Michael Messer

Michael recently signed to Cooking Vinyl and they will be releasing his new album 'Lucky Charms' in February 2006. His previous two recordings; 'King Guitar' and 'Second Mind' will be re-released by them at the same time.

Michael and myself have a working/songwriting relationship reaching back for nearly 20 years. Sometimes he records the song as I wrote it; music, lyrics - sometimes it's music or a track arranged around my lyric, it can be a song idea suggested by a story or anecdote that Michael has. There have never been any hard and fast rules ... more like 'let's take the Mystery Train down Tin Pan Alley' ... Doc Pomus/Mort Schuman and Leiber/Stoller laid down the template for blues/R&B popular music, I still listen to 'Lonely Avenue' and 'Ruby Baby' with a sense of wonder. We began with 'Slidedance' in 1990. That album had two of my songs on it ,Hummingbird and Cherry Blossom Hawaiian Agency. I sang some harmony and played tenor mandola on the sessions. The latter song was written especially for that album, it was based on a lonely hearts ad for Polynesian girls. 1993 saw us recording together with Jesse 'Guitar' Taylor for 'Rhythm Oil - The Sessions'. For that project I put lyrics to several of Michael's backing tracks ... Mad Dog Blues, Cannonball Blues, The Rising Sun Blues.

1995's 'Moonbeat' was a songwriter's joy to work on. Michael pretty much gave me carte blanche with it. I knew he was aiming for a lighter country blues/Caribbean feel for it. With Mary Genis playing bass and steel drums ( she'd played with steel bands and reggae lineups for a long time around the Reading area ) and Dean Roderix on drums/percussion it's still my personal favourite of Michael's albums. No Blue In The ABC, Jawbone Johnny, Leaving Ruby, Living By The Water, Moonbeat, The Rising Sun, Robert Johnson's Wake were the titles. I was listening to a lot of Taj Mahal at the time and I think that influence shows through in No Blue In The ABC & Living By The Water. I originally wrote Leaving Ruby with my friend Jimmie Dale Gilmore in mind, he liked it but as far as I know never recorded it. Jawbone Johnny and Robert Johnson's Wake were my lyrics put into the 'MesserMix' as I call it! Robert Johnson's Wake remains one of my favourite lyrics of my own work to this day. I based Moonbeat itself upon Johnson's Walking Blues. The album was co-produced by Michael and our good friend Ron Kavana at his studio on Turnpike Lane, north London. Ron from County Cork in Ireland lived in London for a long time before returning to Ireland a few years ago. His band Alias Ron Kavana made some truly great albums and were an awesome combination live. We were all doing a lot of gigs around London at that time; the Weavers, Dublin Castle etc. and often ended up on the same bill or jamming together. I myself did the Edmonton Folk Festival in Canada in 1994 with Ron and later I sang harmony on his version of my song Edge of Shamrock City in that same Turnpike Lane studio. He sang harmony and played some guitar/mandolin parts on 'Moonbeat' for Michael and I think they produced a great album.

The rhythm section from 'Rhythm Oil - The Sessions' ... Andy Crowdy on bass and Simon Price on drums, were back for 'National Avenue' in 1996. Myself and Michael both have had long musical relationships and friendships with these musicians. Andy Crowdy played on the first Messer album 'Diving Duck' and on 'Slidedance'. Simon Price was a in my band Domino Effect in 1980 in Reading,. With Andy Crowdy on bass he formed the rhythm section for my 1997 album 'The Heart Sings' and it's (unreleased) follow up 'Honey Road'. My collaboration with Tim Hill's (also on 'Slidedance' and 'Rhythm Oil - The Sessions') Pandaemonium Marching Band was driven by Price's drums. Tim and Simon are both heavily involved in my ongoing 'Blue Eyed Plaice and Shiny Windows' project too. Moonbeat, Rising Sun & Robert Johnson¹s Wake were reprised for these sessions while King Guitar, Step Right Up, Crow Blues, Living In Rhythm & Language of the Blues were new compositions. Jesse 'Guitar' Taylor has also recorded Language of the Blues for his 'Texas Tattoo' album while I cut Crow Blues on my 'Lucky' release.

