Legendary blues guitarist and vocalist James Harman says blues revolves around three themes: “Drunk, broke and horny.
“And sometimes cars are OK,” he adds.
Stray from that and you are no longer singing the blues, says Harman, who will headline Friday’s Fourth Annual KXCI House Rockin’ Blues Review at El Casino Ballroom.
This is the blues legend’s first Tucson show since he played the Boondocks in early 2011. The show returns him to the stage after nearly four months of laying low at home in California. His last show was the Gator By the Bay festival in San Diego in May.
“This is the worst year by far that I can remember,” the 69-year-old blues vocalist and harp player said. “I guess times are slow all over.”
Not that Harman is complaining. He has spent the majority of his life on the road, playing “every building with electricity in North America” and abroad since the 1960s, when he jumped from the church choir to the juke joints as a 16-year-old kid.
Harman has been a regular to Tucson since the 1980s, when he headlined the original KXCI House Rockin’ Blues series. His last show here was early 2011 at The Boondocks Lounge, Tucson’s go-to blues venue.
“When we used to ground tour Arizona, we had three gigs: Prescott, Tucson and Phoenix, and we got their either when we were heading out going East or coming home West,” he explained, hints of his native Alabama accent sneaking in despite nearly five decades of living in California. “But Prescott disappeared and it got harder and harder. Whenever I got a chance to play Phoenix, I call (owner) Cathy (Warner) at the Boondocks and see if she has the date.”
Harman comes here without his regular band; it already had an obligation for the Friday date. So Harman called his friend Big Jon Atkinson, a rising star in the West Coast blues scene, and asked him to back him up. He bills the act as “James Harman and Friends with Big Jon Atkinson.
“We’re excited to have James Harman this year,” organizer Jeb Schoonover said, adding that he’s equally excited to see Atkinson. “He sounds like he came out of Chicago in the ’60s.”
Harman said the pair have worked together in the past, after meeting not long after the 27-year-old Atkinson arrived in San Diego from his native Tennessee in 2014.
“We all play the blues. It’s a language we all know,” he said, noting that Atkinson’s guys are the kind of blues players that “if I say ‘Early Memphis, key of F and count off,’ they will know what to play.”
“It’s telepathy in action,” he added.
They will have to be sharp on their toes to keep up with Harman. No two songs are alike.
“I make up the songs as I go. I’m a songwriter/short story writer. … To me singing songs is like doing a painting. If you came over and said, ‘I like that. Will you do that again with a little more yellow to match my drapes?’ I’d say ‘hell no,’” said Harman, who comes here with his months-old album “Bonetime,” his first studio album in a dozen years. “Music for me is my passion, not my job. When it becomes a job, I’ll quit and stay here on the porch.”
Friday’s show also will feature The Southern Arizona Blues Guitar Rumble featuring six Arizona Blues Hall of Fame guitarists: Mike Blommer, Danny Krieger, Mitzi Cowell, Bryan Dean, Michael P. and Johnny Strasser, joining forces for what Schoonover said will be an historical six string extravaganza. Each will do a solo spot backed by the Bad News Blues Band before coming together for a giant finale.
Proceeds from the House Rockin’ Blues Review benefits KXCI and El Casino Ballroom.
