Blues Junction Productions

07/11/2025

Raphael Wressnig: The BLUES JUNCTION Interview
Since I conducted this interview with Raphael back in 2017, the prolific organist has recorded (by my count) five more studio albums and has released a couple of live sessions. His latest a 2025 release, entitled “Committed” just reached my mailbox earlier in the week. I'll share with you my thoughts regarding this recording in the next day or so. In the meantime, enjoy a conversation I had with the one and only Raphael Wressnig.
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David Mac (DM): Greetings Raphael. Where are you from and where do you reside now?
Raphael Wressnig (RW): I was born in Graz, Austria, and grew up in a small town in the south of Austria, pretty close to Slovenia. Now I live in Graz, Austria.
DM: What are some of your earliest exposures to music?
RW: My dad had a decent record collection and I always loved music. Basically, I started playing music pretty late, but I was always into blues, soul, funk and jazz. These are pretty much the same styles that I play and try to blend now.
DM: Let’s talk a bit about your early musical training. Is there a mentor or music teacher that you would like to mention?
RW: I had no particular training, no teacher and never had any formal studies. Still, I was fortunate enough to hook up with great, great musicians at an early stage of my career. I started my own group when I was sixteen years old. I teamed up with “Sir” Oliver Mally, one of the leading blues figures in Austria when I was eighteen. We recorded a bunch of feature albums together. Oliver had a great reputation already and I got to tour with him quite a bit.
Two years later we opened for Larry Garner in Switzerland. Larry loved my playing and got in touch with me a couple of months later. I joined his group for several years and we toured extensively. I would call Larry my mentor. I learned a lot and I learned it the old-school way. We toured all kinds of exotic places for blues such as Russia, Dubai and Tunisia. I visited Larry in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He took me to church and we played a bunch of shows in Louisiana.
DM: Did you play any other instruments before you got into the organ?
RW: I played piano and started my own group. I soon found out that it is hard to compete with wailing guitars and I experimented with sounds. Basically, I started using a Rhodes, Wurlitzer piano sounds and organ sounds. I realized that for me organ was a lot more expressive. I found my voice. I knew I had to get a real Hammond organ.
DM: I have to ask the obligatory question. Who are your major influences on the organ?
RW: All I can tell you is that I discovered Jimmy Smith and Jimmy McGriff at some point and that was it. I really loved Jimmy Smith’s blues and rhythm & blues recordings; Mojo, Hi Heel Sneakers, Back at the Chicken Shack. I found out that Jimmy McGriff was somehow greasier.
I loved the music, the groove and the feel. It was clear that all these players play different licks and have different styles, but they create music and vibes. This is an approach that I picked up at an early stage. I never think too much about licks and certain styles that I should play. Honestly, I couldn’t care less. For me the question always was: Why does this music attract me? What is the momentum that makes people groove and dance?
I learned to let loose, to let the music wash over me. I found out that the groove, phrasing is way more important than styles or certain licks.1 Don’t get me wrong I took my time to listen to McDuff, Earland, Holmes, Patterson, Roach, Lonnie and the list goes on.
I have to add Booker T. Jones and Billy Preston and want to take a look at the soul side of things. There is Junior Walker & the All Stars with Victor Thomas on organ. Then there are all the New Orleans players like The Meters and Art Neville on the B-3 for instance. I love Willie T.
DM: The B-3 is a unique instrument in several different ways. Let’s share with our readers some of what you believe makes this particular instrument so special and unique.
RW: The aspect that attracts me the most is the power of the instrument. I love to make it sound big and fiery. There is an explosive element, yet you can make the B-3 whisper gently. There are thousands of colors and I love to show these colors during a concert. The organ can sound like an orchestra, but it can give you a powerful lead sound as well. I love the classic approach.
The organist covers the bass lines as well. This is the reason that I cut almost all of my albums without a bassist. George Porter, Jr. of the legendary Meters joined on one track on my Soul Gumbo album that I cut in New Orleans and Rodrigo Mantovani plays bass on The Soul Connection.
