Talkin' Blues With Michael Burks

Last night I went to see Michael Burks in Hanover, PA. What a night, and what a performance!

He took the stage at 8:55pm and played one continuous set until 12:15am. That 3 hours and 20 minutes, folks. The REAL Endless Boogie. He played the Les Paul pictured above exclusively. He had the Flying V with him but when I tried to get him to play one more song for an encore on it he told me "Ohhhh man, I just got that out here for a backup."

The sound needed some adjusting as his bass man and keyboard player overshadowed him especially any time the song went fortissimo or higher. But otherwise, he just tore it up and tore it down. Obviously he played way more stuff than is on any of his albums. I don't think there's but 3 hours of music on the four albums I have of him.

But the coolest thing -and I say this about blues musicians all the time- was talking with him after the show. Man, we talked guitars, we talked other blues guitarists, we talked touring on the road, we talked Bill Clinton (who grew up 19 miles from Michael's home), we talked kinds of stuff.

He said his father was the greatest influence on his life and career. Said he took guitar lessons as a youngster but one day the teacher told his dad "I can't teach him no more. He just got to go find it now." The top two guitarists who he listened to and influenced him? Joe Pass and Wes Montgomery. No surprises there. He has the chops of a jazz guitarist for sure. But he also mentioned Albert and Freddy King. And he said as a teenager he loved Carlos Santana.

But he was just like any other guy you'd strike up a conversation with at the bar such as the drummer, "Popcorn." This is the dude who keeps it all together for Burk's band. Michael is the leader but Popcorn is in charge once a song gets started. This dude was way cool too. We was talking and he offered me some of his chicken nuggets (Popcorn don't miss too many meals). But it was past 1 o'clock in the morning and I passed on the nuggets. I asked Popcorn why they weren't selling any CDs. He said you got to ask Michael. At which point I told Popcorn if they had any real marketing punch behind the band they'd be calling Michael Burks "The Black Clapton." Popcorn thought that was funny as shit so he made me repeat it for Michael. But it's true. This guy has amazing chops on the guitar. Plays an absolutely awesome slide guitar too. So I asked him where the CD sales were. He said they sold out last week at "some festival in Virginia." Said, "I been in touch with Bruce (Bruce Iglauer, President of Alligator Records) but I'm on the road and we can't find a place for him to ship more to me."

So today Michael is rolling the Dodge van with the trailer full of amps and equipment out of the south central PA farmland up to New England for two nights and then back down to Morrisville, PA for the Bucks County Festival on Saturday. Trying to save up enough money for a tour bus.

Playing music is a hard way to make a living. I just hope it gets easier for a guy like Burks who is very talented and works hard too. As Honey Piazza says, "We get paid to sleep in hotel rooms and drive a van full of equipment all over God's creation. We play the music for fun."