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 Chris James &
Patrick Rynn
Blues fans are well aware of vocalist and lead guitarist
Chris James and bassist Patrick Rynn as longtime leaders of their own
band, the Blue Four, as well as for their stellar work with a
dazzling array of blues legends. Now Stop and Think About It, their
debut album for Earwig Records, takes their shared musical feats to a
whole new level.
The San Diego-based bluesmen inaugurated their musical partnership in
1990 when both were in Chicago for the first time. The sartorially
splendiferous duo has been inseparable ever since, their telepathic
onstage interplay in evidence whether they’re digging deep into
classic postwar blues or dishing up the meaty, satisfying originals so
prominent on their new CD.
Born in
North Carolina but raised in the warm and sunny climes of San Diego,
Chris was hooked on blues as a child. “I started playing piano by
the time I was 11. Chuck Berry was the first guy that was really a big
influence on me,” he says. Transfixed by anything having to do
with blues, Chris snagged a gofer job at a local blues festival where
he talked to Texas-bred guitarist Tomcat Courtney, San Diego’s
top bluesman then and now. Chris was skilled enough on harp at the age
of 13 to join Courtney’s band shortly thereafter their first
encounter.
“I only played harmonica with him for maybe six months or
something like that, and then the bass player quit. And then Tom just
gave me a bass and said, ‘Okay, boy, here’s the bass. The
bass player’s quit. I need you to learn this by next
week!’” laughs Chris. Soon he was alternating between bass
and guitar with Courtney before switching over to guitar altogether.
In 1990, Chris made his first pilgrimage to Chicago. An impromptu jam
with blues pianist Detroit Junior led to his first steady gig. In his
free time, Chris made the rounds of local jam sessions. He first
encountered Patrick while sitting in at B.L.U.E.S. Etc. “We did
not hit it off when we first met each other,” admits Chris. Fate
decreed that the pair would cross paths again very soon at the Guitar
Center, where Patrick worked. Chris came in and played a dazzling
“Terraplane Blues.” “We became instant
friends,” says Patrick. “He ended up coming down to the
store just about every day.” A new blues duo was permanently
established then and there.
It wasn’t
like Patrick didn’t have experience holding down the bottom in a
blues band. Born in Toledo, Ohio, he was classically trained on bass
before a buddy urged him to check out a high school jazz ensemble led
by veteran saxist Floyd “Candy” Johnson, who invited the
young bassist to play with the orchestra. “That’s how I got
introduced into blues,” says Patrick, who had an epiphany while
attending college when he heard Elmore James for the first time on
tape. “My whole world just changed,” he says. “It
just blew me away.” After serious woodshedding, Patrick hooked on
as bassist with Toledo’s leading blues band, the Griswolds, led
by brothers Art and Roman Griswold. “I ended up playing with them
for five years,” he says.
Harmonica great Junior Wells invited Patrick to Chicago in the spring
of 1990. That autumn he moved there. With both young bluesmen thus
settled in the Windy City, Chris drilled Patrick on the traditional
aspects of the blues. “He was teaching me the rudiments of
everything,” says Patrick. “I was exhausted. But over time,
it started happening.” The pair’s first big break came at a
tribute to harp immortal Little Walter at Rosa’s Lounge. An
all-star cast of Chicago blues giants was in attendance, including the
legendary Louis and Dave Myers.
“Louis and
Dave and all these guys, they wanted a break,” says Chris.
“They asked me, ‘Do you know Little Walter?’ I said,
‘Of course I know Walter’s stuff!’ So they put us up
there, and we started playing. And there’s Willie Smith and Sam
Lay and all these guys, looking at us.” It took a few months, but
that performance paid off. “The phone rang, and Chris runs in the
house, and he’s in there for about a half hour,” says
Patrick. “And he comes running out.
He says,
‘Get packed! We’re going to Atlanta!’ I’m like,
‘What do you mean?” He said, ‘Sam Lay–we just
got hired!’” The two anchored the powerhouse
drummer’s band for five years.
The two grew close to Dave Myers, co-founder of the Aces and a Chicago
blues electric bass pioneer. “We used to go over to his house and
spend all night just sitting in his kitchen playing. Chris on guitar,
Dave on guitar, me playing Davey’s bass. I always knew I was
doing okay if Dave was smiling,” says Patrick. “Dave Myers
was a huge influence on me. Not only was he an influence, but he was a
really dear, close friend.”
While playing in Colorado in 1994, Lay invited budding harp player Rob
Stone to sit in with the band. Like Chris and Patrick, Rob felt a
migrational pull to Chicago. The three teamed up as a unit there, and
when Stone decided to make an album, he asked his friends to help.
“Robbie wanted to start getting gigs in Chicago on his own, so he
needed to have his own CD,” says Chris. “Then we said,
‘What are we going to call the band?’” They decided
on the C-Notes, in honor of Rob’s spendthrift ways and
Chris’s penchant for spending his last buck on CDs.
No Worries, Rob Stone & the C-Notes’ acclaimed 1998 debut
album, was just the beginning. In addition to co-starring on the
C-Notes’ potent 2003 Earwig release Just My Luck, Chris and
Patrick recorded with pianist Dennis Binder (2007's Hole in That Jug on
Earwig) and Chicago guitarist Jody Williams’ second Evidence
album in 2004, You Left Me in the Dark They’d begun playing with
Jody near the beginning of his comeback and traveled the globe with him
until 2004, when Chris contracted a stomach ailment in Italy that took
him off the road.
Chris was well enough by July of ‘05 to travel to Europe as a
member of Phoenix harpist Bob Corritore’s band. That led to his
being asked to join Corritore’s Rhythm Room All Stars. “I
was in the band for like six months, then Patrick came aboard,”
says Chris. Their explosive exploits at the Rhythm Room can be heard on
House Rockin’ and Blues Shoutin’!, a 2007 live disc on the
Blue Witch label where they back Big Pete Pearson and Billy Boy Arnold.
Now their own Stop and Think About It takes it one mighty step further.
“We’ll still go back and do some things with Jody and Sam.
Now we’ve got the whole Tomcat thing going too,” says
Chris. Indeed, Courtney’s long-overdue national debut CD
Downsville Blues, produced by Corritore, was recently released on Blue
Witch with Chris playing stunning duets with his mentor and Patrick
contributing a sturdy bottom to the band cuts. “We’ve got
this big roster of people now that we’re playing with, trying to
keep ourselves busy.”
With the release of Stop and Think About It, a full itinerary is an
absolute certainty for Chris James and Patrick Rynn.
Quotes
“Twelve
cuts of vintage blues which, from the first note, grabs you and makes
you wanna boogie!!” –Don
Crow (Music City Blues)
“Chris James and Patrick Rynn have made a recording that once
again shows us there is no music quite like the blues when it's played
with love and enthusiasm.” –Richard Marcus
(Blogcritics)
“Engaging because it’s the kind of blues date a lot
of
people have been looking for for a long time, this set gets the party
started from the first lick and keeps it going until just a little
after closing time.” –Chris
Spector (Midwest Record)
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