Paul Geremia
The Fire Within
by Richard Cuccaro
Acoustic Live has featured a number of blues performers, and on more than one
occasion, referred to them, individually, as a "keeper of the flame." For those who
have fallen in love with acoustic country blues, particularly white blues players, an
almost evangelical fervor consumes them. Their reverence for the idiom and its
early practitioners, older black men, often poor, burns with a white-hot light. Of all
the white blues players, the author has seen no one whose flame burns hotter or
with greater mastery than Paul Geremia.
It has taken far too long for us to feature Paul. This may be due to an intimidation
factor. This author still does not possess the vocabulary needed to describe the things
that Paul Geremia does with a guitar, simultaneously with an unsurpassed sweet-sounding
racked harmonica. Then, there's the swiftness in changing keys on both 6 and
12-string guitars. Maybe, someone, somewhere can play a 12-string slide as well, but, to
date I have not heard anyone with Paul's combined abilities and artistic range.
His rich baritone gives credence to his renditions of the old songs without resorting to the
forced huskiness so often affected by others to imitate the voice of a black blues singer.
Using a variety of inflections, he can move vocally from Mose Allison to Fats Waller
while essentially remaining true to his own voice.
On top of all this, his own compositions are so close in style to the old blues masters
that it's often difficult to tell them apart. One has to pay close
attention to the lyrics for contemporary content. And speaking of contemporary content,
Paul was always ahead of his time. He was speaking out against corporate greed years
ago, while most singer/songwriters were busy
contemplating their navels. Assailing both corruption and complacency, on Gamblin'
Woman Blues, released by Red House Records in 1993, in "The Things That Used
to Matter," he sings:
The power brokers point the finger at all but not themselves
With their mirrors turned face to the wall, the big lie they can sell
For all us suckers born every minute, you might think it was on sale
Don't think too loud, don't talk too much or groundhogs'll bring you mail
It's lucky for us Miss Liberty still stands facin' toward the sea
If she saw what went on behind her back, she'd forsake you and me
Sayin' "where's your guts and so take care of your own, clean up your own back yard
You want a fight, you got one right here, to ease these times so hard"
The things that used to matter don't mean much any more
When the ease of the disease is more seductive than the cure
On The Devil's Music released in 1999:
The Pentagon terrorists make me rave… when peace on earth is what we crave
They export war … they export death… I don't know why I even waste my breath
Except to get a little truth… the chickens always come home to roost
On his most recent album, Love Murder and Mosquitos, in "Bully of the Town." he sings:
There's a bully in the White House, a bully on the street, a bully behind every politician that I meet
Lookin' for the bully of the town
There's a bully in the pentagon, a bully in the church, gonna find that bully, gonna leave him in the lurch
Lookin' for the bully of the town
If that old bully's mad with me, maybe wants to fight
If that old bully wants to fight, I'm doin' somethin' right
In "Evil World Blues," from the same album we hear:
Homelessness is a nightmare end of evil corporate greed
It'll chew you up and spew you out to fertilize the American dream
This world is evil, sometimes I think it's evil to the core
Even god must be uneasy when in his name we go to war
If I happened to wind up snowbound with Paul in an isolated cabin with no power --
just him, his guitar and the heat of his rage against the corporate machine --
I could stay gleefully warm all winter.
Beginnings
Paul's skill on the harp has its roots in the days when he was a 12-year-old in Rhode Island,
playing folk songs on the harmonica as a hobby. He got acquainted with folk music
in a number of ways, including hearing it, he says, in a lot of Disney movies and from
hearing the singing group The Sons of the Pioneers in their performances in different
formats.(the author knew them as back-up singers for western film and music star,
Roy Rogers) His mom sang folk songs on occasion and they sang "American" (read
"folk") songs in school.
Paul is a history buff and has always been an enthusiast for American Indian lore.
The first time he ever performed in front of an audience was in school out in California.
He sang in a
pageant dealing with the Navajo Indians. His teacher worked with him after school to
learn to sing Navajo songs in the actual Navajo language.
The seeds of becoming an itinerant musician were planted early. When he was a child,
his family traveled across the United States three or four times in the early '50's. His
father and his uncle were in pursuit of an opportunity to partner in a cattle ranch. Their
efforts proved fruitless, and they settled in Rhode Island.
He picked up the guitar a little before college. A friend had an electric guitar, which
Paul played in the basement of the friend's house. One would never expect to hear
these words from Paul Geremia, but he told me, "I didn't realize how hard it was to
play the guitar. It hurt my fingers." His mother, sister and he bought his father an
acoustic guitar, hoping to bring him some relaxation during a difficult time, but his
father never bothered with it. So Paul started playing it at home, then, later, brought
it to college with him. There he met people who played guitar, so he learned some
more chords and played harmonica with them. There were some good pickers among
them and Paul watched them and learned what he could.
