Guitar Shorty Interview

by Brian D. Holland.

Guitar Shorty (born David Kearney in Houston, Texas, on September 8, 1939) is not only one of today's premier bluesmen, he's one of today's premier blues showmen as well. When not doing summersaults in midair and other onstage antics, he's strolling about the audience while serenading the women, playing the guitar behind his back, and sometimes plucking the strings with his teeth. His style of playing isn't as much the blues as it's a fiery blues-rock. Though much of his onstage antics are reminiscent of his mentor, Guitar Slim, Shorty's professionalism made him, in turn, the mentor to another guitarist learning the ropes: Jimi Hendrix. Well before Shorty married Jimi's stepsister, Marsha, a young Jimi would follow him around wherever he appeared to learn whatever he could from the veteran guitarist. He learned well.

Shorty has been around for quite awhile and his story is an interesting one. Besides his own burgeoning career he has played behind some of the greatest entertainers in blues, jazz, and R&B over the years. His stories of his days with Sam Cooke, Guitar Slim, Ray Charles and others, are both enlightening and amusing.

I recently caught a Guitar Shorty show and saw firsthand how much this man loves to entertain. He puts all of himself into it, and doesn't quit until the last note is played. His touring band is made up of fine players as well, as Shorty doesn't cut any corners in that department either. Howard Deere, his veteran bass player of 14 years, does the opening introductions, and some early-on vocals before the master comes onstage. The rest of the band is Alden Clark on keyboards, Dwight Payne on drums, and Tom 'Guitar Boy' Buller on guitar, a fine young Strat player from Texas.

The band opened with a rendition of T-Bone Walker's 'Natural Ball' before Shorty came onstage. Shorty and the band then went through a repertoire that included 'Rainy Night In Georgia', Walkin' The Dog', 'Let Me Love You Baby', and Shorty's own 'I Wonder Who's Sleeping In My Bed', in which he walked about the crowd serenading and doing his thing. He later introduced a song by saying, "Albert King once said to me, 'Shorty, if you don't bend the strings the way I taught you, I'm gonna slap the hell outta you'." He then went into a blistering rendition of 'Born Under A Bad Sign'. And believe me, he bent the notes on his G&L Legacy Special just like he was taught.

Another show highlight was his version of 'Hey Joe'. Although everybody seems to be doing it, his version is one of the better ones I've heard in quite awhile. Hendrix would have been proud. He also did a few songs from his latest CD, Watch Your Back. 'Old School' is a potent and gritty tune, and his lead playing is scorching throughout.

Listen to two songs from Guitar Shorty's latest album, Watch Your Back

*The stream version of both songs has been shortened.
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How did David Kearney become Guitar Shorty?

Guitar Shorty: I was playing for Guitar Slim at the time, but I got the name from a guy out of Florida by the name of Dewey Richardson. He was a promoter. He gave me the name. He asked me to carry that name and he said it would give me good luck. I think he was right. He said that a lot of promoters and record companies will ask me to change it. But stick to it, he said. And that's what I did. And I'm still happy with it after all these years.

Many consider you to be one of today's premier bluesmen. What are your thoughts on that?

GS: Well, it's an honor, and I appreciate it. But I consider myself more blues-rock. Some people have called me the blues-rock master; others have called me the Pope of the guitar. I said why call me the Pope? Someone said, well, we already have a king, and that's B.B. King. And the Pope, he can't get no higher, Shorty. So if you don't mind, that's what we'll call you. So I said okay. [Laughs] I don't put myself on a pedestal. I just perform as I see it. Each time I go onstage I go up like it's my last time. You know the old saying, 'there is no tomorrow'. I don't care if there's only one person there; I'm going to give them the same show as I would in a packed house. I won't slack off. Besides, that one person, you don't know who they might be anyway.

You've been around a long time now, and you've played with some big names, such as Ray Charles, Otis Rush, and Willie Dixon.

GS: Willie Dixon, oh my goodness, man. Willie was like my pop. The first song I wrote, for Cobra Records, he taught me how to sing my own song. I didn't even know timing at that time. He shut the Cobra studio down and took me back to his place, and we went over and over the song I had written. [The release he made for Cobra records was: "You Don't Treat Me Right" / "Irma Lee" - 1957.] We were off for about two days, and when we went back in the studio it all went down like clockwork. I'll never forget that.

What about Ray Charles?

GS: Well, Ray was my idol, for his singing and the way he played piano. I looked up to him like he was my pop, too, because I was a kid at the time. He used to love to hear me sing 'Sweet Little Angel'. That was a song he'd always come onstage on. One night he asked me to sing it, but I was sick as a dog, down with a cold and very hoarse. So I said, "I don't know, man, if I can sing that song, Mr. Ray." Just like that. He said, "Why not?" I said, "My throat is sore and I can't hit those notes." He grabbed me in the car and pulled me up to him, you know, in a kidding way. He said, "Let me tell you something, son. If you can't sing with a cold, you can't sing without a cold. Now, I want to hear you sing that song. Will you sing that for Ray?" I said, "I'll do my best." Well, I found a way to deliver it. After I finished I got a standing ovation from the people. Ray later said, "You take what I taught you, son, and really pay attention to it. It's going to take you a long way." And I'll tell you, I remember when he recorded 'Mary Ann'. Remember 'Mary Ann'? Check it out, check his voice out. He had a cold.

