Frank
1543 posts
Dec 06, 2012
6:35 PM
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http://blues.gr/profiles/blogs/an-interview-with-unique-bluesman-rick-estrin-the-nightcats-a
Did he ever marry - kids?
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Greg Heumann
1879 posts
Dec 06, 2012
7:07 PM
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Great interview - thanks for posting.
Rick has a steady "significant other" but as far as I know never married and has no kids.
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/Greg
Last Edited by on Dec 06, 2012 7:07 PM
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Joe_L
2218 posts
Dec 07, 2012
1:14 AM
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This is some great advice...
"Do it if you have to do it…otherwise, have fun playing, but don’t pursue it as a career. Some of the very greatest musicians I know live their entire lives in real poverty."
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The Blues Photo Gallery
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kudzurunner
3700 posts
Dec 07, 2012
3:29 AM
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The "buy a house" lesson is obviously one important lesson that comes through in that article, but a far more important lesson, I think, is that learning how to play the blues--REALLY learning how to play the blues--is about becoming part of a free-floating community of fellow musicians in a linked series of live scenes: performing live, traveling from place to place, hanging out, learning the stylistics and survival skills on the bandstand.
That's 95% of what he talks about: the way he was influenced in his life-journey and musician's-journey by the musicians with whom he was lucky enough to fraternize earlier in his life.
Last Edited by on Dec 07, 2012 3:30 AM
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Frank
1544 posts
Dec 07, 2012
4:19 AM
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Here's a picture of Ricks Harp Stand...
Also, I would imagine, that MUCH MORE then just playin the harp got him that house!
Adam... If you would interview Rick for an article, could you share a few questions that you would ask him that you feel the reader would find insightful? And are there any questions you would have for him that you wouldn't be able to print his answers too? Thanks!
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Greg Heumann
1880 posts
Dec 07, 2012
8:45 AM
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@Frank - much much more? No, actually. Rick's entire career has been playing harp. Sure he had odd side jobs, but if you're implying that there was a rich wife, inheritance, trust, lotto win, or other windfall you would be wrong.
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/Greg
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HarpNinja
2956 posts
Dec 07, 2012
8:59 AM
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"...learning how to play the blues--REALLY learning how to play the blues--is about becoming part of a free-floating community of fellow musicians in a linked series of live scenes: performing live, traveling from place to place, hanging out, learning the stylistics and survival skills on the bandstand."
I would politely challenge that what you are describing is being a professional blues player, or a working musician...not prerequisites to being able to proficiently play blues music technically or emotionally.
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Custom Harmonicas
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kudzurunner
3701 posts
Dec 07, 2012
9:39 AM
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@HarpNinja: Really playing the blues is partly about knowing how to relate to an audience. It's a call-and-response music. It has a long history as dance music. Like all the skilled trades, it's an art that depends on a human connection--optimally, an in-person connection--between a teacher or teachers and the student on a quest for mastery.
Those four distinct but interlinked arenas of knowledge are things that ground blues musicianship. If you leave out the audience, the call-and-response relationship, the art of playing for dancers, and the flesh-and-blood teacher, you're leaving out a significant portion of what the blues--and good blues harmonica playing--is about. Every single player on the Top-10 and Second-10 list on this website would agree with me, because the elements I've just described were a part of their life-experience and thus thread themselves through everything they played.
If you play a shuffle groove, you're playing a groove named after the dance step people do to it. A rhumba is a dance step. Little Walter played a song called "Shake Dancer." A shake dancer is a stripper; there's a long history of blues players backing up strippers.
This doesn't mean that it's impossible to play chamber blues: self-contained studio creations that owe little to human communities. But if you seek to connect with the great tradition of blues harmonica in any kind of deep way, there's an element of embodied knowledge--grooving with a band (or NOT entirely grooving with a band), carrying a groove in a duo context, creating and sharing a groove with dancers--that's part of the music's DNA. If you sidestep that element of professional training, which IS an element of one's blues musicianship, it will be palpable and audible in the music you play.
Last Edited by on Dec 07, 2012 9:41 AM
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MP
2572 posts
Dec 07, 2012
10:29 AM
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which reminds me of a joke...
Q. how do you wind up with a million bucks playing blues?
A. Well, first you start with two million...
i think it's great Estrin was able to buy a house. he deserves a lot more for the the seemingly tireless amount of effort and industry he has consistently put into his craft.
i agree w/ kudzus assessment with one important-to me- caveat. if you don't have soul, just pack it up buddy.
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MP
affordable reed replacement and repairs.
"making the world a better place, one harmonica at a time"
click user name [MP] for info-
repair videos on YouTube.
you can reach me via Facebook. Mark Prados
Last Edited by on Dec 07, 2012 10:35 AM
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Joe_L
2221 posts
Dec 07, 2012
2:05 PM
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Soul is the number one thing. Without that, there isn't much point in listening.
There have been videos posted here by some great players who were technically capable of playing blues, but their music completely lacked soul.
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The Blues Photo Gallery
Last Edited by on Dec 07, 2012 4:10 PM
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Frank
1546 posts
Dec 07, 2012
3:54 PM
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Hi Greg…Thanks for the info on Rick, “significant other” does that mean in every new town he rolls into here and abroad, just kidding – his Persona does come off as a Playboy though… with all manner of woman at the snap of his finger scattered through out his touring circuit…
The MUCH MORE comment was referring to him being the “whole enchilada” – not a one trick pony…He has Mastered the many, many, many integral aspects of being a successful [money making front man]… the harp being just “one” of them – though a very important one for sure!
And to touch on Adam’s excellent insights…I totally agree that the Players who are REALLY pulling off “succulent, bone deep, significant blues,” are the ones who are HARD CORE STUDENTS of the blues >> who from “day one” have tried every way imaginable to get themselves thoroughly entrenched into what being a bonafied blues musician is really all about. Ricks be doin it for 45 friggin years!
The (sacrifice) some of these Players make to pursue their “ARTISTIC dreams and DESIRES” is without a doubt and amazing feat of never ending persistent perseverance! Guys like Rick, Kim, Charlie, Rod, Sugar, Mark and “multiple others” who have chosen to live out this lifestyle to the highest degree of excellence that they can possibly muster is a testament to their devotion for keeping the blues REAL!
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MP
2576 posts
Dec 08, 2012
12:08 PM
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Joe L says,
"Soul is the number one thing. Without that, there isn't much point in listening. "
yeep!
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MP
affordable reed replacement and repairs.
"making the world a better place, one harmonica at a time"
click user name [MP] for info-
repair videos on YouTube.
you can reach me via Facebook. Mark Prados
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Frank
1554 posts
Dec 08, 2012
12:28 PM
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[Soul]- a main ingredient for sure, yet so very, very difficult for many players to truely let the music be saturated with its essence! It's easier said, then done...
(This was a telling part of the interview with Rick below...)
"interviewer question"...Some music styles can be fads but the blues is always with us. Why do think that is? Give one wish for the BLUES
"Ricks answer"...Blues will never go away completely because the feeling of the blues is about universal human emotion. The blues is also the musical foundation for many forms of popular music, so I can’t imagine it will ever disappear completely. My wish for the blues is that people will always have the opportunity to be exposed to, and experience the beauty and power of the real blues through the recorded works of the true, original, mid-20th century, blues masters.
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