Mr. John Primer has undisputedly helped build the sound and style of Chicago blues as we all know it today. The echoes of tradition bellowing from the birthplaces he played such as: Maxwell Street, Theresa’s, Checkerboard & Rosa’s Lounges, pulse from every chord in his fingers still today. John Primer is a Chicago Blues Living Legend. Growing up on Mississippi sharecropper land in 1945, inspired by his family’s hard work & field songs daily, deep devotion to spirituals on Sundays, and blues on Saturdays. John dreamed of one day playing with the Legendary Muddy Waters! Moving to Chicago in 1963, he started on that path of becoming a great bluesman, getting his 1st steady gig at the legendary Maxwell Street in Chicago on Sundays and at the famous Theresa’s Lounge 7 nights a week for 7 years. John was taught by the founding fathers of the blues. Starting out with his own band the Maintainers with Pat Rushing on Maxwell Street, he then moved on to play with the legendary Sammy Lawhorn & Junior Wells at Theresa’s Lounge. He worked hard and impressed Willie Dixon enough to go on tour with him and his Chicago Blues All-Stars Band. At this point he was known and John’s dream finally came true in 1981 when he got to play with his idol, Muddy Waters. Muddy called for him to lead his band and changed his life forever. After Muddy’s untimely death, he joined up with Magic Slim & The Teardrops for the next 14 years, traveling all over the world. John paid his dues and in 1995 he began leading his own band, The Real Deal Blues Band. He has been recorded on more than 87 albums with 17 albums in his own name. He has written & produced more than 55 songs on more than six record labels including his own, Blues House Productions. Earning 2 Grammy Award nominations, given 2 Lifetime Achievement Awards, inducted into the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame, awarded the “Muddy Award” for being a traditional blues icon, winning a Blues Music Award, Blues Blast Awards and countless other awards, John Primer is a legendary Chicago Blues Icon!!!
I had the honor of getting to spend some time talking with Mr. John Primer ahead of his upcoming stops through Madison on June 22nd at the Red Rooster and then again on August 10th part of the Sessions At McPike Park. We got into what an audience can expect in the way of traditional blues that is flowing through this man’s veins and how is is doing all he can to keep that vibe alive. We spent time dissecting his recent award winning album “Teardrops For Magic Slim” and how the album (a live recording – was a tribute fitting for another legend to the scene). Mr. Primer was recently overseas for a festival so we talk anbout him prepping the band he inherited when he arrived and how they did such a bang up job. As you can imagine, we got into stories about the who and the what and the where and especially the how of major career paths in his life, a life worthy of any hall of fame and certainly his sound is in many of our individual sonic halls of fame. I invite you to take a listen to the past and learn a bit about where one of the originals to the Chicago Blues groove got his starts and stops, he come-uppins and his immense influence still to this day on generations of others, feeling this music. John Primer is a leGend.
