PAUL LAMB & THE KINGSNAKES

Sanctuary Records CMEDD 701
 

Line up: (a) CD1, tracks 1-3: The Blues Burglars: Bill Sharp (voc), Paul Lamb (hca), Johnny Whitehill (gtr), P.J. White (bass), Ed Bowman (b) CD1, tracks 4-6: Paul Lamb & The Kingsnakes: Johnny D (slide gtr/voc), Paul Lamb (hca), Johnny Whitehill (gtr), Dave Stevens (bass), Alan Save (drums) (c) CD1, tracks 7-10: Paul Lamb & The Kingsnakes: Chad Strentz (gtr/voc), Paul Lamb (hca), Johnny Whitehill (gtr), Dave Stevens (bass), Daniel Strittmatter (drums) (d) CD1, tracks 11-16 + CD2, tracks 2-6: Paul Lamb & The Kingsnakes: Chad Strentz (gtr/voc), Paul Lamb (hca), Johnny Whitehill (gtr), Jim Mercer (bass), Martin Deegan (drums) (e) CD2, track 1: Bravado: Paul Lamb (hca), Paul Riordan (gtr/kbds/programming), Martin Febia (slide gtr), Tania Evans & Betty Anne Sempra (voc) (f) CD2, tracks 7-10: Paul Lamb & The Kingsnakes: Chad Strentz (gtr/voc), Paul Lamb (hca), Johnny Whitehill (gtr), Jim Mercer (bass), Sonny Below (drums) (g) CD2, tracks 11-16: Paul Lamb & The Kingsnakes: Earl Green (voc), Paul Lamb (hca), Johnny Whitehill (gtr), Rod Demick (bass), Sonny Below (drums), plus Steve Weston (pno) (h) CD2, tracks 17-21: Paul Lamb & The Kingsnakes: Earl Green (voc), Paul Lamb (hca), Johnny Whitehill (gtr), Rod Demick (bass), Sonny Below (drums)

So, just what is it that makes Paul Lamb & The Kingsnakes Europe's premier Blues band? How about sheer hard work? ...how about an intuitive understanding of the way to combine musical ability and entertainment? ...how much am I being paid?!

As you'd expect from a man from the North-East, Paul is the soul of pragmatism: "I started on the bottom rung and I'm getting up that ladder. I don't know how big the ladder is... if I reach whatever goal it is, that's what it is. I'm just happy that I'm playing the music that I love playing, and making a living out of it. I've stayed with The Blues all the way through... I just keep on doing it... I'll be doing this 'til I drop." Ahm, death! The ultimate career move.

But wait! There's lots more to accomplish for someone, at most, only halfway through his life. More albums, more tours, more awards for lifetime achievements from people who didn't know you existed before your name was engraved on the cup. And Paul has the self-discipline to identify new goals and work towards them, to consolidate his craft and refine its presentation. "What I'm after is that the band has its own individual style, its own sound. I'm never satisfied, so you're always striving for something else, trying to better yourself and move on. I didn't for once think when I was younger that I would achieve what I have done now."

When he was younger. That would be in Blyth, Northumberland, ten miles up the coast from the Tyne, not far to take the coals to Newcastle and as good a place as any to learn about The Blues. Turns out Paul's granddad, a merchant seaman, played the harmonica, regaling the family with waltzes and polkas, and his father and his aunts could play the piano in an untutored way. So you could say music was sort of laying in wait for him. The defining moment came when he heaerd John Mayall's 1967 solo album, The Blues Alone, and also Crusade, where John championed some of his Blues heroes. Paul checked out the composer credits and set out on his own exploration of the music.

He encountered the burning bush one day in a junk shop, where he turned up a copy of Brownie McGhee & Sonny Terry Sing. Paul recalls: "When I heard it, I was hooked. I had to play that record all the time, just playing it over and over. I just lived Sonny Terry, lived and breathed him, and that was it." Well, not quite. Paul's study of Terry may have been a daily habit, but he also listened to Noah Lewis and DeFord Bailey, Jaybird Colemand and Jazz Gillum - and, of course, the original Sonny Boy Williamson. Once he discovered the Hohner Echo Super Vamper and began to bend his notes, there was no stopping him.

"We did a lot of parties and jumping around, and the Sonny Terry style was fantastic for that. Sonny's style is a music on its own." The 'we' included his mate Paul Short on the guitar. They put together a set and began to tour the Folk clubs in the area, ranging further afield as the word got around. Paul was twenty when he entered a harmonica competition announced in Soundss. As a result he was asked to represent Britain in a harmonica championship to be held in Offenburg, in Germany. The Brits won the team competition, and Paul came second to Chris Turner in the diatonic section.

He returned to the Folk clubs, but he'd been bitten by the Blues bug. His music commitments were already affecting his daytime job as a painter and decorator, but he couldn't see a way of turning professional as he was paying a mortage and supporting a family. Life went on for a few years and Paul began to realise that his only was forward was to join a band. But for that he'd have to play amplified, for which his Terry-based style would be of little use. So he began to listen to Muddy Waters' records, catching up with players like Little Walter, Jimmy Cotton and Big Walter Horton. "And I loved Big Walter's style. When I heard that tone, that full, big-chorded sound, that's when I was going for that."

There was a band called Smokestack Lightnin' who mixed Chicago Blues with some Soul and a bit of Rock. Their guitarist, Johnny Whitehill, recalled, "I met Paul in the pub and we talked and had a drink, and he joined the band. It wasn't long before he had all the Sould and Rock s tuff out of it, and we introduced more Blues." Over the years he and Paul would develop an instinctual partnership: "It's not really talked about," says Paul, "it just happened. We don't discuss it... he knows what I'm going to play and he backs me right. And it's the same for me when he's playing... I know where he's heading. He grew up the same way as me. He was listening to guitarists in the same way I was listening to harmonica players."

Over time, Smokestack Lightnin' mutated into Barfly (their personnel at one stage included former Animals' drummer John Steele), who were in turn merely a staging post before they evolved again, with members of the R&B Spitfires, into The Blues Burglars, a band whom Paul fronted, alongside singer Billy Sharp. The Burglars began to carve out a big reputation in the North-East, and during this period Paul gradually got his first regular experience of working with and playing alongside some genuine living Blues legends, when the band alternately opened for or backed touring US Bluesman like his hero Sonny Terry Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Phil Guy, Lowell Fulson, Carey Bell and Louisiana Red.

The Blues Burglas hung together for four years and in 1986 they recorded their first album, Breaking In, for Red Lightning, which included songs like 'Whoopin'' and 'Sugar Mama'. in 1988 they cut an unissued second album, tracks from which - including 'Firing Line' - would later appear on an Indigo reissue, Whoopin'. As time went on, it became clear that The Burglars would have to relocate to London in order to take advantage of their increasing fame. But in the end it turned out that only Paul and Johnny were prepared to make the move, which they duly did.

(Story and interview continued in the CD booklet.)

Neil Slaven

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