“You can't really teach somebody the feeling and soul of the Blues. You can show them  to find the notes, but you can't give them the feeling.....If the Blues gets a hold of them... the feeling and soul will follow.”

Max Hightower: The Blues Chooses You

Max Hightower was born and raised in the Upstate of South Carolina. At age 12, he bought his first Blues cassette tape, 'Muddy Mississippi Live' by Muddy Waters. The new and mysterious sound of the music had such an immediate impact on him that in no time he was banging around on his Grandmother's Silvertone guitar. However, it was the Harmonica that became his instrument of choice. He found that there was something almost spiritual about having an instrument that close to his voice, giving every breath meaning. That little 10 hole harp led him down the path of composing his own songs, playing the piano, bass, guitar, singing, teaching and producing. As one of the founding members of Plate Full O' Blues, he now tours the USA, Canada and Europe. He has even shared the stage with some of the very legends that fueled his passion for the music, like Hubert Sumlin, Willie Smith, Bob Margolin, Eddie Shaw and Leon Everette to name a few.                                 (Max Hightower, the blues chooses him / Photo by Micah Furtick)

The Blues Chooses You (out October 9th on the MoMojo Records label) is the logical follow-up to Max’s critically acclaimed 2025 release, Nothin’ But the TRUTH (MoMojo Records), which showcased a boatload of Hightower’s original songs percolated through the sound and feel of Big Jon Atkinson’s vintage-style BigTone Studio in New Orleans. That record followed in the footsteps of Max Hightower’s long-running stint as a member of Mac Arnold’s band. A cool twist of fate landed Max Hightower and four musicians who played with him on the new album to an old, funky pink Nashville studio, sweating it out on live-to-analog tape with enough microphone bleed to hold it all together. Featuring Chicago's own Joe Moss on guitar, The Blues Chooses You forges New Orleans juju and Carolina soul with a little Chicago fire into a record that took on a life of its own. Max’s latest album was