Four Guitars by Rosanna ©2004
BFBR: What were your early musical influences?
MICHAEL MESSER INTERVIEW
THE BLUE FRONT BLUES ROOM
Interview by John Anderson,
January 2004
Four Guitars by Rosanna ©2004
BFBR: What were your early musical influences?
I was born in 1956 and my earliest musical memories are rock’n’roll 78 records being played at home on the wind-up gramophone. Then in the early 1960s I started buying pop records; Rolling Stones, Beatles, Motown....all kinds of stuff that was popular at the time. In 1965 at the Winter Gardens theatre in Margate I went to a pop concert and one of the performers was John Hammond, he had a hit record in the UK at that time and he was the first person I ever saw play acoustic delta blues & folk music. Through my formative years I listened to all kinds of music and went to literally thousands of concerts. At the time I started playing country blues, which would have been the mid to late seventies, I was listening to a very wide range of music and only treated country blues as part of a much bigger picture.
BFBR: How and when did you get into blues (this type of) music?
This is always asked by interviewers and after numerous interviews, I still
can't find the definitive answer. There were so many factors that kind of all
fitted together at a certain time in my life and I became obsessed, or
interested as you put it, in blues music. I would also add that I have always
been into blues music because so much of the pop music of my time was basically
the blues. I never thought of the Rolling Stones, Taste, Little Feat, Johnny
Winter, Fleetwood Mac, Humble Pie, Bonnie Raitt...etc, as blues artists, I just
thought it was cool pop music, but a great deal of their music was without doubt
the blues. I guess I have been around music & musicians for most of my life and
many different things were catalysts in this process. My connections with
Nashville and exposure to many of the musicians based there also played a role
in this process. I feel that the blues as a musical form has always been there
in my life, right from the very early days of hearing Heartbreak Hotel and Lawdy
Miss Clawdy on the wind-up gramophone.
BFBR: What were your early blues influences?
Some of the very early influences I have talked about in previous
answers. When I started to become obsessed with early blues I went pretty crazy
over a handful of players; Robert Johnson, Son House, Willie McTell, Blind
Willie Johnson, Miss'ippi Fred McDowell, Elmore James, Muddy Waters,
Johnny Winter, Ry Cooder, John Hammond. These days that list looks like a pretty
standard and obvious list of who one should listen to, but back then it was not
like that and the "classics" of the genre had not really been defined in print.
I should add to the above that one of my major influences back then was Paul
Oliver's wonderful book and double album, The Story of the Blues. I love that
book and know every centimetre of it....every word and every picture. I still
enjoy thumbing through it. Those pictures and the exotic names of the musicians,
that really was big for me.
BFBR: How (and why) did you start playing in
public?
As a child I played and sung in public a few times and thought it was pretty cool. In my teens I performed a few times in rock bands; I was the drummer in Plug & Friends & the bass player and singer in the Noisy Birds. Later in my twenties it just seemed the natural step to take and I started going out playing blues gigs, some were alone, some were with my brother David on rhythm guitar, and some were with various bands. But it was never a plan, just a natural progression. It was only after doing a few gigs that I started to take myself seriously as a musician. Oh yes, in my early teens I played double bass in a folk/rockabilly band, we didn’t play in pubs but we did entertain friends & family.
Can you remember you first gig?
Certainly can - I was ten years old and
I sung a bluesy jazzy version of Little Brown Jug at a school talent
competition. I accompanied myself on a very out of tune acoustic guitar that I
borrowed. I won the competition.
BFBR: What made you decide perform professionally?
How did you get started?
It was a natural process; I wanted to play in public and when you do that
hopefully someone pays you, it just moved on from there. What made me decide to
give my life to music and start making records, which was a conscious decision,
is a whole different story which many things contributed to.
BFBR: What are your preferred instruments at
present?
At the moment I am playing a hand-built Fine Resophonic single cone
wood-bodied resophonic guitar, a Fine Resophonic square-neck Tricone, a Holoubek
Dobro style guitar, a Dave King parlour guitar, a Dave King Electric guitar, the
12 string National Havana, a 1931 National Triolian and my old trusty cast
aluminum National lap steel.
