PUTNEY — Paul Oscher believes that when it comes to playing the blues, less is more.
“At least with the Chicago blues, which I play and is the tradition which I promote, the blues is a language rather than a style,” he says. “The story is the most important thing. In the blues, the song is always driven by the drama of the words.”
On Friday, June 20, at 7:30 p.m., Next Stage Arts Project presents this award-winning blues singer, songwriter, and recording artist.
Oscher has been playing Chicago-style blues for more than four decades. A master of many instruments, including harmonica, guitar, piano, melodica and bass harp, Oscher will be joined for this special concert with by his friend Steve Guyger, another singer, songwriter, and Oscher's “favorite harmonica player in the world.”
This event is the first concert in Next Stage's series dedicated to American roots and blues, “Shades of Blue,” which includes Rory Block on Sept. 13 and Guy Davis on Nov. 1.
Oscher has performed and/or recorded with a “Who's Who” of blues and roots, including John Lee Hooker, T-Bone Walker, Big Mama Thornton, Otis Spann, Buddy Guy, Big Joe Turner, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Jimmy Rogers, Hubert Sumlin, Johnny Young, Johnny Copeland, Keb' Mo', Mos Def, Levon Helm, and many others.
In 2000, he won the Los Angeles Music Award for Best Performance by a Blues Musician. Oscher's “Down in the Delta”(2005) CD won two W.C. Handy Blues Music Awards for “Acoustic Album of the Year” and “Acoustic Artist of the Year,”' while his album “Alone with the Blues” (2005) was nominated for four W.C. Handy awards.
Oscher came to national attention as Muddy Waters' harmonica player. Following in the footsteps of blues greats Little Walter, Junior Wells, James Cotton, and Big Walter Horton, he played with the band from 1967 until 1972.
“Paul Oscher plays the soul I feel,” Muddy Waters has said.
Louis Erlanger, who's organizing the “Shades of Blue” series, says that Oscher was the first white musician in the world to become a full-time member of a black blues band of this stature.
Erlanger, the rock 'n' roll and blues guitarist best known for his work with Mink DeVille, the house band at the famed punk rock club CBGB in New York City in the 1970s, persuaded Oscher to perform in Vermont.
“I've known Paul a long time and he has been a musical inspiration to me since I was a teenager, and I know there are many other musicians who feel the same way,” Erlanger says.
In fact, Oscher has played a part in Erlanger's own music career.
“Paul Oscher was instrumental in hooking me up with the great songwriter Doc Pomus, who wrote for my band Mink DeVille,” Erlanger says. “Pomus was a big fan of Paul Oscher. They were two peas in a pod, as Doc used to sing blues in black clubs too, and he knew who was good in town.
“Paul held a regular Sunday night jam session on New York's Lower East Side, and I used to sit in often. One night Doc Pomus was there, so after I got off the bandstand Paul introduced me to Doc and I sat at his table for the night. We slowly became friends, and I prodded Doc to come see Mink DeVille, which he eventually did, and that's how he started writing for us.”
Erlanger is eager to promote the concert at Next Stage because he feels that the kind of music Oscher plays is rarely heard in Vermont. “And while Paul is widely respected in the music community, I feel he should be more widely known,” says Erlanger.
Oscher's entry into he world of the blues was rather by chance.
“I began playing the harmonica as a kid,” Oscher says. “Working after school, I would get tips delivering groceries. One day I was playing outside, things like 'Red River Valley' or 'Mary had a Little Lamb,' songs that worked from a single note for beginners.
“This black kid walks by and asked if he could give my instrument a try. Well, the sounds that he had coming out of the instrument I just couldn't believe. That guy then flipped the harmonica around began playing it from the back, doing a tap dance on the harmonica. It blew my mind.”
Oscher urged him to teach him what he knew.
“I got him to show me how to bend notes, how to choke it, that is cup it real light to get air out,” he says.
Oscher began to practice more intently. For instance, he would put a nickel on his phonograph to slow down the RPMs on blues records so he could count the licks.
“After I got pretty good, I walked over to a black club in town,” Oscher says.
Never having been to anything like it before, Oscher was astounded by the place. “The women looked like the Supremes and the men like Ike Turner.”
Even if it all was quite intimidating to a white teenager, Oscher got up his courage to perform before this demanding crowd.
“It was the first time I ever played in front of an amplified mic. It was really something when the bandleader said, 'Put your hands together for this little blue-eyed soul brother.'”
Oscher became good friends with the bandleader and they began performing together in clubs as Salt & Pepper.
In 1966, when Muddy Waters was playing at the Apollo, Oscher met a guy in his band and Muddy invited him over to listen to him play. It just so happened that he was needing a new harmonica player, and he asked Oscher, “Can you travel?”
“Could I travel!” Oscher exclaims. “This was like a dream coming true after reading album covers and living vicariously the life a blues artist.” Oscher ended up living in Muddy Waters' basement, and soon became intimate with many of the greats of the Chicago Blues scene.
In 1972, Oscher left the Muddy Waters group, just as their fame skyrocketed after performing as an opening act for the Rolling Stones, who were a big fan of his and even took their names from one of Waters' songs.
If the blues has become much more popular because of the proliferation of blues rock by musicians such as the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton, Oscher wants to emphasize that it is not the music he performs.
“I don't think blues rock is the blues at all,” he says. “I believe it is a misreading of the great blues work. But you know, it is out of mistakes that innovation takes place.
“Blues rock is played entirely differently than Chicago blues, with a different accent and phrasing. Besides that, blues rock lost the primal importance of the story to the blues. In emphasizing the story in its songs, traditional rock 'n' roll oddly enough is actually much closer to the blues than blues rock.”