Blues Harmonica Great Nemeth is Hot, Hot, Hot

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Blues Harmonica Great Nemeth is Hot, Hot, Hot
September 10, 2010
By Jim Carnes
The Sacramento Bee

His live shows in the Bay Area (where he now lives) are becoming the stuff of legend. Blues singer and harmonica player John Németh blends retro and modern blues and soul into hot, hot, hot head-turning performances.

He recently was named Most Outstanding Blues Singer by Living Blues magazine, the oldest and most prestigious blues publication, and was seen Aug. 3 performing in a club in the cable TV series "Memphis Beat."

He'll perform tonight at Po'Boyz in Folsom.

It won't be his first time performing at Po'Boyz, a venue he said he really likes.

"Brenda (Taylor) over there is a real sweetheart," he said in a recent telephone interview. "It's hard to get a new club up and going. She brings in some heavy hitters. I think it's really cool."

With a baby on the way in November, he might try to make more appearances in the Folsom, Sacramento, San Diego and L.A. areas just to stay closer to home.

Németh tours like a maniac – "I've done 150 shows already this year," he said – and records regularly. His latest CD is "Name the Day." That's a game he might play (and lose) when he's on the road so much.

"I would be lying if I said I didn't get tired," he said, "but I only have one way to do it. It's all in or nothing. I give everything I've got out there. Sometimes, it'll kick your butt, but I'm young (34) and I can recuperate."

Besides, he said, "I don't have a whole lot of qualifications to do much else."

The television appearance, in which he basically portrayed himself, came at the suggestion of music licensor Art Ford, Németh said. The producer of "Memphis Beat" asked Ford for music for the episode ("Suspicious Minds") and said they needed a guy to sing a song for a club scene.

"They wanted a song like 'Who's Been Talking' by Howlin' Wolf, but not 'Who's Been Talking,' you know? Art suggested 'Daughter of the Devil' that fit the Howlin' Wolf vibe, and I flew down to L.A. and knocked it out in a take or two. Then I went down to New Orleans to film it." (Yeah, yeah. "Memphis Beat" filmed in New Orleans. That's television.)

The experience was fun, he said, but didn't exactly make him want to become an actor.

"Those actors earn every penny," he said. "I act all the time in everyday life. I'm usually acting like I'm having a good time. …

"And nobody came up to me on the set and said, 'John Németh, I'm going to make you a star.' So there you are."

Németh is originally from Idaho, where his family had a farm, and first heard the blues when he was in high school there.

"I was searching for something to latch on to," he said, "and when I heard blues music, I fell in love with it." The music "really communicated to me, the soul behind it, and just something so unpredictable about it."

The musician and songwriter can be unpredictable himself, sometimes. While he started out channeling musical influences from decades earlier (Chicago blues guitarist Magic Sam and singer Little Willie John, for instance), he has made "a sort of progression from more traditional blues to a soul sort of thing," he said.

Moving to San Francisco might have had a hand in that.

"I really was influenced by a lot of the Oakland East Bay grease sound (Tower of Power, etc.). I started getting into more soul music, going into the Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding songbook. The new CD is, like, 90 percent soul," he said.

Will he continue in that vein? "You never know with me. I do what I'm feeling at the time. I basically make the music for the art of it, and the joy.

"Now, if I find something that really sells … talk to me then."