With nearly six decades of rich musical history behind him, including numerous albums, countless live performances, multiple awards and accolades, there are very few artists of the stature of Charlie Musselwhite. The legendary American artist hits our shores for a run of not-to-be-missed Australian dates in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra, Perth & Adelaide.
Grammy-Award winning Musselwhite will be bringing his excellent touring band with him for the tour – Kid Andersen on Guitar, June Core on Drums and Randy Bermudes on Bass.
We caught up with Charlie to talk about the tour, what keeps him going, an extremely interesting INXS fact and just how many harmonicas does he have stored away…
Sean: Good morning, Charlie. How are you?
Charlie: Better than I deserve. How are you?
Sean: I’m very well, thank you. Charlie, it’s Sean from The Rockpit over in Perth in Western Australia. It’s great to finally talk to you.
Charlie: My pleasure. Nice to talk with you too.
Sean: Well, it’s not long before we get to have you grace our wonderful shores with your live show. And it’s so nice to see that you’re going to be able to get to nearly every nook and cranny of Australia. It’s wonderful.
Charlie: Well, we’re really excited about it and looking forward to it. It’s been too long.
Sean: Of course, it’s been such a wonderful career and it doesn’t seem like there’s any chance of you slowing up yet by coming to visit us because we do kind of get left out being the other side of the world.
Charlie: Well, when you’re doing something you love, why quit? Or slow down. I’m feeling good, so I’m going to keep rolling.
Sean: Taking you right back, where was that first memories of your love of music for you? Where did that first inkling of wanting to do what you do for so many years, start?
Charlie: Well, it seemed like I always loved music, but I remember especially… Well, I used to live near where people farmed and they would sing while they worked and I didn’t know it was blues, but I just knew it was this, music was a sad feeling to it and it sounded like how I felt and it was comforting. It might have been sad, but it was also beautiful and comforting, the blues and people singing in the fields. And it just kind of wrapped itself around me and I really, I sought out more of that in records and on the radio and street singers in Memphis, I discovered too.
Sean: It’s a genre of music that I’ve grown to love more and more as I’ve got older. And there’s so many wonderful young players holding the torch aloft to keep the blues so vibrant and new as well.
Charlie: Oh yeah, I’m really excited about a lot of the young black performers that have discovered blues and they’re not guitar shredders or anything like that. They love the down home country blues and they’re playing the subtleties and they’re playing with the feeling and I’m talking about teenagers, it’s great.
Sean: Fantastic. So you’re bringing your band with you. I see we’ve got Kid Anderson on guitar. I don’t know much about Kid. What could you tell me about the band you’re bringing?
Charlie: Well, Kid is from Norway originally and he’s just a fabulous guitar player. He’s also one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. Great sense of humour. And Randy Bermudes, he’s on bass and he’s been with me for decades. And June Core. He’s a great drummer. June is short for Junior, it’s not a girl. And he’s been with me for decades too. So I’ve known all these guys a really long time. We played together for many years. And we just resonate together musically and as friends too. It’s a real tight band and they just back me up so well. It’s a lot of fun for us. We have so much fun on stage. The audience can’t help but have fun.
Sean: And that’s always the secret to music, isn’t it? Engaging everyone in the room. And I’m sure there’s going to be many, many people that are just itching to come and see you come and play on this tour.
Charlie: Well, bring your dancing shoes. If you like to dance, this is dancing music. Or if you’re really talented, you can listen too at the same time [laughs].
Sean: Well, we’ve got you at the beautiful Astor Theatre here in Perth. Which is a wonderful art deco theatre in the heart of North Perth. I was only there last week. It’s got the most incredible sound system in there as well. It’s beautiful and clear. So it’ll complement everything you guys are going to be doing up on stage.
Charlie: That’s wonderful. We love those old theatres and we love Perth too.
Sean: So obviously still being such a young man, what does the future hold with blues music for you as a musician? And band leader yourself?
Charlie: Oh, a ton of money [laughs]. Not really. Sometimes people ask me, why do they want to play blues? I tell them for the money, which is a joke. Because, you know, the blues players are the low man on the totem pole. But it’s just, you know, playing the blues and seeing people smiling and enjoying it and dancing or whatever is so rewarding. It’s just really. It fills something in your heart to be able to bring your music to people and perform for them and see them enjoying it. How good can it get? You know, be able to do something you love to make a living that way.