I love organ combos, in the blues environment. I always dug Jimmie Vaughan’s group with Bill Willis on organ. As an organist, if you play with a great drummer, you can cover a lot of ground. Add a tasteful guitarist and a horn section and you are set. This is very challenging but fulfilling.
DM: Are there other organs you play besides the Hammond B3?
RW: I just got a Farfisa organ. I want to use it more for fun and maybe to do some obscure recordings. Dr. John plays some Farfisa on the Black Keys produced Locked Down; great album by the way.
DM: What are some of your career highlights you would like to discuss?
RW: I think around 2007 or so we toured a bunch of times with a very cool project, Women of Chicago Blues. It featured Deitra Farr, Zora Young and Grana Louise. The band was an all-star band with Kenny Smith on drums, Billy Flynn on guitar, Felton Crews on bass and myself on organ/keys. Producer Larry Skoller put together this project. Larry was a key person who always supported me.
Later we toured with the male version of this project and I’m sure all the blues lovers are aware of the Grammy nominated Chicago Blues: A Living History project. It was Larry who always inspired me and asked me the right questions. Actually, Larry just talked to me again and offered that he could produce one of the future albums. He knows a lot about music. He asked me the right questions. Hanging out with Billy Flynn was great. Man, Billy is like an encyclopedia of blues and roots music. I kept collaborating with Deitra Farr. I had Deitra Farr and Tad Robinson as guests on my Soul Gift album.
I have to point out my partner Alex Schultz. I played my first show with Alex in 2002 or so. A bit earlier I met Enrico Crivellaro. Both great, great guitarists and up until now I used both of them in my group, Raphael Wressnig & The Soul Gift Band. Basically, Enrico does most of the shows now and I’ve been working with him for fourteen years. Back then if Enrico couldn’t do a festival show I asked Alex. We kept working together and he was a guest on some of my early recordings. Soul Gift was a concept album and I would say this album really defined my style. We brought in two great, great vocalists (Deitra & Tad) who penned a few vocal tracks and the other tracks were catchy instrumentals. I’m pretty comfortable and proud in the role of playing the leads. Alex makes the guitar sing and it is just beautiful to listen to him. Dig the instrumental version of Freddie King’s Same Old Blues on Soul Gift.
I have to mention “Sax” Gordon at this point. He is one of the feature guests on Soul Gift and a lot of my recordings for that matter. He is the person who introduced me to Igor Prado. Gordon is a phenomenal player and it’s just so much fun to work and tour with him.
DM: I would like to talk about The Igor Prado band in a bit, but first let’s talk about your Soul Gumbo album.
RW: Thanks for bringing that up, Dave. I cut that record in New Orleans. This one is another concept album. In Europe a lot of people categorize and the jazz and blues scene don’t necessarily intertwine. There is the jazz audience and the blues crowd and there are some younger folks that are into funk. If you hang out in New Orleans there is just a lot of music that is funky and groovy, there is r&b, blues, soul and funk. In my music I want to blend all these styles and for this reason I wanted to record in New Orleans and I wanted to record my songs and add some spices.
I used one of the funkiest drummers, New Orleans’ own Stanton Moore and we brought in r&b master Walter “Wolfman” Washington on guitar. My former mentor Larry Garner drove down from Baton Rouge and I flew in Craig Handy from New York City. Craig is another artist who I’ve been working for years. Eric Zawinul, jazzman Joe Zawinul’s son was booking my group for a while and put me in touch with Craig.
Both of us share the love for the grooves and vibes from New Orleans. It was obvious for me to bring in Craig. It had to be Alex Schultz on guitar again since he had a cool history with New Orleans. He has been backing Earl King with the Mighty Flyers in the 90s and his mum’s family was originally from New Orleans. We had a lot of fun and sparks were flying during those two days we cut the record at the Music Shed Studios in the Lower Garden District in New Orleans.
DM: You describe yourself as a multi-genre artist. I guess that is fairly self-explanatory, but you are welcome to elaborate on this concept. As you alluded to, I don’t think you can talk about New Orleans music without mentioning this aspect of music and how you relate to music in general.
