Ridin' with Charlie

Feeling hungry? Try some blues.

"It's like food for the heart and soul," said Charlie Musselwhite in an interview from his home in California Wednesday.

For more than four decades, Musselwhite's distinctive harmonica wailing has helped define the blues.

His sound was bred in the Mississippi Delta and fermented in a lifetime's worth of experience. On Tuesday, Musselwhite and his band come to Roseburg to play the Music on the Half Shell free concert series at Stewart Park.

"Charlie Musselwhite's one of the great blues harp players of the world," said Clint Newell, organizer of the Half Shell series.

It's a return visit to Roseburg for Musselwhite, 62, who last played the Half Shell series in 1994.

"After he was here last time a lot of people said they'd like to see him come back," Newell said. "We've kind of had an eye out for him."

"Oregon has always had a lot of blues fans," Musselwhite said. "It's a real soulful state. I always like being up there and I'm looking forward to it."

Musselwhite's latest CD, "Delta Hardware," is drawing some of the strongest reviews of his career. A raw, gritty album, it's foot-stomping blues recorded live in the studio with Musselwhite's touring band.

"It's blues, but it's blues for today," Musselwhite said.

Much of "Delta Hardware" deals with Musselwhite's native Kosciusko, Miss., and the album artwork is filled with photos of his old stomping grounds.

"It's part of my earliest memories," he said. "It lives in me."

The album also touches on social issues, in songs like "Black Water" and "Invisible Ones," which deal with the fallout from Hurricane Katrina. It's a departure for Musselwhite, whose music usually leans away from the topical.

"In the past I've never really gotten into making any kind of social or political comments," he said. "I just feel like when people come out to hear music they don't want to be preached to, they want to have a good time."

But Katrina, which devastated the Deep South Musselwhite calls home, changed things.

"I just felt like, gosh, this is so awful and such an example of how things are in America," he said. "It's like the storm that represents all this other stuff that's going on that's really bad."

But "Delta Hardware" isn't a speech - it's still grounded in bottom-heavy, hip-shaking blues, Musselwhite said. "I believe in keepin' it real and trying to make a statement too ... and being entertaining at the same time."

Musselwhite's 1967 album "Stand Back!" was his breakthrough, and over the years he's played with acts including Bonnie Raitt, John Lee Hooker, Tom Waits and even rock bands like INXS, where his harmonica sound livened up their single "Suicide Blonde." He's won nearly 20 awards from the Blues Foundation for his music.

But don't ask Musselwhite to pin down what the blues mean. In a field that can encompass Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters and Carlos Santana, it's all in the ears of the beholder.

"When it comes all the way down to it it's just an individual thing," he said. "... Two different people growing up next to one another would play the blues two different ways."

Musselwhite admits to not listening to a lot of Top 40 radio these days - "a lot of music is getting real watered down and formulaic," he said - but he thinks there'll continue to be a place for the blues for those seeking authenticity and the "real" in music.

"That's one of the beauties of the blues," he said. "It's not a fad. It's art. Even in countries where people don't really understand the lyrics they can still sense the feeling in it. That's universal."

Musselwhite hopes the blues will bring a crowd to his show Tuesday. "(Tell people to) bring their dancing shoes, come early and stay late," Musselwhite said. "We're going to have a good time."



* You can reach Features Editor/Assistant City Editor Nik Dirga at 957-4210 or via e-mail at ndirga@newsreview.info.