see whatchya think about it. And see if they liked it or didn’t like it. Ya know, there’s been some things that I wrote and all the guys there’s been some songs we brought before the group and the group said naaa we don’t feel like that fits what we’re doin and we move on. Not every song we’ve come up with have we played live or is on that record. So all those (on the CD) were individually written by the songwriter and brought to the band.

R- What I’m also gettin at John is that this album is produced really well, especially for a first album from a band. So I’m wondering, you know, you bring a song, you have the lyrics, maybe even have the rhythm, but… The songs, the way they’re put together, they just work. You know you have breaks in songs that sound great, you have the harmonica come in at the right time, the guitar solos, then you have guitar flourishes and it all just seems to work and I’m wondering was this a group effort or was some one directing all the production because it just works so well.

J- Well, I’ll tell you how we did it. When we decided we were gonna cut a album, we had original material and we had been playin a lot of those songs live at the shows. And when we’d go out and play a show we’d play that music. So and when we decided to cut the record, we got  together and done some pre-production. We would get together and do practices specifically for the studio. When we cut in the studio, we cut as a live band. The majority of what you hear is not overdubbed. We had the drums, the guitar, the bass, the lead guitar, the rhythm guitar, everybody was playin as a group. I mean we were in our own rooms lookin at each other through a window type thing. But we were playin live and that’s what I wanted. I felt like hey, if we want to capture what we can do live, which is really what a blues band wants to do, then we need to do these studio sessions live.

R- Well then that impresses me even more.

J- Every song but one on that album, the vocals that I sing are while I’m playing guitar. Probably at least 80 percent of the lead guitar was played live because I play the rhythm and Brian was in the other room playin lead.

I guess when we cut the album, as a group we cut drums, bass, rhythm and lead guitar, and vocals. And then we went back, because at that time Zac had not been playin harmonica but for a few months. He sounds good but he was just gettin a grip on it. He has a lot of natural talent and he learns real fast. But at that time, in the studio, he was really tryin to concentrate on gettin his drum parts right and don’t get messed up tryin  do both things at the same time. Because when he plays live, he plays harmonic and drums at the same time.

Anyway, so we went back, there was overdubs. There was some lead guitar over dubs on a few songs, the harmonica was over dubbed, and then I think there was two songs I over dubbed vocals on. I went back and corrected a couple of spots on…

R- Let me stop you there. I was convinced that you guys went into the studio, that you had some top notch skilled producer who had you all do your parts and put it all together. The fact that you played them live really is admirable.

J- We did have a guy. The guy that taught me blues guitar in Nashville, Andrew Hooker. He has a studio in the Franklin Tennessee area called “The Cave.” We went and camped out there for about four days and cut the record. He acted in the producer’s role. He was the recording engineer in the booth. He and I co-produced it from the standpoint of you know, if there was something we were doin and he felt like we could do better or differently, he would make some suggestions. Hey, why don’t you’all try this or that. So there was some times you know, we took a stab at a song and he made a suggestion and we went back and did it.

Like as far as the vocals go, lookin back Brian wrote the song “One Woman Man” and I touched up a couple of spots on the vocals on that and did a quick overdub. And then when we cut the track “When I See You Smile” my voice was just really tired. It was a late night session.

We got there and when you record with Andrew, he lives out in an area called Leiper’s Fork in Tennessee. And it’s a real rural area. He’s got a huge house and the studio is connected. We got up there in the evening and set up our stuff, we didn’t crank the vehicle for about four days and just stayed there and cut the record.

So we cut a scratch vocal (for “When I See You Smile”) and the next day or the overdub day I went back and re-cut the vocals for that song. But on that vocal for “When I See You Smile” that’s all one continuous take. Nothing’s chopped up or put together. That was, he hit go on the track. I was standin in front of the mic in the studio and sang the whole song in one take. I think that was the third take. We did about two takes and I said, man I can do better than that. And the third time we did it I sang the whole song from beginnin to end and that’s what stayed.

We wanted to keep it honest. I told the guys when we cut this record, I don’t want us to do anything on this record that we can’t do live. If it’s on this album, we can do it onstage.

R- So where did you learn to sing because the first time I heard you sing, I was down the block, and I heard the band while I was buying earnings for my girlfriend. (John laughing). I thought you were (Blind) Mississippi Morris. You had that much soul. So where did you learn to sing? You do a damn good job.