'KING GUITAR' in 2001 was a compilation of tracks from previous Messer albums and included King Guitar, Living In Rhythm, Crow Blues, Step Right Up, Rising Sun Blues, Robert Johnson's Wake, Cannon Ball Blues and Moonbeat.

In 2003 Michael cut the follow up to the Catfish Records release 'King Guitar', it was called 'Second Mind'. Most of my songs for this release were written especially for the sessions. I had originally cut Hummingbirds In My Soul in Austin, Texas with Jesse 'Guitar' Taylor and Champ Hood on guitars for my 'Lucky' album. Michael cut it too in 1999 for a Canadian CD with Doug Cox which was never released. Shine On was cut at those sessions too.It was originally written for a film that Michael planned to make with his photographer brother, Alan, who has lived in Nashville for many years. He has photographed and designed artwork for Johnny Cash, the Everly Brothers, Stevie Ray Vaughan among others. The film was to have been called Shine On and was a history of the National steel guitar. Many people from all areas of contemporary film and music agreed to appear in it if the finances were raised (which they unfortunately weren't); Robert Duvall, Bonnie Raitt, Chris Rea. Johnny Cash heard our demo of the song and liked it, he agreed to being filmed singing the song for it to be used as the title sequence. That bond was formed when he wrote the sleevenotes for 'Rhythm Oil - The Sessions' in 1993 ... Alan Messer did the photography and art design for that. The remaining songs; Locomotive Skin, Blue Letters, Big Wind, Love, Tail Feather Blues, Bluer Than Blue, Painting The Blues were all new songs.

Michael and his band (who are these days called The Second Mind band) spent the late spring/early summer of 2005 rehearsing and recording 'Lucky Charms'. I wrote all of this material through the winter in the west highlands of Scotland. For these sessions Jerry Soffe was bass player - a great musician who I first knew in Oxford 20 years ago - and as on 'Second Mind', Louie Genis on turntables/scratching and sampling. The songs are Lucky Charms, Take Me Back, Sad Side of the Note, Sunflower River, Steve Cropper, Havana Blues and Son House. A mixture of; love songs, blues and stories. Out of all of the songs I've written for or co-written with Michael , this collection is my favourite. I like writing tributes or homages to heroes and Steve Cropper has been one of mine forever. I saw him play with Otis Redding at the Hammersmith Odeon on the Stax-Volt tour and with Dion DiMucci at the Town and Country Club in London in the early 90's, and I like to think that this track would make him smile. Sunflower River is an abstract tone poem for W.C. Handy. We're all looking forward to it's Cooking Vinyl release in February 2006. In closing ... special mention must be made of Ed Genis. He's played 6 string acoustic and electric guitar on every one of these albums, been with Michael from the beginning as it were. I've personally know Ed since the late 60's in Reading where we both grew up ... where we spent our teenage years watching; Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band, Georgie Fame, Cream, Zoot Money and the Big Roll Band, Rod Stewart and Long John Baldry (God bless HIM). Ed learned his lesson well. After seeing Michael and the Second Mind Band at the Purcell Rooms in London last year, my friend Alan O'Leary of Spyda Radio said 'Ed Genis is Keith Richard to Michael Messer's Mick Jagger ... he's the engine of the band' - he is. I'm immensely proud that these musicians play my songs

Cooking Vinyl press release - New Album “Lucky Charms” (COOKCD353)
Released 6th February 2006

 Lucky Charms is not the kind of album one would expect from an artist with a reputation for being a virtuoso acoustic slide guitarist. Mixing rock, soul, classic blues, old vinyl, turntables, loops and world rhythms, the sound Michael Messer has created on Lucky Charms is contemporary, accessible and wholly unique.

The album contains ten original blues, love songs, stories and musical postcards, seven of which were co-written with long-time songwriting partner, Terry Clarke. Lucky Charms and Sad Side of the Note are pure Delta-Disco and have their roots firmly placed on both sides of the Atlantic - there’s as much Ian Dury & the Blockheads as there is Captain Beefheart; Son House and Steve Cropper are homages to two of Messer and Clarke’s musical heroes and sit firmly in the mould of classic British Rock; Sunflower River is an abstract tone poem for W.C. Handy, a kind of musical postcard;  Havana Blues was written about Messer’s 1937 twelve string National ‘Havana’ guitar; Knife Song is an abstract blues rocker and is reminiscent of the Stones’ Exile On Main Street;  Turning Blue was co-written with a new songwriter, Ron Smith, and is a classic blues about lost love, whilst Crackly Hums (an anagram of Lucky Charms),
the last track on the album, is an instrumental that is described perfectly by its title.

