The Blues Slide Guitar Maestro Remembered

With original release dates.

“Bottleneck/Slide Guitar” (1976)

Kicking Mule KM 129

= Sonet SNKF 121

“Follow Me Down” (1978)

Kicking Mule KM 306

= Sonet SNKF 147 (GB)

“Resonating” (2000)

Taxim CD TX 1045-2 TA

http://taxim.com/items/tx1045.htm (with song extracts)

Sam Mitchell playing a rag, backstage on a Sandmen tour:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K20ST5Eksz4

Live performances with The Sandmen are available on YouTube.

Detailed discography by Stefan Wirz.

http://www.wirz.de/music/mitchfrm.htm

PERSONAL MEMORIES OF SAMMY

The multitalented Carol is a singer, performance poet, songwriter and vocal animateur.

TPK: What is your recollection of Sammy?

Carol: Sammy lived with me for a while 1973-ish! In 8A All Saints Road (London) W2, next to The Mangrove African Caribbean cafe - a centre for early carnivals and the best carrot juice in the world. Memories of Sammy, coming back from gigs - York, Birmingham, wherever - and for Sammy the gig didn't end. Sitting in the back of the van, me and him still playing the guitar, fag hanging from his bottom lip, can of beer on the go... until we were back in The Grove... for my money the best Blues guitar player in the country I ever sang with.

 “I HAVE FUN RECALLING THOSE DAYS!”

Steve has worked with Chuck Berry, Graham Bond, Elkie Brooks, Bo Diddley, Marianne Faithfull, Manfred Mann, Robert Palmer… (again, the full list is much more extensive), and he recently signed on as bassist for Bob Hall's British Blues Allstars.

TPK: As bassist with The Sam Mitchell Blues Band, could you provide an insight into Sammy's style?

Steve: Sammy and I wanted to take the old blues material we knew so well and play it with non-traditional grooves. This was understood between us but never discussed. We recorded 'Hell Hound on My Trail' with a rock grove, and 'Baby Let Me Follow You Down' as a reggae.

Regarding drummers. George Butler played on “The Art of Bottleneck Guitar” album. I don't recall doing any trio gigs with Sammy prior to this recording. It was just a studio session.

Most of the trio gigs were with Mick Waller on drums - something like a Blues rock Elvin Jones! Then Jeff Rich, a great rock drummer, who went on to play with Status Quo.

While Jeff was with us producer Stefan Grossman asked us to play on Charlie Musselwhite's “The Harmonica According To” album. I don't think he intended to record Sammy at the time. Charlie's album was recorded really fast, with one run through followed by one take. Stefan had some studio time left over and used it to record the “Baby Let Me Follow You Down” album. The trio with Jeff had been gigging and we were able to record the trio tracks quickly. Jeff Rich did a great job, but unfortunately, if you listen closely, the hi-hat mic is distorting in both albums!

The only tune written in the studio on this album is the instrumental 'Lumbar Puncture'. Stefan needed one more instrumental and I started playing a bass line and chord progression I had been working on, and Sammy improvised over it. We shared writing credits. Just about everything we ever played together was not really discussed or worked out. This bemused Stefan, who had a very meticulous approach to music. I recall him saying to Sammy during these sessions, “Sammy, your playing sounds great, but I don't know how we're going to write it out in tablature for the booklet!”

I have fun recalling those days! Thanks for your interest!

SAMMY'S GIRLFRIEND DURING THE '80S.

TPK: What won't Sammy’s sleeve notes tell us?

Ulli: Sammy's mum was a dancer originally and ran a pub in Liverpool, while his younger sister did ballet. Sammy got his 'Asian' looks from his mum's side. Sam grew up in the pub and they had a guitar hanging on the wall. He picked it up and learned to play the guitar like that. When he was sixteen he left home and lived on Brighton beach for a long time, which was followed by him being discovered by Long John Baldry, who took him touring the USA. Unfortunately the tour was over when Sammy's guitar got stolen. He told me that the nervous exhaustion he felt, after the tour, meant he never wanted to make it big any more. Sammy loved his cats, Worzel (ginger) and Murgatroyd (tabby). Sam enjoyed his lunch-time pints (and subsequent sleep on the sofa), while I gave him vitamin pills to take at breakfast. The Morris Traveller, in which I drove Sammy and his gear to and from his gigs (we lived in West Hampstead), is the one he learned to drive in.

THE EUROPEAN BLUESMAN RECALLS SAMMY.

Mac and Sammy released the CD “Two Long From Home” (1996) on Mafioso/WOLF Records. Mac has a distinctive baritone voice and Blues fingerpicking and slide playing, and he conducts acoustic guitar workshops - recently at the Blues Week and through the European Blues Association (GB).

TPK: How did your collaboration with Sammy come about?

Mac: A mutual friend (Bo Wilson from Sweden, a fine guitarist), told me that Sam Mitchell was playing at the MOJO Club in Copenhagen. I went along with my solo CD, to pay the respects due and give the CD to Sammy, if he wanted to have it. We ended up chatting during his breaks and after the gig, and we hung out together for a few weeks.

