BILL SIMS JR. & MARK LAVOIE Source: Blues Wax Date: 01/2009 Writer: Mark Goodman

Bill Sims, Jr. and Mark LaVoie have been playing together for more than fifteen years. Their style is reminiscent of the great duo of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. LaVoie actually spent a few years traveling with Terry as his driver and occasional onstage guest. Also, in the vain of Terry and McGhee, Bill Sims has been active on the stage both as a performer and composer.

Although both of these artists were born and raised far from the Mississippi Delta, they have embraced its musical heritage. Their individual stories are as different as the color of their skin, yet, as it should be, only the music is relevant. Their latest self-titled release will immerse you in the rich musical history that is Delta Blues.

Mark Goodman for BluesWax: Tell me a little about your background, where you're from and how you ended up in New York?

Bill Sims, Jr: My parents were from Georgia, but moved to Ohio in 1946, where I was born a few years later. I grew up in and around Marion and played in a lot of bands. I played in Country & Western, some Bluegrass, some Folk, but mostly Blues bands. When I got old enough to drive, I would go into Chicago where I was exposed to that music scene. In 1976, when the music scene kind of peaked in Ohio I moved to New York City.

BW: How did you get involved with Lackawanna Blues and Santiago Hudson?

BS: We did a play together in 1997 called Deep Down. During breaks - you know there are a lot of breaks when you are doing theater - we would hang around together. He played harmonica and loved Blues and I would play guitar. He said he had a project he was working on called Lackawanna Blues. He asked if I was interested in working on it, and I said sure. We worked on that play for almost two years. [Bill Sims wrote the music for Deep Down and Lackawanna Blues.]

BW: Was the stage something you aspired to or another outlet for your music?

BS: When I was at Ohio State I was a Theater Composition major. I played piano mostly at that time and I wrote music for dance and theater. I took some theater courses, anything to do with the arts. I wanted to understand how it worked.

BW: You recently worked on the movie Cadillac Records, the story of Leonard Chess. Tell me about that experience.

BS: Well, it was a great experience. I had gotten a call from Steve York and he asked if I would come in and coach some of the actors. You know, so they look like their actually playing. Jeffrey Wright is playing Muddy Waters, Mos Def is Chuck Berry, and Cedric The Entertainer is playing Willie Dixon. While I was there they ask me if I wanted to be in the movie. I said, "Sure!" I was Muddy Waters' bass player in one scene and piano player in another. I also did the music for the Stovall Plantation recordings because I could play in that style. The electric guitar work had been done by Billy Flynn, while Kim Wilson did the harmonica work. I also did the playing for Muddy Waters' and Little Walter's first meeting.

BW: Sounds like a very good movie.

BS: I think it is! The actors do their own singing and fans will be amazed how much they sound like the original. Beyonce Knowles does "At Last" by Etta James and is just killing it.

BW: Mark, tell me about your roots. Are you originally from Vermont?

Mark LaVoie: Yes. I'm from Bristol, Vermont, a little rural town in the foothills of the Green Mountains.

BW: I understand you are actively involved in workshops to preserve and promote the harmonica. Tell me a little about your program and your affiliation with Middlebury College.

ML: Bill and I did a performance there and Professor Peter Hamlin asked me to come on board as part of the applied faculty and teach harmonica. Through this whole obsession with the harmonica I designed different size combs for different sounds and actually came up with one made from titanium. This was about 1997, and people like Kim Wilson and Junior Wells started playing it. Then I went back to wood for its distinctive sound. I use Vermont maple that I soak in beeswax. It just gives me the sound I'm looking for and works well with what we are doing.

BW: Are you familiar with the Blues Foundation's "Blues in the Schools" program that introduces school children to the Blues? Sounds like you would be a perfect fit.

BS: I would love to do that! I've done that on my own in and around New York, especially in the elementary schools.

BW: Tell me about your relationship with Sonny Terry.

ML: When I first started playing harmonica, I looked into what Sonny Terry was doing. I liked his style, and also Paul Butterfield. I was playing for about three years and was really focused on Sonny Terry. Then in the fall of 1974 he had a performance in Plattsburg, Vermont. It was the first time I had seen him live and it was the thrill of my life at that time. Then about a year later I went to Nashville. They were playing there for a whole week. I got to go backstage and talk with him and Brownie McGhee. Before I left he said, "Give me your phone number, I might need a driver someday."

After they were done in Nashville they were headed to Dallas. Sonny just had a new 1975 Caprice delivered and said he needed help driving and did I want to go. That's how that whole thing got started. Then about a year later his wife called and said he needed a driver so I flew to Atlanta and spent the next fours months with Sonny Terry.

BW: How did you two get together? Tell me about your first meeting.

