Gus Thornton THE MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF THE SAINT LOUIS BLUES SOCIETY August 2013 Number 62 The St. Louis Blues Society August 2013 Officers Number 62 Chairperson BluesLetter John May The Monthly Magazine of the St. Louis Blues Society Vice Chairperson The St. Louis Blues Society is dedicated to preserving and perpetuating blues music in Jeremy Segel-Moss and from St. Louis, while fostering its growth and appreciation. The St. Louis Blues Society provides blues artists the opportunity for public performance and individual Treasurer improvement in their field, all for the educational and artistic benefit of the general public. Jerry Minchey Legal Counsel Contents Charley Taylor Volunteers Needed 2 Secretary Lynn Barlar Discounted Events for Members 2 Communications Tribute to Riley Coatie 3 Mary Kaye Tönnies Gus Thornton: Heart of the Blues 4 Board of Directors Blues to Do’s 6 Ridgley "Hound Dog" Brown Q&A: Phillip Westmoreland 8 Bernie Hayes CD Review: Mike Zito 10 Glenn Howard Rich Hughes Musicians Directory 11 Greg Hunt blueSunday 12 Eric McSpadden Paul Niehaus IV On the Cover.. Johnny Willis Cool Gus Thornton from his appearance with Marquise Knox at Bluesweek in May. Photo by Reed Radcliffe BluesLetter Fundraiser for the St. Louis Blues Society Editor Mary Kaye Tönnies Big Mike Aguirre with special guests Creative Direction BB’s Jazz Blues and Soups Jeremy Segel-Moss August 17, 1 to 4 pm Staff Writer Bruce Olson r with the DISCOUNTED EVENTS FOR BLUES SOCIETY MEMBERS untee Contributing Photographers show your Blues Society Membership card to ol receive discounts at these venues: V St. Louis Blues Society Peter Newcomb THE SLBS NEEDS YOUR HELP Reed Radcliffe BB’s Jazz Blues and Soups 700 South Broadway August BLUESLETTER - volunteer for creation of Contributing Writers HALF-PRICE DISCOUNTED EVENTS content and advertising representation. Jon Erblich Harmonica Convention 13 7:30 p.m. Sharon Foehner John Németh MEMBERSHIP OUTREACH - help sign up new members and arrange for new membership 14 Mac Arnold & Plate Full O’ Blues 9 p.m. benefi ts. 15 Little G Weevil 7 p.m. EVENT COORDINATOR - help coordinate all 17 Stacy Mitchhart Band 10 p.m. SLBS events and work on promotion. 22 The Josh Garrett Band 9 p.m. EDUCATION - help create curriculum for Blues 27 Doug MacLeod 9 p.m. in Schools and fi ll SLBS website with content. 29 Joe & Vicki Price 7 p.m. The St. Louis Blues Society is a 501(c)(3) BUSINESS OUTREACH - help get more local not-for-profit Missouri corporation. 29 Randy McAllister 9 p.m. businesses involved with the SLBS. Memberships to the Blues Society are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. Broadway Oyster Bar STREET TEAM - help with getting the word out about the SLBS by hanging posters, passing 736 South Broadway fl iers and distributing BluesLetters. St. Louis Blues Society WELL DRINK SPECIAL $3 P. O. Box 78894 every Monday night Contact Jeremy Segel-Moss St. Louis MO 63178 to volunteer www.stlouisbluessociety.org Blues Jam with [email protected] [email protected] facebook.com/St-Louis-Blues-Society the Soulard Blues Band 314-482-0314 2 The St. Louis Blues Society BluesLetter Upcoming Musical Highlights Every Monday The longest running blues jam in the United States hosted by the Soulard Blues Band 9PM Thursday Aug 22 Fox Street Allstars [Denver] 9PM Saturday Aug 24 G.E.D. Soul Revue featuring AJ and the Jiggawatts, DeRobert and the Half-Truths with DJ Hal Greens 9PM Saturday Aug 31 Bottoms Up Blues Gang 3000th Gig Show plus Folk’n’Bluesgrass Reunion Show 10PM Friday Sept 6 Big Mike Aguirre and the Blu-City Allstars 10PM The St. Louis Blues Society BluesLetter 3 The Heart of the Blues: Gus Thornton By Bruce Olson hirteen years after he suffered his first heart I didn’t know who this guy was. I had seen Albert King on attack, Gus Thornton, one of the country’s best TV and heard his records, but had never met him in person. Tknown blues bass players, can finally relax. So I asked the manager ‘who is this guy?’ and he told me. The beat goes on, rock steady, both on his guitar and in his And me and Albert got to talking a little bit, joking a little, chest. you know. That was the last time I saw him until some years later.” Thornton said. He’s at ease on the stage again, playing regularly at Beale on Broadway with Kim Massie and the Solid Senders That next occasion was in 1977, when Thornton was and making guest appearances around town and is gener- playing