Sometimes you can’t enough of the blues — the music, that is. On April 5, fans of that genre are encouraged to make a pilgrimage to the Time Out Pub in Rockland, where a five-piece supergroup will perform. The band, Golden State — Lone Star Blues Revue, is made up of guitarist Anson Funderburgh, vocalist and harmonica player Mark Hummel, guitarist Little Charlie Baty, bassist RW Grigsby and drummer Wes Starr. Having interviewed Hummel and Baty several times in the past for the North Atlantic Blues Festival, I decided I’d like to chat with Funderburgh, who founded Anson & The Rockets in 1978. (A member of that band, former bassist and cartoonist Mike Judge, modeled his famed character Beavis, of “Beavis and Butthead,” after the frontman, by the way.)
Q: Where am I calling today?
Funderburgh: I live in McKinney, Texas, which is about 20 miles north of Dallas. Now I’m coming up your way soon, right?
Q: Yes, to the Time Out Pub in Rockland.
Funderburgh: Now, is that Paul’s (Benjamin, a North Atlantic co-founder) place, the guy that does the blues festival up there? I’ve been there a couple of times in the past, but this will be my first time playing there, I believe.
Q: Oh, so you’ve done the North Atlantic Blues Festival before?
Funderburgh: I have played at the festival more than once. I played it, I’d say, twice with the Rockets and then one time with the Golden State, maybe a couple or three years ago.
Q: When did the Golden State — Lone Star Blues Revue get together?
Funderburgh: About four or five years ago.
Q: So you said earlier that this will be the first time the band has played at the Time Out Pub, correct?
Funderburgh: It will be the first time for us there, but I think, once again, we’ve played the North Atlantic Blues Festival before, and it’s a great festival.
Q: Now, when you guys get back up to Maine, you’ll be supporting your self-titled debut album, which will be released, I believe, 10 days after your show there. I got an advance copy, and I must say that it is a very strong album.
Funderburgh: We had fun making it. We did it at Greaseland, which is Chris “Kid” Anderson’s studio. He’s turned out to be a really nice engineer and has some really, really good ideas with music. He’s not just a helluva guitar player, but he really has good ears. Yeah, it’s a good body of work, a good CD, right there.
Q: To me it sounded like you guys were having one hell of a good time doing it, too.
Funderburgh: We did. We just kind of set up, and I’m not saying that there wasn’t any overdubs on it, but it’s pretty much live. As the core band, we play most of that stuff just two or three takes of it, and then the horns came in a little later; but it’s a very cool record — very cool record.
Q: When you come up to Rockland, it’ll just be the five of you, correct?
Funderburgh: Yes, it’s me and Charlie on guitar, Mark Hummel on singing and harmonica, and then Wes Starr on drums and Richard Grigsby on bass.
Q: Seeing all of you, individually, have careers that span the decades, you collectively must have a ton of material to draw upon. That being the case, is it hard putting together a set list for a show?
Funderburgh: No, not really. I mean, there’s a ton of stuff we can just kind of wing it, so yeah, we’ve got lots of material. You have to play off the material that the singer knows, but Mark’s made lots of records and we’ve been on two of them, so we’ve got plenty of material from just those two CDs. And like you said, I’ve been playing professionally since I was 15, so that’s 46 years for me in the music business. I haven’t always been able to make a complete living doing that, but I certainly have more than not, you know?
Q: And if you love what you’re doing, then the living will work itself out.
Funderburgh: Absolutely!
Q: And seeing all five of you have been in the music business so long, this is one time when age — getting older — really is a benefit and a plus.
Funderburgh: Well, it is. You’re right. For us, it’s mostly about being an adult and trying to make good music and being sane; whereas when you’re maybe 20 years old, you’re not really thinking in the same way. I think we all care very much about the music that we’re playing, and we all seem to get along pretty good, and nobody seems to be out of it. We’re all very aware of the other’s space.
Q: What kind of music do you like?
Funderburgh: I really like roots music, I guess, the best. I love old-time country and rockabilly and I love jazz, of course, just any kind of music that’ll move your soul, you know what I mean? A lot of different kinds of music can do that, you know.
Q: I do, and music that comes from the heart goes to the heart first.
Funderburgh: Absolutely. It’s the only kind that can move my soul.
Q: Is there anything you’d like to pass on to the readers of this article?
Funderburgh: Oh, I don’t know. I certainly hope a whole lot of people come out and see this band. It’s a great band, and hopefully they will.
Lucky Clark has spent more than 45 years writing about good music and the people who make it. He can be reached at luckyc@myfairpoint.net if you have any questions, comments or suggestions.
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