waltertore
2519 posts
Sep 08, 2012
12:44 PM
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I pulled out the Black Cat Mojo Guitar today or I should say it called me to play it. I was given this handmade, by a real mojo man, guitar by the late Paul Sessoms. Paul owned the Black Cat lounge in Austin TX and I played the club more than anyone else. He gave it to me as I left to move to California at a going away show. He was so excited to give it to me but when I plugged it in it did nothing but crackle and not stay in tune. Charlie Sexton was playing backup guitar so I gave it to him. He is a true guitar wiz and he declared it a wall hanger not a player. Paul was pissed.
Fast forward 2 years. I got a phone call Paul wsa killed. I pulled out the guitar and it was in perfect tune and sounded sweet as can be. But I soon found it would only play when it wants. No electronic tuner will keep it in tune when it doens't. Fast forward a couple more years. I found out the Black Cat lounge burned to the ground with all of Pauls' music memoribellia in it. He also gave me one of the beautiful watercolor portraits his wife did of me. So now all that is left of Pauls musical life are these 2 things and if anyone knows of him they will testify that he was as strong a music lover as was ever born on this earth.
He told me I was the worst musician to ever play his club but that I played like an old black bluesman. He said the SRV thing was a dime a dozen as were the hot rod guitarists of austin but my thing was a 1 of a kind. He continually argued with me over the 10 years I played the club that I should fire my band, put a mic under a rug, stomp it and play solo. He said he would pay my bills for as long as he lived if I would do this and I would play his club till I died. He included a spell with the guitar and it all has come to pass- my studio, going to a 1 man band, my teaching program with special needs students. When I read the spell, as he watched excidly, I thought- I know Paul is out there but this is way out there! I learned a lot from that man about drive, passion, no compromise, with ones art. He lived his own way and was shunned by much of the music buiz of austin but yet every name player in town tried to get a gig at his club.
He only let people he like play his club. One night willie nelson was listening to us and asked to sit in. Paul jumped on the stage and told willie he could be an audience member but never would sing in his club! That ws typical Paul. He and I had lots in common with following our hearts! Here are some songs with the black cat mojo guitar. Walter
people starve as we smoke havana cigars
the 1 favor I will ask of you
when an unhappy man has a happy day
when they close your show
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walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year.
" life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
4,000+ of my songs
continuous streaming - 200 most current songs
my videos
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waltertore
2520 posts
Sep 08, 2012
12:46 PM
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walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year.
" life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
4,000+ of my songs
continuous streaming - 200 most current songs
my videos
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waltertore
2521 posts
Sep 08, 2012
4:02 PM
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typical night at the black cat lounge- crazy off the chart endrgy!
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walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year.
" life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
4,000+ of my songs
continuous streaming - 200 most current songs
my videos
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laurent2015
412 posts
Sep 08, 2012
3:57 PM
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Walter, if someone here suggests the best title for your future book(s?), will you write it???
As for the guitar that has whims, don't you think it could be the result of dampness (or air humidity)?
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waltertore
2522 posts
Sep 08, 2012
4:08 PM
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Hi laurent2015: The book is done. It was written by Nigel Price, an author from England. He is also the minister at the oldest untouched church in England. Kind of cool I had a preacher write my story! It will be coming out someday. No it is not the humidity. I am talking this thing will go totally out of tune after you tune it perfect even in my 50% climate controlled humidty level studio. Then it will magically go into perfect tune all on its own. The same for the electronics crackling and cutting out. Listen to these songs and you will here it is playing perfectly. I have to use a slide bar and chord it with my hands because the action is set up high like a lapsteel guitar. Walter
link to Nigel's Church:
http://webahomemission.blogspot.com/2012/03/reverse-missionary-in-kings-stanley.html
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walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year.
