Meet The Scene

Tuesday, 02 February 2010 05:06 Written by -Ian Uriel Girdley

When you think of the blues you might picture
a sweaty, tin-roof bar off a dusty road, petite girls slowly swinging their hips in faded sundresses to the sultry, suffering sound of a harmonica played by an old black man in a worn snakeskin hat, a lifetime of woes written in the wrinkles on his face. You probably would not think of Adam Riggle, a smiley twenty-nine year old with blonde dreadlocks and a red beard, sipping water in the smoke-free barroom of the Hideaway in Louisville. He dresses the part, with a ragged flannel shirt, blue jeans, and plain brown shoes, but is somewhat soft-spoken with a mellow demeanor, not the vision of the blues anyone would expect. Once he takes the stage, though, you will be surprised. Adam screams out the lyrics with the graveled voice of a street-corner preacher, eyes squeezed tight and his face contorting to the different pains that inspire his music; you get the feeling, though, that he prefers to let his guitar do the preaching.  He is intimate with the instrument like with a long time lover who knows you well enough to finish your sentences.  His fingers hit the strings, release each note on his brown Les Paul to bellow the pains that have been passed down through the ages, beautifully succinct, but somehow free.  The contortions of his face change as if with new memories of scorned lovers and tragic losses.  His face is red.  Sweat drips from the wrinkles of his forehead, down his cheeks to rest in his beard or on the floor of the stage.  But, as he swings his head from side to side with each chord change, his dreads dance around, paradoxically happy and sad, and you know that he is having a good time, that this is what he lives for. His drummer plays enthusiastically, ecstatically.  He hits the skins with his whole body. Like a happy marionette, both of his legs bounce up and down synced to the swing of his arms, hitting his Tama set to keep the backbeat.  James Warfield, Adam's right hand man, finishes out the Mississippi Adam Riggle Band as bass player, keeping rhythm with a gentle sway and under-exaggerated stage presence.

The music is heartfelt and powerful enough that it would make a crowd flail around or seize on the floor in the spirit of the music.  But the January rain has kept most would-be audience members at home.  A few people are scattered around the tables, sipping on a selection of beers, swaying to the rhythm and clapping appreciatively loud between songs.  Even through the emptiness of the room there is something genuine about the music, something that makes it real.  You feel that, if you closed your eyes, you could be in a smoky juke joint in Clarksdale, Mississippi, listening to that old-timer tell his tales of sorrow as his guitar echoes with long woeful moans between shallow breaths.

This authenticity shouldn’t be surprising, though.  Adam has been visiting Mississippi blues venues since he was eleven years old and playing them since thirteen.  He is a protégé of Wesley “Mississippi June Bug” Jefferson, and has stood beside a slew of other blues artists around the country on stage, including Sam Carr and Big Jack Johnson. He learned everything he could about the blues from reading books and listening to recordings at a young age, then was able to experience, and even take part in, the blues scene after joining his father on a business trip to Mississippi where he met some of the blues players he would come to idolize.  Throughout the years he has played in blues festivals around the country, but keeps close to his hometown of Jeffersonville by playing shows in Louisville clubs like Stevie Ray’s House of Blues, the Hideaway, and the Lounge. At the moment, the band doesn’t have a place to rehearse, so they pretty much just rehearse on stage.  This sort of jamming is what the blues seems to be about, but you couldn’t tell that they hadn’t polished up their set before arriving. The music sounds raw but flawless.  You almost forget you are in Louisville because the music seems so organic, like a native Delta plant flourishing in foreign soil.  In between sets, the drummer, Lenny Popp tells me they don’t always play the songs the same way; Adam doesn't always play the songs the same way. He explains, “Adam just gives me a look, and I sort of know what he is going to do.”

Even with the small crowd on a Thursday night at the Hideaway, there seems to be a passion in the air, or at least in the music.  Adam tells me that the size of the crowd can affect how good a show is, but “a crowd of five people can be better than fifty if they are really into it.” I leave with a desire to see the band again and the hope that I will learn as much about the blues from listening to his music as I did from sitting down to talk with him before the show.

TheLocalSounds.net: There is almost an adage, or at least a preconception, that white men can’t play the blues.  What draws you to the blues and where do you draw your inspiration for your music?

Adam Riggle: Well, probably the feeling, because before it was ever a music it was a feeling.  It’s like that thing.  People that can really play the blues never really try they just kind of picked up a few chords, picked up a few rudiments of whatever instrument they wanted to play and used that to express the feeling that was inside them; that was the blues, you know.  And to me, that’s what the essence of music is, to express that thing inside of you that you can’t say in words.  It’s like, you know, when BB King hits a note and throws his head back that’s saying something that you could never say with a thousand lyrics.

