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 A
London View of Tulsa
March/April
2008 - -During
my stay a lot of people told me that Little Joe
was a must see and for some reason I just never
got to see him play ... until a couple of days before
I left. I saw him briefly at the Cimarron's Sunday
jam and my friend Mike Lasota arranged for us to
go and see him at his flat in Sapulpa the next day.
The
only way I can describe it is with a time warp.
As soon as we parked outside the house we were back
in the 1930's. The whole atmosphere of the place,
the hardwood floors, the 78 records and the upright
' piano in one corner of the room; his guitars and
even his girlfriend painted the perfect picture
of a Robert Johnson contemporary. The only thing
bringing me back to our present time was Mike and
I, with our recording gear and video camera.
We chatted for a little while and then Little Joe
played a couple of songs for us; I Want Some
Sea Food and Rattle Snaking Daddy ...
and, sure enough, he sounded
just like an old Blues 78' record!I
could not believe just how chronologically perfect
this guy and his resonator sounded!
I mean, I've seen a lot of blues and heard a lot
of blues and what he was doing wasn't new to me
... but I'd never seen a living man doing it! Nor
could I imagine that someone might be playing this
stuff in 2007.
This
guy is 25 years old!!! It
was like watching Robert Johnson or Son House
in the flesh!
I had to ask him whether he knew anyone
from his generation who could dig where he was
coming from. He said he didn't know many people
"at all" that were into that sort of
thing ... I mean, the blues this guy plays is
too old for even the old timers! English
blues researchers will love this man, mark my
words.
Unbelievable!
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A charmed life
By
JENNIFER CHANCELLOR World Scene Writer
Tulsa World - Nov. 23, 2008
Little
Joe bottles lightning with new CD, prepares for
third International Blues Challenge
Little Joe McLerran
is Tulsa’s only known finger-pickin’ Piedmont
blues aficionado.
He’s
also just 24 years old and playing music generally
mastered by people 40 years his senior.
But
don’t let that fool you.
The
blues is a complex genre, and Piedmont blues, from
the southeastern United States, merges rag time,
swing and jazz into melodies that sound almost like
piano rolls on a guitar. The style also is typified
by more intricate chord changes.
And
Little Joe mastered it, all right, when he was a
tyke, playing with his daddy Robbie Mack at just
8 years of age, he said in a recent telephone interview.
“We
were a trio, with my brother on washboard,”
he said.
Since
then, he’s moved to Tulsa and taken his unique
style to a whole new level — and to a
new generation. The suit-clad and fedora-wearing
guitar player will release his first live CD, “Live
at Last — Vol. 1” on Friday, right here
in Tulsa.
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The
CD release party will start at 8 p.m. at the
Tulsa VFW, 1109 E. Sixth St...
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“I’d
been listening to my studio stuff, and figured that
if I could get my live sound — really put electricity
behind it - that ‘old sound’ of blues
would actually sound more modern,” he said.
And
by electricity, he means life, emotion and a sense
of drama, which is what he captured when he recorded
11 tracks in Boulder, Colo., last spring.
After
all, it’s his live show that’s won over
his growing fanbase.
Oct.
20, he and his Big Three Trio (featuring his father,
Jimmy “Junior” Markham and Ron McRorey)
won the best band category in the Blues Society
of Tulsa Blues Challenge, and will travel to Memphis
in January to compete in the International Blues
Challenge, he said.
He’s
made it to the international challenge for the past
two years, as well, but for best solo/duo act.
Will
the third visit be the charm? “They’re
looking for something particular. It’s a little
baffling,” he laughed.
“But
really, it’s just a lot of fun to meet blues
players from all over the world,” he said.
“This
is real stuff. It’s raw, human emotion,”
he said. “It’s really something.”
And,
just maybe, it’s the way he coaxes music from
his smooth and sweet, deeply-hued Gibson guitar,
which is more than twice his age.
...
link back to the original TulsaWorld article and
photo
----------------------------------------------------
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Little
Joe & The Big Three Trio win...
the Blues Society of Tulsa Blues Challenge Oct. 2007
Little
Joe McLerran - Jimmy "Junior" Markham
[web]
- Robbie Mack - Ron McRorey
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LITTLE
JOE & the Big Three Trio
win
the 4th Annual Blues
Society of Tulsa Blues Challenge at the Tulsa
event on Oct. 20, 2007. Little Joe & the Big
Three Trio will go on to compete in the International
Blues  Challenge
in Memphis, TN. January 31 through the finals on
Saturday Feb 2,
2008
The
International Blues Challenge is the world's largest
gathering of Blues acts representing an international
search by The Blues Foundation and its Affiliated
Organizations for the Blues Band and Solo/Duo Blues
Act ready to take their act to the international
stage. In 2007 over 90 bands and 60 solo/duo acts
and even greater participation is expected in 2008,
filling the clubs up and down Beale Street for the
semi-finals on Thursday and Friday and the finals
at the Orpheum Theater on Saturday.
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Sept
31, 2007 - Tulsa World
Little Joe McLerran Nominated for the 2007 Spot Awards
Catagory: Best R&B / Blues
BOULDER
DAILY CAMERA -
Little
Joe Blues: Former Boulderite
brings the Piedmont style to Nissi’s
By Greg Glasgow, Camera Music Writer
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Boulder
Daily Camera
Little' Joe McLerran came to the blues early on, discovering
the music as a kid through friends of his dad, longtime
local bass player Rob McLerran. When he was a teenager,
Joe and his brother, Jesse, played on the Pearl Street
Mall as "Buddy Hollywood," a duo specializing
in the Beatles, Bob Marley and the blues. Joe played guitar
and Jesse — who died in an accident a few years ago
— played drums.
