Henry Cooper at Burnside Record's 10th Anniversary Party
Henry Cooper at Burnside Record's 10th Anniversary Party
by Joey Scruggs
Article Reprint from the March 1998
BluesNotes
"I've been fortunate enough to share time with many major Blues guitarists, Duke Robillard, Ronnie Earl, Robert Cray, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, to name a few, and its clear that it's someone's distinct style that makes a player stand out. I've watched Henry Cooper develop and come up with his awn style, one that is raw and funky. That's hard to do, and very cool."
-- Curtis Salgado
Seattle Bluesman, Henry Cooper, is a tonemaster, a veritable Tone Daddy! One of the very few men whose sound is so distinct, you immediately know it's his stuff, you don't need to see who it is.
At his recent CD release Party at Key Largo, held on Super Bowl Sunday (a tough night to draw folks out in anybody's book), Cooper was onstage with his Seattle-based trio, hunched over a beat-up road-weary '64 Telecaster. One strand of his greased-back hair hung down over one eye as he shook his head back and forth in rhythm to the lowdown, nasty Blues he's known for. His style changes in the middle of his solo, utilizing the spark plug socket he wears permanently on his left ring finger to upset the joint with some of the most lowdown and dirty Blues you're gonna hear this side of the Mississippi river.
This is the kind of stuff they used to play at house parties. You know, where everybody is drinking bootleg liquor and men and women are sneaking into the back bedroom. The people role all the way out the door, spilling out on the lawn, having a ball! Getting evil. The spirit of Elmore James would be proud! And, I know Hound Dog Taylor would smile if he heard Cooper wield his wicked slide.
Even though the music is raw and electric, Mr. Cooper himself is a total gentleman; a class act. The kind of guy that knows most of his fans in the audience on a first name basis, and one of those guys the club owners welcome back.
At Key Largo that night, there was a definite buzz. Henry's wife, Anne, is out on the dance floor with five of her girlfriends. It's like some kind of cool Blues reunion was going on. And, you know what? It was.
Lots of musicians were in the house. Sitting with me at my table were Andy Strange, who played with Henry in Los Falcons and The Terraplanes, and two of the Flapjacks, Louie and Steve. Although a guitarist today, Louis Samora was the drummer for Los Explorers, the first band Cooper played guitar in. Drummer Jeff Hudis (ex-Razorback) joined Strange onstage later for a jam.
And, let's not forget "Little Curtis", Curtis Salgado, who climbed on-stage in the middle of Cooper's second song to blow some of the meanest harp I've heard him play in a long time.
Everyone was there to celebrate Cooper's new CD, "Baby Please", on Cooper's High Action label. It's Cooper's first solo effort, featuring 14 original tunes. Engineered by P.J. Newman, the disc features Andrew Cloutier and Larry Mahlis on drums, Eric Bryson on bass, Andrew Larsen on keyboards and Kim Field on harmonica. Earth 105 FM disk jockey, Bob Ancheta loves the CD, and featured Cooper in an interview on his Sunday Night Blues Party show before the Key Largo gig.
Before he left Portland, Henry took the time to give us this interview. We hope you enjoy it.
BN: Tell us about the new CD, "Baby Please".
HC: We did it with a friend of mine, P.J. Newman, at his home studio in Seattle. He'd been wanting to record me for some time. He's very good -he does sound at Bumbershoot and Concerts at The Pier up in Seattle.
I had planned on making a CD after I left the Duffy Bishop Band. We got it done quickly and got the sound we wanted.
In Portland, you can pick it up at Music Millennium. We've got a distribution deal with Burnside, thanks to Terry Currier, and they're getting it out to the stores. My drummer is from Maine and says a friend of his bought the CD in Bangor, Maine at Tower Records!
It's been less than a year since I left Duffy, and I feel pretty good about getting the CD written and recorded. I've got a publishing deal with BMI. It's something I've needed to do for a long time-step out on my own.
I'm already getting started on the next CD.
BN: How'd you get into the Blues, Henry?
