More than 20 Wammies later, a guitarist keeps on groovin'

Friday, March 12, 2010

Click here to enlarge this photo Submitted photo Tom Principato's New Orleans influences make him a natural for Saturday's Mardi Gras benefit. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

In the 24 years that the Washington Area Music Association has been handing out Wammies, Tom Principato, a guitarist and practitioner of "eclectic roots music," has won just as many.

At the last Washington Area Music Awards, held on Feb. 28 at the State Theatre in Falls Church, Va., Principato, who is often described as a "guitarist's guitarist," was dubbed best blues/traditional R&B instrumentalist for what he guesses was the 10th time. He doesn't mind, meanwhile, that he continues to take home Wammies in blues categories even if blues is not exactly what he plays these days.

Inspired by B.B. King, the Falls Church native's career began nearly 50 years ago. And though he has lived elsewhere, including Boston — where he founded the 1970s sensation Powerhouse — he has mainly resided around the District while keeping something of a musical home in Europe; he has toured there for more than two decades.

A solo musician since 1984 and the founder of Powerhouse Records, Principato's most recent album, 2008's "Raising the Roof!," is a lively, swampy batch of originals and covers that makes it easy to understand why he was chosen to headline United Way of Calvert County's annual Mardi Gras benefit, where he will be joined by Joe Wells (drums), Josh Howell (congas) and Steve Wolf (bass).

But there's a new disc coming, and it's a "barnburner," says Principato. Slated to be released this year, the album will be comprised solely of Principato originals and feature numerous special guests, including Sonny Landreth, Willy Weeks (a bassist for Eric Clapton), Chuck Leavell (a keyboardist for The Rolling Stones) and area Hammond B-3 organist Tommy Lepson, who fills out the mix on "Raising the Roof!"

Principato had just returned from vacation in New Orleans, as it happens, when he spoke to Southern Maryland Weekend from his home in Northern Virginia.

Here, he talks about his connection to the city, playing in Europe and lessons from late guitar virtuoso Danny Gatton.

Q: I hear The Meters a lot on your latest album. How did New Orleans music become such a big part of your sound?

A: I have visited New Orleans numerous times. Cooking is one of my hobbies, so I go down there to do what I call ever-important field research. I started out visiting New Orleans for [The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival]. … I haven't been to [the festival] in about 10 years, though we did go to Voodoo Fest the year after Hurricane Katrina to see how the city had fared and the original Meters had a reunion … I think what really sort of got me started on Louisiana music was the relationship I developed with Sonny Landreth, way before he was well known, in the mid '80s, when I discovered his song "Congo Square" on an LP that I bought just by curiosity at Tower Records.

Q: Did people know who you were the first time you went to Europe?

A: Yeah, to my surprise. After my first solo album, "Smokin'!," came out in '86, a company in Finland starting bringing American bands over, so we went over there and started doing gigs and then that expanded to Scandinavia. Then I met the promoter of the Amsterdam Blues Festival, and I signed a deal with him, a booking agent deal, and he's been doing our tours ever since. It's expanded all over Europe. Then, after I'd been touring Europe for a couple years, my American albums started being released simultaneously on European labels.

Q: How is the process of developing a fan base different in Europe than it is in the United States?

A: It's been easier for me to develop a fan base in Europe because the marketplace is not so focused on the next big thing, flavor-of-the-month kind of deal that is so prevalent here in America, and also there are opportunities in Europe because they are really interested in substance, not fluff. Acts like me can get on TV shows and get played on big commercial radio stations. … It's just not so locked down by corporate commercial giants.

Q: Why is there more interest in American roots music in Europe than there is here? Or are there just as many fans here but fewer opportunities to filter it out to a larger audience?

A: Well, I think that's a good point. I think some of it is accessibility. They need to have a chance to discover you; it's easier there. But I also think that Europeans have a history of appreciating art, and it is art to them. When we play in a nightclub, or a concert, in Europe, they sit and focus on the music. There is not any dancing; there is not any pool table playing in the background. And they would not even dream of having a television on.

Q: You are still well known in the region, but do you feel more famous overseas?

A: Somewhat. I'd say I feel more appreciated than famous. I just feel appreciated, and that's really all I want.

Q: You're a big collector of Fender guitars and amps. What's the latest thing you picked up?

A: A Gibson stereo amp (laughs). It's a really rare tweed stereo amp from the early '60s. They are sort of wedge shaped. It has two, 10-inch speakers that are facing the audience at a 45 degree angle. It's a wild-looking thing.

Q: Do you think you are better described as a roots rocker or a blues musician?

A: These days I take to calling it eclectic roots music. I don't really consider myself a bluesman but I'm not exactly rock either.

Q: You've said you're pigeonholed as a blues musician. Does that bother you? Do you feel like it somehow limits you?

A: Well, it makes me feel like people aren't paying attention, and that bothers me. But I realize that since I started out in that category in the '70s that a lot of people feel the need to categorize people and things and they prefer to leave me in that category. I just won my 24th Wammie in some blues category or another. This particular Wammie was for best blues instrumentalist and I think I've won that 10 times. So I do wish people would sort of pay attention, but whatever.

Q: Do you have as much fun playing now as you did in the '70s and '80s?

A: I try to. I think I may enjoy it a little more now because my skills are better. But I always try to keep it fresh and stay in touch with what I love about playing music, and it seems to be working.

Q: How did your lessons with Danny Gatton work?

A: It was never a formal thing. I never paid him a cent. It was just sort of like bring over a six-pack of beer and we'll sit and pick and grin. A lot of times I'd stop him and ask questions and lots of times it would just fly by. But it was just sort of a sit and watch and pick up by osmosis situation.

Q: Did he ever show you how to use one of the beer bottles as a slide?

A: Actually, in those days he wasn't doing that.

Q: What would you say is the most important thing he taught you?

A: How wonderful it is to combine styles. It's funny because I think some people used to remark that one of the problems with Danny's attempts to progress in the music business was that you couldn't really categorize him. To me, he was a country guitarist. But I remember he used to complain about winning Wammies in country the way I complain about winning blues category Wammies.

Q: But your favorite musician of all time is B.B. King. Why him over anyone else?

A: The feeling in B.B. King's music is just something that really impressed me early on. I saw B.B. perform in 1969 at the old Cellar Door in Georgetown [he went to all nine performances] and it was such an emotionally uplifting show. I had never really experienced music that had had that kind of impact on me and the audience. It was almost like a church revival. That impressed me so much that I've always strived to try to re-create that feeling in my music.

The Tom Principato Band will play at the 10th anniversary Mardi Gras benefit for United Way of Calvert County from 7-11 p.m. March 13 at The Show Place Arena, 14900 Pennsylvania Ave., Upper Marlboro. The event also features magic shows as well as New Orleans food and cocktails. Tickets are $135. Call 410-286-0100.

Go to www.unitedwaymardigras.com. For more on Principato, go to www.tomprincipato.com.