J- Man I appreciate that. That’s nice of you to say. I think all I can say is God gave me that talent cause I’ve never had any formal vocal training I’ve never had anybody teach me how to sing. I’ve always sang growin up. I sang in a cover band in high school and when I was in Junior College in Madison MS I sang in the chorus there. And when I was in college at Middle TN State University I was in a fraternity that concentrates on music and musicianship and the love of music and I sang in a chorus in that group. It’s just somethin that comes naturally to me.

Like I said with my guitar playin, that’s always been something I’ve had to work for. I’ve started to take somewhat of a lead guitar player role in the band. I’m not the lead guitar player but sometimes I play lead on a song or two. And that’s a lot of fun but singin is somethin I’ve always been able to do. I don’t think I’m the best singer in the world but I know I can sing and I know I can sing the blues and I’m just I’m thankful for it.

R- Let me ask you this, I grew up in the seventies, I was born in 61. And when I listen to your CD, it kind of has a seventies feel to me. And I was wondering was that intentional? Did it just come out that way? Did you guys have seventies influences you’re emulating? What’s that about?

J- I think it just came out that way. I think that’s just you know the songs we wrote are from the heart. They’re about people we’ve loved or people we cared about or people we’ve lost. And I think our musical influences for me as a singer are just anywhere from Muddy Waters to Sammy Hagar. My background is not all blues. Your roots are gonna  come out, your influences are gonna come out. You know a lot of us in this band have different musical influences. Brian (Malone) who is no longer with us, he moved to Washington State. But Brian was a big Eric Clapton fan. I think for me my main influences as a blues musician would be Freddy King, Albert King, and Buddy Guy and that kinda stuff comes out.

Our current lead guitar player is a guy named Drew Dieckmann and he is just a monster and I’d say his biggest influence as a guitar player is probably Albert Collins. And he can play a lot of styles outside of that but he’s a big Albert Collins guy. He’s a heck of a musician. Drew is actually not gonna to be playin with us at Juke Joint Festival. He’s playin in a wedding for a friend of his daughter. The guy we’re gonna have playin with us is also a beast. He’s a guy named Kaleb Childs and he’s the lead guitar player in a band called The Old Memphis Kings. He’s a friend and he grew up cuttin his teeth playin under an old blues man named Willie King that’s from around this area who’s deceased now. He’s fillin in with us as a favor.

R- I wanted to ask you along with that seventies question. You guys have an instrumental called “Dark Moon” on that CD. I grew up listening to Deep Purple and when I heard that jam I thought this could be right off a Deep Purple album.

J- Brian (Malone) came up with that out of nowhere. He’s kinda an instrumental jam type person. He wanted to get somethin that was just of the ordinary and catchy and he brought that to us and we liked it. Now that you say that I can hear the Deep Purple, I like them and Brian definitely has some classic rock influence in him as well.

R- So what direction are you going for your next CD?

J- You never really know the direction. When you’re writing music and it’s coming from the heart. I’ve always told people if a song comes to you. Even if you wake up at 3 o’clock in the mornin and you’ve got a idea for a song, you better get up and write it. Cause, if you decide to wait till the mornin, it’ll be gone. So I think the direction we’re goin is just wherever the heart leads us.

We’ve written some new music. It’s all real deal and we’re gonna be incorporating a lot of it in our live sets comin up. I’m hopin we can start workin on this new album project maybe late this fall. It’s gonna be a few months. We’ve got a pretty busy schedule the next few months. Startin this month and May and into the summer. We’ll get some more shows too. We’ve got five shows lined up this month. For us it’s pretty busy since we’re all workin men too.

R- So are you gonna to use the same concept. Are you going to write the songs, peform them, get comfortable with them and then go into the studio?

J- I feel like that worked well for us last time and I feel like it would again. For me, blues is all about when you’re catchin that feelin. It’s not about gettin in there and piecin it together piecing the puzzle together. It’s about getting there gettin down and dirty and playin it live and gettin that emotion.I think when your cuttin like that you’re kinda all in. Because if you’re cutting it live. Not everybody’s gonna do everything perfect. But what your lookin for is, did we lay it on the line? Did we give everything we had and give an emotional take of that song?And so what if there was one drum hit that was a little off or there was a guitar lick that was a little flat. If we were layin it on the line, that’s what counts.