He asked me if I'd come down to the MOJO next time when he was booked and play a few songs with him. We played and people really loved it. I returned the invitation when I had my own gig at MOJO and so we did back 'n' forth a couple of times. The people at the club suggested that we do a duo gig one evening. Now *that* went great and that's how everything actually kicked off. Then the people from my record company heard rumours about the two of us playing together and they suggested that we record something.

TPK: What was Sammy like as a person?

A 10 year older colleague, Sammy had a very easy going style on the road - confident, kind and supportive to everybody involved - agents, sound engineers, bartenders, cleaning staff...

During gigs he always worked hard within the song. If I played a solo, I could be darned sure he'd be playing a hell of a good backup to push me “over the edge”.

He was also a very funny person. He used to say (after the gigs), “It was a business doing pleasure with you!” On the phone he would throw in, “How's your wife and my kids?”, and similar stuff.

TPK: I hear the CD was recorded quickly.

Our CD was recorded during only 9.5 hours (including the mixing). WOLF Records ensured good distribution throughout Europe and the USA.

TPK: Any particularly memorable moments during your gigs with Sammy?

In Norway, 1998, at the Sandnes Blues Festival. Sammy wanted me to play 'Little Wing' with him, on that day and on the big stage. Now this was his trademark song when he played solo - he had such a lovely arrangement and he sang it beautifully. It was the first time I really felt stage fright since we started working together.

Then he said, “Oh, why don't you play a slide solo?” He made it all sound so easy and I felt confident again. Sammy believed that I could do it and I let it happen.

The sign came after he played a second verse, he let the chord ring and “hang” in the air. I played my first note and Sammy went on picking the next chord smoothly and supportively first, and then he looked at me.

I felt very humbled and honoured.

“SAMMY STORIES?” I ASKED. “NATCH!” HE REPLIED.

Lead singer with the eclectic and respected Atcha!, Chris Jagger had known and worked with Sammy for many years.

TPK: Thanks for letting me hear (off the board and unmixed) the track you have written about Sammy. Could you describe one of the incidents behind the incredibly heartfelt and personal lyrics? 

Chris: I was playing at the Neptune Theatre in Liverpool some years back with Robin McKidd, the fiddle player from the Balham Alligators, and I got in touch with Sam. You remember he got forcibly repatriated back here after being slung out of Canada where he was supposed to join Long John (Baldry) in Vancouver to play.

He came to the theatre and had a beer with us, can't remember if he actually jammed on stage with the two of us. I took a cab out to see him the following day and he was living in a seedy house right opposite the footer ground, and it was damp like Victorian times. He had no money and it was a sad scene. In fact I was keen on having a benefit gig for him and talked about it to Dana (Gillespie) and Paul Jones who both said they would like to help out, but I never got around to it.

Sammy and I head out to the pub and he brings his National Steel guitar... I didn't know why, maybe it was too valuable to leave in the house. The pub is empty apart from hundreds of footer pics and pennants on the wall. We have a drink, then the door opens and ten blokes enter the empty pub and sit around us and shoot their mouth off. Fairly abusive Scouser chat which Sam gives back. But he is pretty sick... as he said... “I'm falling apart Chris, but I've had a great time falling apart.” Meanwhile they're telling us we can't play the guitar - we're just a bunch of posers.

Then Sammy says, “Turn off the disco music...” which they do, and he gets out the shiny guitar and shakes likes a leaf trying to play it as they pour scorn on him. I honestly thought they might snatch the guitar away and disappear, which they could have done, and the thing is worth thousands. So I tell Sammy to play Crossroads, as I have found the harp in the case, and I sing and he gets it together to play it and they all applaud and we are OK guys... it's like the Blues Bros. We get out of jail.

That was the last time I saw him and I wrote the tune not too long after, apart from the last verse... many years before he died, but I knew and he knew he wasn't going to last. But he moved and I couldn't get his number.

TPK: Who's playing on the track?

We recorded it here in my barn in Somerset and Danny Thompson plays the bass and he knew Sam. John Ehteridge on guitar and Malcolm Mortimer drums. In fact Rabbit - John Bunderick from The Who just put some Wurlitzer on it. I am gonna get Carol Grimes to sing on it with me and hope some people will remember the good times... of a good friend, a great guitar player, but one whose name was not universally known as well as it might have been... but it has been forever thus...

“HE ROCKED AND MOVED SUPERBLY ON STAGE WITH HIS GUITAR…”

Prior to her distinguished music career, Dana was once British junior water-skiing champion (she was forced to retire due to a knee injury sustained in an avalanche), and has also worked in radio, theatre and film.

TPK: Could you tell us about Sammy’s approach to life and music?

Dana: I met Sammy in the early '70s, through a mutual friend, when he was with Carol Grimes and Uncle Dog.

The moment he played, he played like no-one else. He used to call his National Steel guitar the Tin Machine. He lost it at a gig and, against all the odds, managed to track it down in a second-hand shop. I often wondered what happened to that wonderfully battered guitar after he died.

He blew me away with his playing, dedication, fabulous bottleneck style and a technique which completely captured the Delta Blues. He rocked and moved superbly on stage with his guitar, as he swayed and bounced about to the music. Check out his guitar intro on ‘Amazing Grace’ from “Every Picture Tells A Story” (1971).

