Blues Stalker: Brian, I know you grew up in Brooklyn. How did you get interested in a career in music and when did you start playing guitar? Did you receive any formal training?

Brian Kramer: It’s a funny thing but I’m about to take a trip back to New York and do a few shows, where I will be re-united with the guy who I learned and got into this music thing with, oh… about 25-26 years ago. My childhood friend Jon Nilsen’s dad worked for a record shop that also sold guitars & stuff. One day, I was hanging out at his house and his dad walked in with a whole bunch of cheap guitars because the store was over stocked. We got all excited & started bangin’ around on them right away. I was 14 years old. So, we basically started teaching each other whatever we picked up here and there and jammed all the time, like around the clock!

One day, we walked into this little used record shop in Brooklyn and both of us grabbed a handful of records and ran out of the store as fast as our feet could carry us… yeah, we sort of were naughty kids. The guy working there didn’t even bother to chase us! Apparently we grabbed from the blues section, which, in those days (the late 70’s disco era) you couldn’t give away. When we got back home and checked out what we had lifted, there happened to be a Lightnin’ Hopkins record along with I think John Mayall, the Blues Project and a few others.

We gave a listen to some of the records thinking, "Yeah, this is OK". We could take it or leave it, but when we got to the Lightnin’ record… That was it! I never experienced anything like it and it just went right through me like a "Lightnin’ bolt"!

That was how it began; trying to get close to that feeling, and it’s taking me my whole life!

BS: How did a guy from Brooklyn barely out of his teens meet Junior Wells and end up recording with artists like Junior Wells and Mick Taylor?

BK: One of the records that I listened and jammed to religiously as a teen was Junior’s Hoodoo Man with Buddy Guy. I loved that record! You have to understand how unusual it was at that time, a kid in Brooklyn in the late 70’s listening to this music!

I was playing with a drummer, named Mitch who knew them both when he lived in Chicago.

One day he called and said Buddy and Junior were in town, playing at the old Lone Star Café (now gone) and would I like to meet them?

Mitch brought me to the dressing room and Junior & Buddy greeted us both warmly. I was so nervous, but Junior, he made me feel real comfortable. Mick Taylor… He was part of the recording I did with Junior, (Brian Kramer and the Blues Masters feat. Junior Wells- "Win Or Lose"-89’). The piano player I worked with, David Cohen (from Country Joe and the Fish) toured with Mick and got him involved with the session. I rarely saw him after that. Incredible player though!

BS: Tell me about your relationship with Junior, one of my favorite blues artists,

BK: Well, that show… at the Lone Star was two nights, so the second night I showed up with my Dobro. I think I was, like 20 years old and had a lot of balls! Buddy really liked my guitar and started playin’ Catfish Blues on it…

But I really wanted to play something with Junior, so later on, just before they finished the last set, I snuck back up to the dressing room, took out my guitar and waited. The way they did their show back then was Junior would exit the stage first, then Buddy would exit and then the band would finish up the night.

So I’m sitting there, like a skinny little kid, long hair, posed with my guitar and in walks Junior, drenched in sweat. He just stood there in the doorway for a moment, silent, looking me over. Then he walked in and said, "you wanna play sumthin? Whut key?". We played for a while with the other band members gradually coming in and cheering us on. It was enormous for me! That night we created a bond and over the next few years, whenever he came to town, I would hang out, and they’d both give me all sorts of advice & guidance.

Later on, when I was approached to do my first record I called up Junior and asked if he would play on it and without hesitation he said, "Just tell me where and when".

If it weren’t for Junior’s kindness and generosity I would never have seen the possibility of pursuing a career in music. He told me as a young man that I had the right to express myself with the blues as much as anyone. Highly influential words from someone I idolized… I sure do miss him.

BS: In 1998, you were asked by Eric Bibb to join him on tour. What resulted from that?

BK: Well, playing with Eric confirmed something very important to me. I was always interested in exploring the "positive" attributes of blues music… I mean, the struggle and suffering, grief-ridden side of the blues has been clearly represented throughout the twentieth century, but I’ve always felt that the complexity and emotional content of the music could equally be explored through life’s celebrations. I first heard Eric Bibb’s music when I moved to Sweden 7 years ago, when I was invited to be on Izzy Young’s radio show. That was a kind of new beginning for me in Sweden, I was sort of a stranger in a strange land and trying to figure out what the hell was next?

When I saw Eric playing at some dive in Stockholm, I wanted to jump 10 feet in the air and kick my heels! Finally, someone who was focusing on life’s unlimited possibilities with blues music at the center. We immediately became friends and shared a common ideal about the potential of "lifting" the listener to another place with the music. When he asked me to join him on the road for his first tour of California I couldn’t believe it!