TLS: In all of your pictures you are always smiling, as you are right now.  Is blues supposed to be that happy?

AR:  Well, yeah.  Well they say you see me laughing—I’m laughing just to keep from crying.  No, you gotta be thankful because blues players are always kind of—it’s better to be playing than to be working out in a field or working in a restaurant or anything, so you better be happy.

TLS: How did you get started in the blues?

AR:I started going down to Mississippi because my father was really supportive of me.  I wanted to learn the blues, and I wanted to see all of the places I heard about in the songs, stuff like that, so he took me down there.  We started to meet some people, got to know some people, so it got to be that I started to spend some time down there.  It got to be that it felt like a second home to me.

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TLS: How did you transition into the local music scene in Louisville?

AR:Well, before I played I used to sit around and listen to the CD’s.  I love the music so I used to hang out at this record store in Jeffersonville.  I was probably thirteen, fourteen years old and I would talk the owners ear off, you know, about music and wanting to play music and this and that, and he hooked me up with a harmonica player that was local around town, and we just started jamming from there and do gigs at coffee shops because I was too young to get into bars. From there it just evolved.  You meet more people and learn different styles and just grow.  Always try to grow.

That was always me being in somebody else’s band, and finally I got to the point where I was like, I’m not going to be in anybody else’s band anymore, I’m going to be in my own band, and you people are going to play what I want.  It’s a lot easier that way.  That’s another reason I’m smiling.  I don’t have to deal with the attitudes no more.

TLS: You’ve played with a lot of big name blues artists and in a lot of blues festivals, even billing yourself on your MySpace page as one of the premier delta blues bands.  Do you think that you’ve made it, or it there more you want to accomplish?

AR: I don’t think you’ll ever make it in the blues, you know.  Even Muddy Waters and people who were most famous, when they weren’t playing over in England or something, they were playing for fifteen people in a club in Chicago for fifteen dollars.  The blues isn’t about making it, it’s about getting through another night—making a little bit of money and making sure you’re happy, making sure everybody’s happy, and forgetting your troubles for one night.  That’s where it came from, you know.  The people that got famous off the blues are people like the Rolling Stones and the Beatles and stuff like that, and they’ve already took those songs and made them famous.  It’s not going to happen again.  So, that little moment where people could get famous and rich off the blues has kind of passed.

TLS: Do you think you’ve made it as far as the blues goes?  Is there more you want to do?

AR: I just want to keep playing and keep being blessed with meeting the musicians I’ve met and learning from the people I’ve learned from and things like that.

TLS: Who is your favorite person you’ve played with?

AR: Favorite person I’ve played with would have to be Wesley Jefferson, who just passed away recently.  But he was the first real blues man I’ve ever met and he took me as a kid who didn’t know nothing, really, about the blues about playing the blues guitar and showed me the patience and the kindness to know what the blues really was.  Just to sit and watch him and learn and to be on stage, to give me that opportunity to be on stage and stand next to him and just watch him, you know, sweat pouring off of him—he was the blues and standing right in front of me.  And that man did so much for me that I will never be able to thank him for it.

TLS: Are there any local artists that you would like to play with?

AR: Anybody really.  But not as far as anybody I’ve heard of, but I like jamming with people really.  We have friends, or sometimes complete strangers come and sit in, because, to me that’s what the blues is really about.  That’s how I got introduced to the whole thing.  And if you go down to those clubs in Mississippi now, that’s what it’s all about.  The band will play for half a set and the other half of the set people will be getting up, picking up a guitar or picking up a harmonica, cause it creates a party atmosphere.  That’s what it’s all about is the atmosphere.  It doesn’t matter whether you’re good or bad or—some of the best blues I’ve heard has been this out of tune, raw, you know, broke down dirty stuff you’ve ever heard, but it creates this feeling where people are up dancing and grooving and there’s no place you want to be than with the hopping band in this hopping juke joint in Mississippi, I’m telling you.

TLS: How’s the blues scene in Louisville?

AR: There is no blues scene in Louisville, at least not as far as the real blues.  I mean there are blues bands, but they go as far back as Stevie Ray [Vaughn] or Eric Clapton, and they stop there.

TLS: What sets you apart as a blues artist from other blues artists?