That’s what happens in a live show too. Your not gonna do everything exactly right. But that’s what you want. You want to keep it honest. For me it’s like hey if we can’t do it live on stage, we don’t need to be lyin to people.

I think that’s the same concept, if we go back and cut another record, and I really want to with this group.  We’ve got a new bass player in January, a guy named Barney Davis. He’s a beast. I’m really excited to be playin with him. I think he just turned 67 years old, and he’s got more energy and more hair than anybody else in the band. (Ray laughing).

He’s a heck of a bass player, a really good guy. Drew (Dieckmann) is a absolute monster. He could play with anybody anywhere. It’s a wonder that somebody like him is not long gone from this town playin the big time because he’s as good as anybody. And I feel like with him in this group, (he joined the group in May of 2016) when I asked him to join the band, I could not believe that he said yes because I’ve admired him for years and years. He’s been an inspiration of mine and when he agreed to come play in this band I was just havin to pinch myself to see was I dreamin or somethin.

It’s fantastic that he’s involved and I really want us to cut a record with this group. It’s gonna be the same thought process and cut it live cause that’s when the magic happens with the blues when you’re playin as a group and you can feed off the emotion of each other.

R- I’m hearing that over and over and I think it definitely comes through on the record. It’s really rare that I can pick up a blues CD and I feel like I can listen to the whole thing straight through and just enjoy the hell out of it. I can’t say there’s one shitty song on this CD.

And that’s a rarity. Usually everybody’s CDs have a couple throwaways where you’re like, oh that just didn’t work. But I think everything works. I think “When I See You Smile” is a fantastic song, I think “Going Down to Memphis” should be on the Radio. I think that’s an even better song.  There’s so many good songs on this CD.

J- When I see you smile is another example of just a real deal song. I wrote that about my wife and our relationship. As you well know and everybody knows there’s times in life that getchyou down. And there’s somethin about my wife which is I guess why I’m married to her is, when I see her smile, it makes me smile. And if I’m kinda havin a bad day she can come and put me in a good mood. And that’s a special thing.

Even the covers we pick to play live we pick things we can identify with, things that get our blood pumpin, things that get us excited to play. I don’t want to play somethin that I’m not excited to play that I’m not pumped up to get on stage and play. We love this music. We’re not doin this for the money, we’re not doin this for fame and fortune. We’re just doin this because we love to play blues music and if those other things come down the line, that’d be fantastic, but if they don’t we’re gonna keep on doin it anyway.

R- When I listen to the CD, there’s so many different kinds of songs. “Come On Over Here Baby” has a swing feeling, “When I See You Smile” is just a love song, “Going Down to Memphis” almost sounds a little like a country song, “Dark Moon” is a good jam.

J- “Going Down to Memphis” was kinda funny, we used to play that as a full band. When we got in the studio, somethin wasn’t working right for our bass player so we kinda shelved that song and moved on. We felt like hey, if we have time, we’ll come back to it and if we don’t, it may not make it on the record.

Then the day we were cuttin overdubs the song still wasn’t working for us. So I told the guys, let’s just do this old school. So me (vocals) and Brian (acoustic guitar) and Zac (harmonica) all got in one room, and we put up three microphones. And we were all standin right there together.

You could hear each of us in all the mics and we were all just standin there together. We just did it like we were on the sidewalk somewhere. And the reason I feel like the reason we kept that particular take on the CD, where the magic was, if I look back on it when we were listenin to it and decided that’s gonna be the one. Well, my vocals, there were maybe a couple spots where I felt like I could have done better. But you can’t change it when you’re all standin there together. But the Harmonica that Zac played was just so magical and it just had the soul. I was like, man we’re never gonna re-create that. So the harmonica performance on that song made us decide that’s the one. That’s the take we’re gonna keep.

R- The feeling and rhythm on that song is just fantastic. You know I’ve had a lot of your songs in my head for days after I listened to them but that song sticks the most.