RW: I guess one reason that I came up with this amalgamation and fusion of styles is that I wanted to show different colors and flavors. We are talking about instrumental music mostly and still I want to entertain the listener. Our live shows are pretty powerful and high-voltage, but I like to change the pace and shift gears, but I also want to take them on a trip. Nowadays my music is pretty groovy, a good amount of Boogaloo beats, soul and funk.
A lot of modern blues acts blend a lot of styles and sometimes I’m lacking a deep and raw feel for the blues. We might not play a lot of lowdown blues tunes, but if we do, we “do” get down. I want to dig deep and discover the essence of each groove and style to offer different flavors and I want them to be intense.
DM: Let’s talk about your association with Igor and his band. How did you meet? How did the idea for this project start?
RW: I see music as a universal language and I love communicating with people who speak the same dialect. That’s a key aspect of the collaboration with Igor Prado and the guys from Brazil.
As I mentioned before Sax “Gordon” Beadle put us in touch. All three of us have put out soul records. Igor had Blues & Soul Sessions out, I released Soul Gift and Gordon had released Showtime. We all teamed up to perform at Poretta Soul Festival in Italy. For me it was just great to meet up with a young man that is my age from another part of the world playing the same styles so well. Igor invited me to guest on Way Down South which came out on the Delta Groove Music label out of Los Angeles and pretty soon we had a bunch of tours together. I toured with him in Chile and Brazil and we had some tours in Europe. We had two days off in Sao Paulo and just a couple of days before leaving for Brazil Igor called me and asked me if I was into recording something. We booked a studio and rented a B-3 for one day. We cut most of the tracks in one day. Another afternoon recording in Igor’s studio and the record was done. We recorded, produced, mixed and mastered this album. So, this really is some homegrown stuff. We are pretty proud of The Soul Connection.
DM: As you should be...It is simply a stunning album and one we listen to around here frequently. Let’s talk about Igor, Rodrigo and Yuri as musicians.
RW: I want to focus on Rodrigo and Yuri. The guitarist gets a lot of spotlight, but a lot of people forget about the rhythm section. The whole thing was only possible because of the band and the rhythm section was nothing but outstanding. You won’t be able to cut an album in one day and do just two takes per track. Only absolute masters of the genre and the instrument can pull that off. I love the recording and I love this band because it is absolutely clear that they know all these styles so well. They are perfectionists even though some things are loose and dirty. Especially in that music grease and dirt is the key. Yuri knows all the New Orleans and funk beats, yet he swings like hell. This is very, very rare. I love when musicians have a unique style.
DM: In addition to your recording career, you are quite the road warrior.
RW: That’s what I do Dave. I’m on the road with my steady group all year. Mostly we go out as a six piece which includes two horns, a guitar, a singer and myself on the B-3. Most of the songs or two thirds of the repertoire are instrumentals and we do the vocal tracks of my albums. Occasionally we go out as an organ trio. We do a bunch of tours with Deitra Farr guesting with my band and then I have the tours with Igor. We tour in Latin America and in Europe and beyond. Last year we played in Russia. Pretty much I take the music that I record on the road.
DM: What interests and or hobbies do you have outside of music?
RW: I love traveling, I love being on the coast. It doesn’t matter if it is Croatia, Italy or Spain. It doesn’t matter if I’m in Europe or Brazil or Mexico. It’s great to spent time on the seaside. I love the mountains as well. I live in Austria, so it is natural for me to go mountaineering or skiing.
DM: What would you like people to know about you?
RW: I would like people to know that I love to share ideas, thoughts and concepts. Music is one of the most beautiful things in life. It brings people together. It is my vehicle to communicate, to show feelings, colors and flavors. I think I will never get bored creating and tasting these flavors.
DM: What should I have asked you?
RW: You didn’t ask me about my motto.
DM: Hell, I didn’t even know you had a motto. Let ‘er rip.
RW: “Laying it deep, playing for keeps. Live long, party strong!” Thank you so much David for the support and for taking the time to do this interview. It was a big pleasure for me.
DM: The pleasure was all mine, Raphael. Take care my friend. Dammit, I need to get me a motto.
Raphael Wressnig / Enrico Crivellaro / Alex Schultz / Igor Prado / Yuri Prado / Rodrigo Mantovani / Sax Gordon Beadle / Graziano Uliani
David Mac - BLUES JUNCTION Productions

