Hear the Chris Duarte interview and songs from his latest CD Vantage Point.
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Chris Duarte was born in 1963 in San Antonio, Texas. Growing up Chris enjoyed most things kids like, such as sports and music. When he started playing around with his brother’s guitar, Chris found he was a quick learner and picked songs up fast. Later his mother bought him his own guitar, a steel string acoustic. He moved to Austin, Texas when he was 16. Chris said he had the young man’s desire to learn to play a lot of notes real fast but did not having much substance to what he was playing. He was playing Jazz-Fusion at the time with stuff like Al di Meola. This is a style of music he still enjoys to this day. Unfortunately with a career in blues-rock he doesn’t get to play this much. One song, “Woodpecker,” on his current CD Vantage Point is kind of in that style. Later Chris got into Bobby Mack and Night Train, a popular blues-soul band in the Austin area. Jimmy Pate the drummer for Night Train really taught Chris a lot about the blues. Chris said he felt naked on stage doing slow blues numbers because he was not use to having space between all the notes he was playing. Learning to replace a lot of fast notes with feelings and emotion in the notes he did play was a big step forward. Eventually Chris was working in three bands at the same time in order to further his craft as well as to pay the rent. Some of the Texas bands Chris Duarte has worked in over the years have been Bobby Mack and Night Train, The Diana Cantu Band, The Bad Boys, Breno & The Bad Boys, later called Chris Duarte & The Bad Boys, and finally Junior Medlow & The Bad Boys. Not only was he bouncing around in different bands, but the styles of music were changing too. One night it might be blues, another night jazz, and on then others soul. This all helped Chris become a better guitarist, songwriter and singer. In the early nineties Chris started touring beyond the Texas borders with a new band called the Chris Duarte Group. They played Buddy Guy’s Legends in Chicago. Each time getting much larger crowds. An A&R guy heard the band and signed them to make a record. In 1994 they put out their first record, Texas Sugar. Chris says it is still the record most people think of when they hear his name. Since then he has put out about seven records as the Chris Duarte Group. Chris also works with a Japanese band called Bluestone. Chris says the Duarte Group is more of an improvisation blues-rock band. Chris Duarte & Bluestone have their parts all laid out. Every January he goes over to Japan to play with Bluestone. Then in September they come over here to tour with Chris.

The songs played in this week’s show are from the Chris Duarte Group’s most recent record Vantage Point. This is a high-energy blues-rock record with a lot of great songs. Chris said “Troubles On Me” is a major blues song and it’s his nod to Stevie Ray Vaughan, it’s the kind of song he would have done. The lyrics are for a friend who has had a drug problem that he just can’t seem to shake off. Chris said he wrote “Satisfy” in about thirty minutes one morning just lying in bed. Hearing the song you would never think it was written that easily. One of my favorite songs is the four-minute “Blow Your Mind”. Then near the end of the CD is a different five-minute version, very cool. “Let’s Have A Party” is a fun song that he has been playing since around the early nineties. I know Chris is probably tired of hearing this, but if you’re a fan of Stevie Ray Vaughan you will love his music. Below is a link to where you can buy his records. Don’t miss him on tour with the Chris Duarte Group, and also later this summer as Chris Duarte & Bluestone. You will have a great time, I sure did.

Songs in the podcast
The End of Me and You
The Best I Can Do
Blow Your Mind
Let’s Have a Party

Chris Duarte’s Website

Chris Duarte’s MySpace

Chris Duarte’s You Tube

Please add a link to this interview on Wikipedia’s Chris Duarte page.

Buy Chris Duarte Group’s Vantage Point & other CD’s from his website.

Other places to buy Chris Duarte Group’s Vantage Point
I would like to thank Chris for taking time after his long drive home to do this interview.

Thanks also to Karen for getting everything set up.
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Blues Music and Interviews
A1Blues.Com
formerly A1 Artist Spotlight. Com
by A1 Mark

Hear Pierre Lacocque talk about his band Mississippi Heat and their marvelous CD Hattiesburg Blues.
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Pierre Lacocque (La-coke) was born in 1952 while his parents were living in Israel. His father was an Old Testament Christian Theologian studding in Jerusalem. His parents were from Belgium, but they moved around quite a bit. From Israel to Germany to France to Belgium. By the age of six he had moved several times. Pierre felt he didn’t fit in, and had a sense of loneliness and sadness at an early age. He feels this was probably a result of never having roots in any one place. When the family moved to Chicago in 1969 Pierre went for a walk one night. Heard some music playing at the University of Chicago’s Ida Noyes building so he went inside. He was awestruck by the music he was hearing, it was like a religious experience. Big Walter Horton was the artist that was playing that night, but it was not so much Big Walter Horton that effected Pierre as it was the blues music he was playing. The very next day he went out to buy a harmonica. The blues becomes an obsession for him to read about , listen to, and most importantly to play.

