Al Lerman: Fathead, Canada's FinestCategory: Music
Article added by: Dave King
Canada, our neighbor to the north was one of the first countries to be favored with regular visits from our early blues musicians. Seven time Maple Blues Award nominee, Al Lerman can recall his earliest exposure to the blues. Given his first harp when he was eleven years old, he would go with his brother-in-law to the Riverboat, a coffee house in Toronto's Yorkville district to listen to Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. If money was short, and Al couldn't afford the cover, he would go to sit on the back steps, his ear pressed to the door and sit regardless of the weather. There was times he recalls sitting in the rain, listening to this music that had him hooked He remembers seeing Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee
Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee weren't his only exposure to the blues and blues harp He recalls being 17 or 18 when he first saw Jimmy Reed, Carey Bell (with Willie Dixon), James Cotton, Jr. Wells, Big Walter Horton, Charlie Musselwhite. He would hone his skills, and by time he was 18, sit in and jam with Muddy Waters. And he recalls eating hot dogs off a frying pan in a hotel room while sharing chops with Carey Bell. He still counts Carey as a friend, although he hasn't seen him for awhile.
Al Lerman musical career has spanned over thirty years, eleven years of which he spent with Fathead, a group that would take the Juno Award for Best Blues Recording in 1998, as well as" a few Maple Blues Awards, Jazz Report Awards, Canadian Indie Award, and West Coast Blues Award." Personally, Al has been nominated every year since the inception of the Maple Blues Award. Although he has yet to win, he is not prepared to lay his axe down.
CHC: First to lay a little groundwork and for our reference: Where in Canada are you from?
AL: I'm originally from Port Colborne, Ontario but I've lived in Toronto since 1965.
CHC: How long have you played harmonica? We understand that your earliest influences included Sonny Terry . You have a story regarding your discovery of the blues. Would you like to share it with us?
Al: Wow, this question will take a long answer! I've been playing seriously about 33 years. I got my first harp when I was eleven years old, though. My brother-in-law took me to the Riverboat to hear Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee at that time. The Riverboat was a coffee house in Toronto's Yorkville district, so a kid like me could get in. I immediately felt some sort of connection with the music, and started going to see them every time time they came to Toronto. This went on for years. I think in the end, I saw them about 35 or 40 times. When I couldn't afford the cover charge, I'd sit on the back steps with my ear to the door. I didn't care if it was freezing cold and I was getting covered in snow! I loved the sounds coming from inside. Sometimes the owner would let me in for free. I got to meet them backstage once and it was the first time I heard adults swearing at each other. They were arguing about something.
Depending on who really shone on a particular night, I would sometimes aspire to play guitar like Brownie, or harp like Sonny. What was really amazing were the nights when both Sonny & Brownie were really "on". Those were definitely magic moments that I feel privileged to have seen.
I frequented the Riverboat a lot and also saw Buddy Guy and Dave Van Ronk there, among others. I saw Paul Butterfield in 1967 at Toronto's famed Massey Hall and that was my first exposure to electric blues. I also saw Muddy Waters around that time at the Rock Pile, a Masonic temple that was putting on the same type of shows like you'd see at Bill Grahm's Fillmore. I remember Otis Spann was playing a horrible little keyboard, possibly a Farfisa. Buddy Guy showed up and jammed that night too. He had played the Riverboat earlier that night.
CHC: Being as these were US recording artists, did you have trouble finding their records in your area?
Al: There were two major record stores side by side on Yonge St; A&A's and Sam The Record Man. They both had a huge blues collection. I would spend hours there reading the liner notes off the albums before making my selection.
With my interest in blues tweaked, I started frequenting record shops and reading the liner notes on the back of the albums. I would see other artists names mentioned and would seek out their recordings. I first got into the delta blues discovering people like Lightnin' Hopkins, Big Bill Broonzy, Memphis Slim, Reverand Gary Davis, Mississippi John Hurt etc. By the time I was in high school, I was borrowing records from the library that included both blues and jazz.
Also at this time, FM radio was changing to reflect the changing youth culture. You'd hear a real variety; one minute Bob Dylan or Arlo Guthrie, then organist Jimmy Smith or bluesman Mississippi Fred McDowel the next. I ate all this stuff up. Its unfortunate radio today has become so strictly formatted. I also attended several folk festivals (Mariposa, The Toronto Island Blues Fest, Ann Arbor Blues Fest etc.) and got turned on to many more artists at this time.
CHC: Other than Sonny Terry, were there other blues harp players you consider your earliest influences/your favorites? Were they all US blues artists? How often would you see these artists?
