Notes about Gary Primich
Yeah, they say you have to suffer if you want to sing the
blues. And yes, blues singer, harmonica master and songwriter
Gary Primich wasn't raised in a shotgun shack in the Mississippi
Delta or a tenement on the South Side of Chicago. Nor does
he try to sound like he was. Yet his blues music still brims
with the stamp of authenticity, albeit an authenticity to
what constitutes blues music here in the 21st Century. And
as CD Review once pointed out, If you're a newcomer to Primich's
work and are expecting another boring white guy doing either
blues Nazi rehashes of Little Walter's Juke or some Blues
Traveler ooodles of noodles fest, forget it.
Rather, with Gary Primich what you get is one foot in the
old school and the other in modern blues, says Jazz Times,
along with songwriting [that] has some fresh melodic twists
and modulations that take that tradition to some other places.
And then there s his harp playing, filled with fat, rich
and sassy tones, marked by tricky melodic twists, and as
powerful as a locomotive barreling along at full steam.
As well, notes Down Beat, Primich is that rare harmonica
player who actually knows how to sing. And do so damned
well to boot.
The evidence of such is embossed into Dog House Music, Primich's
debut album on the Antone's Records label and his seventh
in a series of releases that have previously racked up considerable
critical acclaim. The album melds the sweaty feel of an
inspired nightclub set with the sharp sonic atmosphere of
the studio, resulting in blues music that is vivid and full
of life. With his feet firmly planted in musical tradition,
Primich creates a signature style marked by versatile musicality,
smart songwriting, muscular and evocative vocals, and colorful
and potent harp playing. Cut with his road-seasoned band
augmented by some of the best players in Austin, TX, it
features songs written by Primich both solo and with his
longtime collaborator Mark Korpi, as well as by Primich
band bassist Jeff Turmes and noted Austin songwriter Michael
Fracasso. Dog House Music is indeed a disc that howls and
rocks the roof off the joint.
Primich's talent and feel for the blues has won him praise
from the likes of blues harmonica legend Charlie Musselwhite,
who notes, He's not just playing the same old stuff we've
all heard way too much of. Instead, Primich stretches and
enhances the blues with the touch of a modern master. Jazziz
says he is easily the most syncretic [harmonica] player
on the scene today, while Spotlight magazine hails Primich
as one of the best harp players alive. Chicago's New City
declared his album Mr. Freeze as one of the 20 best blues
albums of the 1990s.
Gary Primich was in fact born in the capital city of the
blues, Chicago, and raised in an industrial suburb of Gary,
IN. Yes, his family was middle class, but the milieu he
grew up in could certainly give anyone the blues. My high
school was in the business of cranking out people to go
work at U.S. Steel, Bethlehem Steel and Inland Steel. Nobody
went to college, for God's sake, he says. His first exposure
to blues music was when he heard the Dave Edmunds version
of "I Hear You Knocking" on the radio. At the
same time, Chuck Berry's last big hit "My Ding A Ling"
led Primich into the rock 'n roll pioneer's catalog and
the legacy of Chess Records.
And even though he wasn't weaned on the masters, once Primich
picked up the harmonica in his teens, he went straight to
the sources to master his craft. He studied and absorbed
the styles of Sonny Boy Williamson I and II as well as Little
Walter and Big Walter. He started hitting the clubs on the
West and South Sides of Chicago, and was soon playing in
bands along Maxwell Street, the main drag of urban blues,
while getting his college degree from Indiana University.
It took one visit to Austin for him to decide to move there
after finishing college. I went to Antone's nightclub and
heard the house band backing Otis Rush, who I'd heard a
lot of times in Chicago, but he never sounded as good as
he did that night. In the late 1980s, he started The Mannish
Boys with former Mothers of Invention drummer Jimmy Carl
Black. After two albums with the band for Amazing Records,
Primich struck out on his own. Over two albums on his own
for Amazing, another two for Flying Fish Records, and then
two more for Black Top Records, he has consistently racked
up critical kudos for his mastery of the tricky and elusive
mix of tradition and innovation. As Blues Revue notes, A
new disc by Gary Primich has always been something to look
forward to.
Like Paul Butterfield, another white harmonica player who
honed his chops on the Chicago scene and left his indelible
imprint on the music's progression, Primich filters his
blues roots through his own consciousness to create something
that's true to himself and his own vision. I really see
myself more like playing music like the Paul Butterfield
Blues Band, which was hearing what they loved and doing
their own version of it as opposed to trying to reproduce
the wheel.
Even if Primich isn't about to parlay himself as a down
and dirty bluesman who's seen hard times and troubles all
his days, make no mistake about his devotion to the music
and the fact that he plays it from deep inside his soul.
It's important that people understand that I started playing
this music when I started playing music because I love this
music. It wasn't because I heard Stevie Ray Vaughan or saw
something groovy on TV. I play this music because I fell
in love with it. And I play blues harmonica because I fell
in love with the sound of it. I started playing blues when
it was the most uncool thing to do, and it's never been
the cool thing to do, but that doesn't matter to me.
And in the great blues tradition, Primich is a working musician
who plays upwards of 200 dates a year across North America
and throughout Europe. When I was 18 years old, if you told
me that when I was 43 years old that I would have my white
Ford van, and my own band, and I would be going out and
playing gigs all over the country, I would have said, dream
come true. I am doing what I've always wanted to do, which
is to go on the road and play my own music the way I like
to play it wherever it is that it takes me. And I love doing
that.
In the process, Primich has established himself as one of
the modern masters of the blues. And for proof of that,
just slip Dog House Music into the CD player, and see if
you don't heartily agree.