After playing for only six months, Junior Wells let Pierre sit in with him. He felt that Junior giving him his blessing as a harp player as well as giving Pierre a few of his harps. Pierre play in a few bands through the early to mid seventies, but he started felling sadder and sadder as he played. This led him to quit playing music for about ten years. During this time he got married, raised a family, and studied psychology, and publishing professional articles and even a book. About this time emptiness started coming into his life. After much soul-searching Pierre found he longed to play music once again.

After playing in a few different bands he formed Mississippi Heat in 1991. This Chicago style blues band has put out eight CD’s since 1993. Their current CD is Hattiesburg Blues with special guest guitarist Lurrie Bell and Carl Weathersby. When first listening to Hattiesburg Blues, I was impressed with the first four or five songs but figured they put all their best songs at the beginning of the CD. By the time I reached the eighth or ninth song, I was amazed they were still all very good. By the thirteenth and last song “Nature Is Cryin’,” I was crying for more. If you like the blues of Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Willie Dixon, Howlin’ Wolf, and Jimmy Rogers your going to love Hattiesburg Blues. Whether it’s the up beat “Tiger Man”, the slow blues of “Forgot You Had A Home”, the soulful vocals of Inetta Visor on “Soft-Hearted Woman”, or Pierre’s great harp playing on everything, this CD delivers great music. Then there are the two Latin blues songs (Yea, I know it’s not Chicago, but wait till you hear it) “How Much Worse Can It Be?” and “Calypso in Blue”. The latter kind of reminds me of one of Santana’s beautiful blues songs. Then when Carl Weathersby comes in on guitar you’re wowed. In fact Carl’s solos on the six songs he’s on are so good I’m going to try and get a hold of him to be on the show. Lurrie Bell plays lead guitar and sings on two songs. That’s another thing that’s really nice. Pierre not only has lead vocalist Inetta Visor who does a really good job, but four other artist sing on Hattiesburg Blues. You never get bored. There is always something different coming up. Pierre Lacocque wrote or co-wrote almost all of the songs. The only thing I had trouble with was picking what songs not to play. I’d like to play them all. After you’re done listening to the show check the links below as to where you can buy this great CD. Keep the blues alive, buy a blues CD, Mississippi Heat Hattiesburg Blues.

Songs played in the podcast:
Tiger Man
Hattiesburg Blues
Light from Within
Calypso in Blue

Mississippi Heat Website

Mississippi Heat MySpace

Buy Mississippi Heat’s Hattiesburg Blues at the CD Baby Website

Buy Mississippi Heat’s One Eye Open – Live at Rosa’s Lounge at the CD Baby Website

Blues Music and Interviews
A1Blues.Com
formerly A1 Artist Spotlight. Com
By A1 Mark

Hear Bob Koester the founder of Delmark Records talk about what he likes most, music, his passion.
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Bob Koester was born in the early thirties and grew up in Wichita, Kansas. He had a love for jazz of the twenties but had trouble finding the artists he was looking for. The record companies weren’t reissuing older records. Bob found what he wanted in secondhand stores or buying some ones collection then selling off what he didn’t want. By the time he went to St. Louis University in Missouri he was wheeling and dealing records. First out of his dormitory room, then out of Record Changer magazine. Later he opened a store. Around this same time the St. Louis Jazz Club was starting up and Bob became a founding member. Bob made a lot of contacts through the St. Louis Jazz Club, both for selling his records as well as meeting artists he would latter want to record. Bob got to be well known in St. Louis. He even joked that Big Joe Williams heard about Bob looking for blues artists to record and showed up at the door. Bob jokes “I didn’t discover Big Joe Williams, Big Joe discovered Bob Koester”. He was getting to know who’s who of the St. Louis jazz and blues world. People like Speckled Red, The Windy City Six, Henry Brown, Mary Johnson, J.D. Short and Walter Davis. In the early fifties Bob was starting to record artists like The Windy City Six who were really from St. Louis. He also started buying masters of artists from different record companies. After getting all the masters of Blind Lemon’s recordings from Paramount he decided to move to Chicago where everything was at. In 1958 he closed his record store in St. Louis and opened it in Chicago. The store has moved several times over the years as a result of expanding size. The Jazz Record Mart is at 27 East Illinois in Chicago, Illinois and they are world’s largest Jazz and Blues Record Store.

Bob not only owns a record store (Jazz Record Mart) and he also has Delmark, the recording company. Delmark has had artists like Junior Wells, Magic Sam, Sleepy John Estes, Mississippi Heat, Big Joe Williams, Jimmy Dawkins, Little Arthur Duncan, Otis Rush, Dave Specter, Byther Smith (hear show on Byther Smith ), Buddy Guy and many many more. Bob said Junior Wells’ Hoodoo Man Blues was their biggest seller year in and year out.

