Harris Center: Spring 2019

MARK HUMMEL'S 2019 SOUTHERN HARP BLOWOUT
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know where to buy one, even if I had the money. I was a country
boy,” he says. After seeing a picture of a guitar in a magazine,
he decided to make one by attaching the top wire of a broom to
a wall and fretting it with a bottle. He also got some harmonica
lessons from his father. He eventually acquired a real guitar,
and started playing in juke joints as a teenager, when his family
briefly relocated to Little Rock, Arkansas. The fake moustache
Rush wore made club owners believe he was old enough to
gain entry into their establishments. While he was living in
Little Rock, Rush’s band, which featured Elmore James, had a
residency at a nightspot called Jackrabbit.
During the mid-1950s, Rush relocated to Chicago to pursue
his musical career and make a better life for himself. It was
there that he started to work with Earl Hooker, Luther Allison,
and Freddie King sat in with many of his musical heroes, such
as Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Willie Dixon, and
Little Walter. Rush eventually began leading his own band in the
1960s. He also started to craft his own distinct style of funky
blues, and recorded a succession of singles for a various small
labels. It wasn’t until the early 1970’s that Rush finally scored a
hit with “Chicken Heads.” More recordings followed, including
an album for Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff’s Philadelphia
International Label.
Rush relocated one final time to Jackson, Mississippi in the
early 1980s. He was tired of the cold up north, and he realized
that setting up his base of operations directly in the center of
the South would make it easier to perform in nearby cities
on weekends. More indie label recordings followed. Songs
like “Sue, A Man Can Give (But He Sure Can’t Take It),” “What’s
Good For The Goose Is Good For The Gander Too,” and” I Ain’t
Studdin’ You” became regional jukebox favorites in juke joints
throughout the region, and many of those songs are still fan
favorites that are an integral part of his live repertoire. Make
no mistake, Bobby Rush is both a Bluesman and an entertainer
of the highest order!
KENNY NEAL
If you want to experience the "Real Deal,"
take time out to find Kenny Neal. One
of the strongest modern proponents
of Baton Rouge swamp blues, Kenny
Neal is a second-generation southern
Louisiana bluesman who is cognizant
of the region's venerable blues tradition
and imaginative enough to steer it in
fresh directions. Neal was born on
October 14, 1957 in New Orleans. His dad, harpist Raful Neal,
was a Baton Rouge blues mainstay whose pals included Buddy
Guy and Slim Harpo (the latter gave three-year-old Kenny his
first harmonica).
At age 13, Neal was playing in his father's band, and at 17,
landed a job playing bass for Buddy Guy. The guitarist recruited
some of his talented siblings to form the Neal Brothers Blues
Band up in Toronto (brother Noel later played bass behind
James Cotton; five other Neal brothers also play in various
bands) before returning stateside. In 1987, Kenny Neal cut
his debut LP for Florida producer Bob Greenlee, an updated
swamp feast initially released by Kingsnake Records as Bio
on the Bayou. The following year, Alligator Records signed
Neal and reissued the debut under the title Big News from
Baton Rouge!! Young Neal was on his way. Neal's sizzling guitar
work, sturdy harp, and gravelly, aged-beyond-his-years vocals
served him well, and he cut four albums for Alligator Records
between 1989 and 1994. An acclaimed 1991 stint on Broadway
in a production of Mule Bone found him performing acoustic
versions of Langston Hughes' poetry set to music by Taj Mahal.
In 1998, Neal moved from Alligator to the blues division of
the jazz-based Telarc Records, releasing three albums for
the label: Blues Fallin' Down Like Rain (1998), What You Got
(2000), and One Step Closer (2001). In the new millennium, Neal
recorded sets for a variety of independent labels, including Easy
Meeting (a 2003 collaboration with Billy Branch), Double Take
(2004, a one-shot return to Alligator), and A Tribute to Slim Harpo
and Raful Neal (released in 2005 for True Life Entertainment).
Three years later, Neal hooked up with Blind Pig Records and
released Let Life Flow in 2008, once again incorporating his
gritty Louisiana roots with a sophisticated Chicago/Memphis
soul approach. A second Blind Pig release, Hooked on Your Love,
appeared two years later in 2010.
In 2015, Neal released his first holiday-themed album, I'll
Be Home for Christmas. It was his first album for Cleopatra
Records, which also issued his critically acclaimed release,
Bloodline in 2016.
Kenny's 2016 release, Bloodline, was nomimated for a 2017
Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album and also won two
2017 BMAs (Blues Music Awards); one for Best Contemporary
Blues Album and the other for Best Contemporary Male Blues
Artist. Kenny Neal, a true living blues Legend is THE REAL
DEAL and more poised than ever to deliver the blues like no
one else can!
JAMES HARMAN
James was born and raised in Anniston,
Alabama-quickly picked up on the black
blues and soul music being played on
juke boxes and the radio. He sang in
the church choir until age 16 when his
family moved to Panama City, Florida,
where he found himself surrounded
by like-minded blues lovers. Wearing a
fake moustache, young James slipped
into a still segregated black nightclub to see Little Junior
Parker’s show. He was totally overtaken by the blues and soon
became a regular, known as “That boy who sings like a man”
by patrons.
While still in his teens, he started playing juke joints and
dance clubs throughout the South. His performances became
legendary-he was “tapped” by talent scouts, signed and taken
to Atlanta, Georgia in 1964 to begin his recording career at age
18. He had a series of nine singles (45 RPM records) released
during the mid to late 60's on obscure southern labels. He tried
several restarts in new home bases including Chicago in ’65,
New York in ’66, Miami in ’68 and New Orleans in ‘69.
During his stay in Miami Harman was befriended by fellow
record collectors Henry Vestine, Alan Wilson and Bob Hite
of Canned Heat, who persuaded him to move to California,
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