Sonny Boy Terry Interview by Abby Owen

Houston, Tx – Sonny Boy Terry from Houston took his band to Memphis earlier this year to represent the SE Texas region in the 2010 International Blues Challenge. He didn’t win, but after receiving an average score of over 8, which was pretty high according to Terry, he hasn’t been resting on his laurels. In January he undertook a buddy trip, a ‘pilgrimage’ to Mississippi to visit the Delta Blues Museum then on to pay homage at the grave of his name-sake Sonny Boy Williamson, stopping by the ‘Crossroads’ in Clarksdale of course, and on to the Hill Country Harmonica Festival in Waterford Mississippi. He is now in the last stages of putting together his own Texas Harmonica Festival taking place on July 31, 2010 at Dan Electros Guitar Bar in Houston. In June I spoke with him in his home in Houston, and found him to be extremely welcoming and talkative. This is how it went...

AO: So, my first question is, the name Sonny Boy Terry...
SBT: Okay, right. How to explain this. My real name is Terry Lynn Jerome.

I came to Texas in 1981, but I wanted to play Blues in Houston, so I broke into the scene. I got here in ’81 but I really started breaking into the scene around like ’83. Took me a while to really figure out what was going on and I was going out to see a lot of bands and hanging around and trying to play, you know? But it was a little slow at first, until I hooked up with Uncle John Turner, who was John Winter’s drummer.

AO: Wow.
SBT: Once upon a time, very famous drummer, Uncle John Turner. You Google him and he’s quoted very frequently in the new Johnny Winter biography. Quite a guy. I was all of about what, 23 and he was a 40-year-old, a very seasoned Blues and rock musician and he really mentored me and tutored me a lot. We were roommates. I slept on his floor. We were starving, and all that stuff. Basically, the ramen noodle circuit, you know. I slept on a kindergarten mat in his apartment in Montrose. So I broke in, playing around with bands with him and playing with TC and the Cannonballs. We did shows opening for acts like Los Lobos, The Nighthawks, John Hammond Jr. NRBQ, Robert Cray. That’s how I really broke into the scene. I was always just Terry Jerome. I played with TC and the Cannonballs for about a year and a half and I quit playing with them. I got a job playing with Jerry Lightfoot. Jerry Lightfoot was the white guy who knew all the black guys and was, well, integrated. He had Teddy ‘Cry Cry’ Reynolds in his band at the time. He had Andy ‘Two Hard’ Williams. Everybody had a stage name.

AO: Yeah, (laughs).
SBT: And you know, folks like that were in the band at the time with Jerry and Emmanuel AJ Murphy, who was once with Archie Bell and the Drells and a lot of people. Jerry hosted a Sunday night Blues jam at Fitzgerald’s downstairs.

(At Left) Terry playing with Albert Collins at Rockefellers in Houston.

AO: What year was this around?
SBT: This is around ’84, ‘85. Bud Jackson was the DJ with... I don’t think it was KPFT. Maybe it was KUHT. It was University of Houston Radio.

AO: Okay, yeah, 88.9 or something.
SBT: Yeah, whatever it is. Now it’s all classical but back then they had a Blues program and Bud Jackson was the Blues DJ. And he emceed our shows and, of course, promoted us on his radio program. I mean he had a great Friday night Blues program. Well, Jerry and I were all joking around backstage about stage names and stuff because there some guys around town that their stage name was changing or getting added on or always evolving, you know. And they started calling me like, Little One Hand Sonny Boy Terry. And we were just having fun with it but then Bud Jackson announced me as Sonny Boy Terry which is really a hybrid because there were two Sonny Boy Williams so its okay. There’s--

AO: Um-hmm. I’ve been researching it a little bit.
SBT: Okay, you know there’s John Lee Williamson.

AO: I’m like, oh, there’s two of them.
SBT: There’s two Sonny Boy Williams, John Lee Will, and then he died and another guy come along, Aleck Rice Miller and he stole his name. You know him as Sonny Boy Williamson. Then, there’s Sonny Terry which was Saunders Terrell who played with Brownie McGee, and he was a legendary blind harmonica player. So my name, because my real name is Terry Jerome, it’s a hybrid of all three of those guys plus my real name. And I did not name myself that. It just happened.

AO: Well, that’s the best way to get it, right?
SBT: Yeah, that’s how you always get your nicknames. Somebody else names you that. The next day Marty Racine from The Houston Chronicle published it in the Chronicle and it was almost like then it just sort of etched it in stone. That’s what they called me and they had fun with it and it sort of stuck. I was pretty young, so anyway, I kind of made it my name for myself.

AO: Well, where are you from originally?
SBT: I come from a little farm town in Northwest Ohio near Fort Wayne, Indiana called Van Wert, and there was really no Blues there. I was the only guy that liked the stuff at the time, you know?

AO: So you liked the Blues there before you came to Houston.
SBT: Oh yeah, way before. I came to Houston to play Blues. I wanted to go to the big city and play Blues. There were jobs down here in ’81 and it was right when Reaganomics was kicking in really good. Up there it was the rust belt and jobs were drying up. Like any bluesman, I followed the jobs where I could find opportunity. Of course, after several years in Houston, again the economy went belly up to for awhile. I had no choice but to try and get gigs.

AO: Yeah? Was there work down here?
SBT: There was work down here, lots of it. Yeah, and when I got here, I had never heard of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, or Stevie Ray Vaughan, only Chicago guys because I bought “Living Blues” magazines and bought the records and stuff. But I didn’t know too many of the white Southern guys, you know. So when I got here first I think I saw Stevie Ray Vaughn about a month later. And you have to realize, before when you talk about Stevie Ray Vaughan, you’re talking about...I mean now he’s commonplace, to the point of there’s a lot of people that copy him now, take him for granted, but if you saw him in ’81 before he’d made it big, and this is before David Bowie had him play on his ‘Let’s Dance’ album, right before he made it big. He was the most exotic cat I’d ever seen. He had a kimono on, and he’d sweat profusely under the stage lights wearing that hat, you know, and the duct tape cowboy boots and beat up strat, and the whole deal. But then I went to see the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Of course, Jimmy Vaughan was in that band at the time, Stevie’s brother, and I just couldn’t believe how great Kim Wilson was on the harmonica. What a great band it was. I’d never seen a band with a harp player that good before. So when I saw that I just, you know, you kind of feel like, like God dropped you there for a reason to learn, you know, or to grow. Because there was so much roots music going on in Texas. And you saw Rockin Doopsie, Clifton Chenier, you saw the Wild Magnolias. You saw the Neville Brothers. You saw Jason and the Scorchers. You saw The Blasters. You saw James Harmon with Hollywood Fats, Marcia Ball, Paul Butterfield, James Cotton.