J- I appreciate that. I wrote that song ten years before this band ever formed up. You know that’s just one of those songs that comes in your heart and it may be a great song, but it may not be the time for it. That song’s just from a feelin. At the time I wrote that song, there was nuttin to do with Memphis. I had been datin a girl that you know things didn’t work out. And I’m thankful now that they didn’t (laughing). At the time I was kinda upset about it. There was a girl involved but when things went south with us I never flew down to Memphis or nothin (laughing again). I was still living in Nashville. Something about Memphis just sounded good.

You know in every song you write there’s a little bit of somethin that sounded good and there might be a little bit of truth to it too. Sometimes it’s all truth sometimes it’s nothin. I remember hearing Greg Allman’s “Melissa” that he wrote. That was somethin he wrote in a car on the road. There wasn’t a girl named Melissa there wasn’t anything to it. I remember seein an interview with him saying he just wrote that song, it just came to him but it wasn’t about a real experience.

R- What I also like about that song (“Going Down to Memphis”) is the surprise Chorus. You start listening to the song and you don’t expect to hear that line and I think that’s a nice flip in the lyrics.

J- That’s one of those ones, I think when I wrote that I was just sittin in my apartment by myself and it just struck me. I mean I think I wrote that song in maybe ten or fifteen minutes. When I write songs that’s just how it happens. I mean if you sit down and say “I’m gonna write a song today.” You may not come up with anything or the next day you may look at it say “what was I thinkin?” (laughing) The best songs are the ones that just come to you and naturally come to your heart and come from a feelin in your heart.

The people who really inspire me as a musician are sometimes the ones that are technically the best, maybe. But more often than not they’re the ones that there may be a better guitar player or drummer or singer out there, but the ones that really inspire you are the ones that lay it on the line, give it everything they’ve got. Ya know they dig down deep. Whether they’re the best at what they do or not, they’re givin it everything they’ve got. And that’s what you want.

Right now we’re takin it to another level. We’re growin as a band. There’s been times when we look back on a show we’re like man, we could’ve done better. You know we’ve got better than that in us. And I think right now – cause we care – and I think right now we’re figurin out a way to get to what’s on the inside. And we’re not just playin some crackerjack show and havin a good time. This is for real. This matters. We’re not out here just bumpin around to just have a band and people clap for us. We want to play the blues!

You know when you go see a show and you seein somebody playin music and singin and all you can think is I’m so glad I’m here right now to be here and be a part of this. That’s what we want to do. I hope  somebody’s glad to be a part of somethin we do. And I hope that somethin we do can will move somebody else’s heart to create somethin beautiful or to be inspired.

We all come from a little bit different backgrounds but we’re all from Mississippi. You know we all come from different stories but we love this music and we want to play it. That’s the bottom line, it’s for the love of the game.

R- I photograph the blues musicians and the blues scene and I write about it. That’s what inspires me, the love of the music. You guys definitely reached me because I’ve seen you play twice and really enjoyed the shows. But what really impressed me was when I took this CD home and played it about twenty times. You guys put together a CD that is frequently playing in my house. I’m pretty critical because I’ve been into music for a long time and I listen to all kinds of blues, so you’ve gotta really do something to blow me away.

J- I appreciate that and just let me say that the album we cut, it doesn’t go straight down the line of what everybody might say is blues music. There’s a couple times when it gets to the left or the right but that album, we scratched and bled to put that together.  

And we’re still tryin to recoup, you know as far as money goes, you know I say money doesn’t matter, but sometimes it does. The money we put into cuttin that album. To go into the studio to have it mixed, to have it mastered. We’re still tryin to break even on that but if we never do. I really don’t care. I’m still glad we did it even if we lost money on it. Because we put that out there, it’s part of history now.

I appreciate that, it’s an honor and I’m glad you enjoyed it. If we can put somethin out there that somebody enjoys. It doesn’t matter if we made anything out of it or not. Because we brought somethin to somebody’s soul, stirred somethin up. That’s what music’s all about, when you’re dead and gone it doesn’t matter what you gained or you lost, it matters what kind of impact you left on the world.

R- That’s a beautiful sentiment. Hey, let me switch gears here for a minute. Let me switch gears to some constructive criticism.

J- OK yeah, go ahead.

