A conversation with Annie Raines

A N N I E   R A I N E S 
an interview by Jeff Silverman

        PROLOGUE:  Open any book that talks about blues over the last 20 years and you will find
        mention of Annie Raines and Paul Richell.  Read any book that reference the harmonica 
        scene over the last several decades and there's Annie again.  Though she would probably 
        scoff at being called the first lady of Blues Harp, particularly in the modern era, I think the 
        title is appropriate and deserved. With over 10 BMA nominations (along with Paul), she is 
        recognized by the blues community and the harmonica community as an enduring 
        influence.  Having played with Pinetop Perkins, James Cotton and many others, having 
        taught and performed at countless clinics, Jam Camps and SPAH, Annie is deservingly and 
        deeply respected by her peers in the pro harmonica community as well as her countless fans 
        around the world.  

        I bumped into Annie many months ago on online, and after a few conversations asked her if I 
        could interview her sometime.  She graciously accepted.  Annie is probably one of the 
        funniest and wittiest people I've spoken to, period.  But also one of the most thoughtful as 
        well.  Her respect for both the harmonica community and the blues community borders on 
        reverence.  She truly loves the people in it.  It's with great pleasure that I offer an interview 
        with Annie Raines....

Annie: Sorry I'm late - just made it back with a trip to the gas station en route

 H411: HI Annie, no problem at all.  How was the open mic?  

Annie: It was fun - got to walk in and go right onstage with a couple of old friends. How's your research going?

H411: All is well.  I am doing some demographic research for a proposed festival.  So…the bible of online information, Wikipedia, says "...started playing harmonica at 17...."

Annie:  yes...

H411: No one...mostly… just "starts" playing harmonica. What inspired you?

Annie:  I really did just "start" - I was looking for a book called "Juggling for the Complete Klutz"...as a 17th birthday present to myself and they were out of stock. They did have a book called "Harmonica for the Musically Hopeless," so I bought that instead.

H411:  Ah,, Mr. Gindick!

Annie: My hero!  He's a great man.  I can't say enough good things about his teaching methods.  From the moment I picked up that book, I felt like I was in good hands.

H411:  Interesting, explain why?

Annie: Jon explains sophisticated theoretical concepts in plain language; He appeals to the heart of the reader and so delivers the heart of the message.  It goes way beyond numbers and holes and notes on paper. I especially loved 2 things:  the tape that came with the book, where he'd invite you to play along and then say, "That was great!"and also the glossary, where he defined "frustration" as "the feeling you get when you're about to break through to another level."

H411: Fascinating…

Annie:  That alone taught me about much more than the harmonica!:

H411: That lesson has carried you ever since...on many levels?

Annie: Absolutely.  There are so many things in life that we think are working against us, that could be working for us. 

H411: So you found Jon's book and started playing... was there a moment when you thought "Hey, I am sounding pretty good”?

Annie There was a moment when I realized, "I'm getting mediocre. Say, that's an improvement!"

H411: OK...so you found you were getting mediocre...hilarious phrasing....did you find yourself jamming with other people pretty soon?

Annie  I started in July of ‘86, and in February of '87  I made my way to the 1369 Jazz Club in Cambridge, Mass. There was an all-day blues jam on Sundays hosted by Silas Hubbard Jr. and his Hot Ribs.  Silas' brother, Earring George Maywether was there as well, and he always played a feature set that included his signature version of "What'd I Say". George recorded with J.B. Hutto and Eddie Taylor in the 50s. He had a great tone and style…

H411: OK

Annie: …I'm skipping a step here; about a month before I went to the blues jam, I was loitering in the school hallway, when a kid came up to me and started asking me about my harmonica playing.  He asked me if I liked blues, and I said, "I think so..."  (not really sure what the word meant at the time)

H411:  I assume you were playing while you loitered...

Annie …and then he asked me if I liked Muddy Waters and I said, "oh, I've heard of them!" like it was a plural, a group of guys.

