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Charlie Musselwhite’s mix of wild country abandon seasoned by years of playing urban electric blues in Chicago has spurred the likes of Ben Harper, Tom Waits and Gov't Mule to welcome Musselwhite onto their stages and records. That same brash, blues/rock rebel vibe has won Musselwhite a pile of blues awards and earned the admiration and respect of his own heroes: Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters.
Delta Hardware, Charlies latest album is a mixture of songs written over the past few years and ideas fleshed out in the studio, and includes a new twist on the longtime live staple, Clarksdale Boogie. With the latter two tracks, inspired by the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, Charlie paints a stark, honest tribute to those suffering in and around New Orleans and in his home state: "Old black water lappin' at your back door/Hello America, better get ready for more/Trouble, trouble all around here/ just too tired to shed one tear/ Black Water/ It's a sign of our times."
Musselwhite was born in the rural hill country of Mississippi to parents who felt that music was a way of life. His father played guitar and harmonica, his mother piano, and a relative performed as a one man band. During the birth of rock and roll, Charlie moved to Memphis, Tennessee where he saw the likes of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash play local clubs and private parties, even met a few of them face to face. Living in Memphis, he supported himself by digging ditches, laying concrete and running moonshine. In 1966, Charlie released Stand Back! to immediate success. The album’s sales allowed him to move to San Francisco where he turned out to be not just one of many competing blues artists, but the king of the flower children.
Over the years, Musselwhite has released dozens of albums and has contributed to countless others including guesting on Bonnie Raitt's Grammy® award-winning Longing In Their Hearts and The Blind Boys of Alabama's Grammy-winning Spirit of the Century and Ben Harper’s recent release, Both Sides of the Gun.With 18 W.C. Handy awards to his credit and 6 Grammy nominations, he is firmly entrenched in musical history.
Musselwhite's version of the blues ventures far beyond conventional honky-tonk country music. Musselwhite is simply interested in music with feeling — as he puts it, "music from the heart": "For me, it's about the feeling, and connecting with people. And blues, if it's real blues, is loaded with feeling. And it ain't about technique either, it's about truth, connecting to the truth and communicating with people."
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