AO: All coming through Houston.
SBT: All touring, coming through Houston. Then you had this incredible local scene, with all kinds of great players, you know. And everybody was accessible. Just an endless array of people, you know? And we just got all that experience and you saw it firsthand and you’re like part of it.
(Pictured at left) - Harry Shepard, Sonny Boy Terry, Grady Gaines, Joe Guitar Hughes, Phil Marquez, Rex Wherry, Adam Burchfield, Allison Fisher, Benny Brasket, Jimmy Rose, Terry Dry, Bill Allison, Snit Fitzpatrick. 2001 Billy Blues album art photo shoot for Breakfast Dance. This photo is prominantly featured in Alan Govenar's new book 'TEXAS BLUES: THE RISE OF A CONTEMPORARY SOUND'

AO: Sounds like you were! (laughs).
SBT: Right away! Yeah, within two years. Yeah, two, three years. I was really green, too. But I was, I guess, solid enough to get it going, you know.

AO: What drew you to the Blues rather than rock or something else.
SBT: Harmonica.

AO: Yeah? So, the harmonica drew you there.
SBT: Yeah, oh yeah. And I knew what Blues was but once I started buying Blues, I started figuring out where all the good harmonica stuff was, because you’d mostly buy rock records. A lot of the bluesy rock bands of that era, would use harmonica on the recordings. The Stones, J Geils Band, and bands like that. But I listened to it all. I mean, I listened to the folk, the rock. When I was learning I was buying everything. I was trying to figure out how to play. I was interested in the whole broad spectrum. From Little Feet to Neil Young to The Stones to Howlin’ Wolf, and especially Muddy Waters and all his harmonica players.
I spent four years with Joe Guitar Hughes (Pictured with him in '92)and that’s like playing with Muddy Waters here in Houston. I spent a couple years playing with Kinny Abair on the streets in 3rd Ward. I played with Grady Gaines’ Band. But I spent four years with Joe. We played everywhere, all over the world. And we played 5th Ward, 3rd Ward, Sunnyside ice houses and juke joints on a consistent basis, you know? You’d get to know people pretty well. I’ve never had any negative experiences playing blues in blacks clubs ever. I was sometimes was poor and starving, but folks were always cool to me. Most of the folks in these places were older. I never saw guns or too much attitude.

AO: Well, moving on to the IBC thing. Tell us what it was like to win the regional competition and represent Houston in Memphis.
SBT: Uh, I allowed myself to do it because I trusted the people that were organizing it. They seemed to have it together, you know. I was a little concerned because from year to year it can be erratic in how they put their judges together. And I was real concerned. If it’s not professional it’s only going to favor an amateur. If it’s professional I feel like I’ll have a chance. And so I called them and I said you guys got it together, right? Rich DelGrosso’s wife was vice president. She organized most of it and James Nagle ‘Blues Hound’ helped her and, and they were real solid people. I trusted them.

AO: Yeah.
SBT: They were solid grounded people so that made it good and I--but it wasn’t easy because you have to do all these things to compete, you know, that you wouldn’t normally do.

AO: As what? Tell us.
SBT: You have to dress up in suits, you know, and play the game. You have to edit your material. It all has to be done within a certain time constraint, you know, like you’re going on TV or something. And then I just studied the scoring. I said, well, I have to trust this process. The scoring says it favors Blues or content. It favors originality. It favors showmanship. So that made it a little more appealing to me. I don’t think it was that easy though. We had to really prepare for it. It was very nerve wracking to do it, and I had to coach my band and really talk to everyone and making sure everybody’s on the same page.

AO: So you probably didn’t even get to really enjoy the experience as much because you had to be…
SBT: Oh no. We had a ball. After we won the thing here we...they had a bunch of gigs for us. It was one of the best experiences of my career. Totally positive.

AO: Oh okay.
SBT: We played House of Blues. We played a big fundraiser and then they had a big send off party for us and stuff, you know... after that, yeah, we were playing all over town and it was helping me raise money to pay my musicians to make the trip.

AO: Yeah, I remember seeing all the announcements about it and stuff.
SBT: It was really cool.

AO: How’d you like Memphis?
SBT: The IBC throw the best party in the f---ing world for Blues. There’s hundreds of bands there for this deal.

AO: Have you ever been to Memphis before?
SBT: Oh yeah. Yeah, I recorded with Johnny Copeland in Memphis.

AO: Okay.
SBT: And in ’96 when I was president of the Blues Society we won KBA, Keeping the Blues Alive award for best Blues organization. So I went to Memphis to accept the award for that. I recorded with Johnny Clyde Copeland for his “Catch Up With Blues” record.

AO: Oh, okay.
SBT: But that party was great. And the thing about winning was...

AO: Which party?
SBT: Memphis, I mean, it’s a big street party.

AO: Oh really?
SBT: It’s massive. I mean, it’s a massive party and there’s bands everywhere and there’s showcases everywhere. There’s two, three hundred bands there. And there’s thousands of musicians and people from all over the world there. I highly recommend it. You want to have a party, have a good time, and it’s not that expensive...

AO: Go to IBC.
SBT: Yeah, it’s fun, man. It’s huge fun. It’s nerve wracking. The first night there is really nerve wracking because you don’t really know who these other bands are. But we did well. Grady Champion won our bar and he won the whole thing that year.

