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Mississippi mudsharks |
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“A shit-hot blues trio that owes as much to Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and the Cramps as any Delta dude.” - HARP Magazine “...an impressive set of bluesy voodoo rock...which sounds like a rocking Tom Waits out in front of a top notch power trio.” - All Music Guide “Hotter than hot blues related romp that purists won't know how to deal with but Gen Yers will think is blues.” - Midwest Record Recap |
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Dec 2008 Interview Feature w/ Scottie Blinn:
A ROOTS MUSIC COCKTAIL of testosterone and sweat, hot rod grease and beer that compels a listener to grind all night on the dance floor: that's what Scottie Blinn had in mind when he re-tooled his career after the demise of his old band, the Mississippi Mudsharks. He hired new players and launched the Tiki Torchers in San Diego. The band rocked. Following the unsuccessful musical changes during the Sharks last days the Torchers were, in many ways, a return to form for the charismatic guitar player. Later, a successful partnership with Eric Von Herzen from Social Distortion was formed and Blinn called it Mississippi Mud. Some called it Scottie Blinn's Mike Ness phase. The music rocked harder than ever before. And what about that new voice?
"Cigarettes and whiskey," he says.
During much of the '90's the Mississippi Mudsharks were the foundation of San Diego's blues scene. They were a power blues-rock trio and they played two and sometimes three gigs a day. "We spent four years," Blinn remembers, "playin' over 300 gigs a year." In time, they added a harp player named Billy Watson. They outgrew the San Diego blues scene they helped to start and found tremendous support in Europe. Europe, says Blinn, became like a second San Diego. And then, the Mudsharks began to outgrow each other.
"There was a time in '97 and '98 that the band took a different direction," says Blinn. Some thought the new direction a watered-down pop version of the driving blues sound that the Mudsharks were known for. "I wasn't really into it. Some people really liked it, but a lot of our hardcore fans didn't really dig it." The bass player at the time, Blinn says, brought that pop influence to the core mix. "It's not that it was bad or that it sucked," Blinn says. "It just wasn't me."
Last year, six years after the original Mississippi Mudsharks disbanded Blinn reprised his partnership with the Shark's original drummer Tommy Essa. They called it the Mississippi Mudsharks, like in the old days, but the sound held more to the blueprint set by Blinn with the Tiki Torchers and with Von Herzen in Mississippi Mud.
"Tom decided he was tired of playin' with the straight blues bands," says Blinn, "and felt like rockin' again." Illness took Von Herzen out of the project. Essa and Blinn carried the sound on with a number of different bass players.
"This whole thing came about with us being fed up with the standard blues scene that was out there and wantin' to break out into different kind of venues not forsaking the blues at all, but at the same time trying to grab that younger audience once again."
Train Rolls On, recorded in 2006 in San Diego, is a blues record in the sense that this is what happens when solid blues cats make a roots rock record. Train Rolls On is a rock fest of blues imagery that owes as much to rockabilly and to punk as it does to Chicago or the Delta.
"We decided to combine the attitude of punk with traditional roots, not just blues, but country and surf and combine these things together," Blinn says, "and come up with a completely different sound that no one's doin'."
That said, the CD rocks from the eponymous title track (Von Herzen gets co-writing credit for this and for "Hangin' Tree.") If the feel of the record is something that might make a Social D fan get happy, there is also the sexual drawl of ZZ Top. "Throw It In The Hole" has a sweet and jazzy Billy Gibbons change-up and Blinn's guitar fries on overdrive. "30 Weight Shuffle" and "Zombie Whip" follow with potent struts that have the same juicy Tres Hombres feel.
There is no question that this is a guitar player's record. "Lakeside Redneck Shindig" is pure punk rockabilly inspired by Hellbound Hayride and featuring a solo on pedal steel by Johnny Smokes that careens all over the road. Blinn himself by now knows every guitar lick ever invented. But that said, the revised Mudsharks are not a platform for his fretboard abilities. The guitar solo on "Hangin' Tree," for example, is pounds of soul played in the most economical of terms. Where guitar notes used to fly like bullets in years past, Blinn's leads have since matured. He makes more with less.
But to hear what it was that kept local blues fans so loyal for so many years, you have to wait for track eight and "Can't Put Down the Drink." "I used to be ugly," Blinn sings, "Lord there was no helpin' me / Couple beers, shot of whisky, glass of wine, and I'm just a pretty as can be." The song is riddled with Texas riffs that are fat-toned and right on target. "I know it's hard for you to see me this way / I'm just as drunk as ever / And that's probably how I'll stay."
A new record is due out in the spring of 2008. "I'm always big on weird instruments," says Blinn. "On one record, Andy Geib from Wise Monkey Orchestra played trombone. On the acoustic record we did, we had mandolin and washboard, shakers, and all sorts of stuff goin' on. I think on the next record I could actually hear one or two songs with some accordion on it, which I think would be kind of a trip."
And if the bass player was a problem in the original band, the slot remains problematic to this day. "We've had a couple with us," Blinn says, "that don't work out for one reason or another. We're working with a young guy right now that plays upright and electric. We're putting him through Shark boot camp. We'll see how it all works out." But if he doesn't get what he wants, Blinn and Essa may hire from within the family.
"I've been teachin' my wife Roxanne to play bass for the last couple of years," Blinn says, "and she's got a great feel for that thing."
Reprinted from BluesWax, Dec 2008 # # #
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