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John Peel OBE, 1939 - 2004
Early Blues Interview
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"Guitarist/singer/songwriter, one-man-band, runner-up in the 2008 International Blues Challenge and recipient of the Most Unique Performer award at The Songwriters' Showcase of America. Born the grandson of a Mississippi sharecropper and great grandson of a vaudeville musician who toured with Al Jolson, Ben Prestage has been soaked in Blues tradition and Mississippi culture since birth. Growing up in the swamps of south central Florida, he began to mix Mississippi Country Blues with his own brand of Florida Swamp Blues. This Muddy-Waters-meets-back-water stew has led him to perform throughout America, at festivals, every kind of bar, and sometimes on downtown sidewalks.
Ben spent some time as a street
performer on historic Beale Street in Memphis, where he shared a spot in
front of the New Daisy Theatre with modern blues legends Robert Belfour
and Richard Johnston. Being a street musician in the Blues ‘capital’ of
the South threw Prestage’s music in a new direction. He added a cigarbox
guitar, giving him the facility to play bass and guitar strings
independently. Then he added a series of foot pedals that can be
manipulated by the heels and toes of both feet to play a drum kit". I caught up with Ben at the Carlisle Blues Festival during his very successful first tour in the UK with Ian Siegal. Alan: Thanks for your time Ben. What were your first musical memories growing up in Florida? Ben: Probably listening to Blues. My Dad was from Mississippi and he listened to a lot of old blues music. When I was 10 years old I started playing the trumpet in school so learnt the basics and then when I was about 12 or 13 I started playing guitar that my Dad had around the house. I learnt a couple of chords and started trying to play blues stuff that I liked and listened to and that my Dad liked and listened to; the blues from Mississippi. I started playing so he said, “Wow man, if you like that, you listen to this, listen to Little Walter, and if you like this guy listen to that.” I remember that one of the guys I was listening to was playing the boogie beat on guitars and I was trying to learn that little base line, that little rhythm, and one day when I was fooling around it with a bunch of family was there, including my Grandma. She plays piano and she said, “What’s that you’re playing”, so I said, “It’s blues” and she said “That sounds like the boogie-woogie that we liked when we were younger” and she went over to this old piano we had that nobody played and she just started ripping off some really cool boogie-woogie stuff. She was in her ‘70s at the time. That’s my first memory of it and it really hit me hard. Alan: And I believe your Great Grandmother was in vaudeville? Ben: Yes, she was a professional musician and she toured with vaudeville around the early 1920s. There’s always something special about a vaudeville and their special thing was that they had an all-girls orchestra. I actually have a business card of theirs that my Grandmother gave me when she found out I was playing professionally. There was 5 of them and the card looks like a postcard and has their picture on and says, “Girls Orchestra – we specialise in dance music”. They also toured as the Navaho girls and dressed up in Native American clothing and headdresses. Alan: You are the grandson of a Mississippi sharecropper so obviously the blues tradition has always been there but you were born in Florida and perhaps brought up with the Swamp Blues. How do you reconcile mixing the two? Ben: I like all kinds of blues music. My grandfather who was a sharecropper was my Dad’s Dad and it was on my mother’s side that there was the boogie-woogie, so I had two lines. I like all kinds of blues, all of it. Music is music really – there’s only 12 notes in western music so as long as the soul and the feeling are there I like it all.
