[After this rapid-fire, enthusiastic conversation, it was time for Chris to cut out, and John jumped back in.]
John, that kid has energy! How does it translate into his playing?
Energy... yeah. Chris focuses all his energy on the guitar when he plays. Sometimes it's hard for him to hold back. He's always waiting for that solo where he can just tear it up. This is where Mike's influence comes in.
What I see, what's really — not just incredible, but inspiring and moving — is the role Mike's assumed in guiding the kids and how they've grown as musicians. With his knowledge and patience, he's teaching Chris in particular how to develop patience, how to work the music, how to play rhythm guitar. Chris watches Mike like a hawk. Mike's made a point of teaching him how he can say something in his playing.
"Say something, say it strong, say it with taste, with heart." That's what Chris is working on. It's what we all work on.
You know, it sounds like we're all about music, but it's a lot more than seeing Chris develop these skills. He's getting the chance to do things most kids don't and he's meeting legends, visiting places with such historical importance, and learning concepts that'll help him other areas of his life later on.
As a father, it's pretty gratifying to be able to do these things with my son and see how much he enjoys it. It gets even better, like when I heard him talking about Pinetop telling him the story of how he got stabbed in the arm as a young man. Chris will tell and retell the story if you let him.
You can't buy your kid moments like those. You can't whip them up from thin air. And it's the combination of all the various things — the band, sweating over nailing a song, being with my family, travel, trying to soak up an entire culture, meeting our heroes, and just having the courage to pursue our dreams — that makes this worth it.
Speaking of family, what does your wife think of all this?
She thinks I'm friggin' nuts! But she really does support what we're doing. She comes to gigs and cheers us on. And she doesn't just humor me, she's 100% there.
Of course, my step-daughter, who's 13, isn't into blues music at all, and yet, she comes out to watch us play, too.
I love being able to share this with them.
Article comments
1 - Connie Phillips
Congratulations! This article was an Editor's Pick this week.
2 - John Cotton
Great write up, Thank you,
We consider it a honour to be listed as "One of The Top Ten Blues Bands To Watch"
The only thing I forgot to mention when we were talking on the phone was a big part of our "Shut The Front Door" recording session involved our engineer D'Arcy McGilligan he is on the Berklee College of Music advisary board for recording and has worked with Rick Derringer and George Wallace Jr (Lt Gov of Alabama) and we were both written up in the Berklee newsletter, Here is a link to that newsletter.
Also the "A Guy Out In Hollywood" is Skip Adams of Global Graffiti Music here is the link to his website Global Graffiti Music
John Cotton (The Bluesers)