AO: He’s local from Houston?
SBT: No, he’s from Indianola, Mississippi. This is about 40 miles outside so he was well known and he had competed at least once or twice in the IBCs before. So wasn’t like it was his first time. So yeah, he took the whole enchilada. And then there were other bands. We went to the finals and we had fun. I mean, I was advised when you get there you network and be a good guy and shake hands and work your way into a couple jam sessions and get to know people. Because there are so many variables going on and the best guy doesn’t win all the time and, and there’s all these different things going and you’ve got to know and understand why in a mature way going in, you know. And make the best of the experience because, because if you’ve got the goods...

AO: Just be in there.
SBT: If you got the goods they’re not going to ignore you.

AO: Right.
SBT: They’re not. Because they know that from bar to bar all these judges are volunteers and they’re all different. All the good judges may be somewhere else or they have different tastes. So you really don’t get caught up in that too much. You go there to win but you...we scored real high though. Our scores were, you know, eights and nines. We had an over eight average so that’s pretty good.

AO: Awesome, good.
SBT: That was out of ten so that was pretty good really.

AO: That does feel good.
SBT: Real positive. Very positive comments and we created a buzz, you know. We made a little splash there. Satellites play my music now, so.

AO: Alright!
SBT: They weren’t before.

AO: You can’t beat that.
SBT: They were talking about me and talking about Houston. It’s a great way to get your name out there, especially if you can really play.

AO: Well good.
SBT: We laughed and cried and had all kinds of fun. It was really huge fun. I met so many people.

AO: That sounds like a great experience.
SBT: Yeah, so anyway, that’s pretty much my IBC experience. I’m still milking it. I mean, I met Bill Wax when I was in Memphis from XM and I told him I was going to send him my product, and I sent him a book and all kinds of shwag. It took him a couple of months to get to my CDs. Now he’s playing it and talking about me on the air, so that’s big.

AO: Tell us a little bit about the thing coming up at the end of July, the harmonica festival.
SBT: I have produced several of these before. I was trying to put a little different spin on it and create a little clinic so that’s why I asked Adam to come in.

AO: And he is coming.
SBT: Yeah, Adam Gassow is coming, and I mean, he’s quite a renaissance man. He’s written and published several books. He’s an English professor at University of Mississippi. He’s a harmonica guru, instructor extraordinaire and a Blues performer. So he’s kind of all over the place, you know. He’s really a pretty interesting person.

AO: And that’s going to be July…
SBT: July 31st at Dan Electro’s Guitar Bar in Houston, TX.
You can get all the details. I teach, too, so I’m basically operating this through Houstonharmonicalessons.com. I use that to kind of launch this festival and to market my sideline, teaching blues harmonica. So I’ve got Adam coming in. I’ve got a friend of mine Larry Bernal with his band, the H-Town Jukes. He took lessons from me ten years ago. So he’s out gigging and he’s got a record out now.

AO: Look what you started. (laughs)
SBT: Yeah, so I thought it would be cool to have him play. They’re going to be there for the flow when people are coming in for Adam’s clinic. And then, that night we’re doing four acts with Adam Gassow, my band, and then Rob Roy Parnell who is really good from Austin. His brother is Leroy Parnell. I don’t know if you ever heard of him, a very famous song writer and guitar player.

AO: His name sounds a little bit familiar...
SBT: So Robert Parnell is quite a player and then Dave Nevling and the Blues Cats from Kemah, from the Kemah/ Seabrook area. All these guys got good technique in their playing and I wanted to get guys that can kind of elevate the respect for the harmonica because a lot of guys, you can tell they quit learning, you know, and then they just, they just sort of blow. ~ Continued in Part Two Next Month

Stay tuned for 'Part Two' of the interview which will post August 27th, and I will be able to include some pics and a follow up on the Texas Harmonica Festival, organized by Sonny Boy Terry, along with more stories from the road, and his pilgrimage to the Mississippi Delta.

Abby Owen - Copyright@2010 – All rights reserved.
Interview photos by Brian Smith - Copyright@2010 - All rights reserved.
All other photos used by permission, courtesy of Sonny Boy Terry, all rights reserved.

Mark May Interview by Abby Owen, Part-2

Continued from Part One:

To quote their latest press release:

The Mark May Band has officially released its 4th cd,"In Texas Live" (Flyindog Records, 2009).

The new cd is the band's first live album and presents a compilation of live songs recorded during 2002-2009. The cd features Mark's smooth vocals, along with the dynamic twin leads and dual electric harmony guitar work the band is known for. The Texas-based blues rock band's new cd includes Mark's original songs, classic blues, and even steps into the jam band territory on this outing with their versions of "Ohio" and "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed". The cd spotlights the current band members, Dan Cooper (bass), Paul Ramirez (guitar) and Clyde Dempsey (drums), in addition to former guitarists including Kirk McKim (Pat Travers Band), Kenny Cordray, and Matt Johnson. This cd finally gives the people a taste of what the band's live show is all about! Mark May was guitarist, vocalist, member of Dickey Betts and Great Southern from 2000-2001 and recorded "Collectors II/Let's Get Together" (Dickey Betts and Great Southern), which features 2 songs written by Mark May. Mark has been featured in Guitar Player, Guitar World, Blues Revue Magazine, Vintage Guitar.. The band is currently getting heavy rotation on Sirius/XM Radio BB King's Bluesville.

...And NOW back to the story...

MM: So we just kinda lucked out that he liked it[Dickey Betts], and then he asked us if we’d like to do some dates with the Allman Brothers! I couldn’t believe it. It was just out of nowhere. He wanted to see us play live first, so we went out to Sarasota and played at the ‘Five-O-Clock’ club, and Dickey came out and watched us. So the places [cities] where they didn’t need extra support, where they didn’t need help to draw a big crowd or places where they were sold out already, they put us on as the opener for the ampitheater tour in 1997, and we probably did about fifteen dates with them...

