Steve Cheseborough - Recreating America's Classical Music
Written by Greg Johnson Tuesday, 30 June 2009 20:58
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Greg Johnson sits down with recent Portland transplant Steve Cheseborough and finds out what he means when he talks about "America's Classical Music."
Charlie Musselwhite once sang, “The Blues overtook me when I was a little child.” Well, that statement might just ring as true for Blues historian and guitarist Steve Cheseborough every bit as much as it does for Memphis Charlie. The Blues have been a life-long obsession and it has grown within his own performances and recordings of the legendary players of the 1920s and 1930s. But, whatever you do, don’t label Steve as a cover performer. He is not simply trying to play songs that others have done in the past. Instead, he’s trying to best recreate the music as it would’ve been heard by those long-gone artists. We don’t have the opportunity to see first-hand how someone like Charley Patton or Blind Boy Fuller captivated audiences; but Steve is doing his best to give us the right vision. Throughout his life, Steve has walked many paths within music. As a performer, student, journalist and author of the popular guidebook, “Blues Traveling: The Holy Sites of Delta Blues.” The book is not just a curiosity purchase for visitors of the Delta; it is a required text for anybody fascinated by or a beginner wishing to delve into the music’s history, offering directions to many of the most important Blues landmarks of the region. It is something that Steve would’ve purchased himself had it been available when he first relocated to Mississippi. But, we’re getting ahead of our story.
Steve Cheseborough spent the first 25 years of his life in Rochester, New York. There was always music in the family household. His mother was quite involved, mostly as a dancer, but also as a harmony singer with her two sisters. His uncle, a music professor of theory at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester would also spend a great deal of time at the home. Most of the music his mother enjoyed listening to was Latin and Steve refers to her as “The Mambo Queen of Rochester.” But his parents’ tastes expanded beyond Latin music and the sounds of performers like Dinah Washington, Erroll Garner, Duke Ellington and Billy Holiday; very Blues-based popular music, could also be heard in the home.
Like many, Steve’s earliest encounters with the Blues came during the British Invasion with bands like The Rolling Stones. The story has been told many times by various Blues musicians of reading the liner notes on such recordings and seeing names like McKinley Morganfield (Muddy Waters), Chester Burnett (Howlin’ Wolf) and Willie Dixon. Steve was no exception and began searching out the recordings by these original artists. It became a passion and by the time he was in his mid-teens, he believed he knew everything there was to know about the Blues.
Then one day when he was about 15 years old, a friend invited Steve to a party, informing him that an older Blues musician would be playing there. Asking who the artist was, he was informed that it was Son House. Though he felt he already knew about everybody in the Blues, he had never heard of Son House before. And, as the party was across town, he decided not to attend, something that he wishes he had done now. Another Rochester teenager of the time, guitarist John Mooney, developed a friendship with the aging Bluesman and through his exposure gained a lot of education in the Blues. But, unfortunately, Steve did not avail himself to this opportunity at the time.
During his teenage years, Steve played electric guitar in several bands. They played mostly popular songs of the day, but Steve always made a point to throw in an occasional Blues song or two into the mix. In his mind at the time, he believed that you had to play music that was commercial in order to make money. Blues was not considered as such and was only a personal obsession. It wasn’t something that he considered as a thing he’d be dedicating his life, too. That came much later.
Rochester was a very cultural city, with the university library and a decent radio station which allowed Steve to peruse its collection, he became immersed in the Blues. Listening to Country Blues intrigued him, but with his belief of commercialism being what it was, he focused on learning the riffs of people like Freddie King, B.B. King and Hubert Sumlin. But, that other stuff haunted him. It was a weird sound that he really thought was cool; just how did they do it? It was like magic. To Steve it was like there had to be two or three guitarists playing together, but how can they stay so tight. When he finally realized that he was actually listening to just one guitar player, he couldn’t fathom how anybody could possibly learn to perform like that? How could you keep that type of rhythm? That pace and chords with your other fingers, plus sing at the same time? To keep it all together that person would have to be supernatural or something way beyond!
Then when he was 19, he discovered a book in the Rochester Public Library titled, “The Art Of Ragtime Guitar,” by Folk Publications. It became a personal quest to work his way through that book. It offered four different methods to help learn: written in scales for people who were able to read music, tabulature indicating finger positionings on the frets, photographs of key hand positions, and it included a flimsy plastic record that could be played on your turntable. Steve devoured the book and would often perform for his friends, who enjoyed hearing him play. It was through this tome that it all became clear to him, “Hey, this is the same thing I’m hearing with those Country Blues artists.” He put on a Blind Boy Fuller and listening to the recording felt as if he had broken a code. Twenty years later, Steve realized that he still had the book in his possession. It was still in excellent shape as it was considered a treasure. But, deciding he no longer needed it, he mailed it back to the library with a letter of apology, asking to be forgiven any late fees he may have incurred.
