Roadhouse Joe

Q: When did you start playing harmonica?

A: It’s blues harp, not harmonica. The instrument is the same but the sound is different. When I was 20 years old I was hitchhiking around the Pacific Northwest and ran into a guy who played harp. We were walking down a dusty highway trying to thumb a ride with no luck at all, and he pulled out a harp and started playing a train rhythm. I was blown away by how cool it sounded. Then he played some blues riffs and I was hooked.

Q: Was that your first exposure to the blues?

A: No. For years I had been into the blues without knowing what it was. When I was a teenager I listened to bands like Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, and Savoy Brown. I knew I loved the slow songs with the driving beat, but I didn’t really know it was a genre called the blues. My sister had a Howlin’ Wolf album that I stole from her, and that got me started.

Q: When did you get serious about playing blues harp?

A: After meeting the harp player out on the road I went to a music store and bought my first harp, a Hohner Blues Harp in the key of E. I knew I wanted to play the blues, and I thought guitars played in the key of E. I was an idiot about music. But I worked on it like a mad man and three years later I had my first pro gig.

Q: What kind of harps do you play now?

A: I still play Hohner diatonic harmonicas, but not their Blues Harp. I prefer the Marine Band harps. I play through a bullet-style microphone into a tube amplifier from the 1950s. I like an old-school Urban Blues tone.

Q: Speaking of old school tone, who were your early influences on blues harp?

A: The first was Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin. He played a killer lick on “Bring It On Home” on their second album that I still hear in my head whenever I play. Charlie McCoy, a country harp player, was big. I stole a lotta licks from him. Don Brooks played harp for Waylon Jennings, he was great. Magic Dick from J Geils Band. Mark Wenner from the Nighthawks. After I’d been playing a few years I really got into the Chicago sound, like Big Walter Horton and Little Walter Jacobs. Also James Cotton, Charlie Musslewhite, Sonny Terry, Junior Wells, and others. Now I listen to a lot of Paul Butterfield.

Q: How does a kid from Wyoming get the blues?

A: I grew up pretty poor, my parents died when I was young, I knocked around a lot; all over the country; scuffled my way through my 20s. I drank way too much and ruined my music career, among other things. Now I’m back, been clean and sober for a few years. I’ve played in a lot of bands over the years… country, rock, but mostly blues. This band, Roadhouse Joe, is the best. These guys can tear it up, and they know the blues.

Q: What’s next?

A: Just you wait, baby. Just you wait. - Interview by Richard Gilmore for Davis Blues Project