Sugar Ray And The Bluetones are widely considered to be one of the biggest, brightest attractions in the greater-Boston/New England blues scene. And although they haven’t played regularly in New Hampshire since the Rynborn in Antrim closed down, many blues fans north of the border must treasure them. They’re headlining the Granite State Blues Society’s Barnful Of Blues Festival this summer, August 1, in New Boston, New Hampshire.
“I am looking forward to it,” band leader Sugar Ray Norcia said. “I just realized it’s on August first, first day of August. It’s a great way to bring August in.”
In the band’s 35 years, Norcia and his band have played in New Hampshire quite a bit through the years but lately not that much. “The Rynborn. We used to regulars there for a while,” he said. “I’m a country boy so I love the hills and countryside of Vermont and New Hampshire. That part of it really intrigues me. The fans too are loyal. I notice the same fan base each year whenever I play in the New Hampshire area. I notice a lot of familiar faces that have checked us out through year, and that’s a nice thing.”
Norcia has been drawn to the Chicago blues style his band is known for since he was about 15 years old. The first records he bought were Chicago blues, Jimmy Rogers, Muddy Waters, Walter Horton. “It’s just the sincerity of what the music sounds like to me, the story telling behind it,” Norcia said, “the amplified raw sound, especially in the early days when they were first amplifying guitar and harmonica. It grew into some deep sounding stuff, and it never loses its appeal to me, the rawness, and the realness of it, and the intensity of the emotions out of a guitar or a harmonica. I love Chicago style piano as well, Otis Span. We have a piano, Anthony Geraci, who is a disciple of that school of playing that fits so well with what were doing on harmonic and guitar.”
Norcia, while still a teenager living at home, learned to play harmonica from his father. Although his dad played straight harp, box tunes, country songs, and campfire tunes as opposed to the bent notes style of blues, he was a skillful musician. “He was always a hit at the parties,” Norcia said. “I wanted to aspire to be like that. Of course, when I first heard those blues records, I realized I could do a lot more on harp than my dad was doing at that time. Back then, there were not many teacher, per se, for harmonica. So, I spun records and tried to decipher it.”
Norcia’s hard study paid off. He’s been nominated for a Grammy, some Blues Music Awards, and his last Bluetones CD, Living Tear To Tear, has been very well received by fans and critics alike. Over the years, he earned the privilege of working with big names in the national blues scene. Norcia was always taken aback about how they nice they all were.
“When I was younger, it always impressed me how friendly people in the blues field are,” the Bluetones leader said. “Sometimes when you’re young and you hear stereotypical stories about guns and knifings and ice picks, murder, poisonings and all that. Then when you actually meet with some of those old time Chicago blues people, pick a name, and they’re sweethearts. They’re beautiful people. That really impressed me. I’m talking about people like B.B. King, Buddy Guy, and Stevie Ray was a friend of ours.”
Norcia attributes this kindness to the blues music they play. “It comes out in their music,” the singer-harpist said. “You can’t be a real jerk and play this kind of music. It’s emotional music. You have to have that desire to dig deep into your feelings so other people can relate to it.”
A standout memory for Norcia was born one night at Lupo’s in Providence during a tour with JB Hutto who was an honorary Bluetone at the time. “We opened up for Muddy Waters at Lupo’s,” Norcia said. “The night ended by Muddy calling most of my band up on stage to join his. I’m playing harp behind Muddy Waters. That’s got to be one of the highlights. Of course, we hung out in the dressing room afterwards. Muddy singled me out and said ‘Boy, that’s the way the harmonica’s supposed to be played. You Italians really got soul.’ Those are quotes I’ll never forget, coming from Muddy.”
Ironically, Norcia wasn’t a harmonica player in his early bands, for the first few years. His bands featured others playing harp. At around age 20, he started filling in for a harp player who kept missing gigs, making the decision for the up in the air harmonica player. “I just took it from there,” Norcia said. “I said ‘Hey, why don’t you just stay home. I’m going to play harp.’”