AR: Well, probably, how I play, I guess.  I guess if you say what sets me apart from blues artists around here, because, you know, because a lot of people around here seem to be concerned about image and they rehearse a set and all that, and we don’t do none of that.  We go up there and we don’t have a set list or anything; we just go by feeling.  We read the crowd, we read the feeling, and how we’re feeling.  It’s natural. That’s the natural blues, man. I mean that’s the only kind of blues. The other stuff that’s going around Louisville today is rock’n’roll, pure and simple.

I mean sometimes we’ll get out there a little bit just to—because we can, you know, because it’s fun, because we want to, but it’s the blues, that’s always the main chord, the main focus of it.

TLS: You get out there?  Are there any real rules for the blues, though?

AR: I don’t think so.  I used to think there were.  And, actually that’s what turned me off to the blues.  You know, cause I started playing a while and after a while you get tired of playing the same three chord changes, whatever, but here’s R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrow, those people.  They didn’t follow those rules; they made up their own rules, and that brought me back to the thing of showing me that blues is the feeling.  You can’t pin point it and say it’s these chords and it has to sound like this, because it has to feel.  It’s the feeling.

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TLS: Do you play originals or mostly covers?

AR: I mean, we have a couple of originals but it’s mostly covers.  We play it our own way, because what the blues has always been is carrying on a tradition.  Some of these people say they wrote songs like Robert Johnson says he wrote “Sweet Home Chicago” or something like that, but you know that there’s evidence of people playing it ten years before he recorded it, you know, it’s just he evolved it.  They’re putting their piece in that tradition, and that’s all we’re doing; we’re all dipping from the same pool.  Even like Bob Dylan, he was doing that in the sixties.  Everything he wrote in the early sixties was a rip off of a Stanley Brothers’ song or a Woody Guthrie song, you know.  So, there’s a lot of borrowing; you’ve got to blur the lines.

TLS: Do you plan on cutting any albums?

AR: I mean, yeah, if we ever got the money, yeah, but I think really our sound is more of a live sound.  You know, cause I’ve been in studios and tried to record and I have recordings, but, to me, it sounds forced.  Cause that’s not the blues to me.  The blues is people around, and, like, no real distinction between the band and the people, when people are dancing in between the band members and stuff like that.  A live thing would work, but an album is something you that think about marketing wise, you know what I mean.  Right now we’re still just thinking about the night by night basis, you know, just make it through another night.

TLS: Any advice you have for other bands or musicians just starting out?

AR: Yeah, don’t get too full of yourself, you know, cause there’s a hundred thousand local bands out there, there’s a hundred thousand guitar players out there that are just as good as you are or better that don’t ever get out of their basement.  Always be humble and always be watching and learning.  That’s how you get better.

TLS: Is there anything else we should know about you, about the music, the band?

AR: Other than it’s all just a blessing from God. It’s a blessing, the music is, to kind of just forget our troubles for a while.  You know, that’s what it’s all about, that’s the main thing we believe.

---

 

After the show, I was able to follow-up with Adam’s father, Bill, who does most of his booking and was instrumental in getting Adam into the blues and connected to the Mississippi blues artists with whom he honed his craft.

TLS: In a couple of sentences, could you describe Adam’s sound and/or what sets him apart from other blues musicians on the national stage?"

Bill Riggle: Adam's sound comes from the heart. He has studied his music. Not only can he play it quite well, he knows where it came from, who wrote it, and, in most cases, why they wrote it. In his music you can hear his influences like Robert Johnson, Freddie King, Jimi Hendrix, RL Burnside, [Eric] Clapton, Albert King, Stevie Ray, BB King, Buddy Guy, Bukka White, Rev Gary Davis, Big Joe Turner, Lightning Hopkins, Howlin Wolf, Jr Kimbrough, Sonny Boy Williamson, and hundreds of others. When he was younger we thought he was in his room studying English, Math, & Science. We didn't know he was really studying the Blues.

TLS: Our website is aimed primarily at musicians. Other than the Hideaway, Adam is booked at the Lounge and Stevie Ray’s, which isn’t the easiest place to get into. Do you have any advice for Louisville artists on booking/promoting themselves locally? Nationally?

BR: When booking a venue make sure you and your band know the songs well. Nothing turns a club owner off more than a band that makes too many mistakes during a song or has a complete train wreck on stage. Polish your sets, be good at what you do, and let your reputation as a musician and band speak for you. Offer to do a gig on an off night. You may not make a lot of money, but, if you’re good enough, it gets your foot in the door. And lastly, keep on promoting yourself any way you can. What works locally will work for you on a national level also. It doesn't hurt to know someone, too.

TLS: Adam has played with a lot of big blues players and in some big festivals all over the country. How did you go about setting him up with these shows/getting him into this scene?