Steve attended college at the State University of New York in Stoneybrook, where he majored in sociology. Afterwards, he returned to Rochester where he worked in various jobs and continued playing in bands. Music was still only a hobby and none of these groups garnered much notice.
At age 25, he decided to go to graduate school and moved across country to Tuscon, Arizona to study journalism at the University of Arizona. Following graduation, he was offered a job with a small paper in Nogales, Arizona, on the Mexican border, but it only turned out to be a summer position. Soon after, though, he was offered employment with the Phoenix Gazette as a reporter, a job that he kept for the next 15 years.
Still able to find time for music, he hooked up with Navajo musician, R. Carlos Nakai, considered by many to be the world’s finest Native American flute player. Along with keyboardist Larry Yanez, they formed a group called Jackalope. The music was a blend of traditional Indian melodies mixed with modern Jazz improvisations. Releasing an album on the Canyon Records label, it became a popular recording, selling on reservations and in gift shops throughout the Southwest, and is still available on the label’s website.
One thing that Steve did find in Phoenix was a thriving Blues community. This was especially brought home when he caught a performance by Big Pete Pearson, a cousin of W.C. Clark and one of Phoenix’s premier bluesmen. After seeing Pearson, Steve told himself that perhaps Phoenix was a place that he could call home. Still it appeared that most Blues acts were bands, with solo performers being something of a rarity. But, local artists such as Hans Olson impressed him to study Country Blues even deeper. It remained just a personal hobby, though, as he still worked with Nakai.
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Steve Cheseborough performing. |
As he’d done earlier in Rochester, Steve would often play the Acoustic Blues in private before his friends. A girlfriend at the time asked if he could record a tape for her and not being anybody to do something half-hearted, Steve rented some studio time and produced a cassette complete with artwork. It was a small run of about 200 copies which cost him around $300. Here he was with a freshly made cassette that he titled, “Blues For Jean,” in honor of his girlfriend and after he had given away about 20 copies to his friends, what was he going to do with the rest of them? So, it may be easy to point to this small batch of cassettes as the vital step which convinced him to start performing publicly as a solo artist.
It was actually a great time to make this move in Phoenix, as the city was starting to see a boom in coffeehouses looking for solo musicians to perform. Having played in bands his entire life, it was a bit scary at first to go alone. As a solo act you’re responsible for all the banter with the audience, and if you hit a wrong note, it’s pretty certain they’ll know who made it. All the attention is directed at you; but after a few shows, Steve found that he really enjoyed working by himself.
“This was really the way to go when you’re grown-up,” he reflects. “When you’re younger, after school you’d have nothing better to do, so everybody would get out their instruments and start riffing. As you age, it becomes harder to keep a band together. People start to have families and jobs, so it’s tougher to get together for rehearsals and such. Over time, people can develop personality problems and drug problems as well. Working solo is so much easier in a number of ways.”
While in Arizona, Steve decided to enter the Phoenix Blues Society’s regional competition for the International Blues Challenge. It may not have been the right time for solo artists in this respect however. Many people seemed to be under the impression that you needed to have a band to perform Blues correctly. Showing up at the contest he was questioned, “Are you early? Where’s the rest of your band?” Finding out that he was competing by himself, they immediately placed him as the first performer. It gave him the impression that he wasn’t being taken seriously, but he gave his best anyway.
By 1990, Steve was beginning to burn out with his job at the “Gazette.” Then he saw a movie directed by Robert Mugge titled, “Deep Blues.” Always fascinated by the Blues and its history, he was well aware of the role that Mississippi had played and wished he could’ve been present some 30 years prior to see the performers he had studied. But, the movie woke him up; Blues was still very much alive in Mississippi. So, he decided to make a trip to see it firsthand, traveling to Clarksdale for the Sunflower River Blues and Gospel Festival. While there, he not only got to hear many of the artists he’d been listening to for years, he even had the chance to meet a good number of them. He spent the next two weeks visiting various locations throughout the Delta, and when it was time to leave, he thought to himself, “This is a place I need to return to. Not just for another week’s visit, but somewhere I need to spend some time in.” He wanted to know more, to spend more time with the musicians. To Steve, it was like a religious person who makes a trip to the Holy Land. It truly felt that way and still does to this day.