The blues became a passion after he read Sam Charters' book The Country Blues, i
n college. In the 1950's Charters had scoured record shops looking for blues records
by obscure artists, then, with his wife, Ann, traveled the deep south finding them,
then photographing and recording them. Paul became intensely
interested in the legendary players after reading their bios in Charters' book.
In 1963, he heard Mississippi John Hurt and decided that's how he wanted to play.
Once he learned how to use his right hand -- get the fingerpicking thing down -- "It
was just a question of devoting [laughs] hundreds of hours to getting it right" -- he was
"on his way." As he puts it: "There were a lot of people who were like me. They liked
the music and they could play it a little bit and they were getting their inspiration from
some of the old timers who were still alive. That was one of the real differences compared
to today. You don't have those people to look up to. I was real lucky to have John Hurt
and Sleepy John Estes and the other guys around. Also the white people who were
ahead of me and who had been playing for years -- Dave Van Ronk, Patrick Sky, and
Tim Hardin. If somebody fingerpicked guitar, I was trying to get to see them play.
It wasn't easy to do, living in Rhode Island. I used to hitchhike to Cambridge and go
to Club 47. The first person I met there was Tim Hardin. Also Jim Kweskin-- one of
the most underrated guitarists out there."
As a youngster, Paul had tried to play a harp along with the guitar, thinking it would
be something fun to do, not realizing it was already an accepted practice. He briefly
experimented using a coathanger and playing a direct melody line. It wasn't until years
later, when he met Sonny Terry that the concept of cross-harp finally showed up on
his radar. Once Sonny showed him what it was about, it didn't take long for Paul to
become proficient with cross-harp in a rack.
Catching up just recently with Paul's complete arsenal of skills, I became aware that
he also played piano. He accompanies himself on piano on a substantial number of
his best songs. Paul's sister had a piano and he plunked around on it when he lived
with the family. Years later, Paul got pointers on piano from various people, Tim
Hardin and Dr. John included. Mose Allison has been a big influence on Paul. Tim
and Paul hung out a little bit in Cambridge. Years later, sometime in the 80's, Paul
spent an afternoon in Rhode Island with Dr. John and was able to learn a bit in that
short time.
Paul tunes up before a workshop at the 2001 New Bedrord, Mass. Summerfest.
Photo: Richard Cuccaro
Integrity
In discussing Paul's short college experience, we get another glimpse into Paul's fierce
integrity. He had read Silent Spring by Rachel Carson and was an advocate of organic
farming. Attending agricultural school at The University of Rhode Island for about
a year and a half, he had a crisis of confidence in the program when he learned that
his interest in organic farming was considered "weird." "URI, like most agricultural
schools was just a whore for the chemical companies. Herbicides, pesticides, all the
poisons that they were dumping into the food system, and still are. And folks wonder
why people are dying of cancer," he says.
The School of Blues
In 1964, Paul took a year off from school and moved to California, where he worked on
a farm owned by a relative and began playing gigs. Around 1965, he moved back to the
east coast, and deciding not to return to school, settled briefly in Vermont. He moved to
Cambridge in '66 to a rooming house for about $15 a week. It was only a stone's throw
from Club 47 (Currently Passim's). "That was the best folk music school in the country,"
he says.
He made a record for Folkways Records in 1968. His meeting Patrick Sky was
instrumental and helped lead to that recording. He had opened for Patrick. When Patrick
got sick, Paul drove him back to New York, stayed at Pat's place for a couple of days
and got to meet his friends. Dave Van Ronk was Patrick's next door neighbor.
Although Paul had played the "basket houses" in Greenwich Village and liked the
scene, he had no contacts there. Everyone there had great record collections. Paul
got to hear some great blues records that he learned from and which inspired him,
such as Blind Blake, Lonnie Johnson, Eddie Lang and others. Paul still listens to
records of those players.
Paul told me how he first came to meet many of the blues' greatest legends. Dick
Waterman, reknown folklorist, photographer and former feature editor for Broadside
Magazine, showed up one night at a coffeehouse in Providence, Rhode Island, heard
Paul play and offered to let him crash at his place up in Cambridge. Dick was, at the
time, a representative for Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James, Booker White,
Lightning Hopkins, Mance Lipscomb, Fred McDowell, Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup
and many others. Staying at Dick's place, Paul got to meet Mississippi John Hurt,
Son House and Skip James, hang out and get to know them a little bit. Additionally,
Paul would show up at Club 47 and play at all the open mics. Eventually, the owners
got to know him well and he got free admission to the club. Paul would see Howlin'
Wolf whenever he played 47. Wolf came over to Paul's apartment one night and played
Paul's Gibson and showed him things that he learned from Charlie Patton. Years later,
when Paul tried to learn something off of a Patton record and was having difficulty,
he remembered what Wolf had showed him. From a long-ago lesson given by one of
the greats, problem solved.
