9/1/2006

Bob Margolin

Lucky 13 - what a great Blues album title. Think about it: the gambling angle, the irony of an unlucky number turning into a winner. It's also the number of songs on the new album by Fiona Boyes and I'd guess a hope that they will stir you. It's life and Blues from a musician who is deep and mature, yet the opposite of somber. She can confide bitter personal and universal romantic betrayal in her song "Stranger In Your Eyes" (which I think is a masterpiece) and then turn around and lighten up to joyfully deliver her friend Little Fi's song "Celebrate My Curves," roundly expounding that a woman is supposed to have a "belly, butt, and boobs."

I remember touring Australia with Muddy Waters in 1974, and opening for us one night was an Australian Old School Chicago Blues Band named The Aces, in tribute to Little Walter's old backup band, who were still very active in Chicago. And the Australian band Chain rocked with a very Blue accent. Their guitarist Phil Manning still does. In a world where everyone is exposed to and can pursue whatever music moves them, Blues has evolved to be appreciated and played everywhere for generations already. Fiona Boyes and a number of Australian Blues players that I've seen, don't need my compliments or anyone's pronouncements of legitimacy. Their good Blues can't be denied.

I have been proud to occasionally jam, tour, and record with Fiona since I met her in 2003, when she won the International Blues Competition's solo/duo category. I have interviewed her for BluesWax and Blues Revue before and I've always been impressed with her ability to articulate her profound, personal insights into her music. I hope that here she will enhance your enjoyment of the music on Lucky 13. Fiona, take a solo...

Fiona Boyes: I had a lot of original material, covering a wide range of styles, but all of it still firmly based in the Blues tradition. This project runs from classic-era Blues, Mississippi/Chicago Blues, Gulf Coast influences - even what I understand is called Americana these days (although it sure sounds like souped-up Country Blues to me!). I was thrilled that Yellow Dog Records not only allowed, but positively encouraged me to follow those various paths. The most daunting thing initially for me was the prospect of recording in America, where (from my Australian point of view) there is a dazzling variety of options in terms of production, musicians, and studio location.

Fortunately, I had the previous experience of recording my Live in Atlanta album, with both you [Bob Margolin] and Kaz Kazanoff playing on that project. You have proven an inspiration to me, both in my playing and writing, and we went on to tour together with my band in Australia. I immediately included some material in the session with you in mind. I also have a great deal of respect for Kaz's musical sensibilities and very much enjoyed his playing on the Atlanta show. A lot of my live work in recent years has been based around solo acoustic performance, but I enjoy playing electric guitar, too - and I had this incredible range of material that I had written with ensemble (rather than solo) formats in mind. The marvelous possibility of bringing this material to life - complete with horns and more - led me to the conclusion that Kaz, in his various roles as player, horn arranger, and producer, was the guy for the job. I sent him demos of the material and a short "mission statement" for most songs; what I felt each song was about stylistically, what had influenced me as I wrote it, possible instrumentation, and so on. Some of the tunes were reasonably well formed, some had initial arrangements, and a few were merely songwriting roughs with requests for ideas on direction. As I have essentially done my own production and arranging in the past, I really felt I wanted to have someone to collaborate with on this new project; someone to bounce ideas off, who could become involved musically and get excited by the material. To go through that process from afar felt quite strange, so I was very glad to arrive in Austin several days before recording started to finalize some of the musical ideas in person. I got out all my guitars and played various parts I had in mind, while Kaz outlined his ideas for musicians, hummed horn lines, and made charts. While Kaz has an enviable amount of musical expertise, I always felt validated and included in the artistic decisions that we made along the way (with the exception of the horn arrangements, where I naturally deferred!)

On my previous acoustic albums I planned the sessions and directed the other players, so I realize the intricacies of trying to organize a session so it runs easily. Having said that, the range of styles and instrumentation we cunningly planned meant a high level of complication. It is a tribute to all involved - Kaz; Stuart Sullivan, our intrepid engineer; his assistant Brad; and, the many talented professional musicians - that the recording went pretty smoothly. We recorded the basic tracking of fifteen tunes in three days, live, with horns and some other bits and pieces overdubbed in the next couple of days.

I might add a comment on the role of the sound engineer at this point. A professional engineer needs stamina, incredible patience, great ears, and a good grasp of the potential of their studio space and equipment. Stuart Sullivan [Wire Recordings] has all this in spades, as well as a sense of humor and a good "bedside manner" with the musicians. I very much enjoyed his input and company during the project.