Returning to Phoenix, his mind was pretty much set. He had to move to Mississippi. He even went as far as enrolling in a Masters program on Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. Now, he just had to decide if he could really quit his job and move across the country?
“The Phoenix Gazette” made the decision for him quite easy, however. The paper had decided to downsize its staff. When the day came for announcements of who would be let go, Steve was anxiously crossing his fingers in hopes that his name was included. A sad day for most, when he found out he was one of the numbers losing their job, he had to hide his glee from the others who suddenly found themselves lost. Plus, because of the length of time he had worked at the paper, he received quite a healthy severance package. It was as if “The Phoenix Gazette” had paid for his move to Mississippi and his tuition.
As a student at “Ole Miss,” Steve wrote his thesis on Bluesman Bo Carter, an artist that he has been enchanted by for many years. The theme of his paper detailed how Carter was an incredibly accomplished guitarist and songwriter, but due to some of the lyrics of his songs, with their double entendre’, he was often mistaken as a “pornographic” or “party” singer. He pointed out that about 70% of Carter’s music may have been based on sex, but looking at the genre overall, that percentage was fairly accurate for all music of the era.
Also while studying in Oxford, Steve had the opportunity to take a course in Ethnomusicology at the University of Memphis taught by renowned Blues historian and guitarist David Evans. It was a small class, with perhaps only two other students, so Steve was able to learn extensively from Evans and the course was even credited for him by the University of Mississippi.
The class with Evans was perhaps even more beneficial a couple of years later. While still a student, Steve was approached with the idea of writing a book describing the various Blues sites around the Delta. He believes that the task was first offered to Evans, who in turn directed them to Steve.
It took him two years to write “Blues Traveling: The Holy Sites Of Delta Blues.” When he first moved to Mississippi, he had spent a great deal of time drowning himself in local Blues knowledge. Many of the locations he writes about he had found on his own during that time. Many more were gained by talking with the local residents of the Delta. Some of the older musicians were still alive and plenty of other people had tales to share. They may have been leery at first of a white “Yankee” coming around and asking questions, but most opened up to his queries, more than willing to help him out.
“Blues Traveling” is now in its second pressing, with updates including easier directions and sadly, new entries such as directions to grave sites of legendary artists. It is unfortunate that the numbers continue to increase year after year. Set up as day trips from starting points like Memphis or Jackson, it is a must-have possession for anybody wishing to explore the history of the Blues in the region, guiding the reader to venues, juke joints, museums and other notable locations of interest.
During the years that Steve lived in Mississippi, he made two more attempts at competing in the International Blues Challenge. The first came through the Beale Street Blues Society in Memphis. Then society President, Dennis Brooks, recalls Steve arriving to their local competition with two very attractive women draped on his arms, who afterwards were very vocal when Steve did not win.
His next try came through the Sonny Boy Blues Society located in Helena, Arkansas. Paired with his good friend, The Mississippi Spoonman, who has an uncanny knack of playing an ordinary pair of dinner spoons (or even plastic spoons) very melodically, even when played on members of the audience, they won the regional contest and competed on Beale Street in The Blues Foundation’s annual event. They won their semi-finals at the Pig On Beale, but lost in the finals to a duet from Little Rock called Lightnin’ Lee & The Atomic Rooster.
The years in the South helped Steve develop numerous memories and added many more credentials to his already impressive resume. One of his most cherished accounts was being able to locate and play Bo Carter’s guitar, a story that he related in an article he wrote for “Acoustic Guitar” Magazine. Owned by an individual who did not realize what he had purchased at first, he invited Steve to try it out. While listening to him play Bo Carter’s tunes, he told Steve that he noticed the spots that he was fingering on the fretboard were worn as if these same songs had been played on the instrument over and over. He also noted that listening to Steve’s recreation, he was obviously somebody who’d spent an incredible amount of time learning Bo’s exact sound.
Steve released two fine CDs: The first titled, “Outstanding Blues,” which came out in 1997, and the second, “Ham Hocks And Gravy” in 2003. He also had the opportunity to meet and become friends with one of the people who most inspired him to move to the South, filmmaker Robert Mugge. The director included a performance of Steve playing Bo Carter’s “Cigarette Blues” in his movie “Last Of The Mississippi Jukes.” They also paired up for a series of one-minute films created to accompany Martin Scorsese’s PBS documentary, “The Blues,” during the Congress proclaimed ‘Year of the Blues’ in 2003. The short clips called “Blues Breaks” were based on entries from the book “Blues Traveling,” and featured historical topics about the genre. (To view these films, visit Robert Mugge’s website at: www.robertmugge.com).