R- Now keep in mind that this is just my opinion. (John laughing). There’s a couple things about the CD in the lyrics that just drove me crazy. I love all the songs, they’re all great songs. The lyrics themselves, they’re all good songs. But there’s a couple times when I feel like you missed your inner Muddy Waters. You know how Muddy Waters had an attitude, he did “Mannish Boy” and sang “I’m a Man.” He didn’t live his life like you do. You know what I mean?

J – Yeah.

R- Chess Records had an attorney on retainer to fight all his paternity suits. Ya know he didn’t live the life you’re living. (John laughing loudly).

J- Yeah, I am a one woman man. (more laughing). Yeah, I gotcha.

R- So let me go down some of these songs here. I mean I could talk about what I love about them all day long but we don’t have time for that.

J- I’m always open for some constructive criticism.

R- The Album opens with “A Cold Cold Feeling,” Great song. Then you have “Come On Over Here Baby” and “One Woman Man.” Then you get to “Stranger Man.” In just my humble opinion, when you write a song called “Stranger Man” you are writing a song that’s got to include sexual danger. So you’re writing a song and you say “We come to town” and “We lay it down” and we “Rock you down.” It just seems like you had an opportunity there to add an element of sexual danger. Like we come to town and take down the girls or somethin like that, you know what I mean?

In the lyrics you only refer only to the music, you missed a wonderful opportunity for a double entendre.

J- Yeah I think Zac wrote that song that does come from that standpoint about the music. When we show up at a place to play, a lotta times nobody knows who we are and when we leave, there may still be folks that don’t know who we are and they may never see us again. You know while we’re there we’re goin to rock it down. That’s really what that song is about, but I do understand what your sayin there.

R- Remember, you’re a blues man, your musical history comes from people like Muddy Waters, so there’s nothing wrong with throwing a little of that in there.

There’s another one,“I’ve Got Friends.” Great song, has a good sentiment, good instrumentation and wonderful solos on it, I just love it. I really can’t complain of anything about it except for one line. Even if it’s just a song; as a blues singer, I would never sing (the line), “I ain’t got no game.” That just wouldn’t leave my lips. (John laughing and laughing).

J- I gotcha. That was another one that Zac wrote and one that he identified with. He wrote that at the time his brother and his mother were livin in Birmingham Alabama. When you get a heart transplant, which his brother got, if you’re awaiting a transplant for a major organ like that, if they call you and say, we got one, you got to be here in 30 minutes. So at that time his mother and brother were livin in Birmingham so they could be close to that hospital so if a heart became available for a transplant, he would be there.

So at that time, Zac as a young man, his Dad died when he was five years old, his mother and his brother who were his only other family were living in the next state over.

So when he came on times that were tough or times when you would normally lean on family, his family wasn’t there for him. And that’s what that song’s about for him. He had his friends.

R- John, OK, you’ve made me feel like shit for bringing it up OK.

(Both of us laughing).

J- Well, don’t feel bad, cause I always love to hear what people think.

R- OK, let me move on to the next one. “We’re Goin Out Tonight.” I love this song! It’s a great song. Let me tell you what I love about it. I love the lyrics, the song builds nicely, and then kicks off with this stinging guitar solo. Then you have a break down in the middle with a nice quiet electric guitar solo, I mean it’s just working, it’s working.

Then you break it down again at the end and you whisper, “Let your hair down baby; let your guard down too.” And then you blow it at the end!

I’ll tell you why.

J– (laughing) “OK”.

R- Then you whisper again; “Let your hair down baby; let your guard down too.” And then you say, “I ain’t gonna make you do anything, that you don’t want to do.” You lost your inner Muddy Waters there. (John laughing). You’re supposed to say…  (John continues laughing).

At that moment, your inner Muddy Waters is supposed to say, “I’m gonna do things to you, you never thought you were gonna do.” That’s what your supposed to say at that moment. (John really cracking up!)

J- (laughing) I like that. I’m the kinda guy if I’m with a woman, I’m not gonna make her do anything she don’t want to do. But there is that other point. If you’re gonna do things with her that she never thought she was gonna do, maybe it isn’t something she doesn’t want to do, she just never thought about it. Yeah I’m with you on that.

R- Women sometimes like just a hint of bravado, a hint of danger in their music. And men also loved Muddy Waters and B.B. King who made careers out of it. All I’m saying is, when you write the next batch of songs, channel some of that Muddy Waters stuff. It’s OK to be a little macho in the lyrics.

