With a live show two nights at Frankie's this Friday and Saturday, and Pigat's second vinyl release this year impending, after his Ray Condo tribute album, I threw some questions at Paul to get clarity as to what audiences would be seeing at Frankie's and his experience with getting vinyl pressed (a relatively new thing).
Paul: You know to tell you the truth I’m not exactly sure why they call it jump blues. It differs from Chicago blues as it has more to do with the transition from swing to rock ‘n’ roll. Generally small combo with more arrangement and most of the stuff that I like is either from Texas or from California. Louis Jordan is awesome! Guys like Johnny Otis, Gatemouth Brown, Johnny Guitar Watson and early BB King can all fit into the category. There was a great guitar player named Bill Jennings, who I think might be the cornerstone of all modern jump players. Other guys you could check out our like Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson as well plus there’s the more modern second generation kind of players like Junior Watson, Kid Ramos, Charlie Baty... and of course, the baddest of them all, Hollywood Fats. These were all guys playing around in the 80s and 90s. I steal my stuff from every one of those cats.
Paul: We recorded the rhythm section and the horns live in one day at the warehouse studios. I overdubbed all my vocals and guitars later. As I had my hands full directing the band who were pretty much just learning the arrangements on the spot, plus I really wanted to spend my time getting the guitar sound I wanted and not just getting what was possible in one day at the studio. Fat and fuzzy was the goal. 
Allan: This, with the Ray Condo release, is the second piece of vinyl you've released in the last year! Curious for whatever deets you can share about this, for people thinking of getting vinyl pressed: you had 200 of each made? How is that turning out?
Paul: Man, I swore I would never print vinyl! However, that being said, CDs, regardless of how much I love them, are an antiquated format and are very difficult to sell now. With the current situation with streaming, hardcopy music has basically just become a memento of a show unfortunately. Vinyl is a drag to transport because of its size and weight but it honestly does sell a lot better than CDs. At least I’m hoping that it does and it’s way more expensive to make. If you ask me why I did it... I can’t tell you definitively if it was a good idea or not, but it sure does look pretty.
I’m sure I would sell more of the Ray Condo records. If I let more people know about it, maybe I’ll do a blast sometime in the summer. I printed 300 and I think I have almost half of them left. However, this summer is gonna be pretty quiet so maybe I’ll make a fort out of them all!
Allan: I bet there are songs on the setlist that are NOT on the album; will you be adapting other Cousin Harley stuff....? Will the setlist be the same or similar both nights at Frankie's? Anything else we should say about the shows?
Allan: So this seems different from any previous Cousin Harley show I've seen; how did this project come about, and how will you present it at Frankie's?
Paul: Every song on the new record, Cousin Harley Plays the Blues, has a full horn section on it. It’s sort of started because Cory Weeds from Cellar Jazz wanted to do a record with me; he wanted me to do a Smoking Jackets record, which is my band that I had together in Victoria. I like keeping the guys and cousin Harley working so I decided that I would do a similar idea but with the guys from cousin Harley and a hotshot crew from Vancouver. A lot of it is music I’ve done for many many years when I started the Smoking Jackets in victoria in the mid 90s, but I had Jerry Cook do all new arrangements for the tunes and I expanded the horn section. The shows this weekend will have all the members of the band from the record: a full horn section plus Chris Gestrin on keys. [This means Paul on guitar, Jesse Cahill on drums, Jeremy Holmes on bass, Cory Weeds on tenor sax, Jerry Cook on tenor and baritone, and Derry Byrne on trumpet]. Honestly, this might be the only time we perform with the full ensemble. I might do more shows with just a single horn and the piano, but it’s just not cost-effective for many other shows. Unless I make it big, that is!
Allan: I confess: I don't know much about the form. Why is it called jump blues? The only stuff I have in my collection that counts, I guess -- and ONLY ON CD, the scandal! -- is Louis Jordan, but I don't know all his songs -- are there other players we should know, who you take inspiration from? I'm curious in particular about guitarists...
Paul: You know to tell you the truth I’m not exactly sure why they call it jump blues. It differs from Chicago blues as it has more to do with the transition from swing to rock ‘n’ roll. Generally small combo with more arrangement and most of the stuff that I like is either from Texas or from California. Louis Jordan is awesome! Guys like Johnny Otis, Gatemouth Brown, Johnny Guitar Watson and early BB King can all fit into the category. There was a great guitar player named Bill Jennings, who I think might be the cornerstone of all modern jump players. Other guys you could check out our like Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson as well plus there’s the more modern second generation kind of players like Junior Watson, Kid Ramos, Charlie Baty... and of course, the baddest of them all, Hollywood Fats. These were all guys playing around in the 80s and 90s. I steal my stuff from every one of those cats.
Allan: I see you've done some Leiber and Stoller on this! Your version of "Down in Mexico" sounds markedly different from the Coasters'.
Paul: Leiber and Stoller were a ridiculously prolific writing duo! I don’t think they wrote anything that was bad. My version of "Down in Mexico" is just the way I hear it. I did it years ago for a special event with the Nightcrawlers (Jesse's band) and always thought it was a great number so decided to keep it for this record. I couldn’t do it like the original, even if I wanted to, though: I didn’t have that many singers in the band! Plus it features the guitar a lot more and it’s a little dirtier.
Paul: Leiber and Stoller were a ridiculously prolific writing duo! I don’t think they wrote anything that was bad. My version of "Down in Mexico" is just the way I hear it. I did it years ago for a special event with the Nightcrawlers (Jesse's band) and always thought it was a great number so decided to keep it for this record. I couldn’t do it like the original, even if I wanted to, though: I didn’t have that many singers in the band! Plus it features the guitar a lot more and it’s a little dirtier.
Allan: Curious how the album was recorded. I imagine that you'd get the horns and such down and then play the guitar over that...? Does having a horn section affect how you play?
Paul: Man, I swore I would never print vinyl! However, that being said, CDs, regardless of how much I love them, are an antiquated format and are very difficult to sell now. With the current situation with streaming, hardcopy music has basically just become a memento of a show unfortunately. Vinyl is a drag to transport because of its size and weight but it honestly does sell a lot better than CDs. At least I’m hoping that it does and it’s way more expensive to make. If you ask me why I did it... I can’t tell you definitively if it was a good idea or not, but it sure does look pretty.
Paul (continued): The Ray Condo record was honestly just for me. I’ve done almost no promotion for it and I still have copies left. I just really wanted someone to do something to commemorate him; I didn’t think anybody else would do it, plus I’ve been playing Ray's material for so long and he was so important to my early development that it would be the least that I could do to make a tribute record.
I’m sure I would sell more of the Ray Condo records. If I let more people know about it, maybe I’ll do a blast sometime in the summer. I printed 300 and I think I have almost half of them left. However, this summer is gonna be pretty quiet so maybe I’ll make a fort out of them all!
Allan: I bet there are songs on the setlist that are NOT on the album; will you be adapting other Cousin Harley stuff....? Will the setlist be the same or similar both nights at Frankie's? Anything else we should say about the shows?
Paul: I’ve done a couple more arrangements to add to the horn sections job for the shows. some originals and a couple of tunes I have done forever but not the standard Cousin Harley repertoire. I think we probably start off each set with a smaller version of the band, the trio plus saxophone and maybe piano. It’ll definitely be swing oriented and not so hillbilly psychobilly. I’m gonna try and switch up at least a few tunes for each show so it’ll keep me interested and hopefully the audience as well!
Thanks, Paul! Frankie's event page is here -- not quite sure if the shows are both sold out? But maybe we can still get in if we show up early, bring cash, and are nice about it?
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