"Alvin Youngblood Hart's grasp of the idioms, tone,
humor, irony, joy and breadth of the Afro-American acoustic music tradition is
extraordinary.
That alone is reason enough for celebration. But better yet and most exciting is that he
is young and still growing." --Taj Mahal
Alvin Youngblood Hart is a really big guy. At six foot six with a shaggy beard and
dreadlocks, it's particularly hard to imagine him as the small child pictured in the liner
notes of his CD, exploring music for the first time, plunking on a little Bugs Bunny
ukulele with rubber bands for strings and running around the woods of Mississippi.
But that's how he started, staying with his grandmother, who
he called "Big Mama," and soaking in the blues he heard in the Mississippi
country around Clarksville.
At only 35 years old, Hart is embarking on new territory, with a debut album out on Okeh
Records, "Big Mama's Door." Mentored by none other than Taj Mahal and Joe Louis
Walker, Hart's musical style draws heavily on classic country blues. His first album, is
filled with original songs as well as traditional covers and features a dedication to the
late country bluesman--and Hart's Oakland neighbor--the great Brownie McGhee.
Alvin Youngblood Hart has truly captured his trademark style of country blues through a
lifelong love of the music. His style is so authentic that he's been described as sounding
"like he's been dead for 40 years." He just returned from playing 31 dates
across the country with Mickey Hart, his first major tour to promote "Big Mama's
Door." We spoke with Alvin during a respite between gigs in his hometown of Berkeley,
California.
You have quite a vintage guitar collection, and I hear that you and your wife are
into repair and restoration. How did you get into that?
I got into it when I was in the Coast Guard over in Marin County. I came over to Berkeley
and started hanging out in a particular guitar store that had a repair shop in the back.
The owner showed me about repairing guitars and I got into it. I met my wife Heidi there;
she was working in the same guitar store. She came over from Switzerland and excelled in
guitar repair, was better than anyone else. So we decided to start our own junk guitar
business. And in the past three years or so we have been doing the flea market thing,
looking for guitars to restore. There's no such thing as a "wall hanger;" most
guitars can be restored.
When did you learn to play guitar?
From the time I was about 9 years old there was always a guitar in my house. My older
brother tried to play it, and from when I was 9 to about 14, I'd pick up the guitar for
maybe one week a year and try to play it until I broke all the strings....playing whatever
I could get away with. I didn't even know how to tune it! I'd try to put a glass on
it and make that slide sound, you know. I saw Roy Clark doing it on "Hee Haw"
with a drinking glass and thought that was pretty interesting. But when I was 15 I really
decided to learn how to play. Once I learned how to tune it I played along with my
records. I had my mom's 8-track tape of "The Best of Jimmy Reed." That had a
pretty profound influence on me.
So your parents were into music? Did what they listen to influence you?
My dad listened to the radio, back in the 30s and 40s. My parents' B.B. King records is
sort of what got me into it. During the 50s my dad was more into jazz, but definitely
being where my parents come from has a lot to do with all of it. I guess you could say if
I hadn't have come from that background, I wouldn't be into this. I'm pretty sure I
probably wouldn't, but being that I did, it had a big effect on me.
My dad told me about the radio shows he used to listen to,
and that's where I got the idea for "Joe Friday." A lot of people think I wrote
that song because of the television show, but it's not from there. It's from the radio
show my dad told me about. Some of the magazines are saying that I'm not afraid to bring
modern subjects into my music using that song as an example, but it wasn't because of the
television "Dragnet." (Laughs) I guess that TV show's older than I am, anyway,
so even that isn't too modern.
It's hard to imagine you today as that little boy pictured in your CD liner notes.
I hear you started playing guitar on a Bugs Bunny ukulele?
(Laughs) Yeah, that was what I was doing in the 60s. I wonder what happened to that Bugs
Bunny guitar, maybe I can find another one but it would probably cost $200 bucks or
something. Vintage toys are priced worse than guitars. I saw a Beatles Yellow Submarine
lunchbox a while back for $150!
