By Jim Carnes - Sacramento Bee Staff Writer
April 13, 2007
Ron Thompson is a name-dropper. John Lee Hooker. Sonny Rhodes. Johnny Heartsman. Big Mama Thornton. Phil Givant. Mel Brown. Chris Isaak. Luther Tucker. Mick Fleetwood. Jimmy Reed. Especially Jimmy Reed.
But it's not as if he's trying to impress. The blues guitarist and songwriter is just filling in his past. That, and most times, he'd rather talk about them than about himself.
They talk about him, too. Isaak calls him "one of the last living blues legends," and Tom Mazzolini, founder of the San Francisco Blues Festival, said Thompson "is the most talented blues guitarist I've ever seen."
Thompson, who was Hooker's band leader for seven years before forming his own band, will celebrate the release of his latest CD, "Resonator," at the Torch Club on Saturday. Although he'll be performing with a bass player and a drummer, "Resonator" was a one-man show. Thompson played guitar -- a 1937 National steel, Type O -- then recorded vocals, mandolin, harmonica and piano, and mixed the music himself. The result is an amazing, mainly acoustic mix of traditional blues ballads and boogies.
"That ('Resonator') was a new thing for me to do," Thompson said in a recent telephone interview from his Bay Area home. "I'm kind of quirky. I don't do things the same way all the time, so when I'd go to overdub a piano, say, it didn't always match. It was kind of difficult.
"But, man, I love that National steel guitar. I always liked those guitars, and it took me a long time to get one."
On "Resonator," Thompson performs 13 songs, 11 of which he wrote. They range from funky to boogie-woogie and gospel. "Room for One More Sinner" -- simply steel strings, tapping foot and raspy vocal -- is reminiscent of ancient rural blues and one of the finest gospel blues songs you're likely to hear.
"I love gospel music. I like country that's got a little blues in it. Like Jimmie Rodgers -- 'the original singing brakeman' -- 'In the Jailhouse Now' -- stuff like that. I like jazz. Eric Gale -- he was great -- jazz but kind of based in the blues.
"I basically like a lot of stuff."
"I play a little piano," Thompson said. "You ever heard of Little Willie Littlefield? He wrote the original 'Kansas City' (recorded as "K.C. Lovin'"). That guy was the baddest boogie-woogie piano player. Next to him, I really play a little piano."
Thompson learned piano from his mother when he was 7. She "played honky-tonk music where you bent the notes, you know. I wanted to play piano like Fats Domino, and then when I was about 10, my sister came home with a Jimmy Reed record, and that's what changed my life. I switched to guitar basically because of Jimmy Reed."
Reed was born in Mississippi in 1925 and died in Oakland in 1976.
Thompson met the man who had inspired him "and a lot of people I knew" before he died. "Jimmy Reed was one of the great crossover artists," Thompson said. "In the '60s, his music really transcended different ethnic groups and musical divisions." Reed's song "Big Boss Man" was named by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 500 songs that shaped rock 'n' roll. One of the Rolling Stones' first recordings (in 1964) was a cover of Reed's "Honest I Do."
Thompson began playing professionally right out of high school, when he was recruited by a North Richmond bluesman known as Cool Papa.
"He had made records in the '50s, and he got me my first job playing in black clubs when I was just out of high school. I played a lot of black clubs in the East Bay and around. I played at Mr. Boston's in Sacramento in the '70s.
"At the same time I was doing those gigs, on weekdays I was playing acoustic solo shows in little clubs around. Then I hooked up with John Lee Hooker, and I got to tour nationally -- internationally -- and I met some amazing musicians through that band. I met Eddie Taylor, a really good guitarist. And Hubert Sumner, he gave me tips. I played with Robert Jr. Lockwood and Luther Tucker, and one of the greatest guitar players of all time, Johnny Heartsman." (Sacramentan Heartsman died Dec. 27, 1997. Givant, founder of the Sacramento Blues Festival, who booked Thompson here in the early years of the festival, died Jan. 5, 2002.)
Thompson's concerts are passionate, exhilarating, inspiring. Guitar magazine described him as "a mind-blowing talent." Real Blues magazine declared him "one of the top five blues greats in the world today" and in 2004 named him best West Coast blues slide guitarist and best live West Coast blues act.
"I really try to put a show on. I don't look at my watch and wonder 'When is this thing gonna be over?' I'm on. If people put their money out, they want to see something special. Like a movie that you get enthralled in, and for that short time, you're without time and space.
"I always remember what Big Mama Thornton used to say: 'Play your soul, baby.' "