Legendary Chicago Blues Guitarist John Primer was in top form in the Bleu Note on Capel Street for the first of two shows in Dublin.
John Primer earned his stripes riding shotgun with Willie Dixons All Stars, Muddy Waters Band filling the lead guitar spot until Muddy passed away in 1983, and moving on to a huge favourite of mine Magic Slim & The Teardrops before enjoying well-deserved front man status himself in the 90s, releasing hit albums like The Stuff You Got To Watch and The Real Deal among ten of his solo albums.
John who I’d seen for the first time play in the Madison Bar in Rathmines last year last year came originally from Mississippi moved to Chicago in 1963 cutting his teeth in the West Side Clubs of Chicago by the side of Junior Wells, Sammy Lawhorn and Buddy Guy and has evolved as a superb electric Blues troubadour with his own clean, uncluttered and ever reliable traditional blues solo phrasing and fast bottleneck signature sound.
The atmosphere was warmed up for us by local Rhythm ‘N’ Blues Band The Blue Notes fronted by the hard working Stephen Mc Loughlin with Bass, Drums, Guitar and Saxophone weaving a tight warm sound around Van The Man’s Moonlight and Domino, Bone’s Shuffle and an indispensable repertoire of classic Chicago Mustang and Texas ZZ Blues.
John Primers backing band for his Irish tour was The Lee Hedley Band who took to the stage and warmed up the main phase of the show for about 20 minutes with some of their regular crowd favourites like The Fabulous Thunderbirds Tuff Enuff.
The thermometer exploded when John Primer joined Lee, Lou Campbell guitar, Aaron Loughran Bass and Bobby Dyer Drums on stage with his trusted hollow bodied Epiphone Riviera.John Primer has a legendary charisma on stage, tall, confident and immaculately dressed for the occasion just like a seasoned entertainer who is known as the genuine article, the real deal.
On songs like The Stuff You Got To Watch one of John’s own compositions to The Things That I Use To Do, my own favourite all time song from Guitar Slim, the tone, energy and original spirit is old school and sublime on John’s fretboard.
John Primers seasoned guitar genius prevails from the start in a warn confident and unpretentious style show, that brings the band, the crowd and each song rumbling along like a latent volcano that climaxes with his trademark emotive, stinging axe work.
His voice is confident and soulful and his bottleneck technique is pure traditional fifties Chicago blues producing pointedly wicked guitar solo after solo that serves tradition well but unfortunately he had to abandon his Epiphone and strap on Lou Campbell’s Fender Telecaster deluxe when one of the strings broke.
John’s set was a mix of original songs and traditional classics that dip deeply into his roots like I’m A Man, Hoochie Coochie Man and Got My Mojo Working all performed with no flash just plain craftsmanship from this legendary musician turning the Bleu Note audience into another generation of blues fans.
He is a very likable guy and humoured us all for a chat and to have pictures taken before and after the show his face broadened and beaming with a smile throughout.John covers a lot of territory on his tours heading off to Greece next and then back to the States but the most important journey this man makes is showing us all the breath, depth, confidence and charisma of a blues man who plays top notch blues.John Primer is a man with secrets worth sharing and this was a gig that revealed a journeyman with a venerable career making top shelf blues music and entertainment memories.
There is a quote from John Primer on his album Stuff You Got To Watch that puts it all into focus;
“ The feelin of the music, its got to come from your heart . It’s got to. You’ve got to play it with a feelin’, from your heart. And make every word mean something…”
It’s a real treat for Chicago electric and bottleneck blues fans in Ireland to have the opportunity to witness a master of the craft like John Primer and great credit must go to the management of the Bleu Note for taking the commercial risks and promoting gigs of this high calibre.