When did you start hanging out and playing with important blues musicians?
In high school in Chicago, and afterward. I played in Chicago with some of those guys who
would probably still be playing if they hadn't gotten rid of that whole Maxwell Street
scene there. If you bought the guys a drink back then, they'd let you sit in for a couple
of songs.
How did you end up in northern California?
In those days I was in the Coast Guard and still had quite a bit of time to go with it. I
was in for seven years. I kept listening and playing because it was fun, having a good
time, felt I was progressing a little bit, learning how to play. That's when I took the
job at the guitar store in Berkeley.
I met Joe Louis Walker in the guitar store. We exchanged phone numbers and he invited me
to play some solo gigs he had. The first gig I played with him was at a private dinner
party for some magazine guys--me and Joe and Henry Oden. That was a lot of fun. A couple
times a year he'd do a solo gig at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, and he'd have me
open the show, and then I'd sit in with him.
You've dedicated your record to Brownie McGhee. How did you know Brownie?
Well, living over in the Oakland area long enough in the blues community, it's just a
matter of time; you were bound to meet Brownie. He'd been at a couple shows I played, they
had a birthday show for him at Yoshi's and I played there, that was sort of a big thrill
where it kind of hit me: here I am playing for a guy I used to listen to in my room. He
lived about 8 blocks from where I used to live and I'd walk over to his house now and
then, he'd talk about the places he'd been, the music. I mostly liked to listen to when he
first went to New York City and met Lead Belly. One time I sat over there for four hours,
just listening to him tell it.
I wanted to have Brownie come and play piano on the record, but at the time we started
making it, we got word that Brownie was sick, so we didn't mess with it anymore. (Editor's
note: McGhee died on February 17, 1996.)
I noticed you do a couple of cowboy-related tunes ... do you listen at all to old
Western music or any of the other really old slide guitar, like the acoustic Hawaiian
music?
You mean like Bob Wills and stuff? Sure, I listen to that music all the time. My listening
goes anywhere, pretty much. It's just mostly early recorded guitar music, whether it's the
blues or whatever, Mexican music, Hawaiian music, I'm really into Mexican cowboy music.
Do you think young black people have turned their backs on this kind of blues? The
blues audiences around here seem to be mostly white people.
Actually I'd really don't find that happening. It's the older people, it's really more the
people my parents' age who are weird about it. I had a gig up in Portland with Bobby Bland
and all the older black people my parents age were all wanting to hear him. I was up there
playing and one old lady said to my wife "How much longer is he gonna be on? Do you
mean you have to listen to this shit for fifteen more minutes?" (Laughs) Actually I
find more that the younger people who go to the shows are really supportive of it, really
supportive of the music.
When I play for people who I don't think know what's going on with the music, I try to
play something for them to dance to, but it's hard to get people to dance. Sixty years ago
people used to dance all night long!
Do you have any suggestions for people just starting to listen to country blues?
It can be a bit intimidating or confusing to some people.
Well, people shouldn't be afraid of the old music. They shouldn't be afraid of old
records. I was an objector to CDs--I was an LP person because I liked having the big
picture there. But the one good thing about CDs is it makes it easier for people who
wouldn't necessarily want to go through the whole LP shopping thing to get this kind of
music. Now there are all kinds of labels putting out the old 78s on CDs, and they're
really easy to get. Don't be afraid of the old records, with the pops and scratches.
There's some really great music to be heard. In old days, people were just better
musicians, because they didn't have anything else to do. Like Lead Belly, what else was he
gonna do, with no TV or anything. When you were done with work, you just played music.
Where do you see yourself going from here? How do you think your music is going to
grow?
I don't know...as far as I always thought about it, I never thought it was any fad or
anything. I was living in Southern California for a while and hanging out with the blues
community and played my kind of music and they just didn't connect up with it at all, and
they are supposed to be blues people.
I guess I don't see myself as part of a mission. I'm just playing the music I love. I
guess I could say I see myself as a "life student."
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