The thing about a harmonica, says Charlie Musselwhite, is that "it’s the most voice-like instrument. You can make it wail, feel happy or cry. It’s like singing the blues without words."
Musselwhite sings, too. And plays electric guitar. But mainly it’s his harmonica, or "mouth harp," music that has brought him more than three decades of fame as a blues artist. A Downbeat magazine critic credits him with playing "some of the most compelling blues on the planet" in all three regards: "His earthy singing makes you feel he has total understanding of the lyrics. His stellar harmonica playing encompasses all emotions. His electric guitar speaks eloquently."
Virgin Islands residents and visitors have four opportunities to form their own opinions this week as the Charlie Musselwhite Blues Band comes to St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix on its first territorial tour. The five-piece group will play Wednesday in an Arts Alive concert at Tillett Gardens, Thursday in a St. John School of the Arts presentation at the Westin Resort, Friday back at Tillett Gardens for a nightclub show, and Saturday at the New Wreck Bar in Christiansted.
A three-time Grammy nominee who's been passed over twice and is awaiting judgment on the third at this year's awards ceremony on Feb. 23, Musselwhite says the blues have stood up well in his more than three decades of performing at festivals, concert halls, clubs colleges and beyond. "I don’t see any public letup" in support, he says.
Nor has there been any lessening of his love for the genre. "The music teaches you," he reflected in an interview for Downbeat magazine. "I call it ‘following the will of the music.’ I’m always investigating it, and I’m always looking for things that correspond to the song that I hear inside." He added, "Sometimes when you’re on the road a long time, you start to question what you’re doing. Then you run across someone like B.B. King who will say some encouraging words. You say, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s why I’m doing this.’"
Born in Mississippi in 1944 and reared in Memphis, where he hung out with country, rock, gospel, rockabilly and blues artists, Musselwhite moved to Chicago when he was 18 to look for factory work. He ran smack dab into the urban blues of the Second City’s South and West Side clubs, and before long he was sitting in with the best — Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Howlin’ Wolf, Big Joe Williams, Sonny Boy Williamson, Jimmy Read and the like. Collectively, they gave him "an incentive to find my own sound," he says.
His still-evolving sound that has integrated other genres over the years, notably Brazil’s forro blues and music out of Cuba. Indeed, Musselwhite’s most recent CD, "Continental Drifter," was recorded in three distinct sessions — one with his touring band based on the West Coast, another with him focusing on the Mississippi Delta audio imagery of his childhood, and the third done with his Cuban friend Eliades Ochoa and his strings-and-percussion band Cuarteto Patria. (The last part was recorded in Norway, where Charlie and the others were performing in a blues festival, since "the Cubans can’t come to the U.S. and we can’t go to Cuba," he notes. Coincidentally, on Friday night, when he’s playing at Tillett Gardens, the Tillett Gallery will be hosting a preview of an unprecedented exhibition of artwork by contemporary Cuban painters that officially opens the next day.)
Of his interactions with Cuban and Brazilian artists, in particular, he says, "we are all excited by the possibilities of blending the musical cultures, sometimes just for the joy of playing together, sometimes in the hope of fostering understanding and tolerance."
Musselwhite’s band for this tour consists of guitarist John Wedemeyer, who formerly played with Curtis Salgado and is also in the San Francisco Bay Area blues band Back 2 Life; bass player Felton Crews, a Chicago South Side artist credited with blending the blues, country, gospel and funk; pianist Joe Heinemann, another Salgado alumnus, who has played with Quincy Jones and is also a member of a world music group; and drummer Bryant Mills, who also plays with Back 2 Life.
Musselwhite credits the band with being able "to play whatever I have a mind to play." And that can be just about anything that the blues encompasses. "Whether it’s Chicago blues, Mississippi blues, Memphis blues or West Coast blues, it doesn’t matter," he says. "They’re all like accents."
Details on the four performances:
– Wednesday — Tillett Gardens on St. Thomas, 8 p.m. Tickets $25. Optional pre-performance dinner with concert seating $30 plus bar and tip. Reservations required for dinner, recommended for the concert. Call 775-1929, fax to 775-9482 or e-mail to tillett@islands.vi.
– Thursday — Westin Resort ballroom on St. John, 8 p.m. Tickets $30 general admission, $25 for students, available from the St. John School of the Arts, which is presenting the concert. Reservations are recommended. Call 779-4322 or 776-6777. The Westin offers a variety of pre-performance eating options: a la carte dining from 6 p.m. in Cocoloba, a buffet from 6 p.m. at the Beach Cafe, counter service until 7:30 p.m. at the Mango Deli, a set-up for tapas and drinks in the courtyard outside the ballroom, and even a cocktail sail aboard The Adventurer that will depart the resort dock at 5 p.m. and return at 7. For more information and reservations, call 693-8000 ext. 1702.
– Friday — nightclub performance with mostly cabaret seating in Tillett Gardens on St. Thomas, 9 p.m. Tickets $25. A la carte menu and bar service at Polli’s Mexican Restaurant in the garden complex throughout the evening. Reservations suggested. Call 775-1929, fax to 775-9482 or e-mail to tillett@islands.vi.
– Saturday — performance at the New Wreck Bar in Christiansted on St. Croix, 9:30 p.m. San Francisco’s "Queen of Boogie," pianist/vocalist Wendy DeWitt, will be the opening act. Admission $15 at the door. To learn more, call 773-0878.