He said he had reached a point in his life where playing with people whose company he enjoyed was most the important thing when traveling around.

This was when things were really starting to take off in his career and we were on the road for almost two years straight, sometimes with a full band, mostly just the two of us "lifting folks" all over the planet. There were some powerful moments….

BS: Tell me about the Brian Kramer Trio and Friends Live at the Folklore Center recording. Who were the guest artists and what was the inspiration for this?

BK: This actually came about at the very end of my touring run with Eric Bibb, our last gig was in Tokyo, Dec. 99’.

After devoting almost two years to being a sideman, and collaborating on a very powerful recording of Eric’s, "Home To Me"- Manhattan records. Eric decided to change the line-up of his touring band. At first it was a bit of a void, then a relief. I was so hungry to get back to doing my own material. I went to see my "reality guru", Izzy Young, I call him that because he does not tolerate any bullshit! (Izzy is probably one of the most important people to initiate the folk/blues movement and Greenwich Village coffee house scene in the 60’s. He has held a Folklore Center in Stockholm for more than 25 years. )

I wanted to do a completely stripped down gig, totally acoustic. I wanted my fingers to hurt again from really digging in and I wanted to hear the sound of my Dobro coming from my Dobro, not some speakers 10 feet away. Izzy’s got a small shop and the acoustics are good, so we set it up. The core was myself, Mats Qwarfordt on harp and Christer Lyssarides on banjo-lin & guitar, as Brian Kramer Trio. Christer also was involved in Eric Bibb’s recording and touring for many years, we formed a deep bond on the road. The "Friends" involved were a selection of musicians around Stockholm who I have admired and enjoyed playing with over the years.

This all happened at the beginning of 2000 so I was very eager to start off fresh and inspired. We recorded the second show and everyone played just brilliantly. After the concert, as folks were leaving I whispered to Izzy "just like the old days in the Village eh?" He whispered back "…Better."

BS: In 2001, you recorded Two Gun Green with legendary bluesman Larry Johnson for Armadillo Records. How did you meet Larry and what was it like to work this great bluesman?

BK: Oh jeeze, I could write a book on this subject alone… Where do I start?

OK first of all Larry was also a big part of my maturity and growth as a young man trying to express myself with this music that has no "real" part of my heritage and family upbringing. But it’s certainly not the first time a nice Jewish boy would find solace deep in the Delta… I saw Larry regularly at the now historic and long gone Dan Lynch’s Bar on the lower east side of Manhattan. Bobby Radcliff, the Holmes Brothers & Joan Osborn were among the many local acts that played & hung around regularly. If you were lucky, you could also catch folks like Stevie Ray Vaughn, Johnny Winter, & others popping in to jam at that time.

Larry was the only acoustic act. When I first saw him, as a teen, I had never experienced so much music and sounds coming off one guy! He sounded like a whole damn orchestra, with the bass strings poppin’ and the treble strings slidin’ and this percussive thing going on through it all… and that voice! I bought, borrowed or stole his records and studied every note to the best of my ability. I even did a few of his tunes when developing my own set back then.

After I did the recording with Junior and gigs in New York were starting to get better, I got a call from a friend who said that Larry Johnson, who was away in Italy for about 6 years, was coming back & needed a place to stay. I offered to help as I knew someone who rented out a room once in a while.

I went to meet with Larry, who I have never actually spoken to before and I told him If he would like, he can be involved in some of the shows I had booked until he got something going on. He was pleased that I asked and eager to get back on the scene in NYC.

Before the first show, at Tramps I believe, he asked if I would like to join him for a couple of songs. So we’re in the dressing room and Larry’s rubbing his chin going "Hmm, now what can we do that will work?" when I start suggesting and picking songs from his repertoire, "What? How do you know that?" He was a bit surprised but when we started playing, it was simply amazing!

We played together all the time for years after that! One writer wrote that we sounded like one man with 20 fingers, that’s how close we got musically.

Larry has a reputation for being a pretty moody guy and it can be extreme, but I have always felt that if he really didn’t want to keep company with me he wouldn’t, so I felt honored. I remember he once told me, "Brian, there are three reasons why I like to have you around, one, you’re good company, two, you make good conversation and three, you never ask me to show you what to play on the guitar". Well, that was more encouragement than I ever got from my own father.

We lost contact for a few years after I moved to Sweden, then the Bibb tours came up but after that when I was fishing around for some festival gigs, a promoter who had just read a Living Blues article asked if I ever heard of Larry Johnson because he sure would like to get him to Sweden. I think you can figure out what happened from there?

