Selwyn Birchwood learns the blues from the roots up
Selwyn Birchwood's music sounds like he's been playing the blues for decades. Birchwood, a Tampa native who performs June 10 at Moondog's in Blawnox, is only 31 and started playing guitar when he was 13. His new album “Pick Your Poison” (Alligator Records) showcases Birchwood's natural affinity for music that puts him at odds with his age group.
“Nobody understood why I listened to (the blues),” Birchwood says of his teenage years in Tampa. “I did kind of get made fun of for it and I didn't really care because I listened to the garbage they listened to and I felt the same way.”
No one is teasing Birchwood now. Rolling Stone magazine calls him a “powerhouse player and emotive performer,” and he won the prestigious International Blues Challenge in 2013.
Question: A lot of the music on “Pick Your Poison” sounds as if it could have been made decades ago.
Answer: This is music I fell in love with years ago. I've taken the time to dig and learn about it from the roots up, and I'm trying to figure ways to make my music authentic.
Q: Jimi Hendrix was your gateway musician to the blues. How did that happen?
A: I first heard Jimi Hendrix when I had been playing guitar for about five years. I was just trying to mimic the simple songs you heard on the radio at the time and I grew bored with it really quickly. I was actually going to quit playing because I'd lost interest and then I heard Hendrix. I felt like I was listening to guitar for the first time; it sounded like alien music to me. I was blown away by the sounds that he used and his sheer creativity. I had to understand it and try to figure out where he got the inspiration to write such stuff. When you look back in his bio you find a lot of the old blues guys, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Howlin' Wolf, those kinds of guys. Once I heard them, I found the sound I was looking for all along.
Q: When you were still in high school you met Sonny Rhodes, a blues singer and guitarist. How did he help you?
A: He was a neighbor of a friend of mine who brought me one of his records. After I listened to it I said you have to introduce me to whoever this person is. I thought it was going to be a bunch of drunk guys in a garage; I didn't realize it was going to be an internationally touring Texas bluesman who had been playing blues since the beginning, pretty much. I took my guitar over one day when he was in town and started playing. He just looked at me, smiled, asked me if I had a passport and said he was going to take me on the road.
Q: When you started performing with Rhodes your parents insisted you finish college. (Birchwood has a MBA from the University of Tampa). Does the degree help your music career?
A: A lot of people would tell me I didn't need to go to school, but I beg to differ. I felt like I needed it more than anyone because it was such a strange time for musicians and music. If you look at the industry as far as selling music goes and how different the landscape is, especially with an aging traditional blues crowd, you don't know what it's going to look like in 10, 15, 20 years.
Q: Does it bother you that so many people in your age group don't listen to the blues? Is it just a matter of getting them to hear the music to pique their interest?
A: That's 100 percent true. I find that younger crowds really gravitate to and love what we're doing and are really intrigued by what we're doing. I'm hoping that we can get in front of more young audiences to keep that going. But in my experience, I know there's nothing wrong with the music but there's a certain connotation of the word ‘blues' already in their head. If you say anything to do with blues they automatically stray from it because they think its old grandpa music, sitting on a front porch somewhere crying about something. That's not what the music's about. I find that as long as you don't tell them it's blues music they love it.
Details: 412-828-2040, moondogs.us
Benefit shows
• Bicycle Heavenon Pittsburgh's North Side will host “Come Through for Chew,” a benefit for cyclist Danny Chew 4 p.m. June 17.
Featured musicians include Cherylann Hawk, Jim Donovan of the Sun King Warriors with his daughter Tupelo Donovan, the young musicians from For Those About to Rock Academy, and Standing Waves featuring Steve Sciulli and Dennis Childers.
Proceeds will help with living expenses for Chew, the founder of the Dirty Dozen Bike Ride, who was injured in a cycling accident last year. Admission is $15, $10 in advance.
Details: facebook.com/events/885643608240335/
• The third annual Who's Your Daddy for Myasthenia Gravis Concert will be June 17 at Mullaney's Harp and Fiddle in the Strip District. This year's featured musicians include Jim Donovan with daughters Ella and Tupelo; John Vento of the Nied's Hotel Band with daughter Alaina; Maddie Arnold of Tullycavy with father Mitch; Billy Strathmann with dad Bill, and a rare performance by the Gallagher Brothers, featuring Mike Gallagher and his three brothers.
Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. show are $20, $15 in advance, $20. Proceeds benefit the Myasthenia Gravis Association of Western Pennsylvania.
Details: buytickets.at/mgawpa
• The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank's signature event, Feed More Festival, connects the community with its mission to feed people in need and mobilize the community to eliminate hunger.
The line-up includes The Naked and Famous, Max Frost, Donora, Balloon Ride Fantasy, Molly Alphabet, Joy Ike and Bad Custer.
The event is set for June 10 at Stage AE on Pittsburgh's North Shore. Doors open at 2 p.m. General admission tickets are $25 and $10 for kids 12 and under.
Details: pittsburghfoodbank.org/feedmore/
Rege Behe is a Tribune-Review contributing writer.