One of the early white blues players Paul received inspiration from was Spider John
Koerner. After Paul heard him at Club 47, they hung out and later traveled in Europe
together. Spider John used a 7-string guitar and had a unique fingerstyle. He was also
one of the first white players to write his own songs in the blues idiom. In this regard,
he was similar to Mose Allison, who, while a jazz pianist, did the same thing. (Who can
forget "Parchman Farm?") Since Paul always aspired to write his own blues songs, this
was no small thing.
It looks like Chris Smither is eagerly sharing some road story before the workshop begins.
Photo: Richard Cuccaro
Europe Calls
Paul has, like many other blues players, benefitted from the intense interest the blues
gets in Europe. In 1989 he booked a tour of Germany with his wife, who had family
there.
A year later, he got a phone call from a German booking agent who'd received a tape
of Paul from someone. He asked if Paul would do a record for an Austrian label.
However, it would have to be made in the States, so Paul would have product for
an upcoming tour. "Sight unseen," he sent Paul 10,000 Deutshemarks to make a
record in America. Paul made two, Gamblin' Woman Blues and Self Portrait in Blues.
These were later released on Red House Records (the author has both of these
wonderful recordings) Paul later got to do regular tours of Europe and became
independent from those tours.
Travelin' Blues
Paul enjoys traveling and observing life in various places, especially out west.
"That's one of the reasons I like what I do for a living. But sometimes you find your
life in pieces."
He began his music travels around 1964, when he hitchhiked down South to play at
coffeehouses down there. He went to Atlanta, hoping to see Blind Willie McTell, but
Willie had passed away in 1959. Willie had played on the streets there and at a place
called The Blue Lantern, which is still there.
Perhaps the best written portrait of an itinerant musician was an 1982 article, "Paul
Geremia Lives the Blues," by Tony Lioce who was working for the Providence Journal
(He now works for the San Jose Mercury News). Tony shadowed Paul for about a week
during a trip to Chicago and Indianapolis where Paul played gigs and engaged in a
favorite pasttime, looking up older black blues musicians. They stayed at music writer
Emily Friedman's house in Chicago, and caught up with Blind John Davis. The article
begins: "Paul Geremia walks into a record store in Chicago, a small store that specializes
in music by obscure bluesmen. The clerk, a serious blues lover who's never met Paul,
recognizes him right away. All the serious blues lovers know who Paul is. A Rhode Island
native who lives by himself in a Newport apartment, he spends a lot of time travelling
around the country working the folk/blues club circuit, and he gets great reviews. One
critic has said, 'When Paul plays Leadbelly tunes, you can close your eyes and swear
that it is Leadbelly himself.' He's respected by and on a first-name basis with, people
like John Hammond, Odetta, Dave Van Ronk and Taj Mahal. Still, at 37, with 15 years
as a professional bluesman and three albums behind him, he's travelling around in an
11-year-old Dodge with 136,000-plus miles on it, a car that needs oil as often as it needs
gas." The full article can be found online at http://www.paulgeremia.org/thearticle.html
The Resurrection of Pink Anderson
Paul states that "The older, more obscure blues guys were very friendly people and were
in awe that young white people were interested in what they did. They didn't have that
superstar mentality."
One of the more momentous events in Paul's life was meeting and briefly ressurrecting
the career of Pink Anderson. Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd had borrowed Pink's first name
for half the group's name. Pink was over 70 years old in 1970. Paul and Roy Bookbinder
went to see him in Spartanburg, North Carolina. In an online article about Pink, Paul is
quoted, "He was living in very poor conditions in a little house. That cost him $50 a month
…That was two-thirds of his retirement income. To supplement it, he was running card games
at his house, and selling booze to people, moonshine, or whatever he could get. It's too bad.
The guy was a real important person, culturally speaking, and he was virtually ignored.
Even his neighbors had little inkling that he was a musician." Paul and Roy made a tape
of him playing and gave it to a club owner in Rhode Island. The owner agreed to book him,
so Paul borrowed a car and they went down and got him. Pink played to big crowds for
two nights and was surprised to find that he remembered songs he had not played for years.
Pink had heart problems which had forced him to retire in the first place. He died in 1974,
but not without that one last turn in the spotlight.
Paul Geremia, Live
Paul travels with a six-string and a twelve string guitar. To
experience his virtuosity on these two instruments with all the
variables he's capable of, is to fill in a considerable chunk of your knowledge
of a historical, but living art form. Many songs begin with a stinging harp solo and
then careen through blistering guitar attacks… steady, thumping bass lines… double-clutching,
pinching of bass and treble strings… arpeggios that fall like rain over the bass lines…
hesitation breaks that echo Robert Johnson… Mississippi Delta style… Piedmont style…
Ragtime… Texas blues… talking blues… clusters of notes built around song
phrases. As stated before, his work with a 12-string slide is astonishing. My favorite
right now is "If A Woman's Love was Whiskey" on the CD The Devil's Music. If you
can't see Paul live, get as many CDs as you can. They're all great. However, if you can
see him live, don't miss it. Watch our listings for upcoming gigs.
Web site: www.paulgeremia.org