Category: Musicians

 

Jimmy Schwarz
Harmonica, Vocals
Blues Disciples

Tell us a little about your history as a blues artist. Bands you’ve played with, how long etc.

I started The Blues Disciples over 30 years ago. In the late 80’s, I lived near Brady Street and started spending a lot of time at the Up & Under Pub.  Having been trained as a vocalist in college, I began to sit in at open jams and eventually started the band.

During those early years, I also played with “Jimmy and The Flamethrowers” which was the same core band with a different guitar player.  Over the years I have played a lot of harmonica for Rev Raven and a lot of other bands too numerous to remember.

What do you do for fun when you are not playing?
I watch soccer, drink coffee, and smoke reefer.

How did the Blues Disciples get started?
We were very much inspired by the Blues scene in Milwaukee at the time, and wanted to start a band to be a part of it.

Who are your biggest musical influences?
Kermit Stokes, Billy Flynn, Jim Liban, Lee McBee, The Belairs, William Clark, so many more!!

Tell us about your first paid gig.
I got us a gig at a bar in Port Washington, half the band had no gig experience, but it went well, and it became a semi-regular gig for us in the early years of the band.

If you could collaborate with another musician who would it be?
Right now I am collaborating with my favorite 4 musicians in the world, the other 4 Blues Disciples.  We have started work on a new release with everyone in the band writing new original songs.  Over 30 years I’ve been privileged to have so many great musicians come through the band, and this current group is a dynamic collection of a 5 piece group that plays with 1 musical mind.  Instead of myself writing and arranging all the songs, the next release will be a true collaboration of all members of the band, and I think it will be our best effort yet!

Also, I’d enjoy collaborating with Mike Morgan down in Texas, and of course a Robert Cray Collab would be a dream come true!

Describe Blues Disciples fans in 3 words.
The Best!   You can have 1 word back 🙂

What is your opinion about covers?
To me, the term “cover” means different things in different contexts and genres.  If we’re talking about popular music, and “cover bands” that fill church festivals, cruise ships, and weddings with the goal of sounding “just like the record”, I’m not a fan, but I definitely understand fellow musicians playing those gigs, cause that’s where the money is at for a musician that’s not touring a bigger show.

If we’re talking about Blues or Jazz, I would use the word “standards” as opposed to “covers.” When we cover a BB King song, we’re not trying to copy BB King, we’re trying to play a standard in our own style and interpretation, and hearing my musical peers interpret standards in their own way is musical growth.

What advice would you give to young musicians?
Don’t take any advice from me 🙂

but ok…

After you learn the technical fundamentals of your instrument, the next step is to find your own unique style, you have one, but it may take some time and experimenting with different things to weed out what's you from your influences.  Influences are great to have, but don’t try to be them, be you.

How much time do you spend listening to music each day or week?  Playing music?
I play about an average of 2 gigs a week, so that’s usually at least 6 hours of playing music a week, when I do recording for other artists that’ll usually be 10 hours per song by the time I’ve finished.  I do listen to music frequently, but also have frequent periods of no listening and sometimes long silent rides to and from gigs.

What is your least favorite type of music?
Karaoke

Karaoke –  Yeah, or nah?
See #20 🙂

 

Jeff “H” Harrington
Bass player of esteemed band the Blues Disciples . . .

Tell us a little about bands you’ve played with.
I’ve played with the Blue Rubies, Perry Weber and the DeVilles, and the Blues Disciples (also played a bit with some Cleveland blues artists when I lived there)

What do you do for fun when you are not playing?
Um, mostly more music, honestly 🙂 All day, every day!

Who are your biggest musical influences?
Hendrix, Dylan, The Meters, Stevie Wonder, Miles Davis, Snatam Kaur, and so many of the classic blues, r&b, jazz, and funk records.

Do you write songs?  If so, where do you write? How do you find time to write?  What’s your writing process like?
Yes, I write a fair amount. I never sit down to write though, sometimes inspiration just comes through and then I sit down and work out the idea. It used to take years sometimes to write a song, now they’re usually done in a few hours.

Describe Blues Disciples fans in 3 words.
Fun, genuine lovers of music, friendly

If you could change one thing about the music business, what would it be?
I think we’re in a time of transition now. I would just suggest that if you really love an artist, look for ways to support them – like and share their social media posts, buy their music, see them live, etc.

Tell us about one of your music teachers.
I took lessons from an incredible vocalist / bass player named Kevin Bibbs in the early 90’s, when we both lived in Madison. An incredible musician from the Chicago blues scene, who was also an incredible person – very inspiring.