" life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
4,000+ of my songs
continuous streaming - 200 most current songs
my videos
Last Edited by on Sep 08, 2012 4:10 PM
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bonedog569
625 posts
Sep 08, 2012
4:23 PM
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Another classic story Walter. Great pictures too. Thanks for sharing them.
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laurent2015
414 posts
Sep 08, 2012
4:52 PM
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Well, that guitar has a great sound when it wants, it's really worth it.
Maybe you are the only guy able to make it work, and that makes the gift even more personal.
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Littoral
615 posts
Sep 08, 2012
5:15 PM
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Walter, that live pic is awesome. I'd love to see more of those.
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Jim Rumbaugh
784 posts
Sep 08, 2012
5:29 PM
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I am honored that you offered to let me play the Black Cat Mojo guitar the night I visited you. But I just didn't feel the mojo was calling me.
I remember you picked it up. It seemed like you were smacking it and attacking it, but what came out was real music with spirit. I can and will testify that there is real magic between you and that guitar.
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theharmonicaclub.com (of Huntington, WV)
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waltertore
2523 posts
Sep 08, 2012
7:11 PM
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thanks guys! I am glad Jim can testify I am not making up tales :-) I often use the slide bar like a drum stick and am playing a snare instead of a guitar. You can hear in on the first song.
Littoral: If you look above me you will see the tip jar on a clothesline that ran from the front of the club to the stage. Paul was always coming up with crazy stuff like that. You never knew where the stage would be or who knows what would greet you as you came in each night.
bonedog: Here is another story for you. When we hit Austin we stayed with Luther Tucker (guitarist for little walters chess stuff). He was brought down by clifford antone to be the blues great in residence but wasn't allowed to play anywhere but antones. Luther told me about this new club the black cat lounge that just had opened and was run by a real eccentric and he though we might hit it off. I immedidately went down there and Paul played my lp in the club. He hired me on the spot for 7 nights a week. It was 10% of the beer bar and tips. Evan Johns and the H Bombs, Teddy and the Tall Tops, and me were the first bands to play there. Teddy Roddey is good harp player that is not known much outside of TX.
We were making $3-600 a night on weekends and 1-300 on weeknights. This was pretty much top of the mark for pay in austin clubs back then and this place only held 80 people with no cover charge. Soon the big names were coming down and aksing for gigs. I had guys like Chris Duarte, Will/Charlie Sexton(dylan), David Grissom(joe Ely, John Mellencamp), Timbuck 3, Champ hood/walter hyatt, Delbert McClintons band, and other of this caliber opening for my band.
We would go on at 10 on weekends and stop at 2am. Paul would kick everyone out except those he dug and then start admitting musicians he liked. We would go on till 6am. A typical night would have Lou Ann Barton Shaking herself in front of me as I played and singing words of love back on my lyrics. You never knew who would be in the audience. One night Joan Baez sat right in front of me for 2 hours. I tried to get her up to sing but she said she prefered to listen to me. That blew me away because her voice is straight from heaven to my ears. All the who's who of austin and the touring acts came to these nights. They were some special days. The scene today is pretty disapointing compared to those gigs...........
Here is is a picture when Paul built the stage 10 feet high in the air. You had to climb a ladder to get up to it. He had the drums, and amps all there so that made it easier! Will sexton is on guitar, Jim Starboard on drums (evan johns, gary primach,) and James "rock bottom" Dupree on bass/keys. James was with me from California/Belguim/NYC and we played over 10 years together. He came up with the Beat in Spontobeat when we were trying to come up with a name for our spontaneously created music. Walter
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walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year.
" life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
4,000+ of my songs
continuous streaming - 200 most current songs
my videos
Last Edited by on Sep 08, 2012 7:27 PM
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waltertore
2524 posts
Sep 08, 2012
7:13 PM
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heres one from the newly opened stubbs bbq with will sexton on bass, charlie sexton on guitar, and ken cooke on drums. Charlie has been dylans guitarist for many years and ken left me to move to california to join harp legend james harman for a bunch of years.