Amazingly, Norcia and his band mates have kept the Bluetones going strong for almost 40 years. The singer said there isn’t one particular explanation for that. “We’re all on the same page musically,” he said. “When were traveling together, we pretty much like listening to the same stuff. When were on stage, there’s five of us up there, but it feels like it’s one unit going down the highway, almost telepathically following each other. Through the years, we’ve learned to feed off each other’s licks. We get along. Most marriages don’t last that long. We haven’t had that many changes.”
The seat that’s changed the most is the guitarist. Norcia admits that he if tried to make a list of their guitarists from Ronnie Earl to current member Mike Welch he wouldn’t be able to remember all of them. Welch has been in the band for 15 years, the longest amount of time of any of their guitarists. When asked how Welch was working out, Norcia chuckled heartily.
“He passed his audition with flying colors,” Norcia quipped. “He’s the kind of guitar player I like having play behind me. He listens not only to my harmonica but to my vocal style. He’s right there supporting me all the time.”
Bass player Michael “Mudcat” Ward, who has been on more recordings with big name artists than anybody else in the band, is a legend in his own right. Drummer Neil Gouvin has been with Norcia since they were teenagers. “We’ve been together so long. I can always play each night with confidence,” Norcia said. We rehearsed at his house, his parents house. We went through the school system together. We’re like brothers.”
Pianist Anthony Geraci is a master of the overall blues piano and is secretly a good organ player, even though the Bluetones don’t bring that instrument with them often.
The biggest difference Norcia sees between where the band is at now and when they initially started is their confidence. “When you’re young, you play a song then you said ‘What do you want to do next?’ ‘I don’t know.’ ‘Let’s play something else.’ “Let’s do this.’ ‘Nah, let’s play something else.’ People see this, and it’s not professional. That’s just being young and not knowing what to do. Now, we’re able to go rolling from one song to the next, a well oiled unit.”
While the Bluetones have been pretty consistent over the years, the blues scene around them has certainly changed. “I see a lot of these blues societies and that’s a good thing,” Norcia said. “There’s a hundred of them around the country and around the world. They support a lot of shows that we’re in. Then, there’s things like the legendary blues cruise. A lot of people go out of the way to see blues bands. I also see the blues get watered down a lot. If you go to see a bluegrass bands you see accomplished musicians playing bluegrass. That’s not always the case with blues. A lot of people can label themselves a blues band but actually they’re a rock band or something else. In that way, blues has been bastardized.”
Aside from his nationally recognized harmonica chops, Norcia is also known for his distinctive voice. He said he doesn’t consciously do anything to get his smooth timbre. People told him early in his career that his voice was too smooth, too much like jazz. “I always disagreed with that,” he said. “Certainly, I’m no Howlin’ Wolf. Everybody has their own style. There are some great blues singers like T-Bone and Jimmy Rogers who have flowing, smooth vocal approaches as well.”
Norcia learned some singing techniques from his father, who he terms “a musical genius.” “I used to sit in on his lessons,” he said. “Things such as placement of your voice, tonal qualities, breathing techniques. That made a difference. When I was with Roomful Of Blues, we played 250s nights a year, singing behind a big horn section. If you’re not careful you can lose your voice, develop nodules on your vocal chords. There’s a lot of problems that can arise if you strain yourself or hurt yourself. Now, I’m 61 years old. I’ll go back and play some 45s or EP s that I recorded with Ronnie Earl in the early days. I’ll ask ‘Is that me?’ My voice was a higher register and in my opinion, it was thinner. I think it’s rounded out more, become like wine, aged.”
Norcia has been nominated for a Grammy and a few Blues Music Awards. This past year he and the Bluetones received seven nominations for that last album. That is the record for one band having the most nominations in the world. “That’s quite a recognition,” the singer said. “Three Grammy nominations too is also unheard of in blues, so I’m proud of that too. “
At one Grammy award show one year he and the other nominees had a medallion placed around their necks which the nominees are required to wear night and day. “It’s quite an honor when they see that around your neck, they treat you like you won the Olympics or something.”
Norcia also has the Nantucket Blues Festival later in the summer, a Paul Benjamin Production. The organizer puts everyone on a ferry boat to Nantucket Island where the bands play. “If it’s a nice day, I’m sure it’s going to be a beautiful setting.”
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