...It was a pretty exciting time. To be scooped up, just this little Blues band that hadn’t done more than a couple Blues festivals…

AO: You had CDs out…

MM: Yeah, we had CDs out, and had a couple articles come out in some Guitar magazines, so we were doing okay but still, we’d never been on an ampi-theater tour. So that was pretty exciting. That was a lot of work, to follow them around in the bus and try to keep up with them, and we had to do our sound check early every day. Dickey would come out and jam with us and stuff. The next year we actually did a few more dates with them. They were doing the Nascar tour, I think. They had somebody on the main stage with them, but with the Nascar deal had some other bands on side-stages, so we did that too for a few dates. When I first met Dickey, he asked me about doing those dates with them, and then he called me about two weeks after I met him, we were still in Florida after he had come to see us, and he asked if Dan & I wanted to come try out for the Allman Brothers, because Warren & Alan Woody were doing the Gov’t Mule thing, and they had some conflicts. I think it had something to do with Capricorn Records or something, and uh…


AO: So you did actually audition?

MM: I got to audition, and Dan didn’t because they already had a couple of bass players the drummer really wanted to work with. I got to audition, but I didn’t play slide very well. I kind of did a crash-course on slide, thinking that if I got the gig I could get better, really ‘wood-shed’ but Jack Pearson was the guy who got the job, and he really was just a fantastic guitar player, a phenomenal slide player, played a little more Jazzy than I do, but he was good for what they did at that time, even though he only played with them a year or two. He had some ear problems or something. But I did get to try out, which is interesting because me & Dickey and Dave Stoltz who was a bass player trying out, just the three of us were over at Dickey’s house, in the guest-room, which is pretty strange with no drummer or anything, and we just kinda went over the songs. Dave ended up being with Dickey Betts & Great Southern, as I did too after Dickey left the Allman Brothers. When he left the Allman Brothers in 2000, he called me and asked me if I wanted to play with his band. And he hired Dave, the bass player. And Dave assembled some guys from New York & Connecticut, the Boston area who were really good musicians, cause I was out on the road and had no time to help put the rest of the band together.

AO: And how long was that?

MM: I played with Dickey for two years. We only toured in the Summertime, but it was a long Summer, like we’d start in April and go ‘til October…

AO: What did the guys in your band do while you were away?

MM: They played without me. At first we were called Mark May and the Agitators. Well, I used to let them use the name ‘The Agitators’, but it got a little confusing for some people, because they thought I was going to be there, so they ended up using a different name. But they’d do local gigs. They were all good enough musicians that if they wanted to add another guitarist they’d just do gigs without me. I don’t think they were real happy doing that, but I don’t blame them. When I was out playing big shows with Charlie Daniels & 38 Special (laughing), but it needed to be done for the business of the band. Not to promote just myself, but to promote the whole band, and to get us better gigs. We did an album when I was with Dickey called “Let’s Get Together”, and that’s now packaged with the album they did after I left with Danny Toler which is an acoustic album called “The Collectors”. “Collectors Part One, and Let’s Get Together”. So, I left in 2002 after that tour, and came back to doing my own thing and we released ‘Doll Maker’ in 2003 with Jim Gayle.

AO: So, would you say that your greatest influence was Albert Collins?

MM: Yeah, Albert Collins, BB King, Freddy King, on the Blues side. The Beatles, Hendrix. I liked Rick Derringer a lot.

AO: If you boiled it down to one person, though…

MM: Probably Jimi Hendrix, I would say, has been the biggest influence on me, ever. Probably because of his fusion of Blues & Rock y’know, because I like both. The way he played guitar y’know…people still listen to it 30 – 40 years later and are like, how’d he do that? There’s a few people like him that changed music totally…there are certain things he could do, like he could control feedback and things, and make it into a musical thing, and it’s been really hard for some people to duplicate. A lot of people can play the licks, but the way he could have his guitar so loud and control it, control the feedback and… It was like he was super-human, y’know?

AO: The next question is did you ever meet him?

MM: No. My brother went to one of his concerts, but I didn’t meet him. He died when I was nine or ten.

AO: What do feel is your strongest point as an artist?

MM: Probably the fact that I can play guitar, lead guitar, sing and write songs. The combination of those three things…kind of makes you a nice package, I guess, if you can do more than just one thing.

AO: And what would you like to improve upon?

MM: Well, everything. Vocal-wise I’d like to keep on improving. I think I’ve improved on every CD, as far as the way I sang. I wish I could go back and re-sing some of the stuff, especially on the first CD, now that I’ve beeen singing for a lot longer…the style. I’d like to maybe infuse some of the jazz stuff, kind of like Robin Ford does, in my guitar playing. Maybe a little more fresh approach to that.

AO: How do you go about getting inspired to write music?

MM: Usually coffee.

AO: Really? That’s the same thing Seth Walker said!

MM: Really? (laughs) Yeah. A lot of times you don’t know when you’ll get inspired.

AO: Is it generally the music, a chord progression, doing the music first, then coming up with the lyrics?

MM: I’ve done it both ways. There’s not a set combination. A lot of the times I’ll come up with the hook line first. You see something, a movie, or on TV, or something happens to you in real life, or somebody says something to you. Just stupid stuff, like when I wrote ‘Sweet Spot’. We were out on the road somewhere, out West, and we were trying to find someplace to park the van so we could go shopping. We didn’t want to park it somewhere way in the back, because it had all our equipment in it. Somebody just pulled out of the very first spot in the row, and Greg Grubbs, the drummer said, “There’s the sweet spot. Right there!” (laughing) I just kind of thought about that, and thought I’m not goin to write a song about a parking spot, but I can think of things I could write a song about that would be more appropriate, y’know?


AO: How funny! (laughing)

MM: So you never know when it’s going to hit you. ‘Back In The Joint’ was inspired by ‘Shawshank Redemption’. It’s not actually about that movie, but you sit there and watch a movie like that and think, “Man. What a bummer to be in prison like that.” It’s definitely worth a lot of songs. There’ve been a few songs where I just wrote music. Coming up with music just sitting around, playing, and then wrote the lyrics later.

AO: You are predominantly a guitarist, but many people have commented on your skill as a vocalist. Do you have a preference of one over the other? Guitarist, or vocalist?

