A Conversation with Charlie Musselwhite: from Mississippi to Chicago

Charlie Musselwhite, blues harmonica master, chats at length about his early days in Mississippi, Memphis, and Chicago. This Zoom conversation with Adam Gussow was recorded on 12/17/20. Musselwhite offers an intimate and detailed look at his musical growth process, his reception in the all-black world of Chicago's South Side blues clubs of the early 1960s, and his friendships and work relationships with Little Walter, Big Walter Horton, Big Joe Williams, Honeyboy Edwards, Will Shade, Furry Lewis, and many others.

https://www.charliemusselwhite.com/
https://www.amazon.com/Whose-Blues-Fa...

1:17 childhood in Kosciusko, Mississippi
3:15 street singers in Memphis
5:54 hearing the blues for the first time at Cypress Creek
7:12 Rufus Thomas and Sonny Terry
7:43 discovering the recordings of John Lee Williamson
8:44 Forest City Joe
12:14 "open ears": the jazz clubs of Old Town, Chicago (Brother Jack McDuff, Jimmy Smith)
14:05 hanging out in Memphis with Furry Lewis, Will Shade, and Willie B.
19:34 where Charlie's own blues come from: "Blues sounded like I felt"
23:36 explorations in blues literature: Langston Hughes's poems and Samuel Charters's "The Country Blues"
26:00 more on Furry Lewis and Will Shade
28:21 the importance of Elvis
29:30 how Charlie overcame the "bullshit" of racial segregation in Mississippi, Memphis, and Chicago
32:56 white northern prejudice against "poor white trash"
34:24 entering the all-black blues world on Chicago's South Side
35:23 being mistaken for "Paul" (Butterfield)
37:39 working the Maxwell Street market with Carey Bell
39:40 Astatic mics and other harmonica gear, back in the day
41:49 friendship with Little Walter
43:18 playing harp in unusual positions: Big Walter and Little Walter
47:39 partnerships with older bluesmen: what Charlie learned from Big Joe Williams. The Charley Patton connection
50:29 Charlie's current and recent recording projects with Elvin Bishop, Honeyboy Edwards, Big Head Todd, and Jimbo Mathis