Recorded using analogue recording equipment in Kent at BigSqueak studio in June 2005, Lucky Charms was co-produced by Messer and analogue engineer extraordinaire, Keith James. “There is a little unexplainable magic that a reel of tape gives to a recording,” explains Messer. “Most of the album was recorded live in the studio over a three day period, with as little overdubbing as possible.  I also like to mix the tracks the old way, without a computer storing one’s every move. This makes the mixes, as well as the music, become performances that cannot be repeated”.

Lucky Charms was recorded with Messer’s regular band, Michael Messer & the Second Mind Band. Messer is singing and playing acoustic and electric slide guitar on vintage and hand-built instruments from his renowned collection; Ed Genis (Messer’s guitarist for the past two decades) is playing rhythm guitar; Richard Causon (who has worked with Ryan Adams, Jayhawks, Kings of Leon, Sugababes, Keane and Alanis Morissette) is on keyboards; Jerry Soffe (who has worked with Robert Wyatt, Innes Sibun and Larry Garner) is on bass; Simon Price (who has worked with Chuck Berry, Jamie Cullum and Annette Peacock) is on the drums and Louie Genis (son of Ed Genis) is on the turntables.

The album will be preceded by a single, also entitled Lucky Charms (FRYCD250)
on 30th January 2006. Michael Messer & the Second Mind Band will be touring
in February and March to promote the release of the album.  www.cookingvinyl.com

Michael Messer quotes re Terry Clarke

I write with a friend, Terry Clarke, a great songwriter and lyricist. Most of my albums we’ve done together and we share ideas. He comes out with a very traditional idea for a blues and approaches it with a slightly different slant ... he has a strong Texas, country, Joe Ely, Springsteen vibe, as well as a love of rock & roll ...

So he might not see himself strictly as a blues writer, though I think his blues writing is some of his finest ...

Lucky Charms' Reviews

Michael Messer - Lucky Charms.
GK
EVERY MICHAEL MESSER track starts the same way. On this basis you'd be
forgiven for thinking that you've accidentally slipped on the latest Moby or Fatboy Slim album into your CD player thanks to the contemporary drumbeats, distorted samples and the occasional scatching. Then Messer's vocals and his recognizable slide-guitar blues style slips in and you know what you're in for.If Beck and Nick Cave ever had a love child, it would be Michael Messer. His use of modern music composition blends so perfectly with the rhythm and blues beats that it's a surprise that nobody has melded the two to this extreme before. Kicking off with the irresistible title track, the album brings a breath of fresh air to a well worn genre with tracks that are melodic and melancholic but never suicidal.
THE VERDICT ... Put simply, this does for rhythm and blues what Jamie Cullum has done for Jazz.
The Works January Rating - four stars

Michael Messer - Lucky Charms
by Al Hutchins 4 stars
Steeped in blues history and here even naming tunes after some of it's trailblazers (Son House, Steve Cropper), Messer has spent 20 years forging a distinct sound with songwriting partner Terry Clarke, stalwart Ed Genis and a band that now includes Genis' son Louie's crackly loops and scratched samples. The finest songs here evoke big breathing spaces of landscape and history; the '29 civil war boats sunk in the Yazoo River' in the W.C. Handy paean Sunflower River, or Messer's serenade to his 1937 12-string guitar, Havana Blues ('she found harmony long before me'). Where Messer's voice can't quite capture the duende of a blues giant, he's astute enough to know his slide can and let that do the howling.
Mojo March 06

Michael Messer - Lucky Charms
by Owen Bailey
One of Britain's greatest slide guitar players returns, blending rock, world music rhythms, samples from old blues records (he was doing it before Moby) and a full band with his cultured tasteful style. On the album's standout track, Sunflower River, Messer's love of the blues shines in an abstract tone poem to W.C.Handy. The final track, anagrammatic slide instrumental, Crackly Hums, emphasises precisely why Messer's guitar prowess has won him awards.
GUITARIST JANUARY 06

Michael Messer - Lucky Charms
CS
The blues is more commonly associated with the Mississippi delta than deepest, darkest Kent.

