When you think of Chicago`s top blues acts, Studebaker John and the Hawks may not be the first name that comes to mind.
But in Europe, where it has toured three times in the last 12 months, the band is considered a prime exponent of the rollin` and tumblin` classic Chicago blues style.
A Dutch reviewer described the band`s performance last November at Holland`s Moulin Blues Festival as ”the surprise of the fest, with great slide guitar and harmonica work and a powerhouse rhythm section which brings to mind the heyday of 1950s Chicago blues.”
Alas, in their own hometown the Hawks remain relatively obscure. You`ll rarely find them playing at one of the prestigious North Side blues clubs, where tourist-conscious club owners are reluctant to book white blues bands, but they will be performing Thursday at FitzGerald`s in Berwyn, Friday at Hugh`s Too in Streamwood and Saturday at the Emerald Isle.
”I like to think of us as Chicago`s best-kept secret,” said
”Studebaker John” Grimaldi, leader and namesake of the band that has been together in one incarnation or another since the mid-`70s. ”When just a week or two ago you headlined a blues festival in Europe before 4,000 people, it`s hard to come back here and play a small club in the suburbs. You wonder, `What am I doing right over there that I`m doing wrong over here?` But you have to just keep plugging away and trying.”
Recorded in Belgium late last year and released on Holland`s Double Trouble Records (available in the U.S.), the band`s new ”Born to Win” album crackles with intensity.
Guitarist Rick Kreher, a veteran of the Muddy Waters band, demonstrates his grasp of the Chicago blues idiom, while the rhythm section of bassist Ron Regnas and drummer Joe Fink are equally adept at `50s-style shuffles and muscular, rock-oriented blues.
But it`s Grimaldi on lead vocals, harmonica and slide guitar who impresses listeners the most.
His raw, amplified harmonica work recalls past masters like Little Walter Jacobs and Big Walter Horton, while his slide guitar style is descended from the styles of Elmore James and Hound Dog Taylor.
On top of all that, Grimaldi is a powerful vocalist and talented songwriter who wrote all 13 of the album`s songs.
A native of the Near Northwest Side, Grimaldi was inspired to start playing blues by a late `60s visit to the city`s then-thriving Maxwell Street market.
”It was a pretty wild scene-guys would come up to you trying to sell you a watch and open up their coats and show you 50 of them,” he said. ”And music was just all over the place. You`d hear Little Walter`s music blasting out of the record stores or people like John Wrencher blowing harmonica down on the corner. The whole scene there really knocked me out.”
A few years later Grimaldi found guitarist Kreher through a newspaper ad and formed Studebaker John and the Hawks.
The band was a regular Monday attraction at Kingston Mines in the mid-`
70s, but as the city`s blues clubs discovered the value of the tourist and conventioneer dollar, gigs for white blues bands on Lincoln Avenue and Halsted Street began to dry up.
Ironically, the Hawks` music is truer to the classic Chicago style than that played by many of the city`s black blues artists.
These days the band performs largely outside of Chicago, doing about 200 dates a year throughout the Midwest and in Europe.
The Hawks` European connection began in 1989 when Grimaldi leased the master tape of the band`s third album, ”Nothing but Fun,” to Double Trouble Records. The European response to the record was so strong that the band was invited to headline the Belgium Blues Festival.
Since then the band has played festivals and concerts in France, Germany, Holland and Denmark.
While Grimaldi said he wishes the Hawks had a higher profile in their hometown, he takes solace in the band`s acceptance overseas.
”I can`t tell you exactly what it was that made us click in Europe, but whatever it was I`m thankful for it,” he said. ”It feels great-like all those years spent struggling were worth it.”