What advice would you give to young musicians?
Music should be fun (most of the time). Try to remember that it’s a very powerful force in people’s lives. Try to be aware of when your ego enters the picture and messes things up.

What are the benefits of listening to music? Playing music?
I truly believe that music can be medicine. I think a sad song can really help you deal with feelings of sadness, just like a form of medicine. Too much though, and now the music is creating that sad feeling, instead of helping to release it. You can never have too much joyful music though.

 

Dave Cornette
Drums/Vocal
Blues Disciples

Tell us a little about your history as a blues artist.  Bands you’ve played with, how long etc.
I have been crafting grooves and keeping the time on the bandstand for 40 years. At 15 years old, the calling to drum set and percussion was undeniable after also pursuing piano, baritone horn and voice. He brings a groove mindset to every ensemble he accompanies laying out a great rhythmic platform to highlight the song as well as his fellow musicians.

I have performed with various musical acts and artists in the folk, blues, R&B and jazz genres both live and in the studio including The Blues Disciples, The Danny Miller Band, Paul Stillen Jazz, Inside Sky, The Chesterfield Kings, Roxi Copeland, Jimmy and the Flamethrowers, The Persuaders, New Living Spaces, Scott Sharrard, Larry Thiess, Susan Julian, Billy Flynn, Perry Weber, Steve Cohen, Stokes and many more.

What do you do for fun when you are not playing?
Furniture refinishing and custom painting/finishing.

Who are your biggest musical influences?
Too many to name and many in different genres. Drumming influences would be (to name a few): Art Blakey, Brian Blade, Steve Gadd, Hal Blaine, etc.

Tell us about your first paid gig.
At 15 years old (I am 55 now) I played drums on a folk-rock gig with older musicians every Thursday night at a small club in Shorewood Wisconsin. My parents needed to accompany me.

What’s the most important skill to have as a musician right now?
Intense listening skills to allow the best support of the fellow musicians on stage with me. Also, a sense of what to play and not to play to best support the band and the groove. This is acquired through mileage in performance. I call it creative sensibility.

If you could change one thing about the music business, what would it be?
Better pay. Financial compensation in this business is nowhere equal to the compensation in other walks of life. Also, the pay rate never changes to compensate for inflation. That does not happen in any other profession.

What is your opinion about covers?
I see no point in playing a cover exactly as the original. Although some purist fans that go to hear cover bands would disagree. Playing a cover with a musical group’s style and creativity infused into it makes it a completely different song and makes it completely unique even though the form and lyrics may be exactly like the original version. Music is meant to be creative and interpretive. If a group is covering songs exactly like the original, then save the cost of a band and play the original CD instead.

Tell us about one of your music teachers.
I have had a few different teachers/mentors with different instruments, voice and in the percussion realm. Larry Theiss was a vocal teacher of mine. He is particularly memorable as he had a significant impact on my choice to pursue music and always had a gentle, nurturing approach to pull the best out of you and to inspire you to perform better. You never know who your next teacher might be. One of my favorite pastimes is to observe a band/drummer. I learn something every time.

What are the benefits of listening to music? Playing music?
Both activities can be a sort of out of body experience where I am fully in touch with my creative side. While performing, there is an incredible creative collaboration with the other musicians and transcendence from normal reality that I have never been able to duplicate in other aspects of my life. Performing clears and unclutters my brain and leaves me with a contented feeling especially if the band/group was really connecting on stage. It sort of completes you.

If music were removed from the world, how would you feel?
Empty. Like someone took away my favorite food or person.

Karaoke –  Yeah, or nah?
Yeah, because even though it can be brutal for musicians to listen to, it is a venue where non-musicians can touch the joy of performance. Everyone should experience that in their lifetime!

Eric Heiligenstein  AKA Too Sick Charlie
Cigar Box, Vocals

Tell us a little about your history as a blues artist.  Bands you’ve played with, how long etc.
Too Sick Charlie plays the cigar box guitar, a once forgotten instrument of American blues and roots music. His music has been described as traditional Upper Midwestern cigar box guitar blues.

Too Sick was born in a Nassau blue Chevy Bel Air that was being used as a beagle pen on the outskirts of Belleville, Illinois. He performed on the Mississippi River Medicine Show Circuit for several years before transitioning into a practice of medicine. After developing various snake oil cures for ailments that proved unfounded (but very, very profitable) he made his way to Madison, Wisconsin where he lives a quiet, ascetic life of medical study, song writing and robustly varied acquiescence to almost constant temptation.