Sean: I was doing a little bit of research the other night and I interviewed a guy the other week called Andrew Farriss. As you well know, Andrew was the main co-writer with Michael Hutchence for INXS. But one thing I didn’t realise was that it was you playing on ‘Suicide Blonde’.
Charlie: Yeah, that was me [laughs]. I was on a tour years ago, and I get a call in my hotel room. And somebody said, “We know you’re coming to Sydney and we’re recording and we’d like to know if you’d like to come down to the studio.” And I said, “Well, sure.” I’m actually on more than just one tune on that album. But actually, I think the way they did it, they sampled for that tune and they sampled the harmonica and Andrew played it through his keyboard.
Sean: Oh, wow. I never knew that. Of course, Andrew has taken on a completely different genre now. He’s gone into country music, which is so very different to the massive hits they had as a sort of global pop rock band.
Charlie: Well, whatever works [laughs].
Sean: So I see you’ve got a few gaps in between the dates. So, do you get to have a look around Australia for a little bit?
Charlie: Oh, yeah, it’s always interesting and fun. And we have a lot of friends there from over the years of touring. And we’re just so excited to be there.
Sean: Charlie, can I just ask you a couple of general questions please? Because of your huge knowledge of music and the years that you’ve been going, if you could invite three musicians past or present to join you for dinner, who would you have sit with you?
Charlie: Charlie Patton would be one. And my old friend John Lee Hooker. And my old friend Muddy Waters. But there’s a ton more out there too.
Sean: This is the first time we could probably book you the whole restaurant, Charlie. And you could fill the whole place.
Charlie: Oh, gosh. Okay, let’s do that [laughs]. If I could go back in time, you know, back in a time machine, I’d love to go back and see Charlie Patton in his prime. That would be a real thrill for me. He was the King of the country.
Sean: Obviously, you keep yourself very busy still playing music. But do you get to sit down and listen still much to music? I mean, what would have been the last album you listened to?
Charlie: Well, gosh, right here in Clarksdale, Mississippi, where I live, is live music every night. And there’s guys playing on the street. There’s guys playing in clubs. There’s festivals coming up. This weekend, we have the Sunflower River Blues and Gospel Festival. And I’ll just be roaming around and listening to people. And then next week, we have a festival. We have Red’s Old Timers Blues Festival, which I want to play at since I’m an old timer. So there’s so much music just right here in the Delta. The blues is alive and well in the Delta.
Sean: What a wonderful place. I’d love to come and visit there one day. I’ve still never been to the States and the Delta and obviously Nashville are places I’d love to visit with the history.
Charlie: We’ll be waiting for you. We’ll leave the light on. [laughs] We’ll be waiting for you.
Sean: Thank you [laughs]. Charlie, probably the hardest question of the interview. If you could be credited with writing any song ever written, what song would you wish you’d written?
Charlie: Christo Redemptor.
Sean: Yeah, I had that on this morning.
Charlie: In a way, I kind of own it in a kind of a way because I’ve played it probably a thousand times. And it still feels fresh to me. It never gets stale. It always feels new somehow. It’s really got some magic to it.
Sean: I’ve got to ask how many over the years, how many harmonicas have you collected in your collection?
Charlie: Well, I have no idea. I probably have several hundred laying around right now. But over the years, it’s probably several thousand. I’ve never counted.
Sean: Incredible. I suppose there’s a suitcase alone dedicated to them for the airplane.
Charlie: Oh, I have an attaché case I carry with when I’m traveling. But downstairs, I have boxes and boxes of old harmonicas left over from the days when I was a kid. I was so poor that I had to keep tuning up harmonicas instead of getting a new one. And so I still keep them. And occasionally I give them away at shows to people and people get a thrill out of that. Or I’ll sign them for people or give them away at a, you know, something kind of where they’re trying to raise money or something.
Sean: That’s wonderful. Well, Charlie, it’s not long. September the 18th, you hit our shores. We’ll make sure we put all the dates up and the links to the tickets because I can’t stress how much to all our readers to get out to see these shows. It’s wonderful to have you back. We can’t wait to see you at Perth.
Charlie: It’s wonderful for me, too. Believe me. Really excited.
Sean: Charlie, thank you so, so much for your time. Have a lovely weekend. We look forward to seeing you in September.
Charlie: I look forward to meeting you there.
Sean: Safe travels and thanks again Charlie.
Charlie: Thank you. I’ll see you there.
