Harmonica master Charlie Musselwhite’s life reads like a classic blues song: born in Mississippi, raised in Memphis and schooled on the South Side of Chicago. A groundbreaking recording artist since the 1960s, Musselwhite continues to create trailblazing music while remaining firmly rooted in the blues.
2010 Blues Hall of Fame Inductee
7-Time GRAMMY Nominee
24-Time Blues Music Award Winner
8-Time Living Blues Award Winner
Collaborations with Eddie Vedder, Tom Waits, Ben Harper, Bonnie Raitt, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Gov’t Mule, INXS, Mickey Hart, George Thorogood and personal friend and best man at his wedding John Lee Hooker.
Beale Street Brass Note Walk of Fame Honoree. Charlie’s marker is placed outside of BB King’s Nightclub in Memphis, TN.
2009 Mississippi Blues Trail Marker Honoree. Created by the Mississippi Blues Commission, the Blues Trail is composed of historical markers and interpretive sites located throughout the state. Artists honored with markers to date include fellow legends B.B. King, Bo Diddley, Howlin’ Wolf, Jimmy Reed, Mississippi John Hurt, Muddy
We are proud to announce that Charlies new CD has debuted at #4 on the Bilboard Blues Chart.
In other news this week…
Charlie performed on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno with Cyndi Lauper and Johnny Lang. You can watch the full episode on the Tonight Show Website
Coming in September…
e-town will feature Charlie alongside Cyndi Lauper in a performance on Sept 23 at the Boulder Theatre. Charlie plays in Cyndi’s band and will perform his own set as well. For additional info, see www.etown.org/attend.summary.php?id=317
Catch Charlie with Cyndi Lauper on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, airing on NBC, Monday August 30.
Cyndi and Charlie will be performing in Support of Cyndi’s new CD Memphis Blues.
Check local listings for specific broadcast times.
Charlie Musselwhite reaches deep for “The Well”
Charlie Musselwhite has done pretty well with the blues harp for a white kid from the Mississippi Hill Country. For about a half a century now, he been blowing the harp, and for almost that long he’s been regarded as one of the best.
He blows sweet and hard, and his blues work is virtually unchallenged. Now he’s taken another step and put his songwriting talents to work on an album with a very personal touch.
Musselwhite’s new CD, “The Well,’ is out today, and it remarks his return to Alligator Records, where he released three very fine albums in the early ’90s. It’s also the first album that Charlie has written by himself — except for one song, which he co-wrote.
It’s one of those songwriter’s albums, where the theme of the music is the songwriter himself – an autobiographical songbook — the kind that can easily go wrong if it’s either too shallow or too deep. But Charlie does it just right, exploring his past and the feelings behind
But this isn’t just music written to ease a troubled mind. It’s music that gently moves the soul along, swinging with feeling and the easy power of Charlie’s liquid harp runs. The music here a beautiful lesson in understatement.
The songs explore drinking and not drinking, personal pain and personal redemption. The liner notes flesh out his thoughts and offer some insight into each track. Probably the most poignant lyric, and one of the most rhythmic numbers, comes in a duet with Mavis Staples on “Sad and Beautiful World,” an ode to Musselwhite’s mother, who was killed at age 93 in their family home during a burglary.
This is a very fine album — not tough and screaming blues — but a kinder, gentler version that’s still filled with passion, intelligence and great music.
Charlie Musselwhite, “The Well” (Alligator)
The story of Charlie Musselwhite choosing sobriety is a familiar one in blues circles, but it’s nonetheless touching. Memphis Charlie uses his triumphant return disc for Chicago’s Alligator Records to tenderly recount how he was inspired by a courageous little girl who fell down a well. It’s all the more effective since Musselwhite seems more like a graduate of the charm school they call Cook County Jail (the subject of another tune here) than the Teddy bear type.
Musselwhite is not only one of the world’s greatest harmonica players, but also one of the finest songwriters working in the blues. “The Well” is the first disc of his five-decade career where he wrote every song, and it’s filled with touching personal remembrances. “Sad and Beautiful World,” a duet with Mavis Staples, is a poignant but never maudlin reflection on the murder of his 93-year-old mother in her Memphis home. “Dig the Pain” is the “before” tune about drinking, paired with the “after” of “The Well.” And “Where Hwy 61 Runs” is an evocative travelogue of his Mississippi roots.
With so many artists making compromises in the name of commerce in these tough times, “The Well” serves as a reminder of just how good popular music can be when it comes straight from the heart.
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