BS: I was doing a winter festival in Burlington, Vermont. I was using a local band and one night they brought Mark up. We were doing electric stuff, but I like the natural sound of the harmonica. We started talking about doing some gigs together in and around Vermont and that's how started. In a two-man format, it works great. I want to concentrate on singing the song and Mark does all the orchestrations and solos and it just worked perfectly.

BW: Did you start working together right away or did it take a while?

ML: We started working together right away. We played pretty steady for about a year, and then Bill got involved with A Love Story. We took a break, stayed in touch on the phone, and then brought it back in 2003. To us, this is what Blues is all about, just one or two guys on the stage telling a story with their music.

BW: Bill, as long as Mark mentioned the PBS series A Love Story, tell me about it.

BS: PBS and American Playhouse wanted to do a story on a biracial couple. They originally wanted three couples, but the other two had time constraints, but we had none. They decided to go with just one, so they lived with us for almost two years. We always had lights set up in our house and they would go on the road with me when I went to Vermont to play with Mark. It was just about growing up in America at that time. They spent a lot of time with my daughters to see how they came out of the situation. It was a great experience for all of us.

BW: Bill, you live in New York and Mark in Vermont, how does the separation affect your playing schedule?

BS: We aren't really playing that much right now. We're concentrating on getting our name out there and trying to go international with our music. We've recently connected with Delta Groove [the West Coast Blues record label] and that has helped immensely. They've been really good to us getting our music out there.

BW: Do you perform strictly as a duo now, or are you still performing separately and with other bands?

BS: We still do our own thing. Mark has his solo stuff and I play with other musicians around New York to keep my live chops up. I'm still involved with the theater, but as I get older I just want to work with Mark. It's easier on my soul; my heart is just more into that.

BW: Do you co-write your material or do you write separately and then work it out together.

BS: We usually write separately, but there is only one song on the record that's an original. Although we write, I'm more interested in preserving the style of Blues that has been around since Charlie Patton. Now I consider myself more a historian, a preservationist.

BW: New York is not really known for its Blues scene. Is it hard to find work locally?

BS: I've been here for quite a while and can pretty much work when I want, but it's not just New York. The Blues scene is going down all over. The problem is we haven't invested in our younger people.

BW: Mark, Vermont is probably not much different, is there much of a Blues scene in your area?

ML: There are just a few places, but the answer to that is really no. We do have a radio station, WIZN, that has "Blues for Breakfast," but that's about it. For instance, if you have a well-known Blues artist that comes up to play on short notice, you do the promotion three days ahead of time and you might have forty people in the room. It used to be hot, but has really slid off.

BW: How did your association with Delta Groove come about? Who approached whom?

ML: I had always believed in what we were doing so last fall I started sending out emails to different companies. I had actually seen Randy Chortkoff on the Today show when they cut away to a segment in Memphis called the Delta Groove All-Star Revue. I wrote that down and sent him an email, but didn't hear anything back. Over the holidays I happened to be sitting at my desk and decided to give it another try. I sent an email to Richard Fitzpatrick, who is the president and Randy Chartkoff, who is CEO. The very next day I got an email from Randy saying he loved Bill Sims' music and they wanted to get to know us better. Then one thing led to another and the persistence, with a lot of luck has paid off. The only thing missing now is an agent to get us out there.

BW: What does having a major Blues label like Delta Groove do for you as artists?

BS: You know, from 1999 to 2003 I was with Warner Brothers Records. With a label behind you it just opens up the world. I would record about two records each year, but never put them out there. I just didn't have the distribution that they can provide. A major label is a door opener! I mean, if we didn't have Delta Groove behind us we probably wouldn't be having this interview right now.

BW: Tell me what it was like playing at the Delta Groove All-Star Revue in Clarksdale?

BS: It was great! The relationship between the artists and the audience was fantastic. The fans were respectful, they would talk to you but wouldn't try to monopolize your time like a lot of club people do. It was so nice to be able to be that close to the audience, even sit at a table with them. Everybody seemed to be having a great time.

BW: Have you ever considered relocating to an area more steeped in the Blues in order to have more options to perform?

BS: I don't know where that would be. I travel to places like Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Francisco and each year there are fewer clubs.

ML: I also think that playing the colleges and universities is where it's at. We need to work the younger demographic to cultivate a renewed interest in the Blues. Those kids are the audience base for the next forty years.

BS: Look back to the Sixties, it took place on the college campuses. That's where I got to play with Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, and Freddy King.

BW: What's on the horizon for Sims and LaVoie? Where would you like to be this time next year?

BS: I'd like to see us playing about 20-25 festivals a year all over the country. With Delta Groove getting the record played it's a great start. We'd like to do more college shows and get a new record out. You know, it's a slow process, but I see light at the end of the tunnel for Mark and me. It's a great feeling.