H411:  At least you didn’t say you like to swim in clean water only

Annie I must have sounded so pathetic, he took pity on me and lent me some Muddy on tape.And that sound blew my mind.

H411:  What do you mean?

Annie This was another planet entirely, one I wanted to get to.  The way the instruments wove together, the warmth and the love that was in the music, I couldn't name all the things I heard, but I could see them in the air when it played….

…so when I walked into the 1369, I heard that same sound pulsing in that small tin-ceilinged room: sweet, hot guitars and a low, insistent bass line walking up to meet them.  Sweaty people and beer-fueled Sunday afternoon conversation, all entwined with the music.  After 12 years in school, I finally felt like I was somewhere where things made sense.

H411:  I know EXACTLY what you mean

Annie  I'll bet you do! It's the Blues Disease.

H411  My Satori, my moment of truth happened, in North Beach...San Francisco in 95…passing the Saloon. I heard someone....no idea who now....playing the harp, hearing the guitar and the bass -  it stopped me dead

Annie: do you know who it was?

H411: no idea

Annie:  But it was like being in a movie, right?

H411: it was like being home. It was like everything I had seen in the movies or read in a bookbut now I was part of it, a body at the end of the bar.

Annie:  Gotcha.

H411 it was good medicine

Annie It was my medicine, too.  That’s at the crucial part of the music. The people who created Blues had so much hurt to get through, they had to come up with a powerful cure. It turned out to be stronger than anyone thought.  Put another way, if you want to feel better, you have to consider going beyond just helping yourself or even people like yourself.

H411:  On some level, the blues is similar to what we do in therapy isn't it? We pull out our baggage, we look at it, we talk about it, and figure out how to carry it and then we get on with living.

Annie:  Of course music is used as a form of conventional therapy.

H411: But blues is different, it’s not escapism.

Annie:  I think blues is particularly well-suited to linking the physical and emotional in a healthy way.

H411: it’s often a stark look at how things are, and rejoicing that we are alive to deal with it...because the alternative sucks.

Annie: As Paul says, "some say the Blues is nothing, some say the Blues is everything" - It's much better to play it than to talk about it!

H411: Indeed

Annie: Blues and Gospel are inseparable.  Same party, different venue

H411: Richard Hunter, in 2000, describes you as "... (one of the) obvious leaders for blues for her generation, just like Kim Wilson was for his".  What do you think of that statement?

Annie: That was very nice of him!  I should use that in our press kit.  Seriously, though I’m honored that Richard would say that about me, I haven’t been anywhere near as influential as Kim. He's turned so many people on to Little Walter and Jimmy Reed and Jerry McCain, His sense of time is so solid, and he's such a great singer.

H411: Interesting in how you reference his sense of timing.

Annie: Kim plays like a drummer. I think he might have played drums at one time.

H411:  I am blessed to have an opportunity listen to a LOT of harp players – pro’s, semi-pro’s, beginners, etc, and I hear a LOT of good tone and a lot of good articulation and I also often hear timing issues…

Annie: issues?

H411: I find a lot of novice players have issues with keeping in the grove, myself included, at times. For those that like to go to open mic’s, or those that like to jam, what advise do you have for simply staying in time?

Annie:  Many of my students have issues with time. I've struggled with it myself, and I consider it the aspect of my playing that needs the most work. When I started, I was like Steve Martin in "The Jerk" when he's trying to snap his fingers and stamp his foot!  I believe now that timing is everything, and as long as you are attentive to the beat, the notes will sort themselves out.

H411: I’ve mentioned this in previous interviews but it merits repeating: Randy Weinstein said to me "that’s why the song doesn't go "if it ain’t got that 2 draw bend, it don’t mean a thing"

Annie  ha ha!  I used to think that tone was more important, but time has surpassed that. Paul has such a great sense of time, such rock-solid rhythm.

