Speak easy

Paul Rishell and Annie Raines talk about the blues

by Chris Flisher

"The blues is everything. The blues is nothing," quips ace blues-advocate Paul Rishell. "It comes from a common pool of thought that many people associate, wrongfully, with a certain lifestyle or race. But it is a way of thinking that people can cop to and that's the appeal -- to me, at least. Because it has that power to be so powerful and primal, it affects people on a much different level than say pop music. It's part of what we're made of. It's humanistic, organic music."

The blues, to which Rishell so affectionately refers, is anything but the slick, commercially accessible blues of contemporary radio. No Stevie Ray or Robert Cray. Instead, Rishell along with his harmonica-playing partner, Annie Raines, look to the source and find the appeal in the music's earliest founders. "The roots of the music is where it's at for me," Rishell admits. "Charley Patton, Son House, those guys are the ones who said it right for me. It's not that I don't appreciate what Stevie Ray [Vaughn] has done, because I do, and I love his stuff. It's just, for me, not what gets me in my gut."

"It's not always easy to put your finger on," offers Raines. "You know, you can't stare at the sun for too long. But the blues has everything to do with being human at its most basic level. That's why it's everything and nothing at the same time. It just cuts across everything else."

It's easy to hear their passion for the blues in their recent recording, I Want You To Know (Tone Cool). A heady blend of traditional country, folk, and urban blues, the album presents a liberal sampling of both early blues classics by artists such as Barbecue Bob, Blind Boy Fuller, Peg Leg Howell, and Big Bill Broonzy along with their own offerings written in a compatible style. The beauty of the music lies in their accurate readings . If you've ever been frustrated by the sound quality of the old blues records, you'll immediately appreciate what they have done.

"Annie and I listen to those old records so you don't have to, because they are tough to get to sometimes," chuckles Rishell. "The quality was terrible and so much of the music was lost. But I remember as a kid sitting in my room listening to Charley Patton and my father saying, `That's not music.' I knew what he meant, but I could hear the music through the rough mix."

Remaining true to the genre, texture, tone, and feel of the original recordings, Rishell and Raines recreate the magic with the aid of modern recording technology.

"Paul tries to keep all of the phrasing and nuances when we cover an old song," offers Raines.

Rishell quickly replies, "Let's just say I make all the right mistakes."

"Step It Up and Go" written by Blind Boy Fuller offers a lively guitar/harmonica dialog between Rishell and Raines, further colored by Rishell's gritty vocal and his National Steel Guitar work, which also helps to recreate the authenticity of the original recording session that took place well over 50 years ago. The same is true of the oft-covered, blues standard, "Key to the Highway," originally recorded by Big Bill Broonzy. Of the new self-penned songs by Rishell and Raines, "Got To Fly" fits nicely in beside the old country blues, while "Ol' Heartbreak" represents a fatter blues style with Rishell on electric and Raines on a miked harmonica, reminiscent of Little Walter. In each case Annie and Paul accurately capture the original blues vision, one that appears deceptively simple on the surface yet harbors the basic elements of the human condition.

"It's very clever music," Rishell says. "And it possesses something that has disappeared from musicians today, and that's resilience or a sort of outlook. Now, I don't mean the falling-down alcoholic blues musician, I mean the better ones who espouse an approachable philosophy of live and let live. They have nothing to prove, and they kind of see life as a little bit of luck and a little bit of fate. But they didn't get wrapped up in this phoney type of thing you see in commercial music. It came more from the heart."

"More organic," chips in Raines.

Just before I spoke with Rishell and Raines they were the subject of a chat-line call where Compuserve subscribers asked them questions about their music. In what must have been an unusual contrast, to say the least -- primal, earthy blues music in it's purest, unrefined form and the high-tech wizardry of an Internet chat-line -- they answered questions about this most basic and historic music.

Although they were grateful for the exposure and the interest, the disparity was unavoidable.

"Doing the kind of music that we do, which is so close to the hand, and then going on this chat-line thing, it was kind of like being stuck inside a Sega Genesis game," Raines says.

Paul Rishell and Annie Raines perform at the Sit 'N Bull Pub, in Maynard, at 8:30 p.m. on May 30. Tickets are $4. Call 897-7232.