GARY CLARK,JR.

amazingly undamaged, the embarrassed guest player had
disappeared. And Hummel didn’t see him again for years.
Since 1991 Hummel has presented an all-star revue called
“Harmonica Blowouts” all across the globe. In his book, he documents
stories about famous blues stars, including fellow harp players
Charlie Musselwhite, Carey Bell, Lazy Lester, Kim Wilson, Kenny
Neal, Curtis Salgado, Jumpin’ Johnny Sansone, and Rick Estrin
and playing with blues legends like Brownie McGee, Jimmy
Rogers, Lowell Fulson, Sonny Rhodes, Cool Papa, Charles Houff,
Jimmy McCracklin, and Charles Brown.
“Things have changed so dramatically from the ‘70s until
now,” Hummel said. “The number of pioneers of that era you can
practically count them on one hand. It’s literally 10 to 15 guys. Used
to be a couple hundred, at least.”
Hummel is a good storyteller. Here’s how he recalled a trip
down South. “One must be aware the many dangers in traveling the
mean roads of Florida. You’ve got to worry about hurricanes, highway
bandits who rob European tourists, alligators sleeping in
ditches and, for touring harmonica players, the outdoor biker bars.”
He later gets into his interaction with a volatile crankster club
manager who seems more like a cartoon character than a person.
In fact, after leaving some towns, Hummel thinks back and wonders
if what he have gone through was real.
He recalled a strange experience at a club one evening, and
the next day in another town he wasn’t sure if he’d imagined the
whole thing. Another time he stepped out of a movie theater and he
didn’t know what city he was in or what month it was.
66 BLUES REVUE
“That did a number on me,” Hummel said. “That was after being
about 10 months straight on the road. It was a real wake up call. I
learned the importance of keeping your sanity over making a living.”
Hummel describes Sisyphean life on the road transporting
equipment, surviving late-night drives on icy highways, and getting
club owners to live up to verbal contracts. While he doesn’t seek
confrontations, Hummel has a penchant for being in them. When
traveling with amiable harp man James Harman, Hummel will
assume the role of the angry artist and Harman the friendly one
who can charm his way to band getting paid.
“The ones that stay in business are usually the ones that are
the cheapest and most spendthrift,” Hummel said. “It’s just survival.
‘If I’ve got to screw the band over, so be it’. And they also probably
figure, ‘I am never going to have to deal with you again.’ But the
thing I think a lot of them don’t realize is if you start down that road
it’s going to be the end of the road for you pretty quickly. Musicians
talk like mad. We’re all little gossips and that word’s going to get out
on the club owner who does that.”
– Tim Parsons
Ernie K-Doe: The R&B Emperor Of New Orleans
By Ben Sandmel – The Historic New Orleans Collection, 2012
Amid talk of book publishing’s premature demise comes a
handsome, impeccably researched, and visually rich series of
outsized hardcover biographies of Louisiana’s treasured musical