Article courtesy of Delmark Records and BLUES & RHYTHM! Magazine. This article appears in BLUES & RHYTHM! Issue 395.
by Dave Weld
It was early evening, 18th November, 1978. I was going my gig at the New 1815 Club on West Roosevelt on the West Side of Chicago. When I arrived, the club was already packed! Aged sixteen, I was well into my year-long ‘apprentice gig’ every Friday and Saturday with The Wolf Pack, the late Howlin’ Wolf’s band now led by saxman Eddie Shaw following the death of Howlin’ Wolf.
Walking down the broken sidewalk, I had my 1954 CE 100 Guild guitar loaded and ready with the handle of the brown case in my left hand, and the black Polytone cube amp gripped by the handle in my right hand.
The usual crowd was out front: L. C. Robey (a West Side guitarist who had a band called L.C. Robey and The Presidents); Shorty; (aka Lafayette Gilbert or Chickenshack Shorty) who was Eddie Shaw’s long-time bass player; Doug McDonald of the Blue Mirror Band – who played with Buddy Guy, Phil Guy, Arlean Brown, Abb Locke, and Mac Simmons. They were feeding McDonalds food scraps to the skinny tan shorthair dog that lived under the broken sidewalk.
It was that time of day when the sun’s fading rays softened my mood as they formed a day-glow orange circle underneath that fat ruffled grey blanket of clouds which was starting to hide behind the taller buildings on the West Side.
“Hey Dave, I got somethin’ for ya!”, said Doug McDonald as he waved me over. “Here man, that cat’s number” and handed me a crumpled scrap of paper with the name Reggie Boyd with his phone number underneath. “I think he is the type of cat that you could learn a lot from. You know a lot of guys went to him, even the Wolf. He taught the Wolf to read music, even the Wolf!”
READ THE FULL ARTICLE on Delmark Records’ website.