Al : A lot of blues artists came thru Toronto playing at places like Le Coq D'Or, The Colonial Tavern and later on , the El Mocambo. I would go to these places for every blues show. These were the days before photo ID, and it was easy to "sneak in" underage. I was 17 or 18 when I first saw Jimmy Reed, Carey Bell (with Willie Dixon), James Cotton, Jr Wells, Big Walter Horton, Charlie Musslewhite, Freddy King, Bukka White (who played at a coffee house called Grumbles), T-Bone Walker, Howlin' Wolf, Albert Collins, Albert King. I saw Muddy Waters at the Colonial every time he came to town. He was one of my favorites. Bands would come in for a 6 night engagement in those days, sometimes even for two weeks. I'd go down a few nights each week. By this time, I had left school and was working in a vacuum cleaner repair shop. I was late for work quite a bit because I was hanging out in these nightclubs all the time.
I became quite friendly with Carey Bell at this time. I'd call in sick to work and go hang out with him at his hotel. We'd do a little drinking and he'd show me stuff on the harp. He probably taught me more than anybody and we're still friends today, although I rarely see him. I've got some really fond memories of eating hamburgers together at the Warwick Hotel or cooking hotdogs in an electric frying pan in Carey's room at the Westminster Hotel on Jarvis St. I'd pick his brain about the harp constantly.
As I mentioned before, I'd go see Muddy Waters often and got to jam with him when I was 18. When I went to sit down after the first song, he asked me to play another. He said I played nice and that was tremendous encouragement. The Muddy Waters "Live at Mr. Kelley's" album was huge influence on me too. It featured both Cotton and Paul Oscher on harp. Once I heard that album, I decided that I MUST make my living as a harp player. I probably had a harp in my mouth six hours a day at that point. I was so into the music, there just weren't enough hours in the day to take it all in. I ate, breathed and slept blues and the harp. It wasn't like it was hard work practicing either; I enjoyed doing it. By then I had discovered Little Walter, Walter Horton, Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller), James Cotton, Jimmy Reed, Jr Wells, Paul Butterfield, Jerry McCain, and Jr Parker too.
CHC: Were there also Canadian acts? How were they largely received in Canada then?
Al : The club scene in Toronto was great then. Small venues like Grossman's (still around today), The Forbes Tavern, The Paramount all featured local blues bands. My very first gig was at the Beverly Tavern. In the early to mid seventies, there were some better rooms cropping up like the El Mocambo, The Jarvis House, The Midwich Cuckoo. Pickett and Finlayson were working these rooms, and eventually I was too.
CHC: Were there also Canadian blues artists performing at that time? Of these, which were your biggest influence?
Al : King Biscuit Boy (Richard Newell) was around then but I didn't discover him until later on. There were a few harp players around Toronto that I liked that were a few years older than me; Michael Pickett who was with a good band called Whiskey Howl, and a guy named Fraser Finlayson who played in a band called Knights Of The Mystic Sea, which was led by Morgan Davis. I would hang out a bit with these guys and get an occasional lesson from them. They'd be at the same blues shows I was going to see too. There was another guy named Rolly Platt that I liked who played in a country-rock band called Cement City. We're pretty close in age. We played a lot of the same venues and have remained in touch over the years.
CHC: How soon after you started playing did you start playing with a band?
Al : I had like minded friends, and from the time I was eleven, we used to jam often. I was horrible. I started out on guitar before I moved over to the harp. I played a lot of harp in high school with a guy named George Phelps who was a much better musician than I was. He played piano and we'd stay after school and jam in the auditorium. My first legitimate group was called Backtrack. I think that was around 1971 or 1972. That was the first time I gigged in a bar.
CHC: Which of these was the first? Were they a blues band? What was their history?
Al: Backtrack was in fact named after the Little Walter song. We played songs by Muddy, Wolf, Jimmy Reed, Jr Parker etc. We were all young guys just getting started and we loved the blues.
CHC: You have gone on to play in other bands. Would you like to talk of them? Were they all blues bands?
Al: From Backtrack I went on to form Ginhouse with my cousin Bart Manierka who sang. I'm still very good friends with a few of the other members in that group and recently played on one of their CDs (guitarist Mike Tabares).
Around 1976 I went on to join a band called Grizzly Bear, then Mondo Combo which started out as a blues band and eventually morphed into an R&B/funk/rock'n'roll band. I learned a lot in that band and got to play with some stellar Canadian musicians. We used to have a Sunday night gig at a place called Solitaires. We would back a variety of different artists, mostly Canadian, but I did get to meet and play with US artists Mel Brown, Albert Collins and Paul Butterfield. Often US acts who would be performing at Albert's Hall (Toronto's premier blues venue at the time) would drop into Solitaires for something to do on a Sunday night. At that time, it was tough to find a bar open on a Sunday. I was in Mondo Combo for about 14 years, then I formed Fathead. In between all this I jammed with whoever I could. I'd get various gigs to sub in on too, which made life interesting.
CHC: As a musician was the harmonica your sole instrument? Did you play others?
Al: I started out on guitar actually, but harp has always been my main axe. I still play guitar, but rarely on a gig. I use it mainly for writing songs and when I conduct harp workshops. I took up tenor saxophone when I was about 30 and continue to work pretty hard at it. I consider myself mainly a harp player, although, only recently I feel I'm making progress on the sax. I listened to a lot of the tenor players like Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster when I was in high school. I think some of my phrasing ideas on the harp came from them. Someone once told me I play harp like a sax player and sax like a harp player.