BFBR: What are your views on the best types of instruments for your style
of music?
I do not believe that a resonator guitar is the ultimate blues guitar; they are
my favourite acoustics to play, but that does not mean they are for
everyone. Robert Johnson, Fred McDowell, Johnny Shines, Muddy Waters, Blind
Willie Johnson, Blind Willie McTell, none of those guys played Nationals. There
is a lot of romance and mythology surrounding National & Dobro guitars. These
days everyone who wants to play acoustic blues has to have a National or Dobro
style guitar, it has become part of the kit. It’s wonderful & in a small way I
contributed to help make them popular. But a resophonic guitar is not the only
acoustic guitar for a great slide guitar sound.
BFBR: If you could have any instruments you wanted
(past or present) what would they be?
After nearly thirty years of collecting and playing some of the most important
guitars in history, I would say that the list above pretty well covers that one.
Some more personal questions, about what makes you 'tick'
as an artist.
BFBR: Why do you think you are drawn to performing blues (or blues-based
material)?
I think I am drawn to playing blues for the reasons I have talked about earlier
in this interview; because blues is my natural music. It is what comes out of me
when I pick up a guitar. Through my childhood it dominated my taste & as a
musician, I have been playing blues & blues based/related music for nearly
thirty years. In saying that, I should also add that I am interested and closely
connected to other styles too. After all, we are in England and it is 2004 and
through my life I have enjoyed, been influenced by, and played a lot of
different styles.
BFBR: Pundits often express strong views on the
merits or value of contemporary artists performing 'covers' or 'interpretations'
of pre-war or
Chicago blues originals ("yet another Robert Johnson" etc) and or the artist's
own original material (blues-based or not). What are your current views
on this on-going debate?
I don't really see the point in recording or performing an exact replica of
someone else’s work. However, using the style of the ‘blues original’ to create
ones own original piece of work can be very interesting and very creative. I am
not saying that playing in an exact 1920s style is wrong, just impersonating
someone else’s work. In my own recent music I have worked with a palette of
traditional & well-worn styles to create an original and new blues sound. I
don’t think there is another blues album that sounds like Second Mind. I am sure
of one thing in this crazy business of trying to live from making music; you
gotta be yourself, whatever that is, is what will get you noticed. It ain’t what
you do….it’s the way that you do it!
BFBR: What do you think is your inner inspiration for writing and performing your own material or for conveying the emotional content of someone else's song?
I try not to analyze my own creativity too much. I try to flow with my
emotions and not be academic about it. I have learned to trust my creative
judgement and when something feels right, I stick with it.
BFBR: How do your new songs/material come about?
The past few albums have been a combination of my creative vision & music
mixed with Terry Clarke’s lyrics. I love Terry’s writing and we work very well
together. What comes out of that mixture of styles and tastes is unique. Second
Mind, my last album, was written in three weeks and recorded without rehearsing
the band. I don’t like to lose the moment, it is a bit like group photography;
there is a moment when everybody looks great and then for the rest of the day
someone is always blinking. Music is the same; you’ve got to catch it while it’s
still fresh. Depending on what I am doing, but for this kind of music I like to
record live. All the blues tracks on Second Mind were recorded live, very little
overdubbing, it ruins it.
BFBR: How do you feel your playing style has
developed since you began performing and more recently?
My playing style hasn’t changed that much, but I have become more
accomplished at doing it. As I get older I feel I just get better at doing it;
more relaxed, more controlled, more in control of my own playing. I like to go
back and re-learn things that I have been playing for years, when I listen to
Muddy Waters or Blind Willie Johnson these days, I hear it in a very different
way than how I heard it when I was learning. I now understand what I am
listening to and it is all clearer and easier for me to visualize. Age does have
some advantages, one of which is having over thirty years playing experience
behind you. These days when I hear other guitar players I don’t get impressed by
speed or virtuosity, it is the tone I am looking for. That’s it….tone & touch,
that is what I listen for in musicians. Tone & touch…plus creativity.
Thoughts on issues in performing blues (black music,
licensing, payments etc)
Shark infested waters. Nothing’s changed since those early days. What you read
about in books about the blues and country music, it still happens. Publishers &
record companies working in an industry that has no respect for its life-blood,
the artist.