Steve’s performed quite regularly throughout the mid-South, but by no means was he a stranger to the Pacific Northwest. He had first started attending the Centrum Port Townsend Country Blues Festival and Workshop while still living in Phoenix. The week-long event is a great place to encounter some of the very best Blues artists intimately to learn and enjoy their music. First as an attendee and later as part of the staff, Steve continues to make Port Townsend a yearly stop. And, to make his trip even more beneficial, he also started to book gigs around the Northwest and British Columbia. The calm weather of the Northwest was a nice distraction from the sweltering heat he had come to know in both the South and Southwest.
Of course, when you travel to a specific event year after year, you start to develop close friendships with many of the people who share the same journey. It was through Port Townsend that Steve met Portland guitarist, Lauren Sheehan. Traditionally, Lauren and her husband invite many of the performers to their second home on the Wilson River for an after-festival gathering and in 2004, Steve decided he’d make a point of attending this party. At the party, Steve met Taizz Medalia, an amateur musician from Portland. The two stayed in touch with one another and she went to visit him in Mississippi during the King Biscuit Blues Festival. Then, Steve returned to Portland for Thanksgiving with Taizz and ended up staying for two months. Somewhere along the line, it was decided between them that Steve would move to Portland. So, he returned to Oxford in order to tie up his obligations and to pack. But, Steve seemed to be dragging his feet getting this accomplished, so Taizz flew down South, proving to be the right move as it gave him just enough push to say his farewells to Mississippi.
Having lived in a small town like Oxford for so long, returning to a large city had both its ups and downs. There were definitely a great deal more venues where he could perform without driving miles between small towns. In a city like Greenwood, Mississippi for example, if you had troubles with a club owner, there may not be too many other places to perform in town and you’d find yourself looking for another venue that could be perhaps 50 miles away. But, besides a wealth of venues, there is also a significant number of musicians that he now has to compete against for club dates. He knew coming to Portland he’d probably go through some lean times at first, but he had a bit of savings to rely upon. He says he has been able to find plenty of places to perform and he’s still exploring other locales in the region. He has enjoyed his short time in Portland so far, introducing his solo shows to the local audiences and passing on a little history lesson when he feels the crowd is open to such.
It is different in the Pacific Northwest, though, because the region is so isolated from the rest of the United States. A regional musician must rely upon venues in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Northern California and British Columbia for the most part because of the great distances between major cities. Not like living in the middle of the country where just a few hours drive can find you in large markets, making it much easier to set up short tours. Steve will make tours outside of the Northwest however, the only change being he’ll have to fly to the Midwest or South, where he used to be able to travel by car.
Another project that Steve is currently working on is the development of a new Jug band. While in Phoenix, he had been working with such a band, but when he moved to Mississippi he just could not locate the right musicians for the sound he was after. Years had passed since he was in Phoenix and curiosity brought him to try a websearch for his old bandmates. And, to his amazement, he found one of his old friends currently living in Battleground, Washington, Loren Schulte. Together they hooked up with bass player Eric Lanier, who Steve had met through singer Terry “Big T” Williams at a show in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Steve introduced Eric to Jug band music and he became immediately hooked. And, Eric appeared to be a natural with a jug. So, the three of them have been working on songs by popular early Blues groups like the Mississippi Sheiks, Gus Cannon’s Jug Stompers and the Memphis Jug Band, intending to take their act to venues in the area soon.
The one thing that Steve wants to stress regarding his selection of music is that he does not want people to consider him as just a cover artist. To best explain his approach to the Blues, he cites Morgan Freeman from the film “Last Of The Mississippi Jukes:” “It’s America’s classical music.” He is trying to be faithful to the sound and spirit of the originals. If you listen to a classical musician and he plays Beethoven or Mozart, nobody asks, “Do you know any originals? You only play cover songs.” Steve looks at his music in the same manner. When he performs music by Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Lemon Jefferson or Frank Stokes, he considers it classical music. And, if you listen to him play, you just may feel transferred to an earlier time, listening to America’s early classical musicians by a modern one.
Please make a point to attend the Cascade Blues Association’s monthly membership meeting on Wednesday, September 7th at 7 pm at The Melody Ballroom (615 SE Alder) for a chance to catch Steve Cheseborough. Also, check the monthly Calendar in the BluesNotes for other venues throughout the month where you may see this incredible musician perform.
– Greg Johnson