Anyway, he told his record company. (Armadillo) to get hold of me for his next recording, which is "Two Gun Green". It’s a unique CD, very different than what’s out there, I’m really proud to have been a part of it!

BS: Busy, busy, guy…. In 2002, in collaboration with Armadillo Records, you released the CD Everybody’s Story. Tell us about this disc, I love it!

BK: Thank you, you’re my new best friend! Yeah, I guess it seems like it’s busy when it’s all lumped together. Well this lumps together too! The recording session for Everybody’s Story was already booked while we were in England recording Larry’s CD. So within a week of returning home from an intense, life- changing experience with Mr. Johnson, we were back in the studio cutting a new CD!

I actually planned it that way because I thought we would all be in great form from playing together through that experience, I should have considered that we would all be emotionally exhausted also…

The musicians on this recording, my band the Couch Lizards are just the best! (Mats Q.- Harp, Christer L.- Guitar/Mandolin, PA Urlander- Upright Bass, Jim O’Leary- Drums) Not only because they know their instruments and the idiom but because they are just great people. For years they have supported my style and vision of what I want to communicate and we have developed into a really joyful group. We all wanted to do a recording that captured our natural interactions, so it was done mostly live with just a few little decorative bits added after & only if needed. I’m satisfied with the result.

Tony Sweet at Armadillo music (UK) has been very helpful with making it partly available through his label and is trying to get us booked for some events in the summer. He really digs our band!

BS: How did you get to Sweden from New York? You have permanent residency there now, correct?

BK: Yes, Sweden is now home base for me and the family. It’s another one of those "funny" stories that makes you believe in a higher power…

In 1990 I was jamming with some buddies in Washington Square Park in NY, it was the summer and very hot. A guy approached me and told me he really liked my picking and that he tours around Scandinavia with different blues units and asked if I would like to go. We exchanged numbers, then a week later I met a cute, European girl in the same park, same spot and I asked her out. After a week of romance it turns out that she is actually from Sweden (I thought I heard her say Switzerland, duh…) so I arranged to go play in Scandinavia with that guy for four months, stayed with this girl, Annika while there, and she eventually became my wife.

We both moved to New York together to live and start a family. After five years we decided to have our second child in Sweden and spend a year there to see if things were better than the extremely sad, dustbowl condition of the NY music scene. As you can probably tell, it was.

BS: What clubs do you regularly play in Sweden? Where can visitors go to jam with you?

BK: Well I’m fortunate to be involved at the oldest Jazz & Blues club in Sweden called Stampen, which means the Pawnshop, www.stampen.se . Playing regular gigs and doing some of the bookings for other bands. I started a blues jam there five years ago that is just amazing!

In the States the blues jam is usually for musicians, by musicians, so it doesn’t always attract the kind of audience that wants to be "entertained". But here, the concept of people who have never met or played together before, who can actually make spontaneous, improvised music sound good is completely fascinating. It’s jam packed with hundreds of people every Saturday! There are other venues I play, but that is home base.

BS: What festivals have you played?

BK: There are some great festivals here in Sweden I’ve played the Åmäl blues Festival a few times and will be there again in July amongst others. With Eric Bibb we did some great festivals, Cambridge folk fest. What’s that one in Canada? Montreau J & B fest. One of the most memorable was the Guiness Blues fest. In Dublin. We opened up for Nina Simone in front of over 7,000 appreciative blues approved fans! I just stood at the edge of the stage and rrrrrriiiped! This July BK & the Couch Lizards are booked for a blues fest. In Ozlyn, Poland and we’re waiting on some plans in the UK.

BS: What other artists have you contributed tracks to and with whom have you shared a stage with?

BK: I’ve worked with some great artists here in Sweden that are not as well known outside the country. Derrick "Big" Walker from the US lives here. He’s great and I’ve done some recording with him. Cyndee Peters, who is a mammoth gospel singer… I just produced and recorded with a local, Sivert Bramstedt who is a pioneer acoustic blues performer in Sweden. I’ve definitely been fortunate to meet and trade licks with musicians I admire. Some of the most memorable… Folks like Otis Grand, "Fast Fingers" Jimmy Dawkins, Bernard Allison, Alvin Youngblood Hart… but I don’t want to brag here…

BS: Do you have a personal preference for performing with your full band, your acoustic trio, or by yourself on your steel guitar? What is most satisfying to you?

BK: These days I get a bit lonely by myself on stage, although it can be quite liberating.