Ben: I did when I was younger but I didn’t think it was attainable and I always had people telling me that I couldn’t or I shouldn’t and I should have a back-up plan. When I was growing up and going through school I always kept it in the back of my mind to have a back-up plan so I went to college for a music and got a scholarship for music and was still planning on being either a teacher or going into construction but it wasn’t until I was going to school part-time, working almost full-time and playing music every night of the week that I knew I had to make a choice. One time I had nine 4 hour gigs in a week, two on Saturday, two on Sunday and every night in between, as well as work and school. I was about 20 or 21 at that time. What I’d always wanted to do was music and I was making more money from music than I would have done with my job or if I’d gone through school and paid off loans. So I just knew I had to go for it and I did. Alan: So what does the Blues mean to you? Ben: It’s my life now. It’s taken me half way across the world. It came from a dark place but to me it was always a way to get out of that dark place and celebrate life. The good and the bad. Alan: When you were in Memphis you became a street musician, busking on Beale Street. Tell me about those times. You met a lot of people obviously. Ben: I played there with John Lowe, the guy who makes my cigar box guitars and Richard Johnston, Robert Balfour and with some other local musicians around Memphis who just played on the street there. It was really good when it was warm out and there were a lot of people from all over the world that go there and get to hear you so that was a good thing. But it’s kind of a rough town when you get outside the downtown tourist area but there’s some great music there. We used to live near Wild Bill’s, the juke joint there and we’d go and listen to music and I learnt a lot about music and about life by doing that. Alan: You mentioned John Lowe, inventor of the 'Lowebow', a type of diddley bow. What’s so special about it? Ben: He started making them as a real diddley-bow, just a one-stringed instrument and he basically had a broom handle with one string on there and he made his own electronic pick-up for it to amplify it. It kind of grew from there and he went on to a two string diddley-bow, then a three string and then he came up with the idea to do stereo pick-ups and to put a bass string and a couple of guitar strings together and run them through separate amps. That’s when the Lowebow birthed, that's when it really came about,from becoming a diddley-bow to a Lowebow and then he added a cigar box basically to shield the pick-ups. There’s metal tape inside so you don’t get a hum or a buzz when you’re playing in larger venues. It’s a whole different sound and it opens up a whole new part of your mind when you’re playing music.
Alan: Unique. Ben: Yes, definitely. Alan: It was great to see it today. Now to attract crowds on the streets I believe that you also added a pedal drum kit. How does that work? Ben: Yes, that’s what I was playing tonight. I started just playing guitar and singing and then me and John Lowe had the Lowebow but there’s so much music on Beale Street that it’s hard to get people over to where you are. I always stomp my foot when I play and I eventually just added some kick drum and a high hat and from there I added a snare drum and the way I do that is by using bass drum pedals, one for the bass and one for the snare drum and I turn the snare drum up vertically and play it like a mini-kick drum. For the high hat pedal, you already have the pedal there so from there it’s just grown. I have a double-bass drum pedal for my snare drum now so I can get rolls and different beats with that, and I added a tom with another kick drum pedal and I can rock my feet back and forth to the left and right to hit different pedals and I can go from my heel to my toe and hit different pedals. Alan: Again, that’s unique! Again in Memphis you had great success with the Blues Foundation Blues Challenge coming 4th, 3rd and 2nd in consecutive years. Tell me about that experience. Ben: That was really good! I think it’s good for a lot of people. The main thing about it for me was that it was a great networking thing and I got to meet musicians from all over the world. Last time I was there every continent was represented except Antarctica, there were blues bands from Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, all over Europe, America, Canada and it’s a great experience to meet these people who are only there because of the love of blues. And then you meet fans from all over the world, and festival promoters and club owners and that’s what it’s really about. It’s not really about trying to win, it’s just about going there and everybody’s energy there is big. Alan: Who’s influence you most in your music writing and playing? Ben: Ah man, there’s so many! I can’t really name one. I really like the old stuff, the old guys from Mississippi like Freddie McDowell, Booker White but anybody I hear has an effect. I’m on this tour now with Ian Siegal and I’m sure that when I’m done with it he’ll definitely have influenced me! It’s a huge list, too many to mention. Alan: You play acoustic and electric guitar, diddley-bow, foot drums, harmonica, lap steel guitar, fiddle, everything. What’s your favourite instrument? Ben: It depends what song I’m playing really and what kind of mood I’m in. I do all that and then lately I’ve been getting into banjo and fiddle and I’ve been doing some old time stuff on that. Yes, it really depends on my mood. Alan: Are there any songs you play that have special meaning to you? Ben: I wrote a song called Weedhead that has special meaning but I don’t know if I should get into that! Alan: Okay! Your music is performed in a one-man-band context. Have you come across UK based one-man-bands, such as Ray Stubbs from Gateshead? Ben: Yes, I know of him. Alan: Mike Wellans from Scotland? Ben: No, I don’t know him. Last time I was in the UK I met Dollar Bill at the Secret Garden Party just outside London and he’s really good. He was the main one that I met and talked to a little from the UK. Alan: I guess this is an inevitable question....people will be comparing you with Seasick Steve who’s had great exposure in the UK. Have you met him? Ben: No, I’ve never met him. I heard of him the first time when I was living in Memphis and there was a fellow named Dennis Brooks who helped me a lot. He was a genius of Memphis history and lore, he was born and raised there and he knew every musician who ever passed through there and they all knew him. He was just a great dude and he took me round and introduced me to Sherman Robertson who was the guy who gave Seasick Steve a 3 string guitar. I saw a video on You Tube about him telling that story. I knew he was doing some stuff in the States but I didn’t know how well he was doing over here until I came over here. It’s good to hear that he’s doing good because he’s a great musician, really good.
