Joe and Jack Waters

Born in San Antonio Texas, 1957. In the Nix hospital about three blocks from the Gunter where Robert Johnson recorded his famous album. Started guitar in Prattville Alabama, 1967. Move to San Antonio Texas in 1968 and didn't start working at guitar very hard until I started meeting others players and finding new influences. This is the place "Universal City" that I began hearing Willis Allen Ramsey, Jerry Jeff Walker, ZZ Top, Johnny Winter. Good Texas music. As years went by I made friends with a guy named Gary Tumberland. Gary introduced me to Steve Earle years before he made the Guitartown record, he was Gary's good friend. Being around him was huge influence on me to take music more seriously. I learned alot of what has become a part of me from Gary and Steve. In 2006 my son Joe Waters and I opened a concert for Stacey Earle and her husband Mark Stewart. Funny how things come around in a cycle like that. Joe and I have been at it for three years now. He and I have focused on our duo by working the Dayton area and making our CD "The Magic Gate".(We recorded it on 2-inch tape live.) When we made it he was eight and I was 48. While living in Dayton I met alot of electric blues players and found out that the Cincinnati-Dayton are has a long history of bluse players. I went to blues jams with the first one being Snapper-Mitchums blues jam. I went every week until was an OK enough player to get employed in the Piney Brown Band. I played with Piney off and on for close to 10 years. Various bands would spring board from his band. The experience was actually priceless. Piney was in his mid-seventies whe I met him. He's been a recording artist since the 1940's. Piney's been on the same bill with the greats:Ray charles, Brooks and Brown, Johnny Lytle, Bo Diddley, B.B. King, Little Walter, Bobby Blue Bland, Count Basie, and Joe Turner. Albert Collins was in Piney's band from 1950-1955. Piney's 86 now, I still see him from time to time, he made two full records last year. He introduced me to some famous blues guys. A few years back I got involved in a record project with a harmonica player/singer named Aberdeen Slim. Aberdeen was 20 when I met him. When he took me to Chicago alot of special things happened. I was able to meet Honey-Boy Edwards in south Chicago. During the visit he and I played for one another and he showed me some of his very cool guitar techniques. We were there for hours. He definately influenced me to dig deeper into acoustic blues. Last fall and winter of 2006, Joe and I spent time on Sunday evenings playing between from the Allan Brothers Bluegrass band. Greg and Ronnie are Red Allan's sons. They still play at the Stockyards every Sunday night in Dayton Ohio. These fellas befriended Joe during this time. When he was eight years old he was able to play with these guys without his daddy on stage with him.

Joe's Story

Joe's nine this year, he was raised around blues music and players from day one. There have always been instruments and players in his life. In 2005 his brother Michael was killed in a horrible car accident. When Mike died and also became an organ donor our lives changed forever. The two brothers were very close and it left a big hole in little Joe's life. It was under these circumstances that Joe started out make blue sounds come out of the harmonica he bought at a Cracker Barrel restaurant. It wasn't a couple of months that went by that he was playing music with his dad. The first time he played in public was on Mike's birthday (the first after he died). I was working between Joe Prescott's Trio sets once a month solo. I asked Joe to come along that night. We played to a packed bar on dollar beer night. He went over really well, and he's played harp for me ever since that night. His favorite stuff is the Delta style blues. He met John Hammond Jr. this year, 2007, at one of his concerts. John took time out to talk out harmonicas to Joe. However he can be diverse and his stylistic range grows all the time. The surprising thing is that at age nine Joe has recorded a full length CD of original music and played in adult settings for almost three years. He seems natural, comfortable when alot of my adult peers wouldn't hang so well. It's been bars full of people on cheap beer, lots of honing of skills at the Canal Street co-op, and playing opening sets and breaks for professional artists foe those three years. Two real high points had been working the opening the set before a Stacey Earle and Mark Stewart show. This was just magic and wonderful like they are. The other is being able to play sets at the Stockyard restaurant when the Allan Brothers Greg and Ronnie are playing. These guys are Red Allans sons who play the real-deal bluegrass. They let us sell our CD's and spoil the both of us. Plans for the future include: working shows with Eric Loy (the harp guitar wizard) and more of everything. Not a bad start for a young guy.