January 21, 2009

Wallace Coleman

This post is going to be a departure from the usual acoustic posts, probably not the first time. This is a pretty tasty disc that I haven't really seen around so I thought I would put it up. Hope you enjoy.

As a youth in eastern Tennessee where country & western music still prevails, Wallace Coleman was instead captivated by the sounds he heard late at night from Nashville’s WLAC….the Blues.
The sounds haunted him by day where, he says, "I would be sittin’ in class and hear the Howlin’ Wolf singin’ just as clear in my head…" It was on WLAC that Coleman first heard those who would become Blues Legends and greatest musical influences: Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters. Laying the guitar foundation on many of those recordings was Robert Jr. Lockwood – a man who, some 25 years in Coleman’s future, would play a role in his musical career.
Coleman left Tennessee in 1956 to find work in Cleveland, Ohio. He found steady work and, to his delight, an active Blues community where Jimmy Reed, Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, B.B. King and others came to perform. A self-taught musician, Coleman played the harmonica on his breaks at work. One day a co-worker brought his cousin to the jobsite to hear Coleman play. That meeting sparked a year-long pairing with Cleveland’s Guitar Slim at the Cascade Lounge.
It was there that Coleman caught the ear of audience member Robert Jr. Lockwood. Asked by Lockwood to join his band, Coleman expressed that he first wanted to retire from his day job. Two years later, in 1987, a newly-retired Coleman did indeed contact Lockwood. That call initiated a 10 year position in Lockwood’s band. Wallace Coleman remains the only harmonica player invited by Lockwood to join his band. - from WallaceColeman.com
Please visit the artist site HERE
Buy some Wallace Coleman at Amazon

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