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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
where did you learn your blues?
where did you learn your blues?
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waltertore
2383 posts
Jul 02, 2012
8:44 PM
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I learned mine on Church Street in New Jersey. Church Street was a poor street whose residents were from the south and kept their southern ways. I would go down there everyday because the people there dug what I did. They all taught me music, not with lessons, but via thier lives. On the weekends we would always have a BBQ party weather permitting. I would round up who I could to provide entertainment. I can't tell you how intense these lessons were. These people would get in my face when I did good and bad. They shaped me into playing music right. When I had club gigs my friend who worked for a mob owned bus company, would get a big charter bus and we would load it up and invade the club. Many times this resulted in problems with black folks being in all white clubs. The Church street crew was tough. They carried guns and most had spent a good deal of their lives in prison. But man did they give you all they had when you played right. I remember one night we took the bus into NYC to see lighting hopkins. I sat in. IT was at Tramps. Lightning said he thought he was back in TX. Terry the owner of Tramps let us all in for free (about 40 of us) and gave us the front tables (which amounted to about 70% of all of them). Here are some pictures taken at some of those BBQ's. Sadly everyone in the pictures but me and couple others are dead. Church street was bulldozed and high dollar condos were put in. I miss those days. These were my mentors. Walter
Here is a song I did today about church street:
learned my groove on church street
PS: See if you can spot the green grass growing :-)
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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 Jul 02, 2012 8:45 PM
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waltertore
2384 posts
Jul 02, 2012
8:44 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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The Gloth
662 posts
Jul 02, 2012
11:27 PM
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I spotted the grass ! Nice bush !
Cool pictures. I almost didn't recognize you !
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jiceblues
83 posts
Jul 03, 2012
3:34 AM
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Nice story ! it's impossible in FRANCE .
I learned with JJ MILTEAU 's books ,and playing with friends ,but it's not the same thing .
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rbeetsme
770 posts
Jul 03, 2012
4:16 AM
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Records and CD's.
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The Gloth
663 posts
Jul 03, 2012
4:26 AM
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I learned alone, by playing over records and tapes ; I had some musician friends, but they were not into blues and harp, so I played in my room over records by Led Zeppelin, Canned Heat or Velvet Underground.
Later I played several years with two guitarists, we did covers but with a large part of improvisation, and all acoustic.
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nacoran
5917 posts
Jul 03, 2012
6:05 AM
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Looks like you are loving your scanner! They are fun. The blues question really comes in two parts. I'm not really sure where I picked up the blues scale, and the harp was just something I picked up at a music shop.
The other part though, getting the blues, well, that's a longer story with lots of parts.
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Nate
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waltertore
2385 posts
Jul 03, 2012
6:24 AM
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I am tripping out on this scanner. It is bringing musical memories back to me that have been in a box for up to 35 years. As I reflect on these things I am wondering is one destined to thier life or do they choose it??? I was born in a predominantly Italian NJ world which is about as far from the blues as you can get yet I found Church Street once I started playing harp and it was only 4 blocks from my house. Wilberrt Harrison, arguably one the premier 1 man bands of all time, picked me up as walked down the street blowing my harp. I dug the 1 man band thing but I wanted a real band and thought it was long gone from life only to come back 30 years later in full force. Terry, the owner of Tramps (NYC's biggest blues club at the time) liked me. He let me in for free and introduced me to all the blues greats that played there and most had me up to play their shows. Louisiana Red invited me to live with him, Sonny Terry allowed me to help him get around his NYC gigs. I could go on and on with these events that appeared. Yes, all I thought about was music. Life other than that meant very little to me. Music was my only focus. Is this what attracted these situations? Now I sit in mostly isolation, playing occasional gigs and festivals when the phone rings, and record 60-80 hours a week since I started the wonderful teacher summer vacation. I play at least as much as I did in those days only in a different environment-a recording studio. Time has moved on and I haven't kept up with the new model of the bluesman/music marketing. What does it all mean?? I get quiet messages that this recording oddessy is as intrigal a part of my musical completeness as was church street, the blues greats, my endless wanderings around the globle, and all the wonderfully inspiring people I met. I am as driven by learning to make good recordings of my music as I was to learn to play music. I am now a completely independent of others package and it is the most freeing thing that has happened since I first discovered music. To be able to make music exactly as I want to 24/7 is all I ever dreamed of. Is this part of the making it package? I have no care one way or the other. I really never have gone that way. I follow where the music calls me. 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 Jul 03, 2012 6:34 AM
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tookatooka
2981 posts
Jul 03, 2012
7:18 AM
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Loving this Walter. I reckon you should grow your hair and put it in a ponytail and ditch the smart suits :o)
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messy ventura
9 posts
Jul 03, 2012
8:51 AM
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And yer still wearing the same suit today ! lol ! Great pictures Walter. Sooooo 70's.
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LittleBubba
234 posts
Jul 03, 2012
9:28 AM
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I'm the quintessential "white guy from the 'burbs" who musta been born with the blues inside of me. No matter what kinda music I've gigged with-- british blues, rock, jugband, soul, pop, gospel-- I've always listened to, and played, different styles of blues on harp & keys.
