"Blues has always reflected and reacted to that in a way that touches the root of a person's soul. That's how I want and hope our music will affect and inspire."

Don Wegrzynowski: The Righteous Villains

On their debut album, Unusual Suspects (2023), the Righteous Villains flirt with a myriad of classic blues styles while forging new ground. Filtering Chicago and Memphis grooves through an old-school West Coast template, they create a groove that swings as much as it rocks. “We consider ourselves modern blues,” notes guitarist Brian Gerbracht. “We don’t play in the traditional 12-bar, 1-4-5, mode too much. When you have three songwriters bringing in different ideas it’s almost a guaranteed things are going to go in a number of directions, the trick is to bring it all together so it makes sense.” “We build on the blues, it’s the foundation that holds it all together,” adds bandleader/harp player Don Wegrzynowski.                                                              (Photo: The Righteous Villains)

Unusual Suspects winds its way across 11 songs that plumb almost every corner of the blues landscape in way or another while maintaining a very forward-thinking musical mindset. Vintage rock and soul figure prominently as well, adding just enough balance to show these are very much fine-tuned works and not off-the-cuff creations. Like looking out your windshield and rearview mirror simultaneously, Righteous Villains keep an ear to the past and an eye on the future in the same breath.

Interview by Michael Limnios               Special Thanks: Larry Kay (Night Train PR)

What do you learn about yourself from the blues and what does the blues mean to you?

The Blues is an opportunity every day to catch an open, honest glimpse of my soul, ...my humanity, as it were. From the very beginning, no matter where else I go musically, The Blues have allowed me to express my spirituality. Whether it's anger, sadness, loneliness, or pure joy, I get to see my authentic self through the spiritual expression that the muse has given me through it. Some people go to Churches, Synagogues, Mosques, Groves, etc. to express their love for the divine. I'm blessed to be able to express that love through the Blues. When I'm playing, that's my "Church", and I'm playing my "Gospel". So it's everything.

How do you describe the band’s sound and music philosophy? What is the story behind the band’s name: Righteous Villains?

When you have such a collaboration of musicians with such a diverse background as the sum of us are.... Yet still rooted in the Blues, I think we all come together and say "Ok, what can we do with this manifestation of our interpretation of this idea of our art? What can we throw at this to make it fresh and still be the Blues?"

The name came to me after the first couple of meetings/rehearsals. We had said we wanted to take what we had from the tradition and give back to it whatever we could in some kind of fresh, irreverent way. I came home after one of those nights and "Oceans 11" was on the tv, and the scene where Basher says, "It'll be nice working with proper villains again!" Unfortunately, when I checked, some metal-hip-hop kid had the name.... the next night, the next-door neighbor heard us rehearsing and came over and said " You boys sound Righteous!" Right then and there, I said "THAT'S out name."

"First, Blues has always been a spiritual reflection-reaction to what's going on in the world at the time. Whether it's your basic "my baby done me wrong" to protesting societal conditions and injustices of the day. Poverty, war, racism, insane corporate greed that's making our planet inhabitable in the name of profit, the insidious creeping rise of fascism in America..." (Photo: Don Wegrzynowski)

What moment changed your music life the most? What's been the highlights in your life and career so far?

There have been sooo many... Seeing Muddy, Charlie Musselwhite, and Delbert McClinton when I was 9 or 10 was what made me say "I want to Do THAT!" A couple years later, Seeing the J Geils Band on the "Live" Full House" tour and taking the album home. I was rocking out the next day in my bedroom, and my dad (who was a horn player himself) came up and asked " What the hell is this?"... I was thinking I was a young Rock n Roll rebel and said " It's Rock and Roll, Dad!". He Chuckled, and said "No, Kiddo, It's the Blues, just louder". Then he took me downstairs and played me the original 78's.

Magic Dicks playing on those records influenced and taught me alot. I played on a bill he headlined on a bunch of years ago and thanked him for all the harmonica lessons. We had a laugh and a good conversation. Later, seeing the original Nighthawks... gave me another look into how I wanted to play and shape a band. I've joked with Mark Wenner that I get on stage and steal all his licks every night. Getting to meet and have a conversation with Rick Estrin... A long conversation with Warren Haynes that pulled me away from the brink of despair during a dark time and encouraged and inspired me to keep playing...

What would you say characterizes the New York blues scene in comparison to other local US scenes and circuits?

First, we're from Buffalo, NY, not NYC, which is on the other end of the state. They have England 3400 miles away, I can stand at the base of the Peace Bridge and Hit Golf Balls across the Niagara River into Fort Erie, Canada, lol. That being that, my understanding is that it's similar to NYC in that there are a few established "Legendary" acts that get most of the prime gigs at the prime spots, and the rest of the groups trying to further the milieu are left to scramble for the leftovers. NYC, being around 30 times the city that Buffalo is, is certainly going to have more outlets. I've heard a number of guys say that Buffalo is a smaller, tougher version of NYC, though. A microcosm, as it were. That being said, in Buffalo, it's still very much a shared community in that bands have a bunch of players in common when guys have other obligations. It's kind of funny. If you're trying to do original material, it makes it even tougher no matter how good you are, because you're guaranteed to get constant demand for "Mustang Sally", or "Sweet Home Chicago" ...or any one of a dozen SRV covers WHILE you're in the middle of playing some of your best original Stuff.

