Joey Gilmore is best known as
a bluesman, but the 65-year-old American singer and guitarist loves and plays many styles, from reggae and calypso to soul and R ’n’ B, and even country.
“I feel blessed and fortunate that I came up in an era where you weren’t just pigeonholed into one type of music,” he said on the phone from his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Gilmore, whose nine-day tour of Taiwan starts tomorrow, follows a modern tradition of greats like B.B. King, Bobby “Blue” Bland and Little Milton — artists that incorporated gospel, soul and R ’n’ B into their brand of blues.
At the start of his career, which spans more than 40 years, Gilmore was already branching out beyond the folk-based sound of Chicago-style electric blues. He played in bands that performed classic soul hits by Motown and Stax Records artists like The Temptations and Booker T and the MGs.
Also proficient on bass guitar and drums, Gilmore developed a reputation over the years as the “go-to” backing musician for big-name acts in his home base of southern Florida. He has opened for and shared the stage with soul legend William Bell, blues singer Etta James and James Brown.
Gilmore recently gained wider recognition and a wider fan base after winning the 2006 International Blues Challenge, a major competition held by the Blues Foundation in Memphis.
One immediately hears B.B. King’s influence in Gilmore’s guitar playing
and deep, soulful voice. But he also cites another “King” as an inspiration: Elvis Presley.
“Man, he was my ultimate idol, as far as somebody that could get on the stage and just command and demand total attention from an audience,” Gilmore said.
Gilmore fell in love with the stage from the moment he first played in public. “What really got me goin’ was the reaction from the fans ... and you could see the joy in their faces when you were performing,” he said. “I see that today — people really admire what you’re doing, and to me that’s the greatest gift on earth.”
“And most importantly, they pay you for doing it,” he laughed. “How many people can say ‘I love what I do and get paid to do it’?”
But it wasn’t all smooth sailing as far as Gilmore’s recording career is concerned.
In the 1970s, he recorded a set of 45-rpm singles that were sold outside of the US, but never received any royalties.
After the release of his first full-length album, So Good to Be Bad, Blue Angel, was released in 1989, he suffered a streak of bad luck with managers or producers who “didn’t have my best interests at heart,” he said. Gilmore found himself in a cycle where he would fall into debt from making an album, decide to give up recording, then decide to try again a few years later.
He says things have changed with his ninth and latest release, Bluesman (2008), which he managed to produce without “the middle man.” He is proud of the recording and glad he tried again.
“Because of the fact of your love for the music and the art, you can’t stay away. You have to come back. You can’t stay away. You have to get knocked down and come back and try it again.”
Gilmore’s visit to Taiwan has been long anticipated by local blues fans. He forged a connection with the local scene when the Blues Society on Taiwan sponsored his first attempt at winning the International Blues Challenge in 2005. (He actually won, but was later disqualified on a technicality).
Tomorrow night and Sunday, he performs at Capone’s backed by electric blues outfit BoPoMoFo (ㄅㄆㄇㄈ). On Sunday, Gilmore will offer a Master Class, which will be hosted by ICRT DJ Bill Thissen. All are welcome to attend and bring their instruments.
Gilmore hesitates to offer a definitive description of the blues. But he says “every style of contemporary music, including jazz, R ’n’ B, hip-hop, and rap — all of it is based in the blues. The root of all that music, the good popular music that you listen to, came from the blues.”
“Everybody tries to simplify the blues by saying ‘oh, it’s just a three chord change,’” he said. “It’s a lot more than what meets the eye — a lot more than what meets the ear.”
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