Ain't No One Like Paul Oscher

Trekked over to The Bugle Boy in La Grange once again to witness a legend of the blues once again lay down some of that Old School, down in the alley, gut bucket blues that very few choose to do any longer. Paul Oscher plays nothin' but....and he'll tell you that that's only what he knows how to play. It's more that skin deep with Oscher. He's lived the life since taking up with Muddy Waters back in the late 60s and he's still got it going on. I'm not going to go through his bio and all that stuff because it can be read first hand on his revamped website here

I've been meaning to make if over to C-Boys in Austin, where Oscher conducts a happy hour blues blast every Thursday, since the last time he visited The Bugle Boy. Just thinking about hitting Austin traffic that time of day raises my blood pressure, which I don't need. The last time Oscher kicked butt at The Bugle Boy, he was doing his one man band thang. He did not disappoint then and he danged sure didn't disappoint this past Saturday night when he brought drummer Wes Starr and bass player Randy Glines with him for a trio gig. Wes Starr has played with EVERBODY in the state of Texas and is on countless blues recordings, so I will not attempt a list of such. I will say that he has been traveling around with Mark Hummel, Anson Funderburgh, and Little Charlie Baty with their Golden State Lone Star Revue. Anyway, Oscher brought the an 'A' list with him this time. Glines has been a go to bass dude around Austin for quite some time. His main gig for a long time was with the late, great Jimmy LaFave. Anyway, the gig cooked from the time this rhythm section sat down and banged out an introduction piece that brought Oscher to the stage.

Once seated, technical glitches arose around his wireless mic rig attached to his harmonica rack that sent a signal to his vintage Premier amplifier. The glitch being...no sound. His young roady valiantly attempted to get it going, to no avail. They tried a number of things that would not work, until someone in the audience said, 'Just plug into the second channel of your guitar amp'. Oscher was reluctant to blow harp into the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, not trusting it's tone for harp. He did it though and once again it proved to me that great harp tone lies not within the speakers of an amp, but within the body cage of the man. His fat, low down, greasy tone blasted out of an amp that I would consider a poor choice for amplified harmonica. There was no dialing in, just plug and play. He was quite perturbed that his reverb/delay rig wasn't operational either. Not to worry. His tone rocked. At intermission, he  was very apologetic for the tech issues and didn't feel the sound was optimal. I assured him, as a blues harp aficionado, that his tone was absolutely killer. I know of no harp rack players who can suck the blues out of a harp like Oscher can. At the last gig when I visited with him, Oscher pointed to his chest and said, 'This is where I get my tone' and that's where it came from last Saturday, because his equipment had let him down.

To say that Oscher can capture a room with his charisma and his tales of playing with the greatest bluesman whoever lived, is an understatement. BUT it is the playing of the blues that he learned from the great bluesmen around him that rocked the house. He played with the real deals and he is the real deal...ain't no pussy footin' around. When he slips his slide across his guitar strings and it sounds so eerily exact to Muddy's wail, when he blows Little Walter's stuff like Juke, or Jimmy Roger's That's Alright, or the myriad of his originals that seep ChiTown authenticity, well, the hair on back of your neck just may stand on end. I can't sit here and tell my readers exactly what he played, because I was in the moment each and every time a note hit the air, or his roughed edged (but unpretentious) vocals filled the room. When Oscher sings about having the blues, there is not doubt that he either does, has, or will have. Stages ooze and drip the blues that Oscher occupies and no one can avoid getting it on them.

I can't say enough about Glines and Starr (who, by the way, had never played with Oscher before). Even as a one man band, Oscher manages to fill a room, but these two guys followed him and chased him down when needed  and gave the stage a lot more wang dang doodle...all night long. The music mushroomed with their help. There certainly could have been a lot more patrons at The Bugle Boy. In my mind someone as legendary and has the stature of Paul Oscher should be a sellout event. There ain't too many folks left who do it like Paul. The right way.

Great show by a great bluesman and his sidekicks. 'Nuff for now.

