| Bobby Bryan -- a native of LA and the principle of Bobby Bryan & The Original Downtown Players -- is a soft-talking bluesman. When he isn't on stage, Bryan seems almost shy and breaks out into a big smile when he doesn't have anything to say. But when Bryan gets up on stage with his Original Downtown Players, he seems to light up and let his guitar do his talking, sometimes plucking his guitar with his teeth in the same way that his childhood idol Jimi Hendrix used to do it. It was listening to his father's old Hendrix records that got Bryan interested in music. And while it was at Cal State-Northridge that Bryan learned classical guitar, it was in the club scene at LA where Bryan learned to feel and play the blues. "There were these older musicians who took you under their wing," Bryan recalled as we sat outside Ground Zero coffeehouse on Williamson Street. "I was 18 years old and most of these guys were at least 58 years old. They schooled me on what the sounds were. We played jazz and blues. It was the exposure to the LA scene at that time that really did it for me. You could go play blues anywhere with most musicians. In the club scene, the blues is sort of a basic thing you need to know how to speak that language in order to do almost any music." It is this language of the blues that allows Bryan to express himself -- a lot. It is a language that he has come to know very well. "I think what makes the blues The Blues is you are putting emotion into sound," Bryan said. "You're telling stories in sound. Any music does that, but blues is much more of an immediate emotion. It's almost like you just worked all day. You're tired and you're going to put that in sound. Or you get happy about something and you're expressing your emotions more directly. I find myself, even on stage, having guitar face where you're mouthing the notes as they are coming out. It's like having a connection right to the root of my soul and it's coming out in sound. That's how it feels." And the music reaches right into Bryan's inner being and his soul, pulling out what he is thinking and feeling, expressing the things that he may not be able to put into words. "When I'm playing blues, it's the connection to God, to spirit, to the universe and it's all coming out," Bryan said. "A lot of times, it's sort of like a ship that's out on the ocean and you're waiting for that bit of wind to come. You have your eyes shut and you're out there and all of a sudden you get lifted up by this spirit of sound and the wind is that inspiration that comes through." While Bryan has been a part of Madison's music scene for the past four years, playing with the Rob Dz Experience, Jan Wheaton, and Black N Blues, he gained little notice until he formed his own band last year. Bryan played out-of-town gigs almost more than he played in Madison. But that has all begun to change since Bryan and his band won the first Madison Blues Challenge at the Brink Lounge on April 15. Now they have a full line-up of gigs that take them through the fall and will ever be playing at the Overture Center. While Bryan is the cornerstone of the band and its featured performer, he readily acknowledges the contributions that his band mates make to the overall sound of the band. "Our drummer is the incomparable Rick Flowers, a cultural icon in Madison," Bryan said. "Rick has played with many, many well-known musicians. He is the master of his craft. He keeps the time together. He is an outstanding producer of music and is an excellent songwriter. In this band, he contributes all of his ideas in terms of the direction of songs. As a timekeeper, he plays for me a Mitch Mitchell with Jimi Hendrix. Rick can play off me and he reacts very quickly. Drummers have to have very good reactions and be able to respond to the music and the sounds they are hearing. He's a solid and smooth drummer." Flowers is joined in establishing the rhythm and beat of the band by bassist Lon Walker. "I know he's from Chicago and I know he's played with all of the greats in Chicago,"Bryan said about Walker. "In this band, Lon is the comedian aside from the music. He's the voice of reason a lot of the times. And, when necessary, he's the enforcer. His role as the bass player, he's like a kid. Lon is a 50 year old kid and he has this energy and this creativity that comes through. We'll just be jamming sometimes and suddenly a song is born right then that we are performing now. There's a song called 'In the Line of Fire' that we are doing now. We sat around and I had some lyrics and Lon came up with this bass line and suddenly it was like 'Hey man, that's a song.' He's got that creativity where he can freestyle blues lyrics like a freestyle rapper and it will be a good song. He's a solid bass player. He's made my life easier playing." Steve Skaggs is the band's keyboardist. "Steve Skaggs from the Town of Dunn plays all around town with several bands with Clyde Stubblefield being the most notable," Bryan said. "I'm real happy to have Steve around because Steve is a solid player. He's got a lot of creativity as well. What I'm most happy with Steve right now is' I'm able to afford Steve that I have enough shows where I can almost have Steve exclusively. I like his playing and I like him as a person. He's had my back. He's been loyal and doesn't complain. He goes along with the program and that's the best thing you can have when you are under a lot of stress trying to get shows together." And then there is Bryan with his lead guitar. "Lead guitar is just one of the instruments that at some point in time may have the voice, may take over the spotlight for a minute and everything else will play around that," Bryan said. "When the keyboard is playing, we play around that and you support whoever is the soloist at the time. For me, lead guitar -- I can't separate it from rhythm guitar or anything else -- when I play, I'm trying to play rhythm and sometimes I might play chords or a bass note and play guitar, not in any formulaic way. If it sounds right, then I'm going to play it. Lead guitar is like in a choir, you have the altos, sopranos, baritones and tenors; well that lead guitar sometimes might be the sopranos and be right up on top of the other voices. Lead guitar and all of the instruments are improvising. We set out in the song the topic of the conversation. Then, all of a sudden, we start talking. We don't plot and plan each conversation and every word we'e going to use. So you have to improvise and we have this dialogue that sort of just happens and seems miraculous and it probably takes five billion physical events inside of us to happen. On the spiritual side, it might be millions and billions. Improvisation is the most important thing to me. Listening and hearing are the biggest pieces to what we do with blues or any music because we have to be able to respond to one another." Bobby Bryan and The Original Downtown Players are headed for Memphis next January to compete in the International Blues Challenge, a right they won by winning the Madison Blues Challenge. It's an opportunity to take the band to the next level. "Just being at Memphis is sort of like The American Idol," Bryan said. "A lot of the American Idol people who got seventh place have gone on and had bigger careers than first place. Just being there will really create the opportunity for meeting people with the music industry. It's a level of exposure that you can't buy. It has the potential for really sparking a more international and national career than just playing locally in Madison." Bryan released his first CD, "Stranger Blues" last January. It can be purchased http://cdbaby.com/cd/bobbybryan or at http://www.myspace.com/bobbybryan. It is also available at two Madison music stores, Strictly Discs, 1900 Monroe Street and B-Side Records, 436 State Street. |
| Bobby Bryan & The Original Downtown Players No longer a stranger By Jonathan Gramling |
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| (Left) with Lon Walker (r) |