What inspires you most?
Women.
How do women influence and inspire your songs/stories?
That sounds like a question for them. I could give you a list of phone numbers if you like.
Have you always played the steel guitar?
I have been playing resonator guitars since they were invented in the late March of 1927.
What is in the future for your career?
I’m in it for the money. According to Moses Atwood, there are literally thousands of dollars in acoustic music.
The blues is not as popular as it’s been in the past. Why do you love the blues and play them?
I know a girl who has a very difficult time in most social situations, but hitchhiked the West Bank when she was 19. By this I mean that I really love my own hairstyle (of course, or why would I have it?), but every once in a while I wish I had my cornrows back.
Why do you think this genre lost popularity?
Ready? Get ready. Here we go: The blues are not as popular as they once were. This has to do with all forms of music. Trends come and go. Now, my particular form of music is in fact called, “Songsterism.” It is a type of music that is heavily reliant on storytelling. Every type of civilization since the beginning of time has had methods of storytelling. From cave paintings to songs all the way to movies, this is how we tell our history. My brand of music is from rural black tradition and has been dead since the early ‘30s. The last and most popular person to come out of the songster tradition was Mississippi John Hurt. He had very few blues songs, mostly stories. This is the same for me. I actually have very few blues songs as well.
Am I mistaken in calling you a blues artist?
Whatever gets people to listen, and me a little bit closer to those thousands!
What modern day blues musicians do you admire?
Otis Taylor.
What do the blues mean to you?
Tomes. I could write tomes on this subject. So much that it would take the rest of my life to write it, the rest of your life to read it, and by that point we’d both be fired.
Can you be white and still be blue?
You tell me. I have no way of knowing.
What are your audiences like?
I’m not really sure. Sometimes they’re loud, sometimes quiet. Sometimes they’re old, sometimes they’re young. Sometimes they’re tall, sometimes they’re wealthy beyond my limited concept of what that could possibly mean. Different every time. I’d like to think that the audience gets to see what it was like to hang out in a juke in the ‘20s & ‘30s.
What do you hope the audience leaves with?
A smile. Their own smile though. I knew this guy once who stole my laugh. This is very serious. The police were almost called.