Listen to the Boss

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Listen to the Boss
Posted By Reagen Sulewski
canoe.ca

n blues music, standing out from the crowd is pretty important.

That’s not something that Harry Manx will likely ever have to worry about, with his blend of traditional blues music and Indian ragas, a style that’s been labeled "Mysticssippi.”

It’s a style he developed after spending over two decades travelling the world and 12 years in India, learning to play a specially-created instrument, the Mohan veena, which blends a standard guitar with a sitar.

Although the two styles don’t often blend Manx said finding familiar patterns between them, with one raga, or melody, in Indian music having a very similar progression as the blues major scale, is crucial.

“During a blues tune I switch over to playing in that raga, but in the tone and the sound it’s quite a huge leap. Suddenly we go from west to east,” he said.

One of the struggles with this style of music is the instrument is designed only to play in one key, and doesn’t allow for the traditional chords that most listeners would anticipate. That led Manx to use the instrument to give a flavour of Indian music, rather than try and play a song that would fit in with the music scene of Bombay.

“To the western ear, we’re not used to all those microtones and sometimes it sounds troubling. If I just bring enough of the flavour of it to give the sense of India, the people start to enjoy Indian music, put in a western context,” he said.

Over his eight studio and live albums released since 2001, Manx has mixed his own songs with reinterpreted classics from artists like Jimi Hendrix, Muddy Waters and Bruce Springsteen. In fact, covering the Boss’s I’m On Fire gave Manx one of his career highlights during a show in New York, when he looked out into the audience and saw Springsteen and his wife sitting in the crowd.

“I almost died on the spot. You don’t want to be playing his songs when he’s watching you, that’s a lot of pressure,” Manx said.

Manx ended up with the best-case scenario when Springsteen came backstage.

“He told me, ‘I feel like I learned something about my song listening to you play it.’ I was impressed by that, it was kind of a moment when I got the stamp of approval for changing people’s songs to suit my needs,” Manx said.

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Not every song can work in this fusion style of music, Manx has discovered, and he’s had to turn to six-string banjos, slide-guitar and a homemade instrument strung with both bass and guitar strings.

“I just find ways to do it without resorting to a regular old guitar. I’m aware that my strength is probably in doing something unique,” he said.

And because he’s covering the same territory and songs as a lot of other blues musicians, that’s been a handy approach.

“It’s not enough to just reinvent the wheel. You’re not going to play a Muddy Waters song better than him, but you can play it your own way and he won’t be able to do that,” Manx said.

Despite his sound, he’s been recognized by the Canadian blues community, winning the Maple Blues Acoustic Act of the Year award five out of the last seven years.

“I’m really glad that they’re open enough to see that bringing something new to the blues is important as well as retaining the old traditions,” Manx said.

“In order to keep the style alive we have to keep bringing new things into it,” he added.

Tickets are $32, available at www.braggcreekperformingarts.com, the Bragg Creek Centre or Spirits West. Doors open at 7 p.m May 2., with the show starting at 8 p.m.