I got my influences from live performances by Muddy Waters, Siegal-Schwall, Lazy Bill Lucas, Tony Glover, etc., and then spent all my time jammin' blues with my best friend, and learnin' tunes by Rev.Gary Davis initially.
Even to this day, I'm the blues evangelist in a maelstrom of genres.
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billy_shines
654 posts
Jul 03, 2012
7:28 PM
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i already said eleventy million times but what happened to your old band walter? drugs? fights? (aka musical differences)
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waltertore
2394 posts
Jul 03, 2012
7:49 PM
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Billy: I have had literally hundreds of band members. The most common reason for not staying together was money- the lack of on my part to pay to keep a regular band intact as well as my continual migrant ways. Most musicians want secure pay, stay in the same place, and complain about how bad the scene is where they live. I move when it gets sour. Most everyone I used was affiliated with bigger name bands. I learned early on when taking publicity pictures to just use me :-) Walter
PS: The drummer in these pictures is Billy Beat the man with the Beat. That what it said on his business cards. He played gospel with a big husband and wife team and every wed. night you could find that band in the route 1 truck stop. they had a gig playing blues there. their bassist had use of only his chording hand and would make great bass sounds on the neck. Billy drank hennesy with buttermilk chasers for his ulcers. He was with me on and off when I played NJ. the bassist, playing an old gretch guitar is james 'rock bottom' dupree. He was with me for 12 years. I found him at a blues jam I was running. He was only 16 and learned my groove with no idea of how wrong musically it was much of the time. Jamie told me one night- I am getting bad teeth, live from 10-2, have no steady girl, move all over but world with you but live in ghettos with different names,and had never experienced a real life. He quit after that gig. that was a sad day for me. He got a job at whole foods in austin when they were still in their tiny original store, moved up to produce manager, got transfered to run the palo alto store in CA, quit, opened his own natural food store in hood river OR, went bust, got married, and now has a window washing business on the oregon coast. He was literally raised on haight and asbury. His parents were beatnicks that hung with the hippies. He remembers painting janis joplins and jefferson airplanes houses as a little kid. they gave all the kids brushes and tons of colors to choose from. He was pretty much a musician from birth.
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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 Jul 03, 2012 8:02 PM
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electricwitness
45 posts
Jul 03, 2012
8:54 PM
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I hope that was not a rhetorical question... :)
But first let me say what a rich blues heritage you have @Walter! Thank you for sharing the photos, and the thoughts also.
I had been playing around with the harp from a very early age, cowboy tunes and folk songs mostly. But when I was about 14 my father found a Muddy Waters cassette tape. It changed my life! I listened to it until it wore out. I played along with the songs that I could as I only had one harp. Growing up in rural Utah there was NO other blues influences available to me growing up. The only people that ever heard me play was my immediate family, until I went into the Navy. After my squad leader heard me play my duty was often to play harp while the other where mopping or whatever. I was stationed in Chicago, and a bunch of us went into town together on the 4th of July weekend. This was the first time I ever witnessed someone performing on the streets. He was playing on bridge, over the tracks, leading to a big party on the other side. He had some sort of power supply and was playing electric guitar and singing the blues and some Rock and Roll. I was mesmerized and made my buddies hangout and watch. When he took a break I talked to him and told him I played some harp, he said "lets hear it". After I played a few riffs he dug in his bag and set up another mic and asked me if I would jam with him. I was floored. There I was a kid from the sticks of Utah, jamming on the streets of Chicago in front of more people than I had ever seen in my life, with a real blues man! The only song I remember that we played was "Johnny Be Good", but I remember the feeling of jamming live with another musician for the first time. I still get the chills. I told him thank you, he gave me some encouraging remarks, and off I went, never to see him again. That is one of my most cherished musical experiences. He gave me confidence in my playing, I owe him a lot. That was the beginning of my blues, but I am still learning, still searching, and still growing.
Thanks for asking! Brought back some good memories!
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laurent2015
298 posts
Jul 04, 2012
11:02 AM
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@Walter: two things to reply to the living memories you actually are:
* your father wouldn't let you play music: you have to thank him, cause if he did, your life wouldn't likely have been the same
* music is a passport, sometimes for adventurous life.
So you are a rich man!
@Electric witness: in december 2010 I was in Thailand
about 400 km south of Bangkok in a beach resort.
An evening around 11pm I went to a little snack-resto where 4 or 5 folks were to see, and notably a very old Thai guitarist who had 10x more wrinkles in his face than strings on his guitar an wore a homemade leather hat.
I handed my Hering harp to him and he began to play...Oh Suzannah.
After that, with much hesitation, I started to play WhammerJammer ( puckering, cause I couldn't tongue-block at this time) and the old guy, with such a wide smile that he could have lost his head, started to stomp the rhythm together with snapping his fingers, becoming absolutely frantic...
His wife suddenly packed the guitar in the box: that was obvious an end's signal, yes, because "he had to play somewhere the next morning"...
I hope one of these days I could meet him again, maybe in 2014...
Music is a passport...when wives agree!
Last Edited by on Jul 04, 2012 4:21 PM
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