044 - Big George Jackson – The Traditional Blues Sprit, Done Right [34:56m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

A1 Artist Spotlight.Com did a phone interview with Big George Jackson about his career as a blues singer & harp player. Listen to the interview of Big George Jackson and hear Big George Jackson songs on this podcast.
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Big George Jackson said he heard the blues while he was growing up from family members playing records. George’s dad played a little harmonica, which influenced George to play around with it a little while in his teens. It wasn’t until his mid twenties that he really started taking the harp seriously. Inspiration on playing the harp came from Sonny Boy Williamson, Walter Horton, Little Walter, Junior Parker, and Paul Butterfield. By his late twenties he was a sideman playing harp in several bands over the next seven or eight years. The first CD he made was with some friends in 1994 (Nothing Like The Rest) but this was not a blues CD. Big George finely started putting together his own blues bands, then around 1995 Big George put together the band he has now. They’ve put out three CDs on Black & Tan Records. He calls his style of blues traditional blues and tries to be really true to the spirit of the original music. Big George even said “When I write a song or do a song I have to actually ask myself is this a song I could have heard somebody like Muddy Waters doing or someone like Walter Horton or someone like Lazy Lester doing”. One of the songs on Southern In My Soul he found he was not in the traditional style so he had to change the song to be more traditional. A few years ago in Switzerland he met Lazy Lester, who asked Big George and his group to be his back up band for a few gigs. As a result the two of them have become good friends and still work together once in a while. Lazy Lester told Big George he should learn guitar. Big George has gotten so good he will be doing some of the guitar work on their next record.
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What drew me to Big George Jackson was his traditional style of blues with a very solid band as well as solid voice of Big George, plus great harp playing. These guys really work together to make the over all sound of the song the number one priority. Sonny Boy Williamson like others from the past have no depth (or high fidelity) in their music. I know this is not anyone’s fault. The recording equipment just was not that good then. For me it does take away from enjoying these records as much as I should. That’s one of the other things I really liked about The Big George Jackson Band. The songs were in a great traditional blues style, yet the sound quality was modern. To be honest I was confused when first hearing the songs. Was this an old or new blues artist I just discovered. As a Bob Dylan fan I love good stories in songs. The stories are good, plus he loves to tell stories before playing the song.
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The song “I’m A Big Man” starts off with a cool little talk about being big and something dumb someone says to him. There is good harp playing with a tight band. George said “Friday Evening” is about when he was young he would get paid on Friday then get all dressed up before going out on the town. There is very nice drum work that keeps this song running along. “Amtrek”, “St. Paul Girl” and “Big Shot” all tell good stories.
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I was very happy to hear their music is getting played on satellite radio. Their tours of Europe have done well also. Please call your local radio stations and request music by Big George Jackson. Don’t forget to go to Black & Tan Records as well as iTunes to bye CD’s by Big George Jackson. They’re working on a new CD that will probably be out around the end of the year (2008).
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Songs used in the podcast:
1. St. Paul Girl
2. Big Shot
3. Friday Evening
4. Amtrek
5. I’m A Big Man
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Harp Solo “The Daddy”
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Big George Jackson’s CD’s are all on Black & Tan Records
2003 - Southern In My Soul
2001 – Big Shot
1998 - Beggin Ain’t For Me
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Big George Jackson MySpace page
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George’s Record Co. is Black & Tan
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Thanks to Jan Mittendorp at Black & Tan records for setting up the interview and Big George Jackson for taking time to do the interview.
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