RJ Mischo

Since a few folks reading this blog will also attend the Texas Harmonica Festival and since RJ Mischo will be one of the headliners, I thought that I'd best share my thoughts about RJ's newest release, Make It Good, from Delta Groove Music.

I've been listening to and writing about RJ Mischo's music since his Blue Loon release with Percy Strother back in 1992. I'm pretty sure that I've written reviews on most of what he's recorded since then, and it is quite a body of blues harp blasting work. He's never disappointed the blues loving harp player in me and he certainly ain't starting now.

Make It Good is a particular strong outing and not just for the remarkable talent RJ has with a harp in his mouth, or his sometimes wise ass lyrics, or his solid vocals. He's rounded up one hell of a band with some of best at what they do. How can one go wrong with Wes Starr on drums, Ronnie James Weber on bass, and a couple of real blues "ringers" for guitarists. What could go wrong with current T-Bird slinger Johnny Moeller spitting out licks out of one channel, while ex-T-Birder, Nick Curran's doing the same out of the other. The note vocabulary of this duo is unfathomable and relentless throughout the disc. They bounce leads back and forth like Chinese ping pongers, sometimes blending lead notes together, and slipping in and out of rhythms duties seamlessly. I'd like to know who's slinging what and when, but it really doesn't matter. I want pretend that I know their styles well enough to tell one from the other, but I'd be a liar, because both have chameleonic styles to suit whatever a song demands.

Oh, and then there's Nick Connelly's remarkable organ swells and fleet fingered piano runs punctuating the proceedings all disc long. His presence is noticeable from the "get go" on the opening cut, "Trouble Belt", on which RJ warns each and everyone to stay away from his girl. He pounds the hell out of the 88s on the rawkus tune, which by the way is devoid of harp, while the guitar twins get wound up with some kind of down and dirty tones and start rippin' notes from the fret board. Connelly's organ sets the stage for the instrumental, "The Frozen Pickle", along with RJs fat tone warbles.

There IS a third guitarist lurking about on this disc too, though. RJ included two cuts with what he calls his two man blues band, The Super Reverbs. He and guitarist Jeremy Johnson provide the smoke for the title cut, and Johnson get some down right, low down, funky tones going on with "Make It Good", with RJ providing minimal backing on harp. Drummer Richard Meade is thrown into the two man mix on this one and his heavy handed bombs are integral to the drive of the song. On their second outing on "Up To The Brim", it's Johnson keeping time with bass drum and high hat while slinging his notes around, and RJ lets his dirty, nasty, fat toned, freak flag fly on the instrumental.

RJ tends to always mix things up and keep the harp chops flying with other modes than full on, amped up tones. He does some good time, acoustic, chord heavy whomping on "Papa's S.T. Special", replete with Sonny Terry whooping, but also by tossing in plenty of single note nuggets. His acoustic superiority is on full display on "Not Your Good Man", which kicks off with some dirty Muddy guitar stylings. The tone that comes out of RJ's harp elicits remarkably deep bends. Whoa! Talk about blues with a feeling. I do know that Moeller stabs the hell out of the solo, because RJ calls his name out. He rips it. On "Elevator Juice", RJ drags notes from the bottom of the barrel with a low keyed harp and then swings to some of the best high end playing that I've heard anyone play.

Wes Starr and Ronnie James strut their stuff particularly effectively on the gut bucket shufflin' of "All Over Again". Look no further for a rhythm section operating on all cylinders. They drive the hell out of the tune.
They do the same to the rumba flavored instrumental "Arumbala Part 1" (early in the disc) and "Arumbala Part 2" (the closer), which is a lesson in what ensemble playing is all about. RJ breaks out his chromatic chops, as he and Connelly's organ mix and mingle together.

I don't think that I have enough adverbs, adjectives, or superlatives to describe every harp lick that RJ brings to the table on this CD, not to mention just what the hell Moeller and Curran continuously swap with each other. I'll just say this, "Hell Yeah!". Oh, and get this one.