"The Blues is an opportunity every day to catch an open, honest glimpse of my soul, ...my humanity, as it were. From the very beginning, no matter where else I go musically, The Blues have allowed me to express my spirituality. Whether it's anger, sadness, loneliness, or pure joy, I get to see my authentic self through the spiritual expression that the muse has given me through it. Some people go to Churches, Synagogues, Mosques, Groves, etc. to express their love for the divine. I'm blessed to be able to express that love through the Blues. When I'm playing, that's my "Church", and I'm playing my "Gospel". So it's everything." (Photo: The Righteous Villains, a modern blues band, that hails from Buffalo, New York)

What do you miss most nowadays from the blues of the past? What are your hopes and fears for the future of?

One thing is just how RAW it was, and could be. There was a raw, primal, emotional soul that I think that some of the younger interpreters fail to channel. There's so many "sampling" and "combo" amps, effects pedals, vocal enhancers, etc...It takes away more than it can ever add, IMHO. I saw one group over the summer that sounded more like a studio effects lab than a live band.

What I hope is that there's a progressive continuation of the tradition that stays true to the historical roots of the music, while still moving it forward. What I fear is that there's a generation or generations that don't pay attention to the history and the spirit of our music, or flat out reject it because it's "not Cool" or whatever acronym or buzz term is an vogue at that juncture.

What is the impact of Blues on the socio-cultural implications? How do you want the music to affect people?

First, Blues has always been a spiritual reflection-reaction to what's going on in the world at the time. Whether it's your basic "my baby done me wrong" to protesting societal conditions and injustices of the day. Poverty, war, racism, insane corporate greed that's making our planet inhabitable in the name of profit, the insidious creeping rise of fascism in America... I may sometimes use satirical terms to express that outrage, but it's still focused on the same wavelength.

Blues has always reflected and reacted to that in a way that touches the root of a person's soul. That's how I want and hope our music will affect and inspire. Whether its tugging at the heartstrings, or having to grab them by the short ones, having the lyrics and the beat and melody inspire people to have a spiritual reaction to the message. Hopefully they go out from there and maybe try to make the world around them a little better place to live from there.

"What I hope is that there's a progressive continuation of the tradition that stays true to the historical roots of the music, while still moving it forward. What I fear is that there's a generation or generations that don't pay attention to the history and the spirit of our music, or flat out reject it because it's "not Cool" or whatever acronym or buzz term is an vogue at that juncture." (Photo: Don Wegrzynowski)

What's the balance in music between technique and soul? Why is it important to preserve and spread the blues?

That's a great question-subject that I've been asked and discussed ad infinitum with other players and music fans in general. I'm not a particularly "technical" harp player, I guess. Whatever that means or for whatever that's worth, or supposed to mean. I know that I know a basic proficiency of the instrument, and I try to make a connection to what's in my spirit and soul to express what I'm trying to say in the song. The first guy that ever taught me, an old WWII buddy of my fathers, gave me a couple of old, beat up Marine bands, told me" just learn these basics and the rest will come if your heart's in the right place!"

I hear guys who take a million lessons and can spew theory ad nauseum, and maybe they can play ultra-complicated passages with a million notes. But I don't hear the soul of what they're trying to say. There are those who can (and I admit, I'm somewhat jealous, lol), but for me, it's soul. The Blues are ALREADY "preserved", through recording and tradition. Spreading the Blues, the tradition, to me is paramount to preserving our humanity. Nothing less.

Do you think there is an audience for blues music in its current state? or at least a potential for young people to become future audiences and fans?

THAT is the ultimate paradoxical dichotomy, lol. Sometimes I'm at shows of some of my favorite Blues artists, and there's no one under 40 in the crowd. Then I'm at a show and half the crows are college aged or in their 20's! There are some promising, younger, "spreaders of the faith". Everyone wants to do the "newest, hippest" thing, just because it's "new" and someone else says it's "hip", without knowing why. I firmly believe that if we can get our music where younger audiences can experience what it's about, there’s whole generations of future fans that just don't know it yet! We do an early-show residency at the oldest music club in the WNY region - Nietzsches - in Buffalo, on Thursdays. Following us is always a show of some different Genre. Usually, whatever is trying to be "new", "hip" or "different" by rejecting what's gone before.

Every week, we get kids coming in for whatever is following us...Prog, emo, Punk...They all come in during the last hour of our show and seriously get into it! They hang out, ask me "What is that? It's freaking phenomenal!" I'll talk to them and tell them what it's about. They love it and come back with friends, never having imagined that the stuff their buddies mad fun of was so good! I know in my heart of hearts, that if we can get it out in front of them, the future will be bright.

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(Photo: The Righteous Villains)