MM: Probably guitarist. I get a little frustrated with my vocals. I mean, I think it would be nice, like probably most band leaders and people who are always out front, to not have to do everything. Sometimes it would be nice, like when I was in Dickey’s band where I sang, usually a couple of songs a night, but to just sit back and play guitar. It was comfortable, relaxing. But at the same time, you miss doing your own thing too. As soon as you say that, you miss the other thing. So If I had to pick one or the other, it might be guitar playing.

AO: I’ve never seen a guitar quite like yours. Is there a story behind it?

MM: The gold Robin I always play. It’s a Robin Savoy. It’s actually made in Houston. It’s basically a copy of a Gibson ES-335 which is a semi-hollow guitar. It has a little fatter, boxier sound. I bought it thinking I might like to play one because I heard a few people play it like Chris Cain, B B King, Freddie King, Larry Carlton, just different people that use hollow bodies. They have a nice honkin’ tone. When I got that one, it didn’t become my favorite guitar right away, but the more I played it and the more people complimented on it, and the more comfortable I got with it the more I liked it. One thing that’s really nice about it is if you get to play a lot of small clubs, if you play a Fender they can have a real ‘biting’ tone. This is a little more mellow on your ears, not as harsh. But that being said, it still has a lot of get up and go. It’s not so mellow that it doesn’t deliver the notes, but it can be a little softer on the ears in a smaller place when you need to turn down. So it’s versatile. It’s turned out to be my favorite guitar. I still play the Paul Reed Smith 'McCarty' and that Telecaster that Huey made me, the Axehandle. But the Robin is my favorite, and the one I use the most.

AO: Do you play any other instruments besides guitar?

MM: No. I wouldn’t say I play them. I play ‘at’ them a little bit. I have a dobro I screw around with, and a couple of lap steels. I know a few chords on the piano, and a few chords on the mandolin, but I can’t say I play any other instruments.

AO: What has been your greatest moment so far?

MM: There’ve been a lot of good ones. Obviously, when we played with the Allman Brothers, getting that tour going, being in Dickey’s band, having articles in National magazines, and having CDs you can go pick up in the stores. All of that stuff was really great, but I think the fact that my parents were so happy when I first got my record deal. They had the satellite TV back then, before they actually told who the artist was, they just played music on the Blues channel. They used to get so excited when my music would come on the Blues channel. They would dance and…y’know. I just thought it was so cool that they were so happy about it. That’s probably it, if I had to pick one.

AO: What would you do if you weren’t playing music…like a completely different career.

MM: I don’t know how to do much besides play guitar, (laughs) so I don’t know if I’d have that many options. I’ve always been kind of a ‘merchant’. I’d probably still be involved in music in some way. I used to buy and sell a lot of guitars, and did some pawn shopping, flea markets…but it’d probably be with instruments. I like getting out and looking and finding treasures, y’know? That’s a lot of fun.

AO: What’s next for you?

MM: We’ll, we have the live CD that has just come out. This year we’re going to get out and start doing some more touring, which we’ve taken a few years off from. We’re just going to get back out there and see what’s out there for us now. Hopefully we’ll be able to get hooked up with some festivals, and maybe get the right agent. We want to get back into the studio and do another studio album.

AO: Have you been writing?

MM: I’ve written about 3 or 4 songs but I haven’t really...I’ve got one instrumental that’s almost done, I’ve started two or three other songs, but they’re not done. So I’ve started that process, but we’re trying to figure out what direction we want this album to go in, because Paul’s got some songs, and the band want to be included a little bit on the writing.


For festivals we’ve got the (video link) 'Miss Molly' option, and we’ve got Eric Demmer the sax player who wants to do some things. I always enjoy working with those guys. Very professional. So, whenever we can get together with them it's a pretty awesome band…with us, and Molly and Eric, y’know? That’s definitely a festival-worthy band. We’ll see what happens with that. We're mostly a regular four-piece band which is an easy way to go because we’re comfortable with that. It’s easy on the traveling. With the one van you don’t have to have a trailer…



Abby Owen ~ I have had the pleasure of getting to know these four individuals pretty well as friends. I have enjoyed many nights hanging out with them at the Blues jams in and around Houston, and always try to catch the full shows whenever logistically possible. I can tell you without reservation, these guys are the real deal. The perfect representation of Texas Blues. If you get a chance, do not miss the opportunity to see them live, as that is when they are at their finest.
Copyright © 2010 - Abby Owen. All Rights Reserved

Mark May Interview by Abby Owen

(Houston, TX) The following is the first half of an interview with Mark May, original Blues Artist and leader of the long enduring, well-liked and much-respected Houston based Blues/Rock band called appropriately, Mark May Band.
In the Part One we will learn about Mark's humble beginnings and family bonds and inspiration. It will begin to explore Mark's musical history with an exclusive look into his close friendship with Dickey Betts and his ties with the Allman Brothers Band. In Part Two we will hear about the day Mark auditioned for The Allman Brothers Band, and his feelings at losing that prize to, in Mark's own humble words, "A fantastic guitarist", and then on to what he and the band are doing now, and his new release, "In Texas Live" with his current label 'Flyin Dog Records'. The CD is a rousing collection of live performances which spotlights the current band members, (L to R) Dan Cooper(bass), Paul Ramirez(guitar) and Clyde Dempsey(drums), in addition to former guitarists including Kirk McKim, Kenny Cordray, and Matt Johnson. This cd finally gives the people a taste of what the band's live show is all about, and you haven't witnessed Mark May Band unless you've seen them LIVE! And now for the story...

AO: You say your mother was a songwriter, and for those who didn’t know the song you wrote called ‘Joann’ was written for her. Do you think music has changed at all from your mother’s time, and if so in what way?

MM: In general, music is something that whether or not it changes styles, it’s really just your feelings about different subjects. I wrote that song ‘Joann’ about her, although many people don’t know it’s about her, because I wrote it in a style that…well, to make it a little slicker than a song a man wrote about his mother. I tried to make it sound more like a cool Blues song, but if you listen to the words you can figure it out. It says “I’m you’re man,” but really I was her boy.

AO: The man of the house.