As the session unfolded it was exciting to hear the music come into being. There were some points where I think we were all surprised and delighted! Each aggregation of players brings something of themselves to a musical endeavor; if you change one part the music would also change. If another drummer had played the session instead of "Frosty" Smith, the recording would be very different. We had three different bassists (and a tuba) over the course of the recording, but Larry Fulcher played most of the bass parts with a great deal of attention to style and choice of instrument. Derek O'Brien came up with second guitar parts -- particularly on "Chicken Wants Corn" and "High Cotton" -- that are inspired and reveal the depth of his experience and many influences. He's not only a lovely guy, but he also seems to have played with almost everybody in the Blues world and it sure shows.

Kaz did a great job of choosing players that really suited the material and some of those decisions were very finely nuanced. The musicians were all wonderful players. So even running through a song to get the arrangement was a musical adventure for me. People may be surprised to hear well-known players doing something a little different too -- Marcia Ball and you absolutely tore it up on a Rockabilly tune which is on the album. Each song was a little project in its own right and, again, Kaz's choices played out very well. For example, I originally envisaged "Hold Me" with more of a straight Clifton Chenier-style accordion, but Joel Guzman's marvelous Tejano stylings gave both that song and "Stranger In Your Eyes" a different feel, which really enhances both songs.

It may not be a purist approach but I enjoy the place where genre boundaries meet; where there can be both familiarity and surprise. As an album, Lucky 13 is diverse, but I think the material stands together as a kind of wonderful American musical road trip incorporating some of the traditions and roots that I love and deeply admire. Hope I get a chance to play some of this stuff somewhere near you soon!

Bob Margolin for BluesWax: Now let's hear from Fiona's husband and business manager, Steve "The Preacher" Clarke, who works hard behind the scenes. Everyone hopes that a new recording will be a career breakthrough. Fiona's last album certainly raised her profile in the Blues World. Do you think this one will go farther?

Steve Clarke: I guess the short answer is, yes! But having said that, I also recognize that Lucky 13 is part of a larger musical journey for Fiona. From a young woman at college in Melbourne, Australia, who fell in love with early Country Blues, and listened to the music for about eight years before she picked up a guitar and tried to play, she's now performing and recording with some of the artists who were Blues gods to her back then.

I think more than raising her profile or having a breakthrough (as nice as those things are), this album is also about Fiona's arrival as a Blues artist who has not only earned her stripes in Australia, but is now recognized as a significant player on the international circuit.

Last week she was staying with Hubert Sumlin at his house in Wisconsin. Hubert toured with Fiona in Australia and they have since become great friends and musical collaborators. Fi was playing with Hubert in his basement when Hubert said, "Let me show you a riff that Wolf taught me. He learned it from Charley Patton." It's this sense of history and continuity that is really what this album expresses and what Fiona seeks to embrace as a musician. It's the sense of history, the hours spent studying the past so as to nuance the classic forms in the present, the opportunity to play and learn with the living legends. The same is true of her relationship with you, Bob. She said she'd never play slide until she had the chance of learning it from someone connected to the great acoustic slide players of Mississippi, who transposed that tradition into the early electric Chicago ensemble sounds, immortalized by Muddy and Wolf, and now passed on to her by people like you. Playing with you opened another musical window for Fiona so now she's in the woodshed with her Maton Mastersound [an Australian custom-made guitar], a slide, and your influences, which in turn were passed to you by these great players. It is these influences that make this album what it is.

In a recent review of the album, Billboard describes Lucky 13 as an experience of "aesthetic transportation." Whether playing the music of New Orleans, back-porch deep Delta Blues, greasy Memphis Soul, driving Rockabilly, and early Chicago Blues, or writing songs patterned after the classic Blues women of the 1920s, Fiona recorded this album with a profound sense of appreciation and a thoroughly fresh insight into the heart of this great musical form we call the Blues. Will it go further than her previous albums? I think it already has!

Bob for BluesWax, turning to you: I'm proud to play on Fiona's new album. It's been exciting to watch her growth as a musician and to watch her recognition increase in today's Blues World. She was recently touring in the United States and should be back again soon to promote Lucky 13 after a busy schedule of festivals in Australia. You can follow her progress on fionaboyes.com.