Talk about playing with Sam Cooke and T-Bone Walker.

GS: Sam had just come to New Orleans. I had just left Guitar Slim. I was tired, but I got a job at a place called the Dew Drop Inn in New Orleans. I was working for Frank Painia. Frank gave me a job working four nights a week there, Monday thru Thursday. Friday and Saturday was when the major action came through. All I was getting there was a place to stay and food. No money. But at least they helped me, and they took care of my laundry. But when Sam Cooke came to town, Bob Tate, his bandleader at the time, came down to see me. He said he wanted to take me on the road with him. I asked what it paid. He told me, and at the time it was a lot of money to me. So after a short audition, just so they knew that they had their minds made up, we went on the road, down south, through Florida and up through Alabama, Georgia, and we did the Midwest, and then we went to L.A.

But I later found myself stuck in L.A. after the Sam Cooke group split up. I didn't know anybody. Bob Tate eventually set me up in some guesthouse, and I eventually recorded an album for Flash Records. I then worked at clubs all over L.A. I worked in a place called the California Club; it was me and Johnny Guitar Watson. We worked back to back for a little over a month.

After that was over with, Big Jim Wynn was on the show. He was playing baritone [sax] and at the time I didn't know he was with T-Bone Walker. He was his bandleader. That's how I ended up with T-Bone Walker. We went to Vancouver, BC, and played there for two months at a place called the New Delhi. After that was over I ended up staying in Vancouver for over five years.

I eventually tired of that and went to Seattle, Washington. I then went back and forth between Seattle and Canada, because at the time, Canada was like my home. In Seattle I ran into Dave Lewis. He had a trio up there and I managed to get in his group. I'd work for him for a while and then go back to Canada. That's how I met up with Jimi's stepsister, Marsha. And that's how I ended up in the family. I found out that Jimi had been going around watching me play in different places, and I was like his idol. When he found out I was with his stepsister he said, "Welcome to the family." And he also said, "I learned a lot from you, a whole lot."

You played a lot with Guitar Slim, too.

GS: Yes. I was with Guitar Slim when he sang, "Love is like quicksand. You can't stop when you're sinking down." He'd take the guitar, with a long cord, about 250 feet, and he'd run from one end of the band to the other. He would then climb up on the shoulders of his valet. The valet would pick him up, take him out to the crowd with that long cord and he'd bring him back. The valet was about 6'1" or 6'2". He would bring him back and put him onstage and then Slim would get off of his shoulders. With that cord, he'd head back to where he came from, and halfway back he'd fall down on the floor. He didn't care what kind of suit he had on. He'd then lay down on the floor, on his stomach, put the guitar behind his head and play it that way for a minute and then he would take the guitar and put it in front of him as he rolled over on his back. He'd kick his heels up while playing the guitar. One day I said, if he can do that, I can do that.

I tried the flips that he did when we were off work. A friend of mine by the name of Barney 'Goo Goo' Louis, who used to work for B.B. King, his birth name being Hubert Louis [or Louis Hubert, by research], played baritone, alto, and tenor [sax]. When we were off work we'd work together sometimes, for pocket change.

This particular time he called me, I said, "I've got a surprise for you. But I'll have to show it to you when we're working together again." So he asked me to partake in this gig, and then he gave me the address and all. It was at the Elks on Daytona Beach, and the Elks had a concrete floor. We got through playing the first set, so the next set was show time. He asked me again what the surprise was. I told him he'd see it during the next set. So during the next set I did my four songs that I was gonna do, and then it was time for the finale. I started playing the boogie-woogie on the guitar.

Anyway, I was kind of dancing and clowning around with the guitar - people like to see you do that anyway. Barney again said, "I haven't seen anything yet, Shorty." I said, "Hold on, it's coming up now." Man, I started running with that guitar, jumped up in the air, tried to turn the flip, and landed right on my head. And then I got up. Even though I knew I was in agony, I didn't know I was hurt. I started walkin' around, kind of weak in the knees, and I managed to get back to the stage.

Barney bent over because by that time I was doing my thing on the dance floor, and he said, "Is that your surprise?" I told him to hold on a minute and that I was going to do it. By that time I started talking to the Lord. I said, "Lord please help me - don't let me get hurt again."