Michael Messer concocted his intoxicating brew in the Garden of England AND he's a master bluesman, most notably when he plays acoustic slide guitar.
He deftly draws on the age-old sounds while giving his work a dynamic, contemporary sheen via the use of clever samples and tape loops.

Seven of the ten songs were collaborations with long-time song-writing partner Terry Clarke and it is clear where their inspirations lie. With one song called Steve Cropper, after the legendary sessionman, and another named Son House after the late blues great who emerged in the Thirties, this fine piece of work manages to be both respectful and groundbreaking.
The Sun Friday 3 February 2006 4 stars

Michael Messer - Lucky Charms
by Benedict Murray
Do you like surprises? Many people pretend they do, but don’t. They like the comfort of familiarity and nothing, you know, ‘weird’ or ‘different’.
They fear change. You’re not like that, are you? Are you?? The fact you’re even reading this suggests that you have, at the very least, a slight interest in the non-mainstream. If this is you then go get a copy of Michael Messer’s album, a man who has a reputation as "Britain’s leading national steel and slide guitarist". He is also, in all likelihood, probably one of the only ones in our sceptred isle. You know the slide guitar – used famously in ‘Stuck In The Middle With You’ and Gomez were rather fond of it. This album is like a slightly rawer Gomez. A little folk, a little country but with a strong sense of confidence, a real swagger. It’s not something you usually hear. Far from it. It’s very, very good.
NEW NOISE DECEMBER 05

Michael Messer - Lucky Charms
by Hugh Fielder 7 stars
Blues slides up to scratch .... Slide guitar supremo is still scratch-mixing his blues, which may not please his more purist followers but it adds an innovative dimension to his raw, angular style. It also helps to create an eerie, haunting sound that his Mississippi heroes would be proud of, particularly on the abstract low groove of Sunflower River , with it's languid slide riffs, and the similarly impressionistic Knife Song. He even samples himself on the spiky title track. Eulogies to Steve Cropper and Son House are somewhat pedestrian in comparison, but the rolling and tumbling Sad Side Of The Note and the biting Take Me Back more than compensate, and Havana Blues opens up some broader blues horizons.
CLASSIC ROCK February 06

Michael Messer - Lucky Charms
Brett Callwood
Though he was born in Middlesex, Michael Messer's virtuoso slide guitar harks back to the Delta blues that was coming out of Mississippi during the early part of the century. He's a damn fine player too, as songs like the title track and 'Take Me Back' prove. The album contains ten original blues, love songs, stories and musical postcards - seven of which were co-written with Messer's long-time songwriting partner, Terry Clarke. 'Sad Side Of The Note' is an album highlight; his slide playing is exemplary, and the song drives along at a nice pace, while 'Sunflower River' is a beautifully written track. Best of all though is 'Knife Song', a track that merges Messer's slide playing with some slick turntable mixing, resulting in a song that is as contemporary as it is traditional, a very difficult combination to get right. Overall, listening to Messer's slide playing and some well written songs makes for a pleasurable listening experience, so does it matter whether he's from the Delta or Dorking ?
ACOUSTIC FEB 06

Michael Messer - Lucky Charms
by Frank Franklin. Rating 8
Lucky Charms further develops a strand of blues for the 21st Century that Michael started exploring two releases ago on King Guitar, and was very much explored on his Second Mind collection.

Michael's long- established writing partnership with honorary Austinian Terry Clarke is continued here. He is credited with five co-written titles and two all to himself. Terry is well worth checking out as a performer in his own 'Irish Rockabilly Blues' right. Long-time duo partner Ed Genis remains on second guitar. Louie Genis, always referred to as Ed's son, very much contributes the lion's share of the 21st Century element to these arrangements on turntables. Richard Causon is on keyboards, Jerry Soffe is on bass, and Simon Price is on drums and percussion, with Keith James on backing vocals.