What do you do for fun when you are not playing?
I love to work out. Run, bike, ski, etc.

How did Too Sick Charlie get started?
I had to take some time off from music due to family issues. In addition, the harmonica player I performed with moved. So I decided to return to performing as a one man band as much driven by necessity than desire to do so. With that change I also transitioned to home-made instruments (3 string cigar box guitars) and multiple instruments (harmonica, drums). The three sting guitar was a perfect fit for my vision of blues music. Less is sometimes more… A major attraction to playing a 3 string CBG was not having rules to deal with. Anything goes.

Who are your biggest musical influences?
RL Burnside, Lightning Hopkins, The Ramones, ZZ Top, Spinal Tap

Who is/are the most famous person(s) you’ve shared the stage with?
Samantha Fish

Do you write songs?  If so, where do you write? How do you find time to write?  What’s your writing process like?
I write songs but they are more often spontaneous combustion in my head than purposefully sitting down to write them. When a song comes to me I go with it. But otherwise don’t try to force the process. When they come to you, the process is pretty quick so doesn’t take that much time as you’re in a zone.

If you could collaborate with another musician who would it be?
Any: Prince.  Alive: Billy Gibbons

What’s the most important skill to have as a musician right now?
Persistence.

Describe  Too Sick Charlie  fans in 3 words.
All my friends….

What is your opinion about covers?
Straight covers are boring. When people make them their own (derivative works) then you have magic. Incremental change makes music better. Best example: Stevie Ray Vaughn

 What are the benefits of listening to music? Playing music?
Listening always generates ideas for new ways to look at your music. It helps you look at ways in making your music more interesting to listeners.

 Karaoke –  Yeah, or nah?
 Ugh.

