Adult only

Mike Welch wants to be taken seriously

by Don Fluckinger

Don't call him "Monster Mike" any more and forget about the "child prodigy" thing. Mike Welch lit up the stage at the opening night of the Cambridge House of Blues as a 13-year-old, earning him the "Monster Mike" title from Dan Aykroyd. Six years later, Welch is done with that phase and wants the rest of the world to try him as an adult.

"Mozart was a prodigy, he wrote operas when he was seven," says the congenial Welch, his voice resonating with a "future's-so-bright-I-gotta-wear-shades" showbiz sheen. "I figured out how to play blues guitar pretty well when I was 14 or 15. It's not comparable. The real prodigies evidence some kind of genius real young; I was just able to do something I loved."

Judging from the sounds of his recent Tone-Cool disc Catch Me, I'd say Mike Welch and his band have come a long way and deserve a place among the nation's best blues-rock acts -- youthful and mature alike. Though Welch is still not yet 20, keep in mind that he's accomplished more than most musicians 10 years his senior: recorded three albums, toured from coast to coast many times over, and dropped out of UC-Berkeley this fall after attending classes for just two weeks. College, he says, was an experiment that didn't work; although he thought he wanted to be an English major, his heart was in music.

He recorded Catch Me with his former road band, who included David Hull, George Lewis, and Warren Grant. Guitarist Lewis went with Kid Bangham after Welch decided to go to college, and bassist Hull joined another band. Drummer Grant was still available when Welch decided to take up the guitar again, so he rejoined the group, and Welch picked his high-school friend Jack Hamilton to play organ and sing back-up vocals, and then added bassist Brad Hallen to the ensemble.

"This new band is as permanent as any I've ever had," Welch says. "Since about May there's been this new dynamic that we're all excited to get on tape; the problem is that we just released a new record. We've probably written about half a record's worth of material so far."

Catch Me should net Welch more fans than his last albums, which were exclusively blues-oriented. Notching up the energy about 10 times and rocking out with FM-friendly power chords, Welch includes '60s pop -- the Beatlesque killer hook features prominently in the title tune and of course in the cover of Lennon's "Money." And Welch mines the Memphis-Motown soul vein in tunes like "Make Up Your Mind" and "My Love Belongs to You."

It's all part of a new outlook for Welch. Arrangements take precedence over jamming or "evolving" a blues tune from a single riff. No longer does he take his singing at face value, a way to take a break from playing guitar. Rather, he's become serious about developing his own style. Much effort was made on Catch Me, he says, to vary the music stylistically. Now it's gotten to the point where he considers his group more of a rock band than a blues band, albeit a heavily blues-influenced rock band.

But don't get the wrong idea -- Welch still plays the blues, too. His blues faithful will also be pleased with this album, as he serves up some great stuff like "Don't Worry," an extended jam with guest star David Maxwell, the high-powered blues piano master, and "If I Love You," a track in which Welch hits his National Steel guitar with amazing clarity. Then there's "Blues for Cara," a six-minute electric instrumental.

Although much has been made of the old blues classics in Welch's dad's collection -- from the likes of Albert Collins and Howlin' Wolf -- that inspired him to jam away at a young age, he was exposed to an equal measure of rock and roll from bands like the Beatles, Stones, and Derek and the Dominos.

"Yeah, he did have a few blues records," Welch says, "but the records I remember him listening to were Sticky Fingers and Layla. [In] those two records, both the Stones and Clapton, there's a lot of blues scattered around -- even some fairly straight blues -- and neither band was limited by that."

Modeling the latest incarnation of the his band after those consummate rock examples, Welch heads into this phase of his career with a blues edge and a pop sensibility that should serve him well. Since he decided to drop out of Berkeley and continue his studies to become a guitar-slinging road scholar, it's become apparent that the university's loss is a gain for music lovers -- who still get to hear this monster on the six-string play. n

Mike Welch plays on October 30 at the Sit n' Bull Pub in Maynard. tickets are $9. Call (978) 897-7232.