MM: Well, I was a man when I wrote it, I wasn’t a kid. (laughs) But, uh…She grew up in Kentucky, and grew up with the influence of the Church and Bluegrass, mainly. Gospel, and bluegrass pretty much. So I got all the Rock influences and Blues from my brother Ken. He’s 12 years older than me, so quite a bit ahead of me in music and stuff.

AO: So he turned you on to it?

MM: Yeah. She [mom] turned me on to Country stuff like George Jones, Bill Monroe and all the Bluegrass stuff, and he [brother] turned me on to the Beatles and Hendrix. So I kinda got it from both sides. My uncle played fiddle and, like many Bluegrass guys, other things like mandolin, guitar and a bunch of different instruments. Banjo. He played with a lot of the big-time Bluegrass guys in Kentucky. A lot of his music influenced her. She liked that kind of stuff. And she liked people like George Jones, Lorretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette and later on Dolly Parton and Barbara Mandrell. Just whatever was popular. Some newer music, but a lot of the standards. I used to go stay with my aunt and uncle, because they lived close, and my aunt had a record collection. She had a BB King album “Live In Cook County Jail”. And she used to say, you learn to play like BB King and I’ll come see you play! She really liked BB King, and I sort of just latched on to that album. It was probably the first real Blues album that I listened to.
AO: I’ve heard other Blues artists mention that particular album as being his best.

MM: I think that one, and “Live At The Regal” is another real popular one. It’s a really cool album. Then of course Hendrix did a lot of stuff that was Blues. He grew up playing the circuit, and a lot of the stuff he did was just amplified Blues, through a Marshall and a Stratocaster, y’know? And all the stuff he played when he did King Curtis, all the different people he played with like Isley Bros, Little Richard. So that basically got me started doin that. I started playing a bit more Rock stuff. Whatever was popular back then, like Rick Derringer, Aerosmith, Pat Travers y’know…guitar player bands. We had a family band at one point. But that was later on. First we, my brother and I played a high school dance when I was like, in eighth grade. Just me and him. He played bass, I played guitar. He may have played guitar too. We played three songs. We played ‘Wild Thing’, ‘The Thrill Is Gone’, and ‘Come On Part One’. That was one of my first live gigs. We played around with a little band and we did a few gigs with a guy named Jack Willis, me and my brother. Then I got into a band called ‘Diamonds & Rust’, when I was about 16.

AO: This was in Ohio?

MM: Yeah, in Ohio. Columbus & Newark. The Diamonds & Rust Band was kind of a strange band. The guy who was the lead singer was an Elvis impersonator. We did an Elvis show, but we also did a lot of the Rock stuff that was popular at the time. Rolling Stones' ‘Some Girls’, ‘My Sharona’, just whatever was popular y’know?

AO: Two bands for the price of one.

MM: Yeah. He had a good voice. It wasn’t real high, so we picked out stuff he could sing. We all had outfits we wore. It was a cool band I guess. Then I got into a County/Rock band called ‘McCoy’. We did a lot of Southern Rock stuff. Stuff like 'Willin' by Little Feat, stuff by The Allman Brothers, Fleetwood Mac, but it was like a real Southern kind of sound…acoustic guitars, eventhough we weren’t really an acoustic band. The lead singer was Ron Ferguson and his brother played bass…Randy. It was a pretty cool band. We were the house band at some club out in Newark called ‘The Stein’. Then it was after that when we started our family thing. We did a lot of Country stuff. To back up though, it was about that time that I played some with my brother, when he moved out to California, and I went out too for about 6 – 8 months and played with a guy named Tony Vice, in a County band. "Tony Vice and the Hollywood Cowboys".

AO: This was in Southern California?

MM: Uh huh. It was right when I graduated from High School, in Los Angeles. We lived right in Hollywood, on Hollywood Blvd. We played some gigs out there. You know most Country bands do Rock too, obviously, these days. I didn’t stay out there a real long time though. I came back when my brother moved back, and we did the ‘May Family Band’ thing. Then he moved to Texas, and then I moved to Texas.

AO: It was your brother's idea?

MM: Well, it was his wife Cheryl’s…she’s from here. She wanted to move back and he came down, and then I followed not too long after, and I’ve been here ever since. When I came down here I played in some Country bands, me and my brother played in some bands, then he kind of stopped playing, and I was still doing these Country bands. Then I started doing this Hard Rock thing. It [the band] had two different names. First it was called ‘Dactyl’ like Pteradactyl, then we changed it to ‘Mirror’. We had a really good lead singer, and he could sing all the really high stuff, Hard Rock stuff like Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, Bon Jovi…even Queensryche and stuff like that. We just played local clubs, never really went anywhere, then he moved off to Sacremento because Tesla’s manager liked him. So, I think it was about that time that I started hosting the ‘Monday Night Blues Jam’ in a place in Seabrook TX called ‘The Crew's Quarters’.

AO: Yeah, I have read that in your Bio.

MM: Yeah. That was when, we were doing a lot of Blues and Blues/Rock down there, and I realised that I felt really comfortable playing it, and people liked the way I played it, and then a buddy turned me on to Albert Collins. He gave me an Albert Collins tape, and I really liked it. That was when I got really hooked on the whole Blues thing, at that point. On the side, while doing the Country band, I started putting together…at first I just started putting Blues songs into the sets while we were still doing Country and nobody minded if you did a little Stevie Ray Vaughan or T-Bone Shuffle as long as you played mostly what they liked. So that’s when I got the bug for it and finally put a Blues Band together in, I guess it was 1991 or ’92…me and Dan [Cooper]. We just had a four piece band with Danny Goza & Dave Nevling the harp player. We put together the album, ‘Call On The Blues’, featuring special guests Joe Guitar Hughes and Eric Demmer (sax))and we put it out on cassette tape locally, sent it out to some record companies, and I got a bite back from Johnny Phillips from Icehouse [Records], and he re-mixed it.

AO: So you had basically already done the album before getting ‘Icehouse’ on board?