06/28/2025

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT COMING SOON ABOUT THE RELAUNCH OF BLUES JUNCTION PRODUCTIONS! Keep checking this site or David Mac's personal page. For current mailing address, feel free to message this page.

Send a message to learn more

06/28/2025

Today I Sing the Blues by Unna and The Helge Tallqvist Band

“Music is what makes this world a better place and I just want to be a part of that.” – Unna Kortehisto

Thank you, Unna. We need that right about now, in a big way.
"Today I Sing the Blues" is the latest project brought forth by Finnish blues harp man Helge Talqvist. Like some previous efforts, perhaps most notably, Ina Forsman from ten years ago, who he recorded and brought out to the Doheny Blues Festival where the shined like the warm California sun. From there she carried Helge and the rest of the huge crowd at that festival on her slim shoulders. It was one of the biggest audience reactions I have seen in the twenty plus years I have attended that particular event.

Tallqvist has an eye for YOUNG talent. He seems to understand that the energy, vitality and spirit embodied by youth simply can’t be replicated or duplicated.

On "Today I Sing the Blues" Unna delivers ten blues covers that are performed with passion, sans the vocal histrionics that often mare female blues performances these days. This indicates a maturity that belies her 23 years here on this planet. Her voice is up to the task and her phrasing is spot on.

The band demonstrates true teamwork, as they present a classic ensemble sound. The type of playing that only the true masters of the blues seem to understand. It is the way this music was meant to be played, old school, with a master’s degree. Understated, articulated excellence is how I would describe their presentation here.
The band is led by Tallqvist whose sturdy harmonica is up in the mix. His fills are sublime and he never overstays his welcome. His influences, which include George “Harmonica” Smith and William Clarke can be heard in his playing.

Guitarist, Jonne Kulluvaara plays with a sophisticated tone and taste throughout the proceedings. The set closes with Wes Montgomery’s “In and Out.” The inclusion of this mid-60s’ Montgomery masterpiece, albeit one of his lesser-known numbers, is here apparently just in case you missed what I was referring to during the previous nine songs.

The rhythm section of bassist Jaska Prepula and drummer Juppo Paavola never stray from the pocket, yet their various inflections are in service of the almighty deity, which of course is swing.
The song selection and sequencing are exceptional. Anson Funderburg once told me, “Never record a lousy tune. The best vocalist and best musicians can never overcome a bad song.” Unna, Helge and this band never had that challenge on Today I Sing the Blues.

They chose some tunes I haven’t heard in years and that have not been covered to death. The occasional ballad sits between up-tempo shuffles, from the pen of Lavelle White, Sugar Pie Desanto, lesser-known songwriter, Joy Beyers and others. These are given the Unna and Helge Talqvist band treatment.
The album was recorded and mixed at Tomi Leino’s Suprovox Studios in Helsinki.

"Today I Sing the Blues" is a welcome addition to the BLUES JUNCTION Library and will be engaging my ears and heart with some frequency. I hope Unna sings the blues tomorrow and the next day as well. But who knows where this talented Helsinki native will take her chops next? We are lucky to have her here in the summer of 2025. Thanks Unna, Helge and company for making my world a better place.
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I dedicate this review to the memory of Juppo Paavola who died at the age of 49, shortly after this album was recorded last year.
- David Mac BLUES JUNCTION Productions

09/30/2024

Today would have been Nick Curran's 47th birthday; an amazing artist, gone too soon. Here is our tribute to him, originally posted in 2012.
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On Saturday, 0ctober 6th the blues world was rocked by the tragic news that Nick Curran had succumbed to cancer and passed away at the age of 35.

