RUSS GREEN * STONE COLD *
Contemporary Blues harmonica player, singer and producer Russ Green has traveled a journey into the blues that is truly different than those of most musicians. Russ was born in Chicago and grew up on the city’s west side. "Chicagoan Green’s well-above-average singing succeeds in its balance between his allegiance to tradition and his aim to reinvigorate the music in a discernible way"- Frank-John Hadley, DownBeat Magazine.
Although throughout his life he had listened to all types of music, his desire to play wasn’t realized until his adult years. After being discharged from the U.S. Army, Russ attended Southern Illinois University at Carbondale where he studied film. It was at this time that his desire to play music began to grow. Like lots of fans of Jimi Hendrix, Russ wanted to be able to re-create the sounds of the man whom he had admired for many years. But being a film student and having all of his money going to these films, he couldn’t afford to buy a guitar. Undaunted by this realization, Russ remembered the purchase of a harmonica from a neighborhood shop on Chicago’s west side a few years earlier. The ability to re-create the sounds of Hendrix was becoming realized, not with a guitar, but with a harmonica!
Before leaving Southern Illinois, he was told that when he got back to Chicago he should check out Sugar Blue. Being unaware of who he was at the time, his response was “sugar what?”. He was described as one of the best harmonica players in Chicago. So on his first Friday night back in Chicago Russ went out and found a Chicago Reader to see who was playing where in the city. And there it was, Sugar Blue at Blues Etc., one of Chicago’s premiere blues clubs on the North side. While standing out in front of Blues Etc., the band started playing a song that Russ could recognize but it’s name escaped him at the moment. As he entered the club he heard the harmonica start to play. It sounded as though whomever was playing it was torturing this instrument it and pushing it to it’s very limits. But as he made his way in to the club he could see the band on stage playing, but there was no harmonica player and as is imaginable, it was a bit confusing. Continuing to make his way further in the club, he caught sight of the dance floor. There he could see two women dancing with a man who had his hands cupped around his mouth, playing the harmonica. This was Sugar Blue! Mind blown by what he was hearing and seeing, Russ sat down at a high-top table not from from the bandstand. As he sat he saw a card on the table that said “tonight at Blues Etc. Sugar Blue the Charlie Parker of the harmonica and the Jimi Hendrix of the blues harp". That’s it! That is what he wanted to be and it’s right in front of him. And that song the band was playing when he first arrived, it was Miss You by The Rolling Stones, a song that Sugar Blue played on during his time with the band. He spent the next three months in Chicago going out to see Sugar Blue wherever he was playing but was too intimidated to speak to him. Russ then moved to Seattle, a city that captured his heart while he was in the Army.
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