John Nemeth's no-frills blues

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John Nemeth's no-frills blues
February 5,2009
By Shay Quillen
Mercury News

When John Németh plays the blues, he's just following a family tradition — even if his dad doesn't see it that way.

Németh grew up in Idaho, the son of a Hungarian immigrant, and when he discovered the blues as a teen he immediately heard a link to the Gypsy music his father played.

"That's like Eastern European blues," he explains. "It's a lot of energy, a lot of shooting from the hip, a lot of improvisation over standard chord progressions."

Instead of a violin or a cimbalom, Németh picked up a harmonica, and that has proved to be a wise choice. Since moving to the Bay Area in 2004, Németh, now 33, has become one of the blues circuit's most versatile rising stars — a
harmonica virtuoso who is also a prolific songwriter, a soulful singer and a charismatic showman.

Németh will be celebrating the release of "Love Me Tonight," his second album for San Francisco's Blind Pig label, with a performance Saturday at the Poor House Bistro, and two more Feb. 27 at Yoshi's in Oakland.

The album was recorded with a minimum of fuss at Greaseland Studios, located in the San Jose home Németh's guitarist, Bobby Welsh, shares with two other blues musicians. With the material already finely honed on the road, the performances on "Love Me Tonight" were cranked out in just a couple of days.

That energetic, passionate, no-nonsense approach is the same one Németh brings to the live stage.

"I mean, there's no pyrotechnics or go-go dancers or anything like that," he says. "It's basic delivery of the music, you know. Every night I give everything I've got to every song. I think that's the way you have to do this style of music. You're not a crooner. You can't sit back."

Ten of the 11 tunes are Németh originals, in styles ranging from the Chicago blues that first captured his heart to tender country-soul. But while Németh is steeped in American musical traditions, the perspective is uniquely his own.

On "Where You Been" and "Blues in My Heart," you can even detect a trace of the minor-key Gypsy melodies that intrigued him as a child in his harp solos. And who else could write "Country Boy," the true story of a blues musician who follows his Idaho love to the city by the Golden Gate?

Though the move proved musically fruitful, living in San Francisco did have one drawback the country boy hadn't foreseen.

"All those walls are so paper-thin in those apartment buildings, I would have to go out to my Toyota pickup truck to sing and write songs," he says. Hours of work in the truck cab, parked on a steep San Francisco hillside, would leave him cold and cramped.

That problem has been fixed
as he and his Idaho love — now his wife, Jaki — have moved into a house in Oakland that has a soundproof room in the basement, installed by a previous musical occupant. "Even at night, I can go down and just crank it up and go for it," he says happily.

On "Country Boy" and "Daughter of the Devil," Németh and his band were joined in the studio by guitarist Elvin Bishop, who has become something of a mentor since Németh's band opened for Bishop's a couple of years ago.

"I heard him, and I just instantly loved him," Bishop says. "His sound is so fresh and strong and soulful."

Németh played on four tracks on Bishop's star-studded, Grammy-nominated album "The Blues Rolls On" and recently joined the veteran bluesman for an appearance on public radio's "A Prairie Home Companion."

Bishop thinks with the right exposure Németh could make it big. "He's got it all," he says. "He's such a strong performer, a young, good-looking fellow with a nice way about him. I don't know what's holding him back."

Németh admits he would welcome mass success on the level of Bishop or even fellow Bay Area harmonica man Huey Lewis. But don't expect him to latch on to the latest trend in an attempt to grab the brass ring.

"I've always been into various versions of classic American music — New Orleans music, swamp music, country music, soul and blues and jazz," Németh says. "So as far as venturing out and doing something really different and crazy to become famous, I don't know if it's really in me. I'm sort of a classic when it comes down to my approach to music."

Instead, he plans to just keep putting his own stamp on the American musical tradition he has come to love.

"I don't know if that will sell, but if it does, man, I'll let it ride as far as it will ride."