HC: It was on FM radio in Eugene. The Paul Butterfield Band playing "The Work Song" off of "East West". That was their second album. I heard that amplified harp and thought "My God! What's that sound?'' It was amazing! I'd never heard anything like it.
I had a little job at the Eugene Hotel, as a busboy. I was 16. 1 started buying Blues records, and one of the first ones I bought was "Fathers and Sons". That had Paul Butterfield on it, but it also had Muddy Waters! So, that totally was amazing.
Right around that time, I ran into Curtis Salgado and found out about his band, The Nighthawks, out of Eugene.
There were a lot of great harp players down, there, Bill Rhoades, Mike Moothart, Curtis. I started checking them out, picking their brains and getting turned on to Little Walter and stuff.
So, I started out. as a harmonica player. My first recording was on a 45 With Chris Coltrane. I was 19.
BN: Were you dressing the Part? You know, slick suit and greased-back hair?
HC: Hmmm .... well, I was still "Searching". I didn't quite know what one looked like. I finally saw Big Walter Horton, when they brought him to the W.O.W. Hall. Curtis and The Nighthawks opened the show, and it was Curtis' 21st birthday. It was Big Walter Horton, S.P. Leary on drums and Johnny Nicholas on guitar. It was fabulous!
I didn't get into guitar until my early 20's. I always liked guitars, but I never could afford one. I found a little lap steel guitar at a pawn shop, and learned how to play that.
I started copying the sounds I heard on Blues records on the lap steel. Elmore James, Muddy Waters, and Albert Collins were big influences on me.
Then, I started using the licks I knew on harmonica and started applying them to the guitar.
I started playing guitar in bands when I was 22 or so. It was sort of a "sink or swim" situation. I just had to do it. There's nothing like playing in front of an audience to get good fast!
There was a club in Eugene called The Place. Right about the time I turned 21 they started bringing in these great national acts -- James Cotton, Buddy Guy & Junior Wells, and Muddy Waters.
They also had the Folk and Blues Festivals every year at the U of 0. I remember seeing Little Charlie And The Nightcats there, opening for Gatemouth Brown.
Albert Collins used to come to the Eugene Hotel a lot. He's why I use the capo on the neck of my guitar. He and Muddy Waters got me into that.
Albert was really nice and real approachable. This was before he signed with Alligator Records, about 1977-78, something like that.
I asked him about his guitar and his tunings, and he shared his knowledge openly.
I've got to say this ... for growing up in a small town like Eugene, we had a really cool Blues community. A lot of those folks are here in Portland now.
There were all these guys from Willamette High School ... Mike Moothart, Jim
Cochran, Curtis Salgado, Bill Rhoades, Dave Olsen, and David Stewart. They were just a bunch of nice guys. All the guys from
The Nighthawks band were fabulous! I would sneak into bars to go hear them.
Stewart would always help me-he was real nice. The Nighthawks were a phenomenal band! They just "kicked ass"! No question about it, they were my heroes, absolutely!
BN: They also had a great Blues radio station down in Eugene, KLCC FM out of
Lane Community College.
HC: Ray Varner, Bill Rhoades and Gavin "The Roosterman" Fox
all had great radio shows. The show, "Blues Power", is still going on
KLCC!
I didn't grow up in the South where you could tune in to certain stations and hear the 'real Blues'. The only way you heard the Blues in Eugene was through that station. They were a total resource. From there, I'd go buy the records. I used to tape their shows! I learned a lot from them.
I must say, I've gotten by with a lot of help from my friends, and I really appreciate it a lot.
BN: Nobody anywhere around Portland comes close to the way you play. You have a wilder, more explosive sound. That slide ... using that capo and open tunings.
HC: That's how I learned. I never play in a standard tuning. I don't even know how!
BN: One of my favorite things about you as a guitarist is the way you keep that slide on your ring finger, allowing you to throw in a slide lick at any time.
HC: I started out on lap steel, like I said. When I figured out I could play slide on a regular guitar and then play a few chords from watching Muddy and guys like that, it expanded as to what I could do.