J- I like that. I love Muddy Waters. One of my favorite Albums is Hard Again. There’s so many good songs on that album. In fact, we’ve already formed our set list for Juke Joint (2018) and we’re goin to play “Can’t Be Satisfied.” I love some Muddy Waters and I get that. You’re talkin about that attitude and I think we got some of that. But I can definitely identify with what your sayin and I like that thought process.

R- Yes, so I love the CD. But that just was eating at me that there were a couple situations on the CD where I thought, man, he could have really gotten edgy, and instead he just went for PG and I didn’t like it.

J- (laughing) Hey, I understand and I greatly appreciate the honest thoughts because a lot of times people aren’t goin tell you their constructive criticism or what they feel like you could’ve done better. If they’re your friends or your family, they may point out what they like but it’s always good to hear what people think, hey maybe I would’ve liked to have heard this or maybe I coulda gotten into that more or pulled that off better.

As music listener, that’s somethin like man, I really wanted that and they didn’t do it. There’s some bands like that I really enjoy listenin to and maybe there was somthin where they just didn’t get it done. And you’re just like, Man! Come On! (laughing)

It’s like you know they’re capable of gettin there and on that particular instance they just didn’t get there and your like man you’all could’ve pulled it off and you just let it get away from you.

So I appreciate that.

R- Especially that “Going Out Tonight.” When you start whispering on that song I’m like, oh yeah, this is great! And then you throw out that PG-13 line and I’m like Oh Man! (Both of us laughing.)

J- So what would you say, “I’m gonna make you do things, you never thought you would do?”

R- Yeah, something like that. (John laughing)

J- We’re gonna have to sing it that way at Juke Joint for you and get somethin stirred up with somebody out there.

R- All I’m saying is channel some Muddy Waters.

J- I imagine since we’re talkin you’re goin to be at our early mornin show at Juke Joint. It’s in the front of the New Roxy at 10:00AM. And we’re gonna give the best we know how to give. And I have a feelin we’re gonna get it because we practiced last Sunday with Kaleb Childs who’s gonna be playin guitar with us. And we were tearin it up. I’ve got a good feelin we’re gonna get it done. We’re gonna give people what they came for. We’re comin to deliver. We’re playin the night before and my plan is to light it up. If you want to get you’re buzz goin early in the morning, don’t pour yourself a coup of coffee, just come on down and hear us.

That’s what its all about. To me the blues is about playin from your heart, playin from your soul, gettin down and dirty.

My goal is to get out to the Juke Joint Festival and just burn it down!

 And light it up. I want people at Ground Zero or Red’s Lounge at 7 o’clock that night to say, “That band we saw at 10 in the mornin, out on the street, was the best band we saw all day.”

This conversation has inspired me even more. Cause I feel like hey, never mind all those innocent bystanders out there, we’ve gotta prove it to Ray! (Both of us laughing.)

Last year we played Juke Joint in the pouring rain. Brian Malone, his amp quit in the middle of the show. He had to finish the show with somebody else’s guitar amp who was waitin to play. I was playin my Fender Blues Junior (amp). It never quit during the show, but after we played, I picked it up and turned it over and I poured about an inch of water out of it. It’s like, hey man, we’re here to rock and roll!

We’re not playin games.

We’re tryin to live the dream. We’re tryin to play the blues.

I appreciate you callin me and takin a interest in our music cause that says to me, whether we’re doin everything right or not, somebody’s interested in our music and that’s pretty cool. So I appreciate that.

R- Well, you’re very welcome and I appreciate you spending the time talking to me.

J- It’s a honor and a privilege. I’m honored that you like our music. That’s really cool. To me it’s one of the things you think about as a musician. If I can move one person, if one person likes what we did, that’s cool. So thank you for likin our music. It means more than you know.

R- Alright John, well thank you again, and I will see you at Juke Joint.

 

Foot Note:

At the 2018 Juke Joint Festival, John Gholston and the band did not disappoint. Kaleb Childs filled in on lead guitar and the show rocked hard. Kaleb handled the slide guitar parts easily and added some beautiful subtle touches. John played quite a few guitar solos proving he is much better on guitar than he was willing to admit during the interview. Oh, and he changed the final lyric of “We’re Goin Out Tonight.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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