This week on the show, Bob Koester is going to be telling us about some of the great artists that are on Delmark’s record 55 Years of Blues. The CD contains 17 tracks of different artist on the first disc and 10 DVD tracks on the second disc. There are so many songs by different artists I’ve chosen to do the show different this week. Instead of playing just four or five songs I’ve decided this week to play only clips of the songs this way you will be able to hear over half of this wonderful CD. The last few weeks of listening to 55 Years of Blues has been a real joy. Finding old blues artists that I was not aware of has been a blast. People like Sleepy John Estes, Bonnie Lee, Detroit Jr. and Willie Kent. This is a CD you will most definitely want to add to your collection. It’s also a good way of finding new artists you may like to own a whole CD of. It worked for me yesterday. I pick up Shirley Johnson’s Killer Diller and Legend of Sleepy John Estes.

Song clips you will hear in the show are:
Junior Wells – Little by Little
Big Joe Williams – Coffeehouse Blues
Sleepy John Estes – I Ain’t Gonna Sell It
J.B. Hutto – Evening Train
Shirley Johnson – Not for the Love of You
Detroit Jr. – Call My Job
Jimmy Dawkins – Feel So Bad
Bonnie Lee – Baby What You Want Me to Do
Roosevelt Sykes – Fine & Brown
Otis Rush – Please Love Me
Magic Sam – I Don’t Want No Woman

Go to buy Delmark – 55 Years of Blues

Delmark Record’s Website

Jazz Record Mart Website (the recorded store)

Delmark Recordeds MySpace
I’d like to thank Bob Koester for taking time out of his many jobs to talk to me.
Thanks to Kevin Johnson for setting everything up.

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Blues Music and Interviews
A1Blues.Com
formerly A1 Artist Spotlight. Com
by  A1 Mark

Hear Dean Mueller of the The Insomniacs talk about their new Delta Groove CD At Least I’m Not With You.
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Well it’s that time of the year again, when a lot of blues bands are putting out their new CD’s to get ready for the festival season. In past weeks we’ve heard new CD’s by Jason Ricci & New Blood, Alvin Jett & the Phat Noiz Blues Band and this week it’s The Insomniacs with their second CD At Least I’m Not With You. This is, for the most part, a traditional fifties electric blues band. They even use older instruments such as a 1951 Fender “Nocaster” guitar and a 1964 Framus Star Bass. To give the music a warmer more authentic sound, they of course use tub amps. All this would be pointless if it wasn’t for ability of the members of The Insomniacs to play the blues they love so much. Vyasa Dodson is the singer and guitarist for the band, and he has also written about half of the songs on the CD. Vyasa and bass guitarist Dean Mueller both played in a rockabilly band, when it broke up. Vyasa wanted to start his own band. He found Dave Melyan, the drummer, who in turn found Alix Shaker, the keyboard player. Vyasa asked Dean to play in the band, until they could find another bass player. Dean was very busy at the time with studio work, producing, and some engineering, but liked playing with Vyasa so he agreed. They started rehearsals around the early part of 2006. By June they started recording their first CD in Dean’s home studio, and then in October of 2006 the CD came out. The CD was only released regionally, until Delta Grove heard it and released it internationally on their label, with a few extra songs and new artwork.

At Least I’m Not With You was recorded in a day and half, with just a few things added in later. These were songs the band had been playing on the road for quit a while. The sound is up beat and fun with great hooks. “Lonesome” is a fast pace song with guest Al Blake on harp, Alex’s Hammond B3 organ sounds really good too. “Directly from My Heart to You” is up beat with a really big, full sound. “Description Blues” starts off laid back, but it too ends up taking off. Alex’s Hammond B3 organ and Vyasa’s lead guitar both stand out hear. As you will hear in the show the songs can vary quit a bit with “Root Beer Float” and “Angry Surfer” probably being the most different while the other three in the show being more the norm. Blues lovers will truly love this whole record they really did an out standing job on At Least I’m Not With You.

Songs played in the show:
Maybe Sometime Later
Root Beer Float
At Least I’m Not with You
Angry Surfer
She Can Talk

The Insomniacs MySpace page & tour listing

More about The Insomniacs at Delta Grove Productions

Buy At Least I’m Not With You at Delta Grove Productions

Check out other great blues music at Delta Grove Productions

Thanks to Dean Mueller for taking time on his one day off for this interview.
Thanks also to Jody Best for all her help in making this happen.

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Blues Music and Interviews
A1Blues.Com
formerly A1 Artist Spotlight. Com
by A1 Mark