He shared a room with pianist Ian Armitt while on tour with Long John Baldry, and Sammy tasted the good life.

He joined my band at the time of “Below the Belt” (1984), and his playing on the title track showcases the Sammy sound.  He possessed a great sense of humour, and we were laughing while we recorded the track ‘Joe’s Joint’. He was the first person I ever knew who referred to the harmonica as the “Gob Iron”!

TPK: I understand that you remained in contact with Sammy?

Sammy got fed up with not being acknowledged and left England for Denmark, where he appreciated the Copenhagen girls in their summer clothes! He found some blues guys for my band, including bassist Jens Elbøl, and he landed on his feet financially with the Sandmen.

But when he returned to England due to ill health, he discovered that he could not fit straight back into the music scene here – even though he’d written and demoed a couple of really good numbers. He had arthritis, which affected his hip.

His father, who played Hawaiian guitar professionally, refused to teach Sammy how to play the guitar, and told him that he must get a job. So Sammy taught himself. He had a sharp brain, but his childhood was tough, and I feel that his hard living was a reaction to his formative years.

When I think of Sammy I see snakehips, tight trousers and a guy whose full on lifestyle meant that he never gained weight.

“TAKE NO PRISONERS, AS SAMMY USED TO SAY!”

The Danish bass player and his time with Sammy.

TPK: When did you start working with Sammy?

Jens: I worked with Sammy from 1986, when he came to Copenhagen, until 1999, when he moved to Holland. A year later he went back to Liverpool. He was divorced from his Danish wife Lykke and he was a bit tired of Denmark I think!

TPK: Could you talk us through his line-ups?

I played bass with Sammy in different line-ups, mostly three-piece, and we have done hundreds of gigs together. “Take no prisoners,” as Sammy used to say! He was a very nice and clever man and a fantastic blues-player and singer. He wrote some of the more “rockier” tunes that we did. We recorded an album in 1987 - “Mitchell, Elbøl and Uglebjerg” [TPK's note: This was very well received in the press etc]. Sammy and I also played together in Dana Gillespie's band. Our drummer from Denmark, Bjørn Uglebjerg, played on the first couple of tours but later on it was Chris Hunt and Mickey Waller.

 TPK: I believe he had quite some work ethic!

In 1988 Sammy started working with the Danish rockband The Sandmen and they were quite successful. Sammy left the band in 1995. All the while we had our bluesband going, when we had the time, occasionally with a second guitar player. In addition Sammy had his regular Monday-night solo gig at the Mojo bluesbar in Copenhagen. He was doing fine! In 1995 we formed “Sam Mitchell and Blue Steel”. We kept in contact when he moved from Denmark in 1999, and we had plans to do gigs in Denmark and Sweden, but Sammy's health got worse and he told me that he wasn't able to travel.

TPK: Then Sammy passed away...

When Sammy died his brother Roy came to Copenhagen with the urn and Sammy is buried at the cemetery - “Assistens Kirkegaard” in Copenhagen. His old friend Kim Gutman, Lykke and myself, among others, provided a nice stone for his grave. We were close friends and I really miss Sammy.

http://www.carolgrimes.com/

Sammy's page on Steve York's site (where you can listen to "Baby Let Me Follow You Down" and "Hellhound On My Trail")

http://www.steveyork.com/samcomp.htm

http://www.homesickmac.com/

http://www.chrisjaggeronline.com/

http://www.dana-gillespie.com/

Info on Jens Elbøl  

http://www.panrobertlelievre.com/gpage22.html

"The Mother Of All Blueslinks Collections"

http://www.blueslinks.nl/home.php

MAC:  In answer to Dana Gillespie’s query, where she wondered about whatever happened to Sammy's resophonic guitar. *If* it's the 1935 National she's referring to (which appears in the pictures above), well, Sammy never decided about that. His brother gave it to Kim Gutman from Copenhagen. He's the person who happened to introduced Sammy to Denmark. As I understood, Kim visited the UK and met Sammy, told him about the Danish music scene and then Sammy visited Kim.

Later on, Sammy decided to stay in Denmark for a while and then everything took off there, with solo gigs and the Sandman thing and so on. This was a very happy period of Sammy's life, getting lots of recognition. As Kim Gutman helped him in the beginning, Sammy's brother thought that the guitar would end up right if Kim had it now, with Sammy gone. Kim was a true friend…

Rob Orlemans
Producer of “Resonating” (Taxim).

You can see Sam Mitchell at the special features on the new concert DVD from Rob Orlemans & Half Past Midnight, “Open the Cage”. This contains footage from live shows and shots from the recording sessions of “Resonating” (Taxim). It's a documentary of the band history.

I still have a lot of Sam Mitchell handy cam concert videos and recordings in my studio in the Netherlands.

Sam stayed in my hometown when he left Denmark till he went back to
Liverpool in 1999.

Sam also played on an album with Jan Akkerman and Curtis Knight

around 1998, called “Blues Root” (UPCD 98136).

http://www.halfpastmidnight.nl/