in an all-night club in Brooklyn, Illinois, just out- ally back to his old self after a long struggle. He owes his side East St. Louis, near where King lived. By then, King rejuvenation to the new heart placed in his chest just over was known the world over as one of the great blues play- two years ago. ers of his time and Thornton was playing the overnight gig with Jerry and the Soulful Five, a band led by a Brooklyn And earlier this summer—just to put a dab of icing resident, Jerry Walker. on his cake—Thornton was able to meet several relatives of the man whose heart now pumps in his chest; forming a “Albert used to come in the club up there. We’d play bond with a Wisconsin family based on the music he’s been from 2 a.m. to 7 a.m., come out when the sun was already playing for an eventful 50 years and on the health issues up. Well, Albert and Jerry would sit there and trade shots that have been so prominent recently. all nights. So we got together again,” Thornton said. Soon thereafter, Thornton got a call from King’s manager who Thornton, 61, has spent all but the first few years of asked him to join King’s touring band. his life living in East St. Louis, thriving there as a youth then watching it deteriorate around him. But, he stuck with “It was just before Thanksgiving. They were get- the city and still lives on a quiet street where he has had a ting going to California. Well, they wanted to change bass house since 1977, one of his more eventful years. players. But I knew the guy and was reluctant to replace him. But the manager, he says, ‘well, he’s out anyway,’ 1977 was the year he joined Albert King’s band. For so I decided it was okay. I’d never been to California and Thornton, that meant a road trip to California for the first here the snow was real deep on the ground. We loaded up time and the beginning of one of the most productive peri- the bus down there at the Holiday Inn in East St. Louis and ods of his career. It has been a very productive career. Over we went on out, to Palo Alto, to San Francisco, and just the past 40 years, Gus has worked with national acts like worked our way back,” he said. Bo Diddley, Shirley Brown, Johnnie Johnson, BB King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bobby Bland, Katie Webster and has Thornton played with King until 1979, took a break played with just about every well-known local band in East to play locally, then rejoined King in 1983 in time to make St. Louis and St. Louis. San Francisco ‘83, an album remembered for its version of “Match Box Blues” and also known for King’s return to His time with Albert King in the late ‘70s and ‘80s a basic blues style after several heavily produced albums. put Gus Thornton’s name on the national musical marquee. That was because King used the touring band, including He first met King in 1970 while still a teenager, playing Thornton, for the record instead of studio players. in a band called the Young Disciples, opening for Howlin’ Wolf in East St. Louis. “Albert came round after the gig,” That year also saw In Session, another of King’s best Thornton recalled during a recent BluesLetter interview known efforts, famed for the participation of Texas blues while sitting in his kitchen on a quiet summer afternoon on legend Stevie Ray Vaughan, first seen on Canadian TV and the north side of East St. Louis. later released as a CD. By the time it was released as a CD/ DVD package in 1999, King and Vaughan were both dead. “[King] was joking with the band manager, really Thornton almost joined them the following year— the day putting us down. He called us a Sears and Roebuck band. 4 The St. Louis Blues Society BluesLetter after a gig at Fast Eddie’s in Alton, Illinois, where he was Through an organization called Mid-America Trans- playing bass in the band Fluid Drive. plant Services, Thornton met Mather’s family in June. The donor’s sister has a house in Wentzville and it was there Thornton said, “At first I felt cool. But all of sudden Thornton and his family met Mather’s family, most of who I felt really faint and needed to sit down. So I got a bar are from Janesville, Wisconsin. stool and sat down and finished the gig.Went home. Dave Hinson, this guy from the band, called me the next day and In a story in the Janesville Messenger, Anthony’s asked me if I was alright. And I was, but not 15 minutes mother, Rita Mather, said meeting Thornton “affected after I hung up the phone I got this pain in my side.