MM: Pretty much, I mean they did a few things to it. When we re-mixed it they added some things like hand clapping and rhythm guitars, but mostly it was just re-mixed. They released it in 1995 on ‘Icehouse Records’ label out of Memphis. And Johnny is the nephew of Sam Phillips that had ‘Sun Records’. He’s got a pretty big distribution company called 'Select-O-Hits' up in Memphis. So he already had a distribution company to distribute his own records which was convenient for him, but he also got hooked up with a Rap label ‘Priority’, because he was distributing a lot of their stuff for them, and they made some kind of deal where they would use all of Priority’s distribution to distribute his Blues label. So we were all over in the stores right away, which was a good break for us, because it’s hard to get Blues records into the stores, but if you have a big name like ‘Priority Records’ on your side, its like an almost automatic thing where you can get stuff in. So that was a pretty good break for us. We did two CDs with them, ‘Call On The Blues’ and ‘Telephone Road’. Billy Wells and Greg Grubbs joined the band for the second CD which also featured special guests Larry McCray, Eric Demmer (Clarence Gatemouth Brown), Alan Haynes, Memphis Horns & Travis Doyle. Then we went to more of a two-guitar format, instead of a harmonica-guitar, and did the Blues/Rock thing.

AO: *Note* - In 1999 May was dubbed 'Houston Press' Local Musician of the Year.

MM: We have had some extremely gifted guitar players. Some of them include Kenny Cordray,(co-wrote ‘Francine’ recorded by ZZ Top), Matt Johnson, John Calderon (Al Jarreau) & Kirk McKim (Pat Travers Band). We’ve gone through about ten different guitar players. Dan’s been the bass player the whole time, and we’ve probably had about 3 - 4 drummers thoughout the band. After ‘Telephone Road’ we struck up a relationship with Jim Gayle, a local guy, who had managed a Bluegrass band and had got them on ‘Austin City Limits’. He took guitar lessons from me. He was an Oil & Gas guy, and he decided to start a record label and started managing us. In 2003 we came out with ‘Dollmaker’ with him, featuring guitarist/vocalist John Zuliger "JZ", along with special guests Dickey Betts, Jr. Ortiz and Skip Nallia.
In between that time, actually about the same time as ‘Telephone Road’ came out, we were playing down in Sarasota FL, and I had a couple of friends who would come see us religiously when we were in that area, and this one guy owned a golf shop with his dad, and Dickey Betts from the Allman Brothers Band started to shop there, and they got to be friends, going out to lunch, playing golf together, and he kept telling Dickey he wanted him to hear our CD, and finally gave Dickey a copy of it. Dickey just threw it in the glovebox of his Lexus and never really listened to it, until he got tired of Jimmy bugging him about it, so he finally put it in so he’d leave him alone…and he really liked it. He liked the fact that I played a lot like Albert Collins, and he thought my voice sounded a lot like Freddie King’s which is hard to believe, but y’know, I’m glad he thought that. So he decided he wanted to try and help us out. He didn’t listen to a lot of new music. He listened to John Coltrain, Charlie Parker, Billy Joe Shaver… y’know people like that, that he admired…some Jazz guys. So we just kinda lucked out that he liked it, and then he asked us if we’d like to do some dates with the Allman Brothers! I couldn’t believe it. It was just out of nowhere. He wanted to see us play live first, so we went out to Sarasota and played at the ‘Five-O-Clock’ club, and Dickey came out and watched us. So the places [cities] where they didn’t need extra support, where they didn’t need help to draw a big crowd or places where they were sold out already, they put us on as the opener for the ampitheater tour in 1997, and we probably did about fifteen dates with them.

Continued in Part Two...
Look for my next posting, Saturday March 13th for the rest of the scoop!
But in the meantime, you can check out the Live CD at DigStation, for the previous CDs check out the Amazon.com offers Mark May Store, and if you just want to give a listen, check out the streaming previous songs, shows & news at ReverbNation/markmayband or for more photos and blogs try MySpace.com/markmay01.

Copyright © 2010 Abby Owen. All Rights Reserved.
Photos courtesy of Mark May Band, Abby Owen, Brian Smith Copyright © 2010
All Rights Reserved.

HOUSTON: Blues Fans Lose a Local Legend by Abby Owen

Blues Man Ozell 'Zee' Roberts Passes Good Friday 2009, Age 71, and he will be missed...

"In all our lives we meet someone who leaves an unforgettable impression upon us. Ozell “Zee” Roberts was such a man. Those of us who knew him marveled at the magic of his musicianship". ~ 'Traffic Jam' Tribute


I would like to thank his last band 'Traffic Jam' for some of the quotes and photos in my story.


Ozell has played with some of the greats including Stevie Wonder, Jackie Wilson, The Temptations, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Clarence “Gatemouth" Brown, T-Bone Walker, The Manhattans, Sam & Dave, Wilson Pickett, Bobby Blue Bland, Red Fox, Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, Etta James and many others.

My own experience with Mr. Roberts came when I met him and subsequently got to know him from attending the Thursday Night Blues Jam at Spring Tavern, Spring Texas, over the Winter of 2008/2009. Little did I know I had precious time left to visit with my new friend between sets of aspiring or retiring blues jammers, so the rapport was easy and unaffected. He would be gone a few months later, on Good Friday. My overall impression of him was that of a gentle gentleman. I never heard Ozell resort to bad language or cutting remarks, or even react to some of the more crude jokes that used to fly around. We were in an 'ice-house' after all. It was a 'biker-joint' I had been told, before I decided to check it out for myself. I like to think he was not reacting to the bad language because he felt he was in the presence of a lady, and it was better to let it pass on by, so not to offend. This was how I knew he was a gentleman. The place was nothing to look at, but as I learned over time, many of Houston's leading musicians will stop in for the jam, knowing that some of the best-of-the-best musicians are likely to turn up to play a set, and will be appreciated for their playing. It often seemed like an 'after-party' of musicians just entertaining each other! The 'In' crowd.

