Louisiana Red – The Real Deal

It’s been a busy week for live music.  Live blues music to be exact.
It came as contemporary (Snowy White), as 70’s rock/Boogie (Canned Heat), and as contemporary jazz/funk/rock (Ana Popovic).  On Sunday however it left it’s many hats, coats and incarnations at the door as Louisiana Red took The Harmonie audience back to the land ‘Where the Blues Began’. 

 My verdict?  To quote an old BB King album title – the blues is very definitely ‘Alive & Well’. 

 

I once saw old footage of the early 1960’s blues scene.  Teenagers sitting at café tables or on the floor with faces glazed over in rapt attention and reverance as ageing masters of their craft like Sonny Boy Williamson II and Memphis Slim plied the trade of genuine folk blues.  Sundays show was a colourised version of those days;  the kid sitting in front of me even had a 45rpm record on his lap.

 

The German blues band ‘Baum’s Blues Benders’ kicked off the evening in fine style.  They had a Blues Harmonica player in the shape of Uwe Planke who knew his stuff and I’m a sucker for great blues Harp so they could do no wrong for me. 

 

I’m sure Bill Baum and Co will forgive me though for jumping to the ‘main event’.  The legendary Louisiana Red  had a childhood in the blues – Born in Bessemer, Alabama, in 1932; Red saw his mother die a week after his birth and his father die at the hands of the Klu-Klux-Klan.  At just 9 years old  Red was left in an orphanage for three years.  His first wife died of cancer at just 30. 

 

Plenty of reasons to be blue and know how to feel the music then, and Indeed one of his numbers today is a personal one about losing his wife to the big ‘C’.  His thoughts are simple and powerful  “Kids are gonna miss you, Reds gonna miss you too…”  he remembers. “Wasn’t nuthin poor Red could do.  Why am I treated so bad?”  He is even blue on contemporary topics – his opening number addresses the 11 September tragedy.  Make no mistake, When Red digs into his soul he digs deep.  But he can also laugh as loud and hearty as any man as he does when he picks up an old and battered guitar that looks tiny in his big hands.  “This is my toy” he smiles, “and I love playing my toy!” before hammering into an Elmore James riff that takes our breathes away with its power.

 

 

He introduces the Bluesbenders back onstage to join him and they all look nervous with the Master at first.  Uwe Planke rifles through his box of harps to find one in the right key and Bill Baum immediately changes guitar with Red when Red’s own goes out of tune.  This show is clearly an honour for them but after a few songs it’s obviously also a pleasure – for them and their legendary host.  Red is all smiles introducing Bill  like they are old friends but also adding that they met for the first time that day.

 

 

 75 and not out – Rocking Red 

The show is a roller-coaster ride through Delta/Chicago Blues.  A tribute to Cary Bell who died a while ago and nods to older legends like Muddy Waters ((“Same Thing”), Jimmy Rogers (“Baby don’t you wanna go”) and Elmore James (“I had a Home”)  Red is in full flow with “Shake Your Moneymaker” and “Freight Train” and when he straps on his Les Paul and stands up to play it’s like he’s twenty again.  The enjoyment of playing is clearly in his every bone and muscle. 

 

The audience are on their feet too – and the stages height puts them also at his feet, which seems somehow fitting for a man who is still a King of the Blues.

 

After the Show I promise Red copies of my photos – “Oh yeah – I want them to show my kids!” he beams.  And I can tell he means it – like his blues, it comes from the heart.

 

 

Photo Gallery: 

http://s26.photobucket.com/albums/c124/johnhurd001/Louisiana Red/

 

 

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