Harmonica Player “Tall” Paul Sabel, originally from DePere, WI, started his journey in music oddly enough during his first year of Physician Assistant school at UW Madison. On a Monday night he heard Westside Andy Linderman playing harmonica into a bullet microphone and a tube amp with The Blue Monday Band which was led by Clyde Stubblefield. Paul was mystified by the sound and felt an immediate calling to learn how to do that. At the time, he had been re-awakening his creative side and decided to go at learning the harmonica with the mind of a child—no inhibitions and no pressure for time—and he learned the basics of harmonica faster than he had learned anything before. With stops in Chicago and Green Bay, Paul ended up in Madison and keeps a somewhat low profile as harmonica Player for the Ryan McGrath Band. He has been working all along as a physician assistant and is father of two young children but had managed to make it to The Knuckledown Saloon and sit in with Reverend Raven and the Chain-smoking Altar Boys featuring Westside Andy, The Madtown Mannish Boys, The Cash Box Kings, and Brandon Santini. He is happy his wife Silvia supports his love of music and performing live. Always looking to add to his repertoire and musical style, Paul recently started to study via Skype with harmonica player Jason Ricci. You can follow Paul by liking his musician page Tall Paul Sabel on Facebook. Look for gig updates and hopefully soon some new posts featuring live performances and informational videos. 1.  What do you do for fun when you are not playing? STUFF WITH THE KIDS.  Going to parks, hiking, reading stories.  For myself I like to hike, bike and work out with kettlebells. 2.  How did the Ryan McGrath band get started? When Ryan moved back to the area after attending school at Montana State, he formed a trio with local bass player and drummer.  The bass player happened to work in Stoughton ER which was one of my sites when I moved back to the area after my 5 years in Chicago. We talked one night and he invited me to play a party they were hired for and Ryan and I clicked right away.  That was around Oct 20, 2014 which was 5 days before my son Soren was born.  Ryan happened to get married right after than as well so we both had big changes in life as we met and started playing music together. 3. Who are your biggest musical influences? Westside Andy, Glenn Davis, Gary Primich, Jim Liban, Jerry Gonzalez (jazz trumpeter and conguero who I have found to be my spirit animal in music, I watch his Detroit jazz fest live performances on YouTube all the time), Charles Mingus, Big Walter Horton, Little Walter, James Cotton, Mitch Kashmar, RJ Mischo, Flynn McGee, Bret and Clyde Stubblefield, James LeFevere, Joe Filisko. 4. Who is/are the most famous person(s) you’ve shared the stage with? Jorge Chicoy in Cuba probably.  I played a gig with Sociedad Habana Blues, a band that Charlie Musselwhite connected me to when I told him I was going to Cuba and asked for advice on playing harp with that music. That band opened up for Chicoy’s band and in between Chicoy asked if I would sit in with his band.  I did and they broke it down at a point and it was just him and I going back and forth.  He was playing all these insane jazz licks with effects and I’ve got a harp and a vocal mic.  I thought to myself, what can I do that he can’t?  So when my turn to match him came up, I switched the gears and did my best train imitation on harp and brought the house down. Afterwards he told me I was welcome on stage with him anytime. I got to sit in with Charlie Musselwhite once too and he’s probably more famous but I just remembered that. Charlie was playing a 3 night casino gig in Green Bay in February and I offered to show him around town.  Long story short, he likes second hand shops and pawn shops and I brought him to a place where he figured out they had a few switch blade knives hidden behind the counter in a cigar box and bought one. He told me you never  know when you might need a good knife.  Still in his blood from Chicago days.  Anyway, he let me up for the song Cadillac Women on the last night of his residency at the casino.  Billy Flynn was there and I think he ended up mailing the switchblade to Charlie so he wouldn’t lose it at the airport. 5.  Tell us about your first paid gig. Biker bar next to red letter news in early 2000’s. I made $11.   6. If you could play another instrument beside harmonica, what would it be and why? Drums because my son wants to play them and I wish I could teach him. 7. If you could collaborate with another musician who would it be?  Alabama Mike.  He sang on the album Howlin at Greaseland which came out around the time my daughter Arya was born in 2018 or so.  I used to console her and rock her to that album but really love Alabama Mike’s delivery And would love to meet him someday. 8. What’s the most important skill to have as a musician right now?  I don’t know.  I guess it’s social media marketing . 9.  Describe Ryan McGrath Band fans in 3 words. Addicted, loyal, intelligent  10. If you could change one thing about the music business, what would it be? Pay me in Bitcoin or pay us for streaming our music. 11. What is your opinion about cover songs? I love covers as long as it’s not cover band style and we can improvise.  People want to hear stuff they know.  I’m not going to try to replicate note for note covers, but I do cover songs and introduce as such.  I also want t to sprinkle in original stuff and hopefully people are open to new stuff.  Music is communication and if people aren’t open to new stuff, they will be stuck and miss out.  12. Tell us about one of your music teachers. DeWayne Keyes is a Madison legend in my mind.  If not for him I wouldn’t have started.  He gave classes through the UW extended classes or something like that and I took his course after seeing fliers all over campus for 4 years.  I took that course after hearing Westside Andy at Okay’s Corral and knowing I wanted to play harmonica.  DeWayne is a great teacher and really inspired me.  He had a handout with harmonica players to check out and I took it to the library and checked out cds of those artists and figured out who I liked and didn’t like. 13. What advice would you give to young musicians? Go for what you truly love. 14.  What are the benefits of listening to music? Playing music?   LISTENING IS CRUCIAL.  I can get practice reps in from listening alone while on my bike going to work.  It may be out of necessity but it works.  It’s like practice reps in sports.  And even if passively listening you want to have good music around you all the time.  You never know what soaks in. The chromatic harp line I play in part of Play With My Mind on Heat and the Hammer I got inspired from a John Fruschante guitar line from intro to Snow Hey Oh from the Chilli Peppers. I heard it at home the day before my recording session when my wife had the song on as part of a kids dance party.  It triggered an idea and I went and wrote it out. Always be receptive to the universe guiding you to create music. 15. If music were removed from the world, how would you feel? Very dead and no emotion. 16. How much time do you spend listening to music each day or week?  Playing music? It depends.  I go in streaks where I’m checking out new music or listening to stuff that stirs the memories and spend hardcore hours going at it but lately it has been very sad where I’m listening to sports radio and trying not to think about music because there isn’t much to look forward to and if I don’t have deadlines, less likely to carve out time to practice with the family obligations there. 17. Is there a song that makes you emotional? Sound of Silence, original but the Disturbed version has really moved me to tears. 18. What is your least favorite type of music? Whatever category the song What Does The Fox Say is in as it’s my son’s favorite song and I feel like I’m hearing that more than good music so my ears may be getting contaminated with annoying pop sh*t. 19. Karaoke –  Yeah, or nah?  Nah, unless I’m drunk in Tokyo which I have been And for some reason it’s not as annoying there.  Probably because I was drunk. 20. Who should answer these questions next? Westside Andy