Charlie Musselwhite

Charlie Musselwhite is an American blues harmonica player, singer and bandleader from Kosciusko, Mississippi, born in 1944. He works in blues, Chicago blues and electric blues, and he is also associated with blues rock. He leads and has been a member of several named groups, including Charley Musselwhite's South Side Band, the Charlie Musselwhite Blues Band, the Louisiana Gator Boys and New Moon Jelly Roll Freedom Rockers.

Early life and musical background

Musselwhite grows up in rural Mississippi and says he is of Choctaw descent, though he also reports that his mother tells him he is Cherokee. His family treats music as normal: his father plays guitar and harmonica, his mother plays piano, and a relative is a one-man band. At the age of three he moves to Memphis, Tennessee, where he grows up during the period when rockabilly, western swing, electric blues and other African American styles are feeding into rock and roll.

As a teenager, he supports himself by digging ditches, laying concrete and running moonshine in a 1950 Lincoln. He becomes known as “Memphis Charlie” and learns from the musical environment of Memphis, which includes figures such as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Gus Cannon, Furry Lewis, Will Shade, Royal Bell, Memphis Willie B., Johnny Burnette, Red Roby, Abe McNeal and Slim Rhodes.

Chicago years

Musselwhite later travels to Chicago in search of factory work and settles into the South Side blues scene. There he meets Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Sonny Boy Williamson, Buddy Guy, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter and Big Walter Horton. He spends time at the Jazz Record Mart, the store run by Delmark Records founder Bob Koester, where he lives in the basement at times and occasionally works with Big Joe Williams. He also works as a driver for an exterminator, which lets him observe the city’s clubs and bars, and he plays sit-in sets for tips with Big Joe Williams and other musicians.

In Chicago he forms a lifelong friendship with John Lee Hooker, who lives in Detroit but visits often and serves as best man at Musselwhite’s wedding. Musselwhite gradually becomes well known around town.

Recording career

Musselwhite leads his own blues band and releases Stand Back! in 1966 on Vanguard Records under the name Charley Musselwhite. The album brings him immediate success and helps establish his reputation. He later moves to San Francisco, where he becomes a prominent blues figure in the city’s countercultural music scene.

Over the years he releases more than 20 albums. In 1979 he records The Harmonica According to Charlie Musselwhite in London for Kicking Mule Records, originally intended to accompany an instructional book. The album becomes popular enough to be issued on CD.

He stops drinking in 1987 after a period in which he says he never performs sober. In 1990 he signs with Alligator Records, which leads to a revival in his career. His later releases include Continental Drifter, recorded with Quarteto Patria from Cuba’s Santiago region; because of political tensions between Cuba and the United States, it is recorded in Bergen, Norway. He also releases Sanctuary and Delta Hardware on Real World Records.

Collaborations and recognition

Musselwhite records and performs with other artists, including Bonnie Raitt, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Tom Waits and INXS. He appears on Bonnie Raitt’s Longing in Their Hearts and The Blind Boys of Alabama’s Spirit of the Century, both of which win Grammy awards. He also appears on Tom Waits’ Mule Variations and INXS’ Suicide Blonde.

He wins 14 W. C. Handy Awards and receives six Grammy nominations. He also receives Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Monterey Blues Festival and the San Javier Jazz Festival in San Javier, Spain, as well as the Mississippi Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. His labels include Musselwhite Music and Alligator.