“Not everybody have the Blues, everybody can play the Blues, if they you don't learn how to play it, but I was having you know …but then again everybody can encounter some Blues and depend on how you feeling…And if you can feel.”

JW Gilmore: All About The Blues

Experience the master storyteller and showman JW Gilmore. For many years he has wielded the harmonica, keeping audiences laughing, smiling and dancing into the night. JW Gilmore is a master storyteller, a demon on the harp, a well-versed musician and, above all, a showman extraordinaire. From slow dirty Blues to frenetic swing, JW keeps audiences laughing, smiling and dancing into the night. He has been playing harmonica for over 20 years, from Baton Rouge to Ft. Lauderdale, playing with greats like Tabby Thomas, Chris Thomas King, Louisiana Red, Todd Hart, and Joey Gilmore.  JW Gilmore has won the Florida harmonica championship five times. He no longer competes, but does attend each year and performs as a special guest. With this kind of talent, it's no wonder that J. W. Gilmore and the Blues Authority is a favorite blues band in Northeast Florida.

(Photo: JW Gilmore)

JW is a Blues performer that takes to heart the legacy of the legendary bluesmen that have come before him. He’s much more Muddy than Stevie Ray, more Little Walter than Eric Clapton, he plays a pure Blues rather than rock versions of Blues classics. J.W. Gilmore and the Blues Authority is a toe-tapping, finger snapping, hip-shaking, boogie-woogie, jump-swing blues band. To mix things up, they toss in some rockabilly, old time country blues, and a few tunes on the jazzier side, including some by Miles Davis.

Interview by Michael Limnios

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

Not everybody have the Blues, everybody can play the Blues, if they you don't learn how to play it, but I was having you know …but then again everybody can encounter some Blues and depend on how you feeling…And if you can feel.

How do you describe your sound and songbook? What's the balance in harmonica between technique (skills) and soul/emotions?

The Blues means to me that you are standing on the shoulders of great’s like BB King, Memphis Minnie, Tabby Thomas, Lazy Lester, and the new grates like Kenny Neal, Larry McRae, Shemekia Copeland, Bex Marshall… I could go on... Well, how I describe my sound in the song book is a try to state connected with the real, what touches my heart virus balance goes with my band, I let it be known that I'd say harmonica player with a band not a band with a harmonica... As far as technique, I just try to emulate the last thing I heard on the radio, whether it was guitar, trumpet, saxophone, keyboards... You bring it I can play it number.

Why do you think that Louisiana/Florida Blues scenes continues to generate such a devoted following?

Man people love the Blues.. Get in your soul makes you tap, your feet shake your hips, tap your toes in you and it's gonna come out to quote the hook, you know what I'm saying… I hope this comes out good, I've never been interviewed by a website, before Louisiana and Florida both got a swamp …maybe that got something to do with it.

“As far as, the future will have to keep doing what we're doing, otherwise our path would be like a leaf floating in the wind, and you don't know where that's gonna take you, but I don't fear nothing because the blues ain't going nowhere, all this music out here got a root note from a blues song anyway.” (Photo: JW Gilmore, master storyteller, demon on the harp, and showman)

Which meetings have been the most important experiences for you? What was the best advice anyone ever gave you? 

Before I was playing music seriously, I was a bodyguard bouncer in a bar, so I was around a lot of music but my grandmother stuck me in front of the piano like all my cousins at about 3 or 4 years old... And she gave me a bugle, I think it was from the Civil War, when I was about 4 and I made a lot of noise with that then she gave me, a harmonica… But I didn't pick it up and take it seriously till after I got older, as an adult maybe 20 years old. Played with a guitar player around upstate New York, and all the hanky talks along the snowmobile trails just guitar and harmonica for tips and giggles… But after, I started doing security and bodyguard work for bands, I thought to myself how hard could it be half the guys would show up to play and get paid and they'd be fucked up out of tune and didn't really care but that was, what they did for a living, I won't drop any names. I got a chance to meet a lot of musicians when I was doing body guard work like: BB King, Bobby Blue Bland, Chuck Berry... I saw how it was done.

Yes, later I got a chance to play with Todd Hart, formerly of Savoy Brown and I guess he was under Robert ‘Junior’ Lockwood's wing up in the Cleveland area got a chance to play with Joey Gilmore, in South Florida and all around Florida, Georgia, Alabama and I got a chance to play for The One and Only Tabby Thomas in Baton Rouge LA… he owned a nightclub and he's also the father Chris Thomas King, the Stars of the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and also the movie “Ray the Rachel's story” starring Jamie Foxx. I was told by a really good musician harmonica guitar player, if you don't have your own band nobody's gonna hire a harp player. So, I'd go to some jam sessions, head hunting looking for good musicians, finally I put a band together of my own insane Augustine around 2003 which happened to be the year of the blues... I tried to let them know that but they weren't paying attention.

Are there any memories from gigs, jams, open acts and studio sessions which you’d like to share with us?                                    (Photo: JW Gilmore & Joey Gilmore)

Oh my God, my brain can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday, but I can remember all the shows I've done... Like I said, I played with Todd Hart and the thing played for Joey Gilmore, and we've and I've opened for Leon Russell. Could have opened for James Cotton but they gave me my own night they said too. Too many harmonica players in a row, with my own band. We do the big biker festivals, we have here in Daytona, I had a chance to open for Molly Hatchet...  

“Well, how I describe my sound in the song book is a try to state connected with the real, what touches my heart virus balance goes with my band, I let it be known that I'd say harmonica player with a band not a band with a harmonica.”

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

I miss from the past my friends, who have passed on.. Like, Franklin Williams my bass player, Courtney Gurley one of my drummers… And the real Ronnie Roger's fantastic guitarist and singer… I'm always reinventing my band, because I lose people, because we're getting up to be that age you know... As far as, the future will have to keep doing what we're doing, otherwise our path would be like a leaf floating in the wind, and you don't know where that's gonna take you, but I don't fear nothing because the blues ain't going nowhere, all this music out here got a root note from a blues song anyway.

What are some of the most important lessons you have learned from your experience in the music paths?

I've learned that less's more let the groove breathe and find the groove  And let it groove cause the groove don't lie…

What is the role of Blues in today’s society? How can a musician truly turn the blues into a commercial and popular genre of music for the today's audience?

This is a tricky one, because I'm not a promoter, I'm not a manager, I manage my band and I let him know it's not a democracy. I let them know, man do it that way that's a great idea, and when you get your band that's the way you do it, but this is my band and we're doing it this way, as far as it becoming a commercial property, it's gonna happen or it's not they're gonna latch on to whoever looks good, looks pretty sounds good, coaching teaching and they'll take it from there ma'am, just today I saw a young girl with a great commercial being sponsored by honor harmonica's and she was playing a pink harmonica. I guesstats for brush cancer awareness...  I'm sure, I wear a pink sweatsuit for my concert, at the end of October.

(Photo: JW Gilmore)