Man, I started running with that guitar again, jumped up in the air and landed on my head again, but this time a little bit harder. It hurt real bad. Anyway, I started coming back toward the stage. I was kind of staggering then and Barney saw it. I got back up onstage, and Barney says, "Is that your surprise? You're gonna kill yourself?" I said, "Barney, I'm gonna do this if it kills me." He said, "Shorty, I'm not gonna play behind you and see you kill yourself."

He then took his horn and walked offstage. The other horn players walked offstage. Meanwhile, the rhythm section was still playing because they didn't know what was going on. They thought the horn players leaving was just part of the show. So I started talking to JC then, saying, "Jesus, please don't let me get hurt." And then I got another running start. I closed my eyes this time. I jumped up in the air, and the next thing I knew I was on my feet. I originally wasn't giving myself enough boost to turn that flip. There's a force behind that. You've got to be able to do it and you get hurt if you can't.

As you found out a few times, unfortunately.

GS: Yes. But when I finally got it right, people were jumping up from their tables. They started throwing money - 50 cents, $20 bills. I made more money than Barney was paying me. [Laughs] Anyway, the horn players came back onstage and started playing again.

There was a guy at that show by the name of Billy Preston, a white guy. He handed me a card and said that he knew what I was trying to do and that he could help me and said for me to give him a call. I did, and when I met up with him he took me into this great big gym. He took me into a private place where he could teach me. He eventually taught me how to do that flip right, the roll and spin, and all that stuff, and with the guitar. It came from Mr. Billy Preston, though actually, my show was a take off of Guitar Slim's show.

Do you still do the flips?

GS: I do sometimes, not all the time. It depends on where I'm at and it depends on my drummer. If my drummer isn't really tight and precise then I won't do it. I could get hurt. I got hurt in '95 by getting too excited. I was running across the stage and turned the flip toward the left side of the stage and came way back to the right side and then went into another spin. I got my feet tangled up in some monitor cords. I was either going to hit the stage real bad or fall off the stage and kill myself. So I fell on the stage and dislocated my right shoulder. And believe it or not, before I got to Chicago it went back into place on its own. I had x-rays taken in Chicago and they said they didn't see anything dislocated but they did see that there was some damage done and that I had a hairline fracture between the joints.

But they said it would heal. They said I did have a dislocated shoulder earlier and that I should thank God that they didn't have to put it back in place because then I'd really be hurtin'. [Laughs] So I have a reminder every time I open my closet - the jacket I wore and the sling. I wore the sling for over three months. That whole experience woke me up a little bit, so now I make sure when I do those flips that everything is tight.

You've been gigging steadily since you were about 17-years-old. Does it ever get old?

GS: No. I always look forward to going out on the road. I've been doing it so long that when I'm not doing it I get really bored. And I love entertaining people, to see the smile on their face. That makes me work harder. But at home I end up staring at the walls. Man, I go out of my mind. I just have to be onstage somewhere. I love it; I love doing that. And I love writing and recording.

Talk about your gear. I noticed all G&L guitars.

GS: I was playing Strats, but when I got a hold of that G&L Legacy Special, that did it. That was what I was looking for. I now use a G&L Legacy Special into a red knob Fender amp model called The Twin. I use two of those Fender amps. I've played all kinds of amps but I haven't found anything to match it yet. I think they're the best amps Fender has. The G&Ls, I don't have a problem with them. I get no noise or humming. They've got different pickups on them. The ones I use have the Hotrails and it's a real clean sound.

[Shorty also uses the BBE Sonic Maximizer rack systems, the 462 & 482 models; a Morley Wah pedal and Dunlop Hendrix Octave Fuzz; a small assortment of Boss pedals, including a Compression/Sustainer that he uses only when he's plugged into an amp that won't do what he wants it to do. A Nady Wireless 201 enables him to walk about and do his onstage antics freely.]

I liked your tone the other night.

GS: Many guitar players come out to see me just to hear that tone. They try to find out what I'm doing to get it. That tone is between that G&L and those pickups.

I'm sure Shorty's fingers have a lot to do with it too.

GS: [Laughs] That's what everybody tells me. But my playing didn't turn around until I got with that G&L. It has the tone I was looking for. Everybody tells me the same thing, "Shorty, you can play through anything you want, but it's in your fingers." Some of it is, but much of it has to do with that guitar, too.

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You can catch Guitar Shorty on tour this year. Please visit his website for more information and tour dates.

Tracks from Watch Your Back

Old School
Story Of My Life
I'm Gonna Leave You
What She Don't Know
I've Been Working
Get Busy
Let My Guitar Do The Talking
It Ain't The Fall That Kills You
Little Less Conversation
Right Tool For The Job

Personnel

Guitar Shorty: Guitar and Vocal
Sweet William Bouchard: Bass
Alvino Bennett: Drums
Jesse Harms: Keyboards
Electric Vic Johnson: Rhythm Guitar
Produced by Brian Brinkerhoff

Label and date of release

Alligator Records
April 27th 2004

Related Links

Guitar Shorty
G&L Guitars
Alligator Records
Moore Music, Inc.