1991 The Nightlighters won Best New Act
2001 Best Male Vocalist
Article Reprint from the January, 2002 BluesNotes
By Ken Condit, Secretary, CBA Board of Directors
Singer, Mel Solomon, first traveled to Portland in 1971 to visit his mother, whom he hadn't seen in over 10 years. He had planned to hang out for only a couple of weeks, but that first brief visit has now turned into a 30-year stay and hopefully will last for years to come. Having previously taken up residence in Dallas, Chicago and Los Angeles, the Louisiana native wound up finding a home in Portland and eventually establishing his reputation here as a talented and unadulterated Bluesman.
Mel's singing career has already spanned several decades, yet he still gets out regularly to sing the Blues around town. Last March, he enjoyed performing two songs with Hubert Sumlin at the 2001 Willamette Delta Showcase and was impressed with the way Sumlin so willingly shared the spotlight. Then July brought one more appearance at the Waterfront Blues Festival, called the Rose City Blues Festival when he first performed there. And, this past November, he sang at the "Muddy Awards", where he had just garnered the Best Male Vocalist Award for 2001. "I still can't get over it," he told me, "I never thought I'd win." He was so sure the award would again go to one of the regular winners, he probably would not have made it to the ceremony, if some friends had not urged him along.
Though we know him now as a Blues singer, Mel's roots are in the traditional rural sounds of Gospel and Spirituals. Originally hailing from a small farming community outside Shreveport, Louisiana, Mel began singing gospel when he was eight or nine years old at the church where his Grandfather preached. And, working in the fields his grandfather tended as a sharecropper, Mel listened to his fellow farmhands sing Spirituals. From these early experiences, Gospel and Spirituals became Mel's first and lasting musical loves. To this day, Mel's favorite Gospel group is Ira Tucker and the Dixie Hummingbirds, who he would listen to on the radio in Louisiana. "When I'm feelin' down," he says "I'd rather listen to Gospel or Spirituals, that picks me right up." He figures that is why the farmhands would sing Spirituals. They found the music uplifting. "One person would start singing, then the others would follow, until just about everyone was singin'."
As a child, Mel also listened to and enjoyed Country and Western,
or "Hillbilly" music, as they called it back in Louisiana. His
Grandfather would let them listen to the radio on Saturday night when Louisiana
Hayride hit the airwaves and Red Foley became one of Mel's
early favorites. But, in those days, segregation was as evident in the
music world as it was in other parts of society. Country and Western was
for white people just as Blues was considered Black music. Mel
learned this lesson the hard way when he sang a Hank Williams song
at a school benefit aimed at raising lunch money for students. After the
show, he got jumped and worked over by several other boys who warned him not to
be singing that hillbilly stuff. When he got home and related his
experience to his mother, she also counseled him to drop that music. Being
a sensible guy, Mel decided he had better stick with more
acceptable material. Of course, his mom didn't want him to be singing the
Blues either, so Gospel and Spirituals remained at the top of the list.
For Mel, singing urban Blues is a natural extension of those earlier art forms, as is evident in his soulful delivery. Mel has even been termed a "Shouter", which is not surprising for someone who grew up listening to field hollers and the fevered pitch of old-time church services. To him, singing Slow Blues is just like singing a Spiritual and a good shuffle is like Gospel. People ask if he feels down when he belts out those plaintive, mournful Blues, but just the opposite is true; "I feel happy when I sing the Blues ....and I like to help other people, the audience, feel better."
With such a rich musical background, one might think Mel's move to Portland would have been an immediate boon to the local music scene, but things didn't work out that way. At the time of his visit in 1971, Mel's brother-in-law was a painter at Freightliner and encouraged him to apply there. Mel followed that advice, was hired shortly thereafter, and wound up retiring from Freightliner 14 years later. He had worked through technical school and moved from the plant's assembly line to become a journeyman welder. The hard work and good, steady pay caused him to set aside singing publicly. Like so many performers, the financial benefits and security of a "real job" took priority over performing. So, during his stint at Freightliner, he didn't sing professionally.
However, following his retirement from Freightliner in 1985, Mel gradually got back into singing. His close friend, Carley T Helgerson, encouraged Mel to perform every chance he got. Carley T was a musician and also a fountain of information about the Blues. He introduced Mel to aspects of the music that he had never known. This friendship helped fuel Mel's new singing career in Portland.