The unhurried Take Me Back is something like Little axe by way of The Stones, with an emphasis on the more British elements of the communal pond-spanning blues heritage. Sound-scapery is no better portrayed than on Sunflower River. The tributary Steve Cropper (Clarke) is another contribution in The Stones style, who are also name-checked along with Steve Marriott and others: a worthy tribute subject, though lyrically less imaginative. This is more than made up for by the following standout piece Havana Blues (Clarke). The essentially country blues of Turning Blue was co-written with Ron Smith. A jaunty and anagramic Crackly Hums (Messer) ... quite rightly crackles and hums, once more looping the present back to the past ... and the whistle that announced the arrival of the Lucky Charms train and it's attendant rhythms now signals it's departure.

Michael's musical ideas are further refined and less cluttered, with smoother integration and a more satisfying overall feel on this outing.
BLUES IN BRITAIN MAR 06

Michael Messer - Lucky Charms
Pete Sargeant
Twenty seconds in and we have a curious soft hip-hop rhythm prods the Fred McDowell style slide guitar and relentless second guitar loop - traditional elements of Paul Jones favoured Taj Mahal cut Drat That Rabbit or whatever it was called. Music with a lopsided grin and a tapping foot, pretty addictive too. This sets the scene for the album's mood - it's almost like a set of sepia photographs in a neon edged frame. I like the underplayed vocal lines and fresh but homespun lyrics. Messer is working here with Terry Clarke and I believe their association goes back some time. Buzzy guitar slide figures vie with distorted vocal phrases and I suppose the nearest reference point ought to be Little Axe, whose overall output hits more sinister territory than you'll find here. There is little overdubbing so a warm live feel pervades all, well done Kent studio BigSqueak. I have no doubt that Michael's Second Mind Band will do this stuff justice in a live setting and I hope they take the turntables out with them to retain that uplifting vibe.
Blues Matters! February/March 2006

Michael Messer - Lucky Charms (4 star review)
Andy
Though he has spent much of his career as a jobbing slide guitarist, Michael Messer’s recent solo albums have seen him attempting to do something different with the blues and on Lucky Charms he really has cracked it.
Shunning and embracing modern techniques at the same time the album was recorded live onto tape with absolutely no computer trickery, though samples, cut ups and scratching are provided throughout the album by turntablist Louis Genis. In addition to this Messer adds to the classic blues sound elements of rock and his own Britishness to make an album that shares elements with Alabama 3, Ian Dury & The Blockheads, the Rolling Stones and Captain Beefheart but is very much separate from all of these bands.
INDIGO FLOW FEB 2006

Michael Messer - Lucky Charms
Joe Cushley 4 stars
UK bluesers are generally either pub-rockin' Stevie Ray Vaughan wannabes or anally retentive Blind Willie McTell worshippers. Michael Messer avoids this copyist approach whilst retaining a strong sense of his own Britishness. He imports new elements - viz, turntablist Louie Genis - to the idiom, to complement his superb slide guitar playing, and combines the
roles of historian, fan and artist with deftness, devotion and irony. Note, Steve Cropper, which
nicely juxtaposes the Mississippi and the Thames of Rolling Stones' London; and Son House, a crunching, sleazy grind. But the masterpiece at the centre of this wonderful, funky, wry, moving album, is Sunflower River. The song documents a trip to the Deep South, taking in Tutwiler station in Mississippi, where W. C. Handy first heard the blues in 1903. This
moseying, atmospheric, piano-led odyssey sums up Messer's position as both tourist and artist; insider and observer; commentator and revelator.
What's On In London February 2006

