By: STEVE ZIMMERMAN. The News Herald
While B.B. King is the recognized true king of the blues, there is a new sound emanating from the great state of Connecticut that signals the arrival of a great blues player.
From the opening chords of One Day Away, the first cut off his third CD, Heavy Hitter, Jeff “the Pitch” Pitchell establishes his newfound place as the future of blues music in the U.S.
And it only gets better from there.
Joined on When It All Comes Down by music industry veteran Dave Mason, on Unsung Hero of the Blues by the song’s co-writer Rick Derringer (Rock ‘n’ Roll Hoochie- Coo) and on the Willie Nelson country hit, Whiskey River by blues harmonica legend James Cotton, this is by far the freshest and most innovative blues music to hit the American music scene since the arrival of Stevie Ray Vaughn.
Pitchell learned about the blues from his junior high school teacher named John Sales, who was an award winning educator.
“He had about 30 kids in his class,” Pitchell said from his home during a break from touring. “And he would teach us all one song during each class of popular songs that were on the radio.”
But the class had to end due to the need for more money in the athletic department. It wasn’t until he was driving by a party in his neighborhood that he discovered the real blues.
“These hippies were having a party and they were playing B.B. King’s The Thrill is Gone,” Pitchell said. “And I knew it was something special and I was impressed by that.”
Pitchell honed his trade around the clubs in the Connecticut area, winning his first best guitarist in Connecticut award at the ripe old age of 15. Now, with his third release on Pyramid Records, distributed by EMI Records Group, Pitchell has taken his biggest step toward stardom.
“I had some opportunities to go with some blues labels on this,” he said. “But the EMI thing came up and I had to go with the best label that was going to get the music out to the people nationally.”
Signing Pitchell was a departure for the label, as they have signed only established artists on the past.
“We intend to move more in this direction with new younger artists and bands,” label president Allen Jacobi said. “Especially with performers like Jeff, where the music is timeless and appeals to a broad musical audience. It opens up a whole new market for our artists.”
Pitchell attracted several big name artists to play on his new CD, including Clarence Clemons of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.
The people I worked with on this album, like Clarence Clemons, I feel very lucky to have been able to work with the great on the album,” Pitchell said. “I learned a lot from those people.”
One Day Away, the first cut on the CD, defines just what Pitchell is as an artist.
“I would consider myself a blues rock artist,” he said. “We like to rock ‘n’ roll too but it is blues based rock. One Day Away is a song I wrote on my way home from a gig. I met this guy who was following the band and when we were talking he said he just could not get over this girl. When I asked him how long it was going to take, he told me he was a day away.
“That kept going through my head and I was trying to figure out how I was going to put that in a song. A lot of my songs originate from conversations I have with people. Once I get an idea in my head, I won’t stop until I get it done.”
Whiskey River is a surprise cut, as Pitchell is not a country player. But with the help of Cotton, he made the song into a blues cut he can call his own. His version takes the song and the album to a whole different level.
“I always loved Willie’s version of the song and was trying to figure out how to do the song and make it my own,” Pitchell said. “I had done some gigs with Cotton and I told him if he ever wanted to come in and play on my CD to come on in. We rehearsed the song a few times and put Cotton’s harmonica at the beginning to make it sounds like a train coming.”
After recording the song, Pitchell met his hero, Bo Diddley. Their conversation about Whiskey River led him to the stage with the blues legend.
“I played a couple of weeks ago with Bo Diddley and I was explaining to him that I had done Whiskey River but put a Bo Diddley beat on it,” he noted. “And he said, ‘come on up and play the Bo Diddley beat with me on stage.’ The next thing I know I am onstage in front of 7,000 people playing Hey, Bo Diddley.”
The final cut on the CD, Magic Eyes, is an ode to the late Texas blues guitarist extraordinaire Stevie Ray Vaughn.
“He was a huge influence on me,” Pitchell said. “I saw him play at the very beginning of his career at a Howard Johnson lounge for just rooms. And then I saw him sell out the Worster Centrum. I think about Stevie every day. His style of guitar playing is still something players are trying to figure out. I always throw a few of his style tunes or one of his songs in our show.”
Pitchell is just beginning to set up his tour agenda for the winter months and that will include a heavy dose of gigs in Florida.
“We travel quite extensively,” he said. “We try to do what Jerry Garcia (Grateful Dead) did. He said he booked the band by climate. Unfortunately, we are not as popular as the Dead to do that. But we have played a lot of gigs in Florida and the Caribbean Islands in the winter. With this record, we are planning to tour the entire United States.”
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