Russell’s entré into the blues was, like
many white American blues players, via the blues crossing the Atlantic
to a British blues-based band of the nineteen sixties. Surprising as it
may be to some, Fleetwood Mac started out life as a blues band (yes, that
Fleetwood Mac), and their lead guitarist, Peter Green, was Russell’s
first inspiration. Other guitarists that Russell is a fan of and cites
as influences are B.B. King and Jimmie Vaughan. Russell has played in
various bands in Central Illinois and honed his soloing skills as lead
guitarist in a country rock band in the late seventies/early eighties.
6v6 take their name from the low power tubes often used in Fender amplifiers.
The band has recorded a self-financed full twelve song CD “Burning
Blue” with ten R. Miller originals, and a 5 song pre-release demo
CD. The band plays a couple of weekends per month, arranged around Aaron’s
playing with the Peoria Jazz Allstars and the pep band. Aaron throws in
the occasional jazz bass line when the band is in action. 6v6 has played
blues festivals in Cairo, IL and Prairie du Chien, WI, and have received
airplay in Eastern European stations via mp3.com. 6v6 has a fan-following
in Slovenia!
Photo
Courtesy of: J. Balmer |
Russell plays a 1952 reissue Fender Telecaster with heavy strings.
He describes the guitar as a no frills, dependable, blues workhorse.
Even though Congress has designated 2003 as the Year of the Blues,
6v6 still encounter some resistance to their mostly blues repertoire.
Club and bar owners often say they want a blues band, when what
they really want is a blues- rock band. 6v6’s typical show
consists of a mixture of blues standards like Howlin Wolf’s
“Sugar Mama”, “Sweet Home Chicago”, some
R. Miller originals, and the occasional rock song – the Rolling
Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” is a favorite.
Russell does not have a day job! He has a night job in addition
to the blues. He is a third shift Inspector at Caterpillar in Peoria. |
6v6 got to go to Memphis by winning, in a close contest, the Central
Illinois Regional Blues Challenge co-sponsored by the Blues Blowtorch
Society and the River City Blues Society October 13 and 20 last year.
Four bands competed on each of two consecutive Sunday afternoons. The
societies are covering the expenses for the Memphis trip to the International
Blues Challenge. Five prizes are awarded at the challenge in Memphis.
First prize in the Band division is valued at $20,000 dollars! This
includes $1,000 in cash, studio recording time at Ardent Studios in
Memphis Tennessee, Booking and PR Consultation, and 9 Gigs at places
such as Blind Willie’s in Atlanta, King Biscuit Blues Festival,
Helena, Arkansas, and Buddy Guy’s Legends. The band’s approach
to the Challenge is first and foremost to go and have a good time. They
have practiced their first round set extensively. They expect to be
nervous but hope to draw on the adrenaline to energize their performance.
6v6 would be thrilled to win the first round. Win or lose, they plan
to party hearty in Memphis, and enjoy the blues extravaganza.
Photo
Courtesy of: J. Balmer |
Friday was a Memphis send-off party for 6v6 at Illinois Brewing Company
in downtown Bloomington. Their twenty- minute Blues Challenge set was
sandwiched in the middle of the first set. For the Challenge set they
played four songs, all Russell Miller originals. Original material is
favored at the Challenge and receives a multiplier in the scoring. They
opened with the up-tempo “It Ain’t True”, followed
by “Light On.” Next up was the slow blues “One Dollar,”
describing what it feels like being forced to sell a house for a dollar.
This set within a set was closed with “Little Blue Pill”
– a humorous take on better living and loving through pharmaceutical
chemistry (maybe Pfizer will be interested in this one). Of course all
true Blues lovers are fueled by Blues power and don’t need the
outside help of the little blue pill. 6v6 are a swinging blues combo,
they do loping blues trots and fast shuffles very well. Russell plays
tasteful, fluid, notes well-placed, blues guitar, playing within the
context of the combo, rather than using the guitar to dominate it. His
guitar playing is stylistically more like Jimmy than Stevie Ray Vaughan,
and he has a pleasing higher register singing voice.
Photo
Courtesy of: J. Balmer
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I had to leave (to pick up my own son from a high school dance) just
as 6v6’s second set got underway. The band was laying down a simmering
blues groove with our own Blues Blowtorch stalwart Randy Hoffman sitting
on rhythm guitar. Let’s hope 6v6 takes that groove to Memphis as
we wish them good luck, safe journey, and we know they will be having
the blues time of their lives that weekend.
Brian J. Wilkinson is a freelance writer based in Bloomington, Illinois.
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