My band has become so much of an extension of my playing style, that I do miss its crazy grooves when it’s solo or trio time. I try to incorporate all those elements into our live shows though.

BS: How is the Scandinavian blues scene different than the USA?

BK: Well… We’re really talking apples and oranges here. I used to compare and it just drove me nuts… I mean, they really appreciate the blues here and I try to keep that healthy and alive in my own way within the scene. The venues tend to be more reliable and the people in general.

But in the US, well… the blues is "ours" so the overall effect has become a bit …jaded. It’s so protected and pampered and a bit ‘elite’. When the music hits folk’s ears here, they just respond and move to it. There’s a natural instinctive appreciation that is what the music is supposed to be about, not shrouded in "Legendary-isms " That may be just my opinion though….

BS: What equipment (guitars and amps) are your favorites?

BK: Right now I’m "hooked on phonics"… Reso-phonics. Dobros, Nationals, Tri-cones. I love em’, always have! I have a great acoustic amp by AER that is the best for amplifying without electrifying acoustic instruments. I also travel with a hand made wood-body for finger picking made by a luthier named Novak here in Sweden.

BS: Your lyrics are very timely and moving. Does anything in particular inspire you or are you always jotting down lines?

BK: Thanks! More and more I’m inspired by the wonder and beauty in this life, which continues to shine on, even though our planet is facing it greatest challenges right now. As a people, we really are showing our best sides in the face of adversity. We may not prefer it but I think were discovering that this is what we’re really good at!

I also like to explore those invisible threads that connect all people in some mystic way and sort of shed a little light on the awareness of those subtle connections.

The title song "Everybody’s Story", on the same CD is about this.

"…Just look into a strangers eyes, try to walk a mile in his shoes.
Everybody’s got a story and I’ve got a chapter on you I say, I’ve got a chapter on you…"

I have been a Buddhist for 20 years and this has given me a focus and way of perceiving life that is quite interesting and enjoyable to express within blues forms. It’s really a natural fit by nature of the music, which is about honesty and truth. In Buddhism there is a concept of the sun at dawn, the sun rising, then setting at dusk, as an illustration of our daily life cycle (birth, growth, decline/death). However the sun always comes back around. In the most basic blues you have the three main chords, the one, four and the five (let’s say E, A & B) but it always comes back to the "one".

Blues, like life, can be as simple, as complicated and definitely as interesting as we decide make it.

I am always jotting something down on paper, but I’ve learned that this is just an exercise to keep me aware and ready when the gift of a song presents itself. I’ve got a mile high pile of "exercises" I’ll never use…

BS: The U.S. Congress has just designated 2003 as the "Year of the Blues." What would you like to see happen in the blues world this year? What can we all do to promote this great music form?

BK: Year of the blues? I’ve just designated this as my 25th year of the blues. Well it’s great that it’s getting the recognition it deserves. The music business has not exactly been fair to this great, multidimensional musical form, which has given countless births to an industry that reaps billions in revenue.

The simple answer from me is radio. More daily roots & blues related programs, on major stations that support, gives exposure and creates opportunity to the many variations of blues and developing artists. If young people are given the choice and information, they’ll tell the difference right away and respond. I see it happen all the time here.

People are hungry for music with true meaning that represents what they are feeling and experiencing right now, substance! That’s why the blues will never die, that’s why Congress can make such a designation.

So, if the music industry can give a little more back, many more folks will have a fair chance to enjoy the evolution of the blues, rather than being continually force fed the latest regurgitated pop. But realistically… that’s not gonna happen… The folks who turn the big wheels are about profit not substance. So let’s just keep doin’ the one on one boogie!

BS: Any plans to tour anytime soon? If so, where? In other words, any chance the Blues Stalker can catch you live in the "Year of the Blues?"

BK: As I mentioned, I’ll be going to New York in Feb. playing a few acoustic gigs. This life I chose, it’s always full of surprises… everywhere I go seems to lead me somewhere else. I’ve do have some friends working on Tampa Bay so…

BS: Do you have another project in the works? If so, do tell.

BK: We’ll I’ve got the material together for a new CD, the guys are ready to go, but the question is if I want to do another studio recording or capture the best of what we do in a live gig setting? This is actually what I am contemplating now.

BS: Thanks Brian, for being my blues brother and sharing your incredible talent with us all.

"For more information about Brian Kramer, his music and touring schedule, visit www.briankramerblues.com Mention that the Blues Stalker sent ya’ and get $2.00 off any BK CD purchased on-line"

All photos ctsy by Brian Kramer http. and Blues Stalker.
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