BFBR: What are you views on playing in
UK (Europe/ The US) - the current scene & gigs?
I’ll play wherever they send me, as long as they pay me! I don’t pay that much
attention to the current scene. In the UK these days I play at a lot of arts
centres and small theatres, in other parts of the world there are more venues
that are music clubs and dancehalls. There are not many of those in the UK that
are interested in blues & roots music. Of course there is the Blue Front Blues
Room, tucked away in the Forest of Dean.
BFBR: How do you see the future for acoustic blues
('the scene')
As a world art form it will never go away, it really is here to stay and the
foundations that were laid in the twentieth century by blues musicians from the
20s, 30s, 40s & 50s, and rock & folk musicians from the 60s, 70s, 80s & 90s, are
here to stay. The White Stripes and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are shining examples of
that. On another level the acoustic guitar industry is bigger & better than ever
in its history. We are going through a second golden era of guitar making. Also
through technology more people than ever before can get to hear this music and
in turn they learn to play & create their own version.
BFBR: What advice would you pass on to players and
to 'amateur' and semi-pro performers? (Techniques, business-wise etc)
Techniques – Learn to play in your own way; don’t be dominated by tutorial DVDs,
books, classes & rules. Most of the great players made their own set of rules,
that is why they are different and have a cutting edge to their work. Too much
information going in too fast will amount to confusion. It is wonderful to be
surrounded by “the blues” at events like Blues Week at Exeter University, it is
one of the most enjoyable blues & music related holidays that anyone could wish
for, but it doesn’t make you learn faster.
BFBR: ? (Techniques, business-wise etc)
I think I have answered this part in earlier questions; if you are going to be
professional musician touring & recording, you really are swimming in shark
infested waters….and I am not joking.
BFBR: What music are you currently listening into?
CDs out on the table at the moment are:
Rob Ickes “Slide City”
Blue Highway “Midnight Storm”
Mark Knopfler “Ragpicker’s Dream”
Robert Johnson – Columbia compilation (it still blows me away every time I hear
it)
Chris Rea “Blue Guitars”
Beatles “Let It Be …..Naked”
Tampa Red – Catfish compilation
Rambling Thomas – Catfish compilation
Chaz Jankel – Zoom
Oscar Woods & Black Ace “Texas Slide Guitars”
Casey Bill Weldon – Catfish compilation.
BFBR: Where are you headed musically at present?
With my own slide playing I am heading in two directions at present; one is
heavily back into pre-war slide guitar blues. Yes I have once again become
obsessed with this amazing art-form. I get the bug every few years and then I
waver for a while and then I am back in there. The other direction is as a
traditional country Dobro player; I am having a great time and think I may have
been a closet-Dobro-player for the past twenty five years. In the late 1970s I
met and played with “Bashful” Brother Oswald at the Ryman auditorium in
Nashville & hung out and played with some of the greats of traditional country
music. Since then it has kind of been a burning desire that I have hinted at
here & there, but never really taken it on. It’s great, I love that very bluesy
area of old country music; people like the Stanley Brothers & Flatt & Scruggs
with Josh Graves on Dobro, Jimmie Rodgers playing blues, that’s very cool music.
I love Rob Ickes playing; he works under his own name and also plays with Blue
Highway. I spent some time with him in Slovakia a few years ago, we were going
to record an album together, but business considerations got in the way and it
never happened.
What are your current musical and career developments
(recent or planned CDs, tours, musical directions, collaborations, etc)?
In the Spring we are releasing a box-set comprising of my two Catfish albums,
King Guitar & Second Mind, plus a CD of back catalogue & unreleased material
from the vaults. As for my next album, I am currently in discussion with a new
company and do not want to say anything until everything is finalized.
Musically, I think that country blues fans will really like what we are
planning. Away from my music; we are planning to launch a range of MM slide
guitar accessories and will keep you posted about that.
Thank you for giving us these insights into you and your music.
It has been a pleasure. Shine On,
Michael Messer (January 2004)
For information on events at the Blue Front Blues Room
Phone: 01594-861151 Email:
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