HARMONICA SHAH

MOTOR CITY MOJO

Although Seward "Harmonica" Shah has blossomed as a musician in the last five years living in the Detroit ghetto, his musical training has come throughout his whole life.  Shah was born in Oakland, CA in 1946 and split his youth between there and Sommerville, TX where his mother's family lived.  In Texas he lived with his grandparents and listened to his grandfather, Sam Dawson, play guitar.  Dawson had recorded some songs for Alan Lomax, and young Seward listened very closely.  But when he was 16 he got into some trouble and went back to live with his mother in Oakland.  There he got the chance to frequent Slim Jenkins' club on 7^th St, near the shipyards.  The Bay Area was full of blues performers; Lowell Fulson and Big Mama Thornton were around, and George "Harmonica" Smith, B. B. King and Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee came through.  Shah has always been in awe of his predecessors and he followed them closely.

 In  need of employment after high school Seward enrolled in the Jobs Corps training and was sent to Fort Custer in Battle Creek, MI.  The move to the Midwest introduced Shah to Chicago bluesmen and he saw Buddy Guy and J B Hutto at the base canteen and the Eldorado Lounge. His job training found Shah a job at Ford, where he worked for 15 years in plants in Woodhaven, Sterling Heights and Rosenville.  Many Detroit bluesmen before him had worked in the automobile factories, not only earning a living but also learning that rough-edged industrial blues that characterizes blues from the Motor City.  Shah wasn't particularly fond of his job at Ford working seven days a week and twelve hours a day.  What he found more attractive was working Thursday through Sunday and taking off Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  The blues was all over Detroit and Shah was soaking up Bobo Jenkins, Eddie Burns and Billy Davis. His nontraditional work schedule, with more than 150 medical leaves, ultimately caught up with him After 15 years at Ford, the man finally caught up with him and Shah lost his job.

 Even though Shah had been listening to music for his whole life and following bluesmen wherever he lived, it was only after losing his job at Ford that he got interested in actually playing the blues.  On his way into a pawn shop in 1976 he saw a street musician named Bobby playing harmonica and it spurred Shah into buying a harp of his own.  Shah bought Bobby a 5^th of liquor and began his lessons down on Chene and Gratiot.  According to Shah, Bobby was quite a harp player, "but he shot that dope" and eventually Shah had to go elsewhere to continue his musical instruction.  He listened to Little Sonny, played with Bobo Jenkins and Big Jessie Williams and was encouraged by Eddie Burns and Johnny Yarddog Jones.  Shah hung out with many many Detroit bluesmen to learn his skill; men like Robert Richard, Chicago Pete, Peter Rabbit and Peg Leg Joe, men who are known within the Detroit blues community, but not very far beyond.  Nonetheless, Shah knew good blues and he learned from all of them.  To this day he participates in a regular blues jam on Sundays at Long Tooth John's junkyard, honing his craft with other unknown musicians.

 Shah has a tremendous respect for his blues predecessors, whether it's quoting Sonny  Boy Williamson or Eddie Burns in his songs or including elder statesmen of Motor City blues like Little Junior Cannaday and Willie D. Warren in his sessions.  Shah formed a strong friendship with the late Eugene "Detroit Piano Fats" Foster and encouraged Fats to record his reminiscences of post war Detroit in "Hastings Street Revisited, Parts 1 & 2."  Fats was a former sidemen to John Lee Hooker, Detroit's greatest blues export; in fact Shah has surrounded himself with many of the forgotten fixtures of that era, Duke Dawson, Emmanuel Young and Leon Horner.  Not to be overlooked is Shah's relationship with the bluesmen of his own generation, including his running partner Taxi Joe Mitchell and guitarist Jesse Blades, and with R.J. Spangler's  Blues Insurgents, arguably the hottest blues band in Detroit.

 Shah's own songwriting leans heavily on his antecedents, but he has also developed a harsh ghetto blues with stream on conscience lyrics drawn upon his experience and imagination alike. "Detroit Playboy" may explain why he was fired at Ford and "Dirty Old Bastard" may only be mildly fanciful, but "I Can Get More On The Street" and "Old Hound Dog" can change lyrically with each performance.  All in all Harmonica Shah is a product of his surroundings and when he performs the Sonny Boy II influenced "My Baby Left Me…" it's because Sonny Boy left his mark on Detroit blues when he lived in the Motor City and when Shah rephrases Eddie Burns' "Orange Driver"  as "…she was drinking that I.W. Harper and talking all out of her head…" it's because he recognizes his debt to the great Detroit bluesmen who came before him.  Shah has synthesized the past (his own and Detroit's) with the present and created a blues that can only be described as Motor City Mojo.