I use a metal slide, usually a socket wrench or wrist pin. I got that from John Hammond or Lowell George ... one of those guys. I keep it on my finger all the time. It's my dedicated slide finger. I have a hybrid style, kind of between picking and sliding. That's my "calling card", if you want to call it that. I've worked really hard to have an identifiable sound. What all musicians strive for is to have a sound they can call their own. I use a pick sometimes and then I'll palm it and use my fingers. I go back and forth, it gives you more tonal variation.
What you've got to do is find the guys you really dig and put your own twist to it. I listened to Elmore James, Muddy Waters, Earl Hooker, Robert Nighthawk, Albert Collins and T-Bone Walker. I put it all in a big jigger and shook it up, and when I poured it out it was me! (Big laugh). A Blues cocktail! You can't just be a stone imitator, those people never prosper.
BN: What are some of the bands you've been in?
HC: My first band was with Louie Samora, John Barley and Fred Kellogg and it was called Los Explorers. It was the first band I played guitar in. It was kind of a Blues/Rock thing, back around the mid-80's. Then I had a band called The Milkmen. That's where I met Boyd Small, who would be in and out of my life for a while.
Andy Strange used to come see us when he was in high school. Andy joined Boyd and I, and John Barley, in a band called Los Falcons. That's the band that ended up backing Screaming Jay Hawkins for a year, around 1987. We went to Europe with him, played the Whiskey and the Palomino Club in Hollywood and all that. Mike Quinn, of Monqui Presents, wherever you are, thank you!
Mike got us a gig with Jay for a New Year's show at the Pine Street Theater. We went through the trouble to learn a bunch of his tunes so when he showed up at the sound check and he heard us he said, "I'm taking you boys to Europe with me!", and he did! Jay had a lot of great stories to tell. He told us that when he recorded "I Put A Spell On You", he was completely drunk off his rocker. There was a bootlegger that lived behind the Apollo Theater. He'd go in and get a half pint of bathtub gin and down it as he crossed the alley to the stage door. He thought it was good to be loose, as long as you could play.
BN: What happened after that?
HC: After the tour, Anne and I moved to Eugene, but a lot of the clubs had closed. We moved to Portland and I got a job with Music Millennium; this was around 1988. At that time, Bill Rhoades gave me some work in his band.
I started a band called Henry and The Hamhawks. Jim Wallace, Gus Russell and Tom Jacobs were in that band, along with Boyd Small. Boyd had already moved to Portland, and I moved here shortly thereafter. That band kind of fizzled out and Boyd, Andy Strange and I started The Terraplanes, which was a trio.
BN: Tell me what you think about trios.
HC: It's low overhead, but more work. If I had my druthers, I'd have a four piece with a harmonica. But, if the club's only paying enough for three guys, I can handle that. That's a lean, mean proposition. The Terraplanes were a great trio.
BN: Then what happened?
HC: Anne got a job in the Bahamas, and I went with her. After that, we moved up to Seattle. I wasn't really playing that much when I hooked up with Duffy Bishop. Her roommate at the time, Kathy Hart, told me she was starting a Blues band and needed a Blues guitarist. And, Duffy can sing the Hell out of the Blues! We had us a good time for about six years. Then Duffy decided she wanted to go more in a Jazz showband direction and I left.
BN: What kind of gear are you using now?
HC: Well, I'm always on a quest for the "perfect tone". Right now I have a '64 Fender Telecaster and a '56 Gretsch that I really love. I've had them for a while, and they've really been doing it for me! You'll probably see me playing those for a while. For an amp, I'm playing through a Victoria. They're out of Chicago. It's a handmade amp, a clone of an old Fender Bassman. It's like having a brand new old Fender amp. They're not cheap, but they're a lot cheaper than a vintage Fender Bassman. Buddy Guy Plays 'em. The Fabulous Thunderbirds turned me on to them.
BN: Any last words for your fans?
HC: I'm doing my own thing now, and that's real gratifying. The CBA has been really there for me, man, I've got to say. I love playing here! I appreciate all the folks who come down to see me! You've got a great Blues scene here. We hope to play here at least once a month!
© 1998 Cascade Blues Association