Breakfast Break

‘Tea and Fruitcake Club’s’ Fifth Gala Meeting with guest speaker; Vernon Ray Harrington.

 

I first heard Vernon Ray Harrington on the Paul Jones Rhythm and Blues show, when he played ‘Crack Head Woman’ from the album ‘West Side Blues’. ‘Tea and Fruitcake Club’ therefore was thrilled to find out that Mr Harrington would be playing in the area.

Influenced by his upbringing, which involved being taught by the late, great Magic Sam, Vernon Ray Harrington has been playing the West Side for over forty years. During which he has performed alongside his brother Joe Harrington, cousin Eddy Clearwater and second cousin Lurrie Bell, who all ventured to Berlin, Germany with Billy Branch to perform at the ‘Next Generation of Blues Tour’. In remembrance of his fathers record label; Atomic-H, Vernon Harrington has released his first solo album; ‘West Side Blues’ on his own label accordingly named; Atomic-H2.

‘Tea and Fruitcake Club’ sat with Vernon Ray Harrington at the Stamford Arts Centre to see how his first UK tour was coming along.

Are you happy with your new album ‘West Side Blues’?

Oh yeah, yeah, I’m definitely satisfied with that. No doubt about it.

Do you have a local residency in Chicago where you can play the blues?

Oh yes, different places, different clubs up there. You know, clubs up north, Kingston, the Blues, the Blues Chicago, you know, there’s a lot of places for entertainment and to play.

What was it like growing up with your father Rev. Harrington running Atomic-H Records…

Right, he had his own studio, he had his own label, you know, he was a publisher, Atomic-H and the CD I’m doing now that’s also Atomic-H but that’s Atomic-H2 though, right.

So what was it like growing up around your fathers record label, being introduced to artists like Sunnyland Slim and obviously your Uncle introduced you to Magic Sam, what was that like at a young age?

That was, you know, quite an experiment, me coming up around Magic Sam. I used to go round his house and watch him play, I wasn’t more that seventeen years old, in fact, I was only seventeen year old when he died in ’69, you know I was just a teenager. But I used to go over to his house and he used to show me the fundamentals on the guitar, you know, I used to just sit and listen and watch and if you just listen you can learn…if you’ve got a good ear for music you know, you can pick it up just by ear, if you have a good ear for it.

When you’re playing your blues, obviously the blues is quite a downtrodden genre, do you like to be amongst the feelings or do you prefer to be outside the emotions and looking into what you are singing about?

I like to get into it emotionally, you know.

In your songs,  what is it that comes out into your songs, what subjects in your life inspire you to write songs?

About my music? The ideas to the songs I wrote are the actual things I went through in life, like ‘You Did Me Wrong’, that song is based on my wife, you know, the way our marriage went…

Dave Thomas (Vocals/Guitarist in Vernon Ray Harrington’s backing band): That’s what the blues is all about. You and me both.

I write according to my lifestyle. I think that’s the best way.

What other artists at the moment do you listen to?

I listen to a lot of artists, my cousin, Eddy Clearwater, you know, I picked up a little bit from him, when I was a teenager coming up, but mostly I picked up from Magic Sam, I used to go and listen to other guitar plays when I was young like; Otis Rush, you know and I remember I used to be a little too young to get into clubs, as back in the sixties, if you weren’t twenty-one, you know, they were real hard on ID’s, you had to be twenty-one, but…my cousin Eddy Clearwater was playing in this club called; the Flash, on Pulaski and Polk. I was a little teenager but they used to let me in and I used to go in with me and my brother, but they wouldn’t serve me no alcohol, that’s the only thing and I used to go up onstage and sit in with him and play with him.

What is it like playing with artists like Lurrie Bell and Billy Branch?

It’s a good feeling playing with guys like that. You know, we went to Berlin, Germany, together in 1977. It was me, Lurrie Bell, Billy Branch…it was thirteen of us that went over there together, thirteen of us.

What was the atmosphere like when you were playing in the ‘Next Generation of the Blues Tour’?

We played the Philharmonic Hall, we played to a sell-out crowd, people were all, you know, it was a big old, huge auditorium, people were sitting all behind you, people watching from the back, people watching you from the front, everywhere you looked around, ’cause the way it was made, you know, was like a basketball stadium, like the Bull’s stadium up there, you know, you got chairs all around, upper decks, just like here [Stamford Arts Centre] upper decks all the way around, that was a real good experiment, you know.

You play left-handed, did you get any ‘stick’ for that?

Did I get any what?

Sorry it’s an English slang term, any ‘stick’, did anybody say that the way you were playing was unusual?

No, it was something that just automatically came to me, you know, I remember when I was a little boy, I wasn’t even able to hold a guitar, I just used to lay the guitar in my lap, I didn’t know left-handed to right-handed, I didn’t think it made no difference, you know, as long as its being played. I used to hold it like this [left-handed] Magic Sam used to tell me; ‘No, you got it upside down, turn it the other way’. When I tried to make a chord, it felt uncomfortable, you know, just like I can take this guitar here, it’s strung the same way as mine, I can hold it, I’m holding it right-handed now but I can’t, you know, it’s just a funny feeling.

Would you like to try?

Vernon Ray Harrington Playing Right and Left-Handed

I can’t play nothing right-handed. I can’t. I can not do it. I can just hit the strings, that’s about it, so I had to turn it around this way [left-handed], see, it’s more comfortable…[strums the guitar twice]…like a chord…[plays a chord]…but if I turn it this way [right-handed] just like, just like a beginner, you know, I can’t even make no type…let me see if I can try to make a note holding it this way, let me see…[attempts quite professionally]…it ain’t no work for me. But what I did one time, I changed the strings around, so what I did, I put the big strings at the top and I put the little ones at the bottom. That kind of worked for me a little bit but it was like starting all over again. So my cousin, Eddy Clearwater, he just said, ‘Just leave it like it is’.

As a blues professional, is there any favourite songs you like to play? 

Favourite songs? I don’t really have any favourite songs, I just play the songs I like, the certain songs I like and I just play ‘em.

Thank you very much for your time and I look forward to hearing the songs from your new album; ‘West Side Blues’.

If you would like to find out more about Vernon Ray Harrington then you can visit his Myspace here.

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