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walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year.
" life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
4,000+ of my songs
continuous streaming - 200 most current songs
my videos
Last Edited by on Sep 08, 2012 7:29 PM
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waltertore
2525 posts
Sep 08, 2012
7:21 PM
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here is one with the late great Alex Napier(came to austin with SRV's/paul rays band the cobras) on bass and jeff boaz on drums for will sextons band - will and the kill -at the steamboat on 6th street. I was up there jaming with will, eric johnson, that night. Will was only 16 and he wanted judy and I to be his legal guardians. We loved Will but declined because he was doing too much of the rock and life thing. He was going to rent us all a big house and pay all the bills. That was real kind of Will because we were living in a $150/month tiny house in town. Rents were that cheap back then so making 50 bucks a night and playing 4-7 gigs a week made living pretty easy. Walter
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walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year.
" life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
4,000+ of my songs
continuous streaming - 200 most current songs
my videos
Last Edited by on Sep 08, 2012 7:34 PM
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Old Hickory
55 posts
Sep 09, 2012
8:07 AM
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Walter you have led a very interesting life my friend and I will be first in line when that book comes out. I love reading your stories and looking at all the pictures too. Hey is that an old fender jaguar you're playing in one of those pictures? If you ever want to sell it let me know. I bet that guitar could tell some good stories too.
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waltertore
2526 posts
Sep 09, 2012
9:23 AM
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Old Hickory: My life seems pretty normal to me :-) I am not sure when the book will come out. Nigel and I have become best friends through doing it and that has become stronger than the process of putting the book out. The yellow guitar I and Charlie is playing is my 1964 jazzmaster. I got it when I moved to Austin. I was playing this guitar, which feeds back when turned up. The black cat lounge was on 6th street which is a series of buildings all connected so there were clubs on either side of me with bands playing and they were louder in the black cat that I was. Will and Charlie Sexton hooked me up with the guitar. It was originally Lonnie Mack's. He gave it to SRV when they did the album lightning strikes back. Stevie didn't play it much and it made its way through the austin guitarist ranks. When I got I was also given a black face fender pro reverb to go with it! That was austin back then. Musicians worked together. Spontobeat was not only accepted there, but austin was proud to have a guy like me there. No where else in the world did I find that kind of acceptance for spontaneously created music. But like all great music scenes they come to an end. Austin today is nothing compared to back then. The name is big and there still is a lot of music but nothing like back then. Rents were cheap to free, clubs were everywhere. Texas was in a depression and tons of buildings were vacant. Owners were letting people open clubs for next to nothing in rents just to keep them from falling apart.
When SRV died I contacted Lonnie about the guitar and asked if he wanted it back. He said he dug what I was doing and to keep it but don't ever sell it. If I tire of it, it goes back to him. Everybody who was big in the austin scene on guitar during the 80's played that guitar. I don't use it much with the 1 man band because it has the fender twang and lacks a deep low end. Not having a bass player I now use a tokia copy of a 335 because it has a warmer sound on the bottom and also for recording because the fender has that buzz that they all have to the pickups.
here is the guitar I hit Austin with. This is from a gig at the ancience Belguiqe in Brussels.
here is the jazzmaster in action at my sisters wedding reception in NJ. I think Rob Papporazi's band was playing.
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walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year.
" life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
4,000+ of my songs
continuous streaming - 200 most current songs
my videos
|
bonedog569
628 posts
Sep 09, 2012
1:20 PM
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Sorry I never caught the Ausin scene back then. I visited for the for e first time a few years back. Nothing downtown turned me on - but the Continental club was very cool - as was the Saxon Pub. Did you keep the suits ?