Michael Messer - Lucky Charms
David Cowling (5 star review)
Virtuoso slide guitarist pays homage to his heroes. Let’s think of the blues as a large slow moving river - you reach the end of the journey and you have an outlet, an estuary where it meets with the sea of music. Let’s see this as a birdsfoot digitate delta. This is the kind that branches off into hundreds or thousands of little streams - trace down one of these channels and you’ll find slide guitarists, go further still where turtableism laps against the shore and reach the beach where Captain Beefheart first landed aboard his ship of snakes: here you’ll find MM paying homage to Son House, Steve Cropper, W.C Handy and a 1937 National ‘Havana’ guitar. Messer’s guitar does most of the talking and ironically on a record that salutes past masters it is when he flouts convention that he is most effective. The title track incorporates some scratching to good effect and ‘Knife Song’ starts with a huge beat with the slide guitar sounding like it is coming from the muffler on a car exhaust, the beat building and percussive piano notes adding colour like berries on a holly tree; the whole thing holds together like an impossible sculpture with something approaching beauty. The anagrammatic ‘Crackly Hums’ crackles like a soundtrack to a jerky silent movie, the guitars strutting around like spunky turkey cocks.
Americana UK February 2006

Michael Messer - Lucky Charms
by Mike Bond
Sounding a like version of The Alabama Three without the arch irony and pantomime dramatics, Michael Messer makes music that's all about those deep slide guitar licks and heavy soulful grooves. Singing with an authentic blues swagger, kind of Mick Jagger meets Robert Johnson - Messer infects the ten songs on album LUCKY CHARMS with the same laid back charm. Take a song like SUNFLOWER RIVER, a stoned delta blues shuffle, proving Michael Messer's impeccable credentials as a virtuoso acoustic slide guitarist - but like the rest of the album, not at the expense of crafting decent songs in their own right. KNIFE SONG plays with samples and programmed beats and scratching - those lush slide licks only enhancing the experience, this is the kind of thing Beck probably has wet dreams about. The title track LUCKY CHARMS begins with the sound of a train pulling into a station and the cliches don't stop there - Messer delivering perhaps his weakest vocals of the record, an unfortunate move for both the opening and title track. The louche sounding TAKE ME BACK grooves in a certain White Stripes - esque way, distorted guitar lines brushing up against the simple drum beats and pop heavy melodies sealing the deal. SAD SIDE OF THE NOTE grooves in the same direction - an almost funky slide guitar riff keeping things flowing, a place where The Rolling Stones meet Led Zeppelin. A love letter to it's namesake STEVE CROPPER maybe derivative in it's borrowed organ riffs and tired guitar solos, but almost worth it for the catchy choruses, the deep down and dirty SON HOUSE returning the record to an authentic sounding delta blues headspace - all distorted slide riffs and shuffling drum beats.
Closing with the acoustic strain of HAVANA BLUES and the instrumental CRACKLY HUMS, a song that showcases once and for all why Michael Messer is such a highly regarded slide guitarist.
Maybe patchy in places and perhaps not the most coherent and consistent sounding record you'll ever hear - LUCKY CHARMS just about sails by on account of of it's considerable strengths and highpoints. Don't look too closely between the cracks and forgive the odd foray into cliched blues posturing and LUCKY CHARMS is a record you can grow to respect.
UKmusicsearch March 2006

Michael Messer - Lucky Charms
by Nick Dalton four star review
When roots rock takes on the modern world
Michael Messer, Britain's king of the National guitar, has never been content to sit back and let his virtuosity dominate proceedings. There was the awesome RHYTHM OIL, with Texan guitar legend Jesse Taylor and fellow Brit Terry Clarke, and other albums that have swung from Hawaiian rhythms to gritty blues. Here he and his band continue their dirty, down south trawl of musical styles but also add scratchy sampling, creating a a burbling, chattering streetscape behind the already evocative music.
Things kick off with the title track (one of a number of co-writes with the ever more eloquent Clarke) with it's strange, hypnotic, guttural jugband feel, before the electric chugging of Take Me Back . Throughout, voices echo and strains of music come and go, particularly effective on Sunflower River, a Clarke word - tumbling tribute to blues stars, and the electro beat of Knife Song.
Just when you think you've got the hang of it there's the superb Steve Cropper, a Clarke homage to the great guitarist, which rocks like the Rolling Stones on Brown Sugar. Messer's playing is superbly inventive, as is that of lead guitarist Ed Genis (whose son Louie spins the turntables). At times it makes you laugh, at times it makes you want to dance as the records jerks and hops from one great tune to another, Messer's monotone drawl oozing through it like the Mississippi mud. Hard to believe it was recorded in England.
Maverick April 2006