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Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Barrelhouse Chuck in the Wall Street Journal


It isn't often that my day job and my blues obsession collide. It happened today when I worked my way to the last page of the last section of the Wall Street Journal. The Journal's jazz critic (Nat Hentoff) did a long piece on Barrelhouse Chuck Goering. Nat heaped praise on Chuck (all richly deserved). Here is a link to the article.
Barrelhouse Chuck is up there with Erwin Helfer and Pinetop Perkins as one of the elite blues piano players in Chicago. He has a great new disk out on the Sirens label, "Got My Eyes On You." Chuck plays around town in a variety of settings and a bunch of different groups. He has played with my harmonica pal, Harry Garner, on occassion.
Barrelhouse Chuck is one of the 45-55 year old guys that played with many of the masters (Muddy, Wolf, Big Walter, Junior Wells, Otis Rush, etc. etc.). We have lots of these guys in Chicago - folks like Harland Terson (bass), E.G. McDaniel (bass), Anthony Palmer (guitar), Mark Wydra (guitar), Twist Turner (drums) and many others. Chuck is trying to keep the flame lit. Buy his record; go out and see his shows. You can see Chuck at Mocha Cafe & Wine Cellar on Saturday, January 20 (8:00 pm- 11:30 pm 742). The Mocha Cafe and Wine Bar is located at 742 Sheridan Road, Highwood, IL 847-579-4010.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a great album, my brother Kim Wilson on harp told me about and I've heard some sound bites that sound very good. Nice Blog.

Brad

Mr. G said...

Hey Brad -

Thanks for your comment. Your brother is one of my harmonica heroes, man - I got lots of his work on my iPod. And he taught a class for the Chicago harmonica geek crowd at the Old Town School of Folk Music last year - it was a great evening.

Take care
Mr. G