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waltertore
2527 posts
Sep 09, 2012
4:55 PM
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bonedog: The continental club and saxton were always good spots that tended to feature the cream of the not super famous austin acts but still were ones that were nationally known. It was hard for me getting gigs at the continental (2-3 a year was about my average) because there were literally hundreds or people vying for the gigs who deserved it. The saxton use to be more of a acoustic instrument driven club when I was there. 6th street had 6 or so clubs that were worth going to back then. Then there was antones who brought in every living blues great as well as the east austin scene that was still pretty much all african american and fell into limbo by the time I left austin. I have only this suit left. One day I was driving my 1963 cadillac park ave (featured in dwight yokums video guitars, cadillacs song) downtown and I saw this black guy walking in a lame suit. It was well over a 100 degrees so I stopped and asked him where he got it and asked if he needed a ride. I drove him to his destination and he told me his sister, who was married to baptist preacher, made it. She made all the dresses for their church choir and her calling from the Lord was to sew. He said she would make me any kind of suit I wanted as long as I kept things to God (he was drinking a bottle of vodka as we talked ;-) )
I hooked up with her and for $100 labor she would make anything I wanted. I bought the patterns and materials. She was a genuis with the cloth. Then in a fit of hating the music scene I sold them all for $1 at a garage sale. People were buying them for halloween costumes. I wish I hadn't done that but what the heck that is where I was at. I found this silver suit in a box when we got to Ca. It was her first one for me and basically a trial run and no where near the quality she later did for me. I used it for the cover of a cd I put out called Metal on Metal(vocals, acoustic 1940 national steel and harps only). I did this with a mini disc recorder and called the label 20th century field recordings. It got 5 star revues in many blues mags but believe it or not I never sold one via those reviews! I have lots more pictures I need to scan and upload someday. Walter
here is one of the lame suits she made. Ken cook is on my left who played drums with james harman after he left me and mark rubenstien on my right who played bass and keys. We toured as a trio. This was somewhere in the midwest. Mark went on to play and as a recording engineer with people like cher, lizza minelli, grover washington jr, the back street boys, linda ronstad and others. He ran sugar hill recording studio for years in NJ (the sugarhill gang) and now runs the recording engineering program at Ohio state university in columbus. We are reconnected after 25 years and he comes by my studio regularly to give me inspiration on my recording journey. Walter
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walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year.
" life is a daring adventure or nothing at all"
Last Edited by on Sep 09, 2012 5:01 PM
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opendoor_harps
71 posts
Sep 11, 2012
2:48 AM
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Hey Walter.
Great pics and stories.
I'm heading to Austin soon to reconnect with some relatives and a few of my old band mates. I'm looking forward to hunting down some good live music.
With the Mojo guitar, it makes sense that it would respond to you! I've come to think that musical instruments resonate and vibrate sympathetically with the energy and music that was put in them in the first place from the various pickers and players who played them.
BT
Last Edited by on Sep 11, 2012 2:50 AM
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waltertore
2529 posts
Sep 11, 2012
8:39 AM
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BT: I hope Austin treats you good! Say hi to everyone for me. I can't give you much in live music leads. I have been gone since 96. The mojo guitar resonates with Paul Sessoms energy. He owned the Black Cat Lounge. Mention his name down there to some over 50 year olds and you will hear some stories....... Remember Jim's house in Sebastopol? He built the engine in my caddy pictured above. He is friends with Ed Iskendarian (muscle car legend) and they together designed a special cam and piston set up on it. It was so quiet you couldn't hear it run but it put out over 400 hp! Some of those over 50 guys might remember my caddy too. Have a great trip! Walter
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walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year.
" life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
4,000+ of my songs
continuous streaming - 200 most current songs
my videos
|
opendoor_harps
73 posts
Sep 13, 2012
12:20 AM
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Hi Walter: If the engine in that car was anything like the stuff we saw in his shop, I bet that car could fly! Maybe I should give Jim a holler and see if he can modify an engine like that so we can hot rod one of your harmonicas !! :)
I'll be hooking up with some of my old band mates in Austin who might remember the Black Cat. Best- BT
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