Seven
years ago the family moved to Tulsa, Okla., where Joe
adopted the name "Son Piedmont" and immersed
himself in the acoustic Piedmont blues style of the '20s
and '30s. Now a full-time performing musician, Joe comes
to Nissi's in Lafayette tonight to play the blues with
his dad, Rob, clarinet and sax player Dexter Payne and
drummer R J Whetstone aka Damprock.
The
Camera recently caught up with Joe McLerran, 23.
Q:
How did you start out playing the blues?
A:
Growing up in Boulder, (I knew) a lot of the musicians
around there, like BBQ Bob, Washboard Chaz and those guys.
I just spent a lot of time listening to their music as
a kid and was just around it all the time.
Then
I had a fourth-grade teacher at Lafayette Elementary who,
when I was about 9 years old, asked me to check out the
blues. So I did, and I got really into it and wanted to
learn how to play guitar.
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Photo:
John Guzman |
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WHEN: March 30,
2007
WHERE: Nissi’s,
2675 North Park Drive,
Lafayette, Colorado
TICKETS $8-$10
INFO (303) 665-2757
or www.nissis.com
March 30, 2007
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Q:
You started playing on the mall with your brother a couple
of years after that — did you have the idea then
that you wanted to be a professional musician when you
grew up, or were you just having fun?
A:
I kind of always wanted to be (a professional). Being
around all those musicians, all those old guys are pretty
cool.
Q:
How was it when you moved to Tulsa? Was there a different
musical atmosphere there?
A:
I played there for a little while, all kinds of stuff.
I got into everything from punk rock to hip-hop and stuff
like that. I was just always listening to all kinds of
music, but I happen to play pretty much strictly blues.
Q:
When did you start on the pro circuit, playing bars and
clubs and places like that?
A:
When I was about 18 or 19 years old.
Q:
And it sounds like there never was any question that that's
what you were going to do.
A:
When I got out of high school, I couldn't see myself doing
anything else.
Q:
And were your parents behind it? They thought it was a
good idea?
A:
Yeah. My dad told me — because he's been a musician
his whole life — he said it's a hard life and it
takes a lot of dedication, but it's doable
Q:
Do you play your own songs or classic blues stuff?
A:
I do my own renditions of these really, really old blues
things. I have some original material, but for the most
part I listen mostly to Piedmont-style blues, like East
Coast-style, from 1928 to the mid-'30s or so. Big Bill
Broonzy, Tampa Red, Blind Blake, Lonnie Johnson —
some of those guys.
Q:
Are there still songs out there for you to discover, or
have you heard most of them at this point?
A:
I'm always listening to stuff and getting new stuff. I'll
probably always be out there finding new stuff to listen
to.
Q:
Do you have to seek a lot of that stuff out on vinyl?
A:
They're actually doing some cool stuff with CDs. You can
buy the complete recorded works of just about anybody.
People overseas have taken a big interest in this old-time
blues stuff.
Q:
What kind of fan base have you built up?
A:
It attracts all different sorts of people. Old people,
young people — I've got a pretty good little fan
base around here. Very diverse.
Q:
You were a kid growing up in the'80s and'90s listening
to blues — it seems like each generation rediscovers
the blues and it never really gets old.
A:
It sure doesn't. I don't think those songs will ever die.
It's up to people to be aware of it, but there's people
like me out there keeping it alive.
Q:
What do people like about the blues?
A:
It's just that human emotion. It's a feeling. It's about
the most kind of real music out there, I believe.
View Live Photos from Nissis
- March 30, 2007
Tulsa
World - March 23, 2007
Little
Joe, Levee Town to play VFW concert
Little Joe McLerran
By Staff Reports
3/23/2007
Little
Joe McLerran and Kansas City blues band Levee Town
will play the Veterans of Foreign Wars post No. 577 in
a concert Saturday.
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Photo
Cory Young - Tulsa World
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The
Blues Society of Tulsa show at 1109 E. Sixth Street
will start around 7 p.m. Admission is $5 at the door and
$3.50 for Blues Society members.
Guitarist
McLerran, backed by his father Rob McLerran on bass, was
the local winner of the Blues Challenge competition. That
band advanced to the national Blues Challenge in Memphis,
Tenn.
McLerran
said he was beaten out of the national contest by a French
band which didn't sing in English and sounded more like
world music than the blues.
"It
was the strangest thing," he said. "There was
this girl from Italy this year, she went to the finals
... everybody was kind of scratching their heads on that
one.
"There's
always next year ... No matter what it's a good thing,
I mean, you get to go down there and meet new people and
all that stuff."
While
there, the McLerrans met and admired the work of Levee
Town, one of the finalists which competed in the challenge
representing Kansas City.
Levee
Town is a rock and roll blues quartet that features
bass player Jacque Garoutte, a native of Miami, Okla.
McLerran, of Tulsa, plays an old style of blues called
"Piedmont" that merges rag time, swing and jazz.
Later
this month, McLerran plans on heading
to Colorado to do some recording for a new album, one
featuring some solo material, and work with a clarinetist
[Dexter Payne].
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YOUNG
BLOOD