H411:  Break it down even further, define "attentive to the beat"

Annie:  There's a pulse in the song. There's a pulse in life. The trick to navigating either is knowing where you are in the pattern that pulse creates.  In blues terms, this amounts to counting to 4.  It's something we forget to practice as we get older and preoccupied with solving stupid complicated problems in school and at work. When you count to four, you can say, "one, two, three, four" You can also say, "a-one, a-two, etc." Or "one-and-a-two-and-a" There are an infinite number of beat divisions. As long as you know where those basic four beats are, you can play around with them in very entertaining ways.

H411: Is timing one of this things you drill and drill during you classes?

Annie: Timing is an ever-more-important part of my classes and private lessons. I get the students to tap their feet and make their body part of the instrument.  I like to get them syncopating from day 1.

H411: A former Nashville harp session pro has told me stories of when he as gone to jamming session and only plays rhythm, to practice timing.

Annie: I love playing rhythm. The first band I was in was a 5-piece, then it was downgraded to a 4-piece, which was great for me as I got to cover a lot of different parts without stepping on any toes.

H411: When was that?

Annie: That was in 1988. The band was called "Some Blues by Butch". It was led by Leslie Leroy "Butch" McClendon. He was a great bandleader and he taught me how to dig for truth in my playing.  If I tried to fake my way through a solo, he would yell at me, ignore me, make fun of me - in the middle of the song! - anything to tweak my emotions, and then challenge me to play when my blood was up, so to speak.  Great lessons without words.

Butch had told me to come play with his band when I got out of school - I was in my first year of college. Little did he know I would drop out within a few months and turn up on the doorstep of the 1369 to claim my "gig"

H411: Was that a catalyst to leaving Antioch (Annie’s collegiate Alma Mater)?

Annie: It certainly was. There were a lot of reasons, including my homesickness for the blues jams and my utter lack of study skills,  My experiences on my co-op job in D.C. really gave me the impetus to leave school and try to make music my vocation.

H411: Your co-op job?

Annie: I was working for the Community for Creative Non-Violence; An organization that had become well-known in the '80s under the leadership of Mitch Snyder. Mitch was the guy that starved himself nearly to death to get funding for a shelter on Capitol Hill…a homeless shelter. I got to work with Mitch on a few occasions, and he was very passionate on the subject of self-education. He said, "even doctors have to learn in the field after they get their degree." "Why not just read the books and go out into the field?"

H411: How did your parents respond to your choice?

Annie My parents were incredibly understanding, even if they didn't understand what I was thinking.  I came home from school - I also had a job offer from Pierre Beauregard to tune harps for the company he had with Magic Dick. Pierre had taught me how to tune harps before I left for Antioch. Pierre also made a great contribution to my rhythm playing, and many other people's...in the Cambridge Harmonica Orchestra.  So I was convinced that it was a good time to jump ship from college, since I had two prospects lined up in the music business, so to speak

H411: the planets where aligned

Annie:  It just shows you how little I knew about the music business. 

H411: Where is Pierre now?

Annie  Pierre lives in Massachusetts, on the Cape.

H411 Is he still active in the New England Music Scene?

Annie: I've seen him out from time to time - never enough, as he is an amazing player.But I think he's an even more amazing teacher, something he doesn't even realize

H411: I’ve read that you and Paul Rishell have been playing together for over 17 years.  How did you go from Blues by Butch to partnering with Paul?

Annie: Butch died in March of 1992, of a botched surgery at Harlem Hospital.  He was 40 years old.  It was pretty devastating for me and our band and especially for his family and kids.  I tried to keep the band going but I didn’t have the skills.  I started picking up freelance work with different bands and singer-songwriters and playing around New England.  Then in November I got a call from a small club that needed a fill-in for a band that had cancelled.  I think I asked Pierre what I should do, and he suggested I call Paul - Paul could sing, he had a rhythm section and a P.A.  And I had a gig and a working car - a perfect match.  Paul was already a folk hero of sorts in Boston, which was intimidating at first, but I realized right away that we had great chemistry - we could let the music do the talking.  And I knew from the years with Butch how rare and precious that is.