Continued...

(Blues Wax Interview with Pat Boyack
By Beardo)

PB: It really got difficult being a bandleader trying to make it in the music business, yet alone the Blues music business. I don't sing [not true, he sounded great singing with Marcia] and finding, then keeping, a lead vocalist is a real problem. Guys like [Smokin' Joe] Kubeck and Anson [Funderburgh] perhaps don't know how lucky they are. Spencer [Thomas, the last Prowler vocalist] informed me he was quitting and two days later my wife tells me she's pregnant. I decided I didn't want to go through finding a third frontman [Jimmy Morello was the first Prowler shouter] so I went back to banking, stayed home with my wife and waited for the baby. During that period I did four months of weekends with Soulman Greg Smith (occasionally adding Lucky Peterson) at The Velvet E. Then my daughter Savanna was born and I didn't pick up a guitar for six months. I really appreciated that time being at home with my family, playing weekends, BBQ-ing and such . When my parents came in from Salt Lake I found something strangely familiar about the hotel room when we picked them up.

BW: [laughter] Gee, I wonder why? Tell me about your relationship with Kaz.

PB: Whenever I see Bob Margolin I hafta thank him for introducing me to Kaz. In 1997 Bob suggested calling him to produce my record, Super Blue and Funky. On that CD he helped me exhibit all the styles of Blues I loved. Everything that has happened musically in my life has been either directly or indirectly due to Kaz. Then in December of 1999, during one of our phone conversations, he told me Marcia was looking for a guitarist. I bought the two most recent Marcia Ball CDs, learned the material, and auditioned with ten other guys. Here I was, I have three records out and doing my own thing and I'm not tootin' my own horn here, but I'm auditioning for a gig! Don't get me wrong, I'm not stupid...I know it's a good gig. It was a crossroads for me. It was a choice between being a banker or being an artist. I saw her band play, liked what I saw and heard but especially the range of the music. She plays almost everything, Funk, Soul, Blues, you name it. Believe me, I was getting kinda tired of the one-four-five shuffle progression and just itching to play something else. I think I made the right choice. There is professionalism to her band that my old bands never even approached. I guess you get what you pay for. With seven people's full time income involved this is serious business.

Whenever anyone asks me about the Marcia gig, I tell them I'm one lucky man. There are a lot of guys out there that would trade their 250 nights a year for this gig. I thank God for this gig and I know it could end tomorrow, I'm thankful. The sax player and I started the same night and he told me, "There are a lot of guys out there looking for you!" 'cause I was an outsider, being from Dallas and not Austin. I'm friggin' lucky to have a CD out with the guys from Doc Blues behind me, lucky to be in Marcia's band, lucky to have a great family. I'm just friggin' lucky.

BW: Yeah, you are! The music on this new CD took me completely by surprise. I guess my preconceived idea of what I was going to hear interfered with the music on the CD. POW, thrown for a loop. It took a few listens to deprogram myself and wrap my ears around what I was hearing. Did Marcia wave a magic wand over you or something? How did you, a big white guy, well, actually bordering on pink and from UTAH no less, get so soulful? Where was the guitarslinger CD I expected?

PB: I've never really been a seven-minute solo kinda guy. Listen to Super Blue and Funky and you'll hear that I was trying to do some different things even then.

BW: There is some truth in that. After just listening to all three Prowler CDs this past weekend, I see what you mean. I'll admit that the songs I remembered from those recordings were all straight up Blues. It's the ones I didn't remember that surprised me. It was the start of your metamorphosis.

PB: If I would have done two more records between Super Blue and Funky and this one you would have probably heard a more natural progression and not have been so surprised. I wasn't under any pressure to put more shuffles or more guitar on this record or to tour. It's been seven years since my last record and I didn't feel I had to live up to anyone's standards but my own. The depth of it is more powerful than how many notes I can play.

BW: I noticed the Gil Scott Heron reference in the intro, "The Revolution Will Be LIVE," what's that from?

PB: An old Patti LaBelle record that I always thought was cool....I've never heard of Gil Scott-Heron.


BW: Perhaps Gil Scott-Heron never penetrated the white bread interior of Utah back in the "70s and you were probably too young anyway. I'll send you the song as it really demonstrates the feeling you were going for. I do know KISS was big in Utah. Did your parents let you do the mandatory Gene Simmons tongue exercises when you were a kid? [At this point Pat unleashes a grotesque slab of pinkness that reaches below his chin, and still manages to talk at the same time]

PB: I thing nat ansers na quesion.

BW: Your wife must be so proud.

PB: The reason we sampled that revolution part was a small political statement about war and the way any sitting president will use or misuse information as fact, to drum up support for their war. But I didn't want to comment too much on that. My record is about the hard working blue-collar people of every community that aren't able to, or even know what investing in a 401(k) is. They just want to make a comfortable home for their family and send their kids to school. We've lost sight of that completely, starting with the Reagan administration, when the corporate system began showing its true colors. The middle class, the people that actually go out and work, started getting squeezed out and became poorer and poorer. Insurance companies that are charging too much for insurance, the price of medical treatment and medicine itself, is skyrocketing, CEOs doing things that are patently illegal. This record is about those people who work hard every day and are getting screwed. Like Charles Barkley said on Bill Mahr's show, "Black people don't necessarily want to get rich; they just want to make a living to send their kids to school and continue to improve their lives."

BW: That WAS the American Dream, wasn't it?

PB: And what it still should be, that's why this record is Voices From The Street.

BW: Not exactly a strictly Blues record...

PB: I'm not even sure I am a Blues artist anymore. I've always wanted to play guitar to provoke a feeling and I think I've done that on this record. It was such a privilege and a pleasure to work in the studio with all these people. You've heard the record. Guys like you, writers, will determine if that's Blues or not.

BW: OK, that remains to be seen. Defining what is or isn't Blues these days is a full time job with little expectation of reward.

Beardo is a contributing editor at BluesWax. Beardo may be contacted at blueswax@visnat.com.

Pat Boyack's - Voices From The Street