Lots of guys are out there playing the blues
— just check the weekly local bar listings, listen to TV
commercials, or check out the neighborhood kid. But only a few of
the musicians who’ve played with the creators of the modern
electric blues are still alive and pickin’.
John Primer began playing guitar as a young
boy in his birthplace of Mississippi, the original home of the
blues. In 1963, following the well-worn musician path, he headed
north for the new blues mecca of Chicago. There, Primer experienced
the transition of the rural acoustic blues into the urban electric
blues prevalent in the nightclubs of the big city. After 10 years
of band-hopping, he landed a house gig at Theresa’s Lounge, a
popular South Side bar, in 1974. Over the next five years he would
work with several originators of the new Chicago blues sound.
Now-famous players such as Lonnie Brooks, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy,
and Sammy Lawhorn were then working the clubs, developing their own
styles within the framework of the blues.
Primer was in the thick of it in 1979, when
Willie Dixon, the great songwriter and bassist who had more to do
with American rock & roll than most anyone will ever know,
recruited the triple-threat musician into Dixon’s
world-traveling Chicago All-Stars.
Next on the Mississippi Kid’s mentor list
was none other than the voice of popular blues, Muddy Waters. The
original hoochie coochie man used Primer as a band member and opening
act. After Waters’ death in 1983, Primer found work with yet
another blues legend, spending the next 14 years working with Magic
Slim and the Teardrops.
Finally in 1995 the sideman stepped into the
spotlight with his now out-of-print major-label debut, The Real Deal, on Code
Blue a division of Atlantic Records. Since then he has released
several recordings, each a statement of traditional electric
Chicago-style blues, featuring original songs, works of
contemporary blues artists, and plenty of standards from the hearts
and souls of past masters. As for playing music live, need you ask?
The venerable blues master performs several shows a month in
Chicago and travels to blues festivals in the summer, continuing
the work he started more than 40 years ago.
The Illinois Central Blues Club presents blues
legend John Primer, 9 p.m.-1 a.m. Saturday, April 30, at Starship
Billiards, 2301 Stevenson Dr., 217-585-8888.
This article appears in Apr 28 – May 4, 2005.