I think most of our readers here at BLUES JUNCTION can remember, depending on their age, where they were when they heard that Hollywood Fats, Stevie Vaughan, Lester Butler, Marco Fiume or Sean Costello had died. These all were men, in their thirties, whose lives held such promise that their passing seemed particularly cruel.

The death of Nick Curran falls squarely in this category. It is a blow which has left many of us with the feeling that we are likely to never completely recover.

For me, Saturday, October 6th, started with an absolutely glorious sunrise. I took advantage of the beautiful weather and good mood to take an extended bicycle ride around Newport Beach’s Back Bay. Many of the things that make life so enjoyable and rewarding were on display. The smell of sage and manzanita was making its way into my nostrils and into my consciousness. I could see water fowl gliding gracefully over the coastal wetlands. As I rolled through the path that circumvented the bay, other people were also getting their blood pumping and lungs filled with oxygen. They strolled, hiked, jogged and biked, all with a relaxed purpose. Some of life’s simplest yet more rewarding pleasures were ours for the taking.

I ended up at a small blues program at the nearby Orange County Fairgrounds that featured three local bands. I found myself in the company of several friends. When I left the show, I decided to take a circuitous route home, so I could enjoy a few extra miles of California coastal vistas before reaching my destination.

By the time I got home, I felt that exuberant feeling that comes from fresh air and a vigorous workout. I felt as healthy and alive as any 55 year old, 250 pound lard ass can feel. I was in the middle of a wonderful day that was about to come crashing down around me.

The moment I walked in the door my phone rang. It was Fred Kaplan. The great pianist told me that Nick Curran had died.

I had heard in recent days that Nick was in pretty bad shape, but to me the little guy was a larger than life super hero and I never processed this information objectively. I didn’t, for a minute, think that this young man was going to leave us, at least not this soon. I was foolishly optimistic. I had just days earlier discussed the gravity of his health problems with some of Nick’s close friends and musical colleagues from Austin. The news of his death however was still a shock.

At this moment I was glad that I had left my electronic tethers behind for several hours and didn’t find out about Nick’s passing through the 21st century town crier, Facebook or, God forbid, a text message.

Even though I didn’t know Nick as well as many of our readers, I valued the times I spent with him. He was twenty years my junior, yet a guy I could relate to on several levels and a dude who I couldn’t on several others.

He was a titan of toughness and a guitar wielding bad ass without peer. He had a voice that cut a dangerous swath through a room as easily as it tore through generations of fans who found different aspects of his music in which they could identify. I don’t know of anyone for instance who cites T-Bone Walker and the Ramones as primary influences. His vocals are often compared to Little Richard’s, but if you listen closely you will also hear lots of Rosco Gordon, Amos Milburn and Wynonie Harris in Nick’s singing. He was not trying to summon these voices from the past. He was just Nick being Nick. He was the future and that future seemed bright.

Nick didn’t wallow in the self-aggrandizing hyperbole in which so many so called blues musicians engage. Unlike Nick, these posers often say that they are reinventing the blues or moving the music forward as if they are doing us a favor. The reality is they are actually making a thinly disguised public apology, cloaked in self-serving bu****it, in an attempt to distract the public from their own lack of talent. Nick let his music speak for itself and it spoke volumes. He was a humble man who I believe wasn’t fully aware of his awesome gifts. His modesty was incredibly refreshing.

Nick had talent to spare and wielded that talent relentlessly with exuberance and abandon. He was able to move beyond the genre of the blues and make music that suited his muse and did so without apology or hand wringing. He never played or sang a note that had even the smallest scintilla of compromise. He did things his way.