CHC: How were these bands recieved in your area?
Al: People were pretty open then, so we went over pretty good, although the money we made was pitiful. Back then, the thing to do on a Friday or Saturday night was to go see a band. All the bars were full. Live music was where it was at.
CHC: When did you and Morgan Davis form an alliance?
Al: I first met Morgan when Sunnyland Slim played downstairs at the Colonial in a place called the Meet Market, sometime around 1973, I think. We both happened to go down there to sit in and get some "blues lessons". We didn't converse much with each other; we were both more focused on Sunnyland! I remember I jammed a few times with the Knights before too, because I knew Fraser Finlayson. It wasn't until around 1995 that we started doing some duo work together. He's a wonderful player.
CHC: Your most recent band was Fathead. Can you give us its history?
Al : I formed Fathead around 1994. I felt I had no input in Mondo Combo anymore and it was time for a change. I yearned to get back to a bluesier format.
CHC: Who was its members?
Al: I started calling up various musicians whom I really enjoyed and started booking a bunch of pick-up gigs. One night the deck was shuffled as such that the band consisted of John Mays on vocals, Teddy Leonard on guitar, Omar Tunnoch on bass and Mike Fitzpatrick on drums. It was magic, and with the exception of changing drummers a few times since then, (Ed White, Chuck Keeping and current drummer Hayden Vialva) the four core members have stayed the same. Fathead is a truly enjoyable band to be in. The songs are structured, yet there's a lot of room for improvising. The players all know how to change it up a bit and react to each other. This keeps the music fresh.
CHC: Fathead has experienced much acclaim taking a number of awards. What were these awards
Al: The biggest was winning a Juno Award for Best Blues Recording. That was for our 1998 release, Blues Weather (Electro-Fi #3357).The Junos are Canada's version of a Grammy Award. We've also won a few Maple Blues Awards, Jazz Report Awards, Canadian Indie Award, West Coast Blues Award.
CHC: You (individually) have also received a number of awards. What were these?
Al: All the guys in Fathead have consistently been nominated in their instrument categories at the Maple Blues Awards. I've been nominated in the harp category every year since the MBA's inception (7 X), but have never won. Maybe one of these days! Teddy Leonard has previously won the guitar award and John Mays has won "Best Male Vocal" three times.
CHC: How many CDs did you record with Fathead?
Al: We've done four. Our first self titled disc was an independent release and is no longer available, although I still have the masters. We then got signed to Electro-Fi Records and released "Blues Weather" (1998), "Where's Your Head At?" (2000) and "First Class Riff-Raff" (2003). That one was nominated for a Juno.
I also produced two albums for Little Mack Simmons on Electro-Fi and Fathead was the backing band. I didn't play on "Little Mack Is Back" but I played some guitar, and harp on one song on "Further Down The Line".
CHC: As a band, you played festivals nationwide in your 11 years together. Are Canadian Blues Festivals well attended?
AL: There's some really great festivals up here and the turnout is great. They might not all be strictly blues fests, but they do feature blues and other roots music.
CHC: Of Canada's blues award shows, The Maple Blues Awards is the largest. Is this correct?
AL: Yes.
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CHC: Did you attend this years Maple Blues Awards? How well attended were they?
AL: I was hired to play in the house band, so I was there, but I would have gone anyways because I was nominated in the harp category. They had a great turnout and it was a well run, classy show. It was also a great opportunity to play with some great musicians, including Duke Robilliard who was one of the guests.
CHC: What are some of the biggest issues facing Canadian artists today?
AL: The lack of decent venues and high touring costs are a big problem. In Canada, its a very long drive between major centers. At least in the States, a three or four hour drive in any direction will get you to a major city. You can drive all day in Canada and not get to where you need to go. Its tough here too, just like in the States, to fill Monday to Wednesday gigs when you've got a band out on the road. That can cost you money if you're paying for hotel rooms on an off night or two.
These days, people have so many more options open to them than going to see a band play. Seems a lot of people just stay home and watch DVDs and play video games. Perhaps if commercial radio was more open minded to playing blues and other roots music, the whole scene would improve. Now its pretty much cookie cutter stuff: sound and look like Britney Spears or you don't get played. Thank goodness the college stations still play our music!
CHC: What big things can we look forward to from Al Lerman?
Al: I just finished recording a Willie Big Eyes Smith disc which features Bob Stroeger, Kenny Blues Boss Wayne, John Mays, Jack DeKeyser and more. I think it will be called "Blues Party", although I'm not 100% sure yet. It will eventually be released on Electro-Fi Records. There's lots of my harp playing on that one!
CHC: We will look forward to that, Al. Thanks for talking with us. We will conclude with this tonight.
Canada may be north of us, but it's not a world apart. Discover our northern neighbor's blues.
Posted By: Dave King
Web: http://www.crossharpchronicles.com
Contact: e-mail
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