Ozell had a way of making you feel that you were among royalty, that his very presence in the joint gave everyone more credibility. The first time I heard him play guitar, I was in heaven. I couldn't stop grinning from ear to ear, because until then I thought I had been witnessing a real show of talent with the other musicians there, until I saw Ozell play that is. There is no way to describe how good he was on that guitar. He truly was an artist. And it seemed his fingers barely moved! I didn't have much time, but didn't know it. The odd thing is, even though I barely knew him, on our last parting I was suddenly hit with the urge to give him a hug good-bye. After I hugged him, I felt awkward and thought to myself, "Now, why did I do that? I hardly know him that well." Ozell took my exuberance in stride, and softly smiled. That was the last time I saw him.


"We will never forget the amazement and wonderment we all felt as he ripped off an altered chord or a blazing guitar solo. His music was a heavenly embodiment of angels singing. His personality was a touching tribute to greatness and humility. He was a great man who exemplified simplicity and kindness."~ 'Traffic Jam' Tribute


Ozell, sad to say, fell into the familiar category of some of the older musicians who were never properly recognized or compensated for their artistry. That didn't stop him from sharing it with other musicians, and the community as a whole. He never complained about it, he just kept playing.


"Ozell left East Texas in the 60’s to play bass guitar", writes a family member. "Over the years Ozell played with so many well known artists. The only recorded [offering] of his work, that I am aware of, is on Lightning Hopkins’ "The Sonet Blues Story" recorded here in Houston, 1974. Even though he wrote his own music and would have loved to record his own work and live the good life, it didn’t happen for him, but it didn’t stop him."


People wonder, and I don't really have an answer, why in the Houston music scene there are so many cover bands and tribute bands, and not so many bands doing original music. Why aren't these guys honored with the fans and success they deserve? Here is an excerpt from an article written a few years ago by a local music publication the 'Houston Press’ that mentioned Ozell in these terms...


Houston Press - 05/05/05 "...And yes, to be a full-time musician in Houston does mean playing cover music. Just ask these groups how much they love to play "Mustang Sally" one more time. Blues legend Ozell Roberts, who has played with Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight and Etta James, has to play these cover songs to afford to buy his diabetes medicine. Even after this he can still be found at Shakespeare's Sunday jam session just to play for free for the love of music. Why must Houston musicians starve to do what they love?"

OZELL'S ALBUM WITH LIGHTIN HOPKINS ~ THE SONET BLUES STORY



"This extremely loose set was recorded in Houston in 1974 and was originally released as part of Samuel Charters' Legacy of the Blues series that same year. It features Hopkins playing an acoustic guitar with an electric pick up backed by a valiant three-piece band that consisted of Ira James on harmonica, Larry "Bones" McCall on drums, and Rusty Myers and Ozell Roberts splitting time on bass. Ozell backs Lightnin' Hopkins on three albums that we know of."


Admittedly, there isn't a lot of information on Ozell Roberts when you search, as most of his glory happened on the road, or in clubs, back when there weren't recording devices around every corner. There was no 'YouTube' or 'MySpace' back in the 50s, 60s or even 70s! Most of what we have about Ozell is the human factor, the memories that people will carry with them of this great and extremely humble man, and it is the reason my story is made mostly of those things...



"All of us who played with him were elevated to a place beyond our own ability. His smile and softness endeared him into the hearts of everyone who knew him. If you knew him you loved him". ~ 'Traffic Jam' Tribute






Traffic Jam = Ozell Roberts: Guitar, Dave Corbett: Drums, Flash: Keys, Adam Aaron: Bass, Dan Carpenter: Sax.





Thomas Viviano had this to say, "I was blessed to perform with Ozell as the trumpet player in the band ‘Traffic Jam’. Ozell was a member of my band Cool Breeze. We played R&B and also Jazz. Yes sir. Not only could he play blues, he was great playing jazz on his guitar. Ozell was a pleasure to perform with. I will miss his talent for music and the humor he had while being around people."


Mark May, a well known Houston Blues artist had this to say. “He was just one of the coolest guys to be around musically. For one thing he was always in such a great mood he would lighten up the whole evening. He was probably the smoothest musician I’ve ever played with as far as he was real laid back, but it was real intense to listen to him play because he could just jump on the harp, or the keyboards, or y’know the guitar, bass. He played them all fantastically, and had this really cool voice. He was always fun to be around. He always loved good music. If he came out to the jam and didn’t want to play, he’d just hang out y’know, enjoy the music on his nights off, after a gig or anytime. He couldn’t get enough of it. He couldn’t get enough of music.”


Rhythm & Blues artist Papa Joe of ‘Papa Joe’s Ultimate Blues Machine’ said he’s been playing music for 60 years, started out in a blues club in 1952 called The Vee Jay Club in Simsport Louisiana. He plays trumpet, and also does vocals. “Ozell was a great blues artist. I worked with him many, many times and it was always a pleasure and a priviledge. He was the most humble, down to earth guy you’d ever want to meet. And really a super, super talent. Ozell was a good guitarist, a great bass player, a good vocalist...he could do it all.”


Miss Rita, local musician, music teacher and longtime friend of Ozell says, "We had so many good times and used to laugh so hard. He used to call me thumper and would do this hilarious impersonation of me playing the drums. One time we went to this Christmas party along with Suzanne Prats. Mike and Ray Charles were supposed to be there. Ray never made it so we ended up playing. Well, there was this guy there who looked and talked just like George Jefferson! Ozell always talked later about meeting that guy, how Ray Charles couldn't make it, but at least we got to meet George Jefferson! Ozell was one of a kind, one of my favorite people in the world. It was amazing, all the people and musicians who went to the hospital to see him when he was sick. He was really loved. It was a gift and honor for all of us to know him, hear him play, jam with him and have him as a friend."


Stacy Kriticos, a friend who was with him in the hospital during his last days said, "Ozell was a man of many talents. He was a great musician and a very talented painter. Ozell could take anything that was broken and turn it into a piece of art. He enjoyed teaching kids how to play various instruments and now those kids are successful musicians. Ozell would go to retirement homes to perform for the elderly and do the same for children. His friendship along with his music will be treasured forever."


It has been said that a person lives on in the hearts and memories that they left with others. Ozell, my friend, you have a lot of living left to do! We won’t forget you so keep on jammin’.



Copyright © 2009 Abby Owen. All Rights Reserved.