Nick had a persona as well as a personality. The different public images and fashion sensibilities he sported often didn’t comport with his demeanor, which at times could be almost shy, reserved, thoughtful and respectful.

The first time I met Nick was August 25, 2001. He was playing at a wonderful event called Blues on the Bay at an American Legion Hall in Newport Beach, CA. It was the first time Nick had played at a blues festival. An hour or so before he was to take the stage someone introduced Nick to me. I found the 24 year old musician to be engaging, intelligent and sporting a dry sense of humor.

On this day Nick was wearing a brown suit, brown shirt, brown neck tie and a brown kerchief in his suit coat. He was also wearing brown loafers and brown knee socks. How I know this is that he was also wearing brown shorts that matched his sport coat. His sartorial splendor had some scratching their heads. As he told me, and as I suspected, his fashion sense on this afternoon was homage to young B.B. King. He was also sporting a very impressive pompadour that was a spectacular study in grooming prowess. I was, however, with my brother on this day and we were holding court and engaging in an animated conversation that neither of us thought was going to be interrupted by the music of little Lord Fauntleroy.

We were on an outside patio when Nick and his band the Nightlifes started playing. Our heads snapped as we looked at one another with our mouths agape. We raced into the room and stood in the middle of a half empty dance floor. Tears welled up in our eyes as we were in one of those very rare moments where the product came as advertised. Here was a young man whose singing, playing, choice of material and accompaniment all meshed together to create that elusive sound discriminating blues fans crave. We can live our entire lives hoping to find, anticipate and ultimately be disappointed at the music that is being tossed in our direction that is, at its very best, mediocre and yet touted as greatness. There was nothing mediocre about Nick Curran. On that Saturday afternoon eleven years ago, I became a Nick Curran devotee.

I was fortunate to be able to catch up with Nick at the 2002 Doheny Blues Festival where he played guitar with The Hollywood Blue Flames. Over the next couple of years, I was privileged to catch him play at the world famous Blue Café on a couple of occasions. He then took some of the pressure off of himself that comes with fronting his own band and joined the Fabulous Thunderbirds for a spell. I was able to again hear the amazing guitar of Nick Curran in a band that was older than he was when he played with them at the Doheny Blues Festival in 2007.

Most recently I caught up with Nick when he played at Art Martel’s 50th Birthday bash in October of 2010. He had been diagnosed with cancer just months earlier and had gone through chemotherapy, but by late summer he was given a clean bill of health and was back on the road. This was the last stop on his tour.

Nick proceeded to tear the place apart. He seemed to embrace tradition and thumb his nose at that notion all at the same time. He brought something fresh, exciting and new to the bandstand. More importantly he brought quality musicianship to the stage that was also fun.

On the way back to Texas, Nick’s van broke down out in the Arizona desert. He was cooling his heels somewhere outside of Tucson. I learned of his predicament on Facebook. I sent him a private message thanking him for a great show. I also thought to myself, why can’t this guy catch a break? Here is a young man whose father passed away right around the time he was diagnosed with cancer. Now the poor dude is exhausted and stranded in the middle of the Sonoran desert just trying to get home. I wished him good luck.

Nick didn’t get much of that as his cancer returned and on Saturday, October 6, 2012, we lost a true American original. His death was a reminder, as if we need it, of the fragility of life. For me Nick’s passing is also a wakeup call as to how lucky we are to be able to enjoy another sunrise, smell the roses (or sage and manzanita) and be able to listen to great music.

On the evening of October 6th, a spectacular sunset blazed across the western sky. The wispy light clouds that hung over the Pacific Ocean turned a deep red and seemed to hold off the inevitable darkness that was to come. It was as if Nick was saying, “I’m not done with you yet.” He wasn’t. I turned on a Nick Curran album. I walked outside and sat down on the front porch. I listened to Nick’s music as darkness finally enveloped the sky.

- David Mac