CHRIS O'LEARY

November 16, 2015

CHRIS O'LEARY

Influential remnants of Little Walter, James Cotton, Sonny Boy Williamson — evidenced in the tune “Wish You Would” with a guitar hook reminiscent of Williamson’s “One Way Out” — drive The Chris O’Leary Band with a force that first hit O’Leary as a youngster when his musician father brought home a Muddy Waters’ record.

“I heard James Cotton play on (Waters’) ‘Hard Again,’ ” O’Leary says, “and it was done.”

But it was just the beginning when Dad took O’Leary to see The Band on the legendary rockers’ reunion tour (post-“Last Waltz,” minus Robbie Robertson).

That show would serve as an omen for the budding musician, who cut his harmonica chops playing blues in various bands for nearly two decades in and around Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

He joined the U.S. Marine Corps, served a tour of duty in Desert Storm, then returned home to his family and friends — one of whom sent a demo O’Leary had recorded to Levon Helm.

The Band’s iconic former drummer and singer was living up the road outside Woodstock. He was looking to put his own band together after undergoing chemo treatments following his initial bout with throat cancer.

“Levon came out and struck up a friendship,” O’Leary says.

Helm invited O’Leary to pack up his band and move to New Orleans, where Helm had secured a house gig five nights per week in a French Quarter club on Decatur Street.

The house gig turned into a full-fledged tour with Helm’s band, The Barnburners, that lasted seven years.

“We were his band,” O’Leary says of The Barnburners. “We were backing people, doing our own thing.”

But the grind of singing and blowing harp night-in and night-out wreaked havoc on O’Leary’s vocal cords. During a stop in Florida, O’Leary saw a doctor, who diagnosed a case of vocal cord nodules — polyps.

“My voice quit,” O’Leary says. “The doctor said, ‘You gotta stop singing for a while.’ ”

O’Leary quit The Barnburners and went home to rest for a year.

By 2005, one year had turned to three, so O’Leary used his Marine Corps training to secure a job with the Department of Energy. Establishing a day gig made it easier to get back into music after his throat healed.

“I found I was missing music. It’s become less of a hobby and more of a second job,” O’Leary says.

“Mentally it’s easier,” he adds. “I don’t have to rely on (music) to pay the rent anymore. Those years with Helm were rough. I had just gotten married, and she hadn’t signed up for the whole national touring act thing. But it was a great experience.”

Juggling a career with a passion has turned into a rewarding experience for the 46-year-old blues frontman, who has also appeared on stage with The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Jeff Healy, Dan Aykroyd, Dave Edmunds and James Cotton, and recorded with Bill Perry and former Howlin’ Wolf guitarist Hubert Sumlin.

O’Leary followed up his debut CD, “Mr. Used To Be,” with the 2012 release, “Waiting for the Phone to Ring.” The songs, all originals written by O’Leary, prompted one critic to describe the harmonica frontman and his band as “a blues force to be reckoned with” that showed “… a range of influences from Los Angeles to New Orleans to New Jersey street corners.”

“Before, I would keep it traditional,” O’Leary says of his songwriting.. “But lately, I’m going wherever it (takes) me, and it’s leaving me in a place where I didn’t foresee it, in Americana. That’s where my songwriting is going.”

Road-wise, O’Leary and his band are touring out west — beginning in Washington state — before heading back east through Michiana.

When the Chris O’Leary Band hits the stage Friday night at The Livery in Benton Harbor, O’Leary will be accompanied by Jay Devlin on drums, Matt Raymond on bass, Chris DiFrancesco on baritone sax, Andy Stahl on tenor sax and guitarist Chris Vitarello.

Meanwhile, a steady job with benefits and emotional security waits back home in New York.

“I have vacation time and I switch days with other guys,” O’Leary says. “We’ve got a lot of hunters and fishers, and I spend all year working extra days for other guys while they go hunting and fishing.

“And they accommodate me when it’s tour time.”