BR: It really started when he was around 11 years old with a visit to the land where it all began. The Mississippi Delta, Clarksdale Ms. Adam used to pick on an old acoustic guitar I had in a closet I hadn't played for years. At a young age he was interested in music from guys like Clapton, Hendrix, Dylan, The Stones, and etc. Groups that had their music rooted in the Blues. Adam, being an avid reader, read everything he could about them. He investigated the songs, who wrote them, and who originally played them. Which led him to the Blues and Mississippi.

I had to make a business trip to Mississippi in May of 92. Adam talked me into taking him along and making a week of it. So we left out on a Monday and headed straight for Hattiesburg, Ms. I took care of my business and we then headed north west making our way up thru Mt. Olive, Hazlehurst, Jackson then over to Hwy 61 then we kinda zigzagged up 61 thru places like Bentonia, Belzonia, Greenville, Indianole, Cleveland, Rosedale, Shelby, and then to Clarksdale. We took a couple of days and visited every old Church, Juke Joint, and cemetery you could think of. Adam knew where all the old grave sites were.

We got to Clarksdale on a Friday and went to the Blues Museum. Back then it shared space with the Carnage Library. They had a program there where youth in the area were taught to play the Blues by local Musicians. We stayed for a couple of hours, thru the program they presented. We met and talked to the Director, John Ruskey. And a lot of the Students and teachers. It was getting late so we left a little before closing and stopped over by the river to eat a sandwich. (We lived that week on bologna and sodas) John Ruskey, the museum director pulled over and came up to the car and told us how much he appreciated Adam's interest in the Blues and invited us to a birthday party that night at a juke joint called "Smitty's Red Top". John played keyboard in the band that was going to be playing called the "Wesley Jefferson Southern Soul Band" We thanked him for the invite and told him we would try and make it. We really planned to spend the night in Memphis and I doubted we would stay over there in Clarksdale but Adam was excited that he would have the Chance to hear a real live Blues Band in a real Live Juke Joint so reluctantly I agreed and we found a room for the night. That night around 10 we headed for Smitty's. When we got there I thought to myself, there is no way I can take a 11 year old in there, but Adam insisted so reluctantly I parked close to the door and left him in the car, and went up to the door to have a look in. Yep it was a real live Juke Joint, what we would call a bar back home. I asked the guy collecting the cover if John Ruskey was there and he pointed to the band where John was playing keyboards. He asked if I was the guy with the young boy from Indiana and then said C'mon in bring the boy on in. I went back out to get Adam and the door man escorted us to a table up close to the band. Everyone there was really nice and friendly. Adam got to meet all the band: Wesley, Rip, Dr Mike, Joe, Gladys, and Boo. John was originally going to get Adam up to play with the Band but there was just too much going on with other musicians from the area stopping by to sit in. That night Adam made some Friendships that have grown thru the years. When we left, we were invited back for the Blues Festival they have in August called the "Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival"

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We did go back in August and Adam got to sit in with Wesley at Red's, another Juke Joint there in Clarksdale. So impressed with his playing Wesley made Adam a member of the band and so every year after, and many times throughout the year Adam makes the trip to Clarksdale to Play with the Wesley Jefferson Band at various shows during the year. Adam now, because of his reputation as a guitar player, takes his own band there several times a year to play in Clarksdale.

All of these relationships came about because of a chance meeting between John Ruskey, who took the time to stop and invite to that Birthday party, and Adam.

On a sad note we lost 2 really good friends and band mates this past year. Dr Mike and Wesley both passed within months of each other.

TLS: From the MySpace page and talking to Adam, it seems that you got him into the blues and really fostered his interest in the genre. I talked to Adam a bit about the blues scene in Louisville (or lack, thereof). Despite this, there are still old blues players and burgeoning young blues players across the nation keeping the blues alive. I wanted to ask you why the blues are important in today’s society, to this country and even internationally?

BR: The Blues is the foundation for most of th
e music made in America for the last 100 years. Thousands of old Blues songs have been rearranged and reborn by musicians from my day like Dylan, Clapton, Hendrix, and so on as well as musicians of today. The music tells a story of something that happened in someone's life, so it’s sometimes a history lesson, too. So when you hear someone singing "Sweet Home Chicago" or "Have You Ever Loved a Woman" you can bet it was directly tied to an event in some one’s life. Internationally? They have the same feelings in Louisville, they have in Moscow and the Blues is a way to express those feelings.

Listen to Mississippi Adam Riggle on Myspace
http://www.myspace.com/wwwmyspacecomadamriggle

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