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Paul plays both six-string and twelve. He is THE master at 12-string slide in the styles of Blind Willie McTell, Peg-Leg Howell, Barbeque Bob, and others from that old '20s Atlanta 12-string tradition. He can play a six with perfect mastery of the nuances of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Blake, Big Bill Broonzy, Bo Carter, Lonnie Johnson, Reverend Gary Davis, Skip James, John Hurt, Charlie Patton, Little Hat Jones, Sam Chatmon, etc, etc, etc. The list is virtually endless. It was difficult to select just a few good tunes of his because he has so many. I narrowed it down to sixteen tunes, which give a pretty decent representative sample of his playing (I didn't include any of his piano-tunes, this being a guitar site). The tunes were recorded over about thirty five or so years from a number of different LPs and CDs he's done.
I first heard of Paul in an unusual way. An electric band I was in way back then had opened a couple of times for the Savoy Brown Blues Band. This was back in the day when I was first becoming "blues-aware." I knew a little... a few names, had some recordings and 78s and had even met a few old guys already. But these Brits really knew their "bluesicology" stuff! After a gig one night our band and theirs were drinking a few beers and sampling a bit of herbal-delight back in the hotel room. Chris Youlden and Kim Simmons were arguing (as usual) about some blues-thing (an old Lemon Jefferson lick in a tune I think... diminished or not!) and one of them mentioned "Man, I caught this guy in a pub across the river (that was New Jersey) last night did that Lemon tune. Paul Jerry-something-or-other. He was fukking great. Never seen nothing like him." I'd never heard of Paul or anything myself yet. And so that was it. Until a few years later. Having now met John Jackson a couple of times by then, John asked me once if I knew Paul (as if all of us white-guys somehow knew each other
) He said "That young man knows my stuff better than I do myself. You oughta look him up." Next time I heard of Paul was again from an old bluesman, Pink Anderson, who said Paul had looked him up about ten years earlier than I had, and before he'd left a week or two later he could play his stuff better than Pink could himself. (Pink was the old bluesman from whom the band Pink Floyd got half of their name.) I met Paul a few years after that, and they weren't wrong.I can go on and on about how good he is (I already have) and so I'll stop. In the twenty-five or so years I've known Paul since, he's helped me a great deal. At first he was utterly beyond me. If we sat for two hours and I picked up ninety seconds worth of licks and tricks I felt I'd really accomplished something. Second only to my sort-of mentor John Jackson (and possibly Bowling Green John Cephas maybe) I've learned more from Paul over the years than from any other guitarist. In the kind of stuff I'm into most he's sort of the "ultimate guitarist." The one whose ability and style I'd most like to be able emulate if it were possible.
Paul is also probably the best rack-harp player around, accompanying himself on guitar (or blues and boogie-woogie piano, which he's also great at) much of the time. One thing about Paul that immediately caught my attention was that he never "slows down" or simplifies his improv's or playing as he sings. He plays phenominal licks and riffs while he sings or plays rack without slacking off at all. I've tried (with moderate success) to incorporate that a little more into my playing and singing (although I really do slack-off some when I add the rack. Someday (maybe...). And he is not merely a great "cover-musician" for old country-blues. He has his own tunes he has written, as well as being able to carry one of those old covers to the next step beyond where the original artist left it, when he feels like doing that. While he plays gigs almost exclusively solo, he has also played with as varied a group of musicians as you could imagine, from Dave Brubek to John Renbourn to Howard "Louie Bluey" Armstrong. And you'll find his name on the liner notes of a number of albums and CDs when the artist wanted "the best" to sit in on his session.
He is not very well known, except among other musicians in the genre. Roy Bookbinder (a good friend of Paul's) told me once "Paul is his own worst enemy. All he does is drive that broke-down little Chevy back and forth across the damn country playing his little gigs. Or he sits holed-up in that little place of his practicing. Never does a damn thing about trying to promote himself." And Roy (who is quite good at promoting himself
) is kind of right. Not very well-known at all. But extremely respected by his peers, and he has spent the majority of his life doing what he wants, on the road playing his music. His old Chevy is on its fourth engine.Many years ago an old bluesman I'd been trying to learn a few things from, when we took a break, said to me something like "You young white-boys comin' up now, y'all wanna play it all. You wanna play my stuff jus' like me. You wanna play Fuller jus' like Fuller an' Blake jus' like Blake an' Lemon jus' like Lemon an' Robert jus' like Robert. You gotta remember, all we did back then was our own stuff. That's all we ever practiced and that's all we ever played, and so we got real good at it. We wasn't all spread out all over a dozen bluesmen an' a dozen styles. Nobody is ever gonna be able to play it all jus' like us old-school boys did jus' playin' our own an' nothin' but our own. So just do the best you can, 'cause it can't be done." Over the years I've found his words to be true, with one exception.
And here's a link so you can hear him. I've put these tunes up not so that no one now needs to find or buy his recordings, but so that someone listening who likes this kind of music can become aware of Paul and might want more of his stuff or, better yet, see him perform. He tours continually, now on both sides of "the pond." So anyway, here's the link to sixteen tunes by Paul Geremia.
I'll leave them up for a couple of days.
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