Alan: You’ve released five self-produced albums in the US and now you’ve got another one out, Real Music, through the Nugene label. Tell me about the making of that. Ben: I recorded it in Florida with a friend of mine who is actually a teacher at Florida State University which is one of the biggest recording arts schools in America. A lot of professional people come there to record and a lot of students go on to become real high end sound engineers. He teaches sound recording there and I’ve been friends with him for a long time so he was able to get me some real quality studio time for a good price and he really knows what he’s doing so we get together in there and make an album. I tried to do a mix of songs from Mississippi blues, ragtime guitar, cigar box guitar and the Lowebow, the harmonica and I even had a friend of mine play some tuba base lines New Orleans-style so it’s a real good mix of blues stuff on that CD. Alan: So how do you see the future of blues music? Ben: Phew, man, it’s kind of hard to say really. I think with every generation it waxes and wanes and it’s kind of like the folk revival in the 60s brought a lot of that stuff back there's a lot of people doing the rock blues stuff and I think it will always be around as long as there's rock n'roll. But as far as real blues, hard-core, down-home stuff, well, I don’t think it’ll ever die because it’s the basis of everything that’s out there now and it’s neat to see in the States that there’s younger people who don’t really know that it’s blues. I’ve done shows and festivals with rock bands, heavy metal bands, hip-hop bands and I can go there in the one-man band format with the Lowebow or some of that fast finger picking stuff and I can draw those people in that don’t even know it’s blues. I try not to tell them until they buy the CD or that they admit that they like it and then they’re okay and I say, “Well if you like this song then check out Booker White or if you like this one then go the route of Tom Waites and slowly work your way back.” But I think all people would like blues if they heard the right artist and they just get turned off by the stereotypes that blues has. Alan: So what are your future plans? You’ve got the rest of the tour with Ian Siegal and then are you back to the States? Ben: Yes, I’m back to the States. I’m pretty much booked up now I think until February or March. I have some days open in April and then in June I’m back in Europe, booked in Holland. Maybe I'll come back to the UK middle to end of June. I’ve recorded 11 tracks now for my latest CD and I want it to be 12 or 13 tracks which I want to be mostly originals in the same style. I think Real Music with Nugene Records was my best CD up to this point but I think this new one is going to be even better. Alan: When's it coming out? Ben: I’m planning on releasing this by January/February in the US. I’ll release it in the US and then Nugene has the option to pick it up for further distribution. In the US I do everything myself but when I met Richard at Nugene he impressed me as a good dude and he does what he says he's gonna do. That's hard to find in the US in this genre.
Alan: Ben, thank you very much indeed for your time.
Ben
Prestage's first UK release 'Real Music', recorded in his home state of
Florida, Check out photos of Ben at the Carlisle Blues Festival
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Alan:
Did you always want to become a musician?
