Chicago Blues Master - Remembering Carl Weathersby

Chicago blues guitarist Carl Weathersby passed away about two months ago.  He had been battling diabetes-related health issues for some time but managed to still perform live and in the studio on occasion.  He played occasionally at Kingston Mines and also appeared at Rosa's Lounge.  In total, Weathersby played on more than 33 albums, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, either as a solo artist, band member, or guest artist.  His fierce guitar playing was easily recognizable and he also possessed a vocal style that was a snug fit in the blues and R&B genres, which he put to good use on his own recordings.

When I started listening to the blues in the mid-80's, I caught some of his recordings with the Sons of Blues, the group formed by harmonica ace Billy Branch in the 70's, along with guitarist Lurrie Bell and bassist Freddie Dixon (sons of Carey Bell and Willie Dixon, respectively, hence the Sons of Blues moniker).  Weathersby joined he band in the early 80's, filling in initially for their regular guitarist, Carlos Johnson, but eventually he was asked to join full-time, playing guitar and sharing lead vocals for the next 15 years.

I didn't really get into his talent in depth until the mid-90's, when I picked up a copy of Branch's The Blues Keep Following Me Around recording on Verve Records' Gitanes Blues Productions subsidiary.  It was originally set to be released as a Sons of Blues recording, but the label opted to credit it to Branch alone.  Truthfully, the recording only included Branch and Weathersby among the band, the rhythm section being from the Louisiana area where the album was recorded, but Weathersby took lead vocals on four of the album's eleven tracks and wrote three of the songs, including the title track.  I remember thinking, "This guy could go out on his own pretty easily"....and pretty soon, Carl Weathersby did just that.

Carl Weathersby was born in Jackson, MS in 1953 on February 24th.  In the fall of that year, his family moved to Meadville in the southwestern part of the state, where they stayed until Weathersby was 13, when they moved to East Chicago, Indiana.  He spent a lot of time in both places, going to school in East Chicago but going back to Mississippi in the summers.  Of the two, Weathersby preferred living in the south because he remembered "havin' more fun down there."

Growing up, he listened to a variety of music in the blues, R&B, and soul genres.  Motown was extremely hot, but his family listened to a lot of blues, such as Albert King and Little Milton, plus on the radio, there was the O'Jays, Johnnie Taylor, Tyrone Davis, Sam Cooke.  Armed with this information, Weathersby's musical diversity on his albums and live shows probably make a lot more sense to his listeners.  

Weathersby started playing the guitar as a teenager, playing along to records in the house.  The story goes that he was practicing "Cross Cut Saw" over and over and decided to show his father and one of his father's friends, a diesel mechanic.  As Weathersby played over the record, the mechanic said, "Man that ain't the way that song goes, that ain't the way I played it."  The mechanic knew the song very well because he was Albert King.

Weathersby later served in the Army during the Vietnam War, serving from 1971 until 1977.  He also worked a number of jobs including prison guard and security guard at a steel mill in Indiana until it shut down.  From that point, he decided to devote himself to the blues, playing rhythm guitar with none other than Albert King for several years on short road trips.  He actually quit and rejoined King three times while his children were younger to stay off the road for extended periods to be with his young family.

"Albert would stay on the road for five, six months at a time.  I couldn't do that.  But if you were a guitar player with a good work reputation with him, and I did, he'd always take you back."

In 1982, Weathersby joined the Sons of Blues, graduating to a full-time spot and appearing on a couple of albums with the band over the next few years.  He also backed other artists on their albums, including Buster Benton, Robert Covington, and Carey Bell.  He occasionally shared lead vocal duties with Branch on the Sons of Blues albums, and it encouraged him to try to step out on his own, as he was building a big reputation in the Windy City.

In 1996, he released his first solo album, Don't Lay Your Blues On Me, on the Evidence label.  It was a hearty mix of Chicago blues, soul, and R&B.  He subsequently released three more albums (1997's Looking Out My Window, 1998's Restless Feeling, and 2000's Come To Papa) plus a "Best of" collection for Evidence.  Weathersby's soulful vocals and King-influenced fretwork were a potent combination on all four releases.  With each album, Weathersby moved more toward the soul side of the blues, which worked very well and really demonstrated his versatility.

Not long after his last Evidence release, Weathersby began developing health issues, most notably diabetes, which left him too weak to perform, much less record, and he soon was released from Evidence.  After a nearly five year absence from the studio, he was able to regain his strength enough to record and release Hold On on Woodcutter Records.  It was as strong as any of his Evidence releases with that powerful guitar work and several soul tracks to highlight his vocals.

In late 2005, Weathersby teamed with fellow guitarists Bernard Allison and Larry McCray (with Lucky Peterson on keyboards) for Triple Fret, an all-star release that also included Johnny B. Gayden on bass, Steve McCray on drums, John Colby on keyboards, and The Nutmeg Horns.  As might be expected, there was some great guitar work on this release (from JSP Records) though the songwriting is not that memorable.  In 2004, CrossCut Records released a live set, In The House:  Live at Lucerne Vol. 5 that captured his live performance and energy, and Magnolia Records (Larry McCray's label) released Weathersby's final studio effort, 2009' I'm Still Standing Here, which was more R&B-based, but he still had plenty to say, both instrumentally and vocally.  His final effort was a live LP-only release, Live at Rosa's Lounge, in 2019, but there's another release I've seen on Discogs, Alone In The Darkness, that I know nothing about...if anyone does, please share what they know.

Weathersby also appeared on multiple albums as a sideman over the next 20 years for Branch, Mississippi Heat, Rico McFarland, Trudy Lynn, Charles Wilson, Nora Jean Bruso, Biscuit Miller, Little Milton, and Toronzo Cannon (his broken-string solo on "Hard Luck" is most intense).

Weathersby at Rosa's - June, 2021

In 2019, he had surgery to amputate his right toe and this quickly led to amputation of his right leg up to his knew.  The diabetes also led his kidneys to start failing.  He kept right on playing guitar during rehab and Rosa's Lounge began putting together a benefit to help him with his expense, with several musicians detouring their ongoing tours to appear at the show.  Although he was unable to attend, Weathersby insisted that the show would be at Rosa's....he had played there for over 30 years, including the first night it opened, and continued to play after the benefit.

Carl Weathersby was induced into the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame in 2017 and even though he moved to Texas around 2016, he continued to travel back to Chicago to play and also played in clubs around Austin until his health failed him.  He died on Friday, August 9.  He was 71 years old.

To these ears, Carl Weathersby was one of the most formidable of his generation of blues artists.  He was a positively fierce guitar player and his vocals were just as impressive.  His songwriting was also top notch and any of his albums are worth hearing from start to finish.....all killer, no filler.  If you missed out on his talents, your blues collection is incomplete.