Etc. Tavern's Sunday Night Blues Jam, headed by drummer, Johnny Moore, turned out to be just the opportunity Mel needed to get back into singing publicly. The jam had started informally when bartender, Carol Morris, urged Moore to bring his trio's rehearsal down to the bar on a slow night and it grew from there. By the time Mel stopped in and introduced himself to Moore, the house band for the jams included Pat Counts on bass, Dan Newton on guitar and Cliff Ashmon on the harmonica. Mel convinced the musicians to learn some Little Milton, his favorite Blues performer, and he joined the jam as a regular.
Guitarist, Cory Wheeler, also came to the Etc. Tavern
around the time Mel started there. Wheeler was new
to the Blues, but Mel could tell he had a good ear and encouraged
him to keep working at it. Mel loaned him recordings of Junior
Parker, B. B. King, Little Johnny Taylor and, of course, Little
Milton to use as Blues primers and Wheeler proved to be a
fast learner.
From this group of musicians, the band Mel Solomon and the Nightlighters was born. For several years they played regularly around Portland, including appearances at the Rose City Blues Festival, the Mayor's Ball, and Starry Night, where they opened for the likes of Junior Wells. A new incarnation of The Nightlighters won a "Muddy Award" in the early '90s as "Best New Blues Band" with a lineup in which Mel and Cory Wheeler were joined by Joe Pepper on bass and Dave Alozondro on drums.
After the Nightlighters, Mel continued to sing the Blues with a variety of local performers and hands. He formed Mel Solomon and Audacity with guitarist, Dale Morris, drummer, Drawback Slim, and Joe Pepper. Later he performed on occasion with Norman Moody and Blues Forecast and has recently satin with Robbie Laws and The Hudson Rocket Band, among others. Mel's lone recordings as a front man are on the 1998 release, "A Taste of Blues Rose". This compilation of Portland Blues artists from Flying Heart Records features Mel on three tracks, including a Bobby Bland number, "Mother-In-Law Blues".
The respect and love that musicians who have played with Mel feel toward him is readily evident. Cory Wheeler gives Mel the credit for getting him into The Nightlighters and insists he is "one of the funniest and nicest guys you'll ever meet." Johnny Moore lets you know flat-out that "Mel is it," when it comes to the Blues, and "the sweetest guy in the world." Moore hears the connection Mel has made between Gospel, Country music and Texas-influenced Urban Blues. As Pat Counts says, "Mel puts you in contact with a vanishing subculture, the roots of the Blues." According to Counts, Mel raises the bar when it comes to singing the Blues and, on top of that, he is a good cook and fine storyteller.
Back in Louisiana, Mel first sang professionally when The Lamplighters, a group from Kansas City, was booked at a club in Shreveport and their lead singer had to go home because his mom died. The club owner knew Mel and recommended him as a fill-in. Following that appearance, he wound up doing stints with Hank Ballard and The Midnighters, The Rocks of Harmony and The Silvertones, singing what they referred to as rock'n'roll. He also hooked up with Bobby "Blue" Bland in Louisiana for a few months. Bland was just out of the army and was already enjoying success as a Blues singer.
Mel was the eldest of 11 children in his family and one of only two boys. In fact, at one point he grew so tired of all the baby sisters that were being brought home he decided to go out and shoot the stork with a BB gun so it wouldn't bring any more. Of course, Mel can tell the story much better than I. It is no surprise that this accomplished vocalist can spin a great yarn. He laughs as he relates his run-in with Freddie King. Just showing off to the ladies, Mel yelled up to King onstage that he should quit trying to sing and just play the guitar. "I never thought he would jump off the stage," he proclaims, "he landed right on top of me. I thought he was about to kilt me."
Mel was in his 20s when he decided to move from Louisiana to Dallas. He stayed there for four or five years, primarily singing background vocals. He left Dallas for the north side of Chicago, where his father lived. But Mel found the weather too cold and the nightlife too rough there, so he left for Los Angeles after about 15 months. Mel sang the Blues with several different bands in L.A. and drove a truck for a living. It was after he broke up with his woman in L.A. that he decided to visit his mom in Portland and then move back to Dallas. Fortunately, that move to Dallas never materialized.
Mel's singing career in the Northwest took awhile to get started, but from a Sunday night Blues jam in the 1980s to the 2001 "Muddy Award" for "Best Male Vocalist", Mel has connected with Blues Musicians and fans alike in Portland. He is truly an original Bluesman!
© 2002 Cascade Blues Association