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Once you get the blues, you don't leave.
So don't expect Big Head Todd and the Monsters' 10th studio album to be a one-time exploration into the blues. Certainly the band will always be rockers, but recording “100 Years of Robert Johnson” last year has permanently influenced band leader Todd Mohr.
“I'm definitely a different person in how I think about music and how it's going to impact what I'll be doing,” said Mohr, who six years ago moved from his native Colorado to Chicago, one of the world's best blues hub.
Surprisingly, no straight-up blues artists honored with an album the 100th birthday of Johnson, who in the 1930s recorded about two dozen of the best-know blues standards. But Big Head Todd did. He toured and recorded with Hubert Sumlin and David “Honeyboy” Edwards, who both died in recent months.
“I've been influenced very deeply by what I've learned from Honeyboy and Hubert, especially songs that are more in the acoustic tradition from the '30s and '40s and led to a lot of the Robert Johnson material,” Mohr said. “Of course it was a thrill and honor for me just to be in their presence, but also to be able to give them a format to do their thing at their ages.”
Sumlin, best known as the longtime guitarist with Howlin' Wolf, died Dec. 4 at the age of 81.
Mohr played a song at Sumlin's funeral, which was paid for by Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. He also sang at his gravesite before jamming at a Chicago nightclub with the best musicians in the city.
Mohr, Richards, Eric Clapton and dozens more will perform next week in a tribute to Sumlin at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, N.Y.
Mohr joked Sumlin and Edwards, who died Aug. 29 at age 96, were the last ones to hit the sack while on tour.
“Because they don't drink, and maybe part of it was getting old, but they would stay up all night talking,” he said. “They were just rapping away. They definitely had more energy than I.”
Big Head Todd and the Monsters played last summer at Squaw Valley USA.
“That was a great event,” he said. “It was well attended and energetic and we played a good show. There's a really nice vibe up there. We like it up there.”
Big Head Todd and the Monsters have an extraordinary rapport with their fans, who all received free downloads of the 2007 album “All the Love you Need.” The band has for several years traveled on cruise ships with legions of fans, and last fall for the first time was aboard the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise with about two dozen bands.
“We're a very fan-oriented band,” Mohr said. “We try to autograph after shows and take trips with our fans. The centerpiece of our career is that relationship, and having a quality relationship you don't run into a lot these days with contemporary music.”
Mohr accepted a singular request, and it led to “Blue Sky,” which the band played live for the Space Shuttle Discovery tour on a 2005 mission, the first for the space program after the Columbia tragedy.
“We encountered a fan who quickly became a friend through one of those cruises,” Mohr said.
“He was a higher-up at NASA who recommended to me that I should consider writing a song for their launches because all they had to play for them was ‘Rocket Man.' I don't think anybody's written a song specifically for a space program. I could be wrong. A few months later I came upon the inspiration to write that song and have had a great relationship with NASA ever since.”
Mohr said he might improvise during a show Friday in the Crystal Bay Casino Crown Room.
“We usually go into a show with a set list but we incorporate a lot of requests from our online fans (and are willing to) abandon our plan,” he said. “We look people square in the eye and see what they want.”
So don't expect Big Head Todd and the Monsters' 10th studio album to be a one-time exploration into the blues. Certainly the band will always be rockers, but recording “100 Years of Robert Johnson” last year has permanently influenced band leader Todd Mohr.
“I'm definitely a different person in how I think about music and how it's going to impact what I'll be doing,” said Mohr, who six years ago moved from his native Colorado to Chicago, one of the world's best blues hub.
Surprisingly, no straight-up blues artists honored with an album the 100th birthday of Johnson, who in the 1930s recorded about two dozen of the best-know blues standards. But Big Head Todd did. He toured and recorded with Hubert Sumlin and David “Honeyboy” Edwards, who both died in recent months.
“I've been influenced very deeply by what I've learned from Honeyboy and Hubert, especially songs that are more in the acoustic tradition from the '30s and '40s and led to a lot of the Robert Johnson material,” Mohr said. “Of course it was a thrill and honor for me just to be in their presence, but also to be able to give them a format to do their thing at their ages.”
Sumlin, best known as the longtime guitarist with Howlin' Wolf, died Dec. 4 at the age of 81.
Mohr played a song at Sumlin's funeral, which was paid for by Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. He also sang at his gravesite before jamming at a Chicago nightclub with the best musicians in the city.
Mohr, Richards, Eric Clapton and dozens more will perform next week in a tribute to Sumlin at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, N.Y.
Mohr joked Sumlin and Edwards, who died Aug. 29 at age 96, were the last ones to hit the sack while on tour.
“Because they don't drink, and maybe part of it was getting old, but they would stay up all night talking,” he said. “They were just rapping away. They definitely had more energy than I.”
Big Head Todd and the Monsters played last summer at Squaw Valley USA.
“That was a great event,” he said. “It was well attended and energetic and we played a good show. There's a really nice vibe up there. We like it up there.”
Big Head Todd and the Monsters have an extraordinary rapport with their fans, who all received free downloads of the 2007 album “All the Love you Need.” The band has for several years traveled on cruise ships with legions of fans, and last fall for the first time was aboard the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise with about two dozen bands.
“We're a very fan-oriented band,” Mohr said. “We try to autograph after shows and take trips with our fans. The centerpiece of our career is that relationship, and having a quality relationship you don't run into a lot these days with contemporary music.”
Mohr accepted a singular request, and it led to “Blue Sky,” which the band played live for the Space Shuttle Discovery tour on a 2005 mission, the first for the space program after the Columbia tragedy.
“We encountered a fan who quickly became a friend through one of those cruises,” Mohr said.
“He was a higher-up at NASA who recommended to me that I should consider writing a song for their launches because all they had to play for them was ‘Rocket Man.' I don't think anybody's written a song specifically for a space program. I could be wrong. A few months later I came upon the inspiration to write that song and have had a great relationship with NASA ever since.”
Mohr said he might improvise during a show Friday in the Crystal Bay Casino Crown Room.
“We usually go into a show with a set list but we incorporate a lot of requests from our online fans (and are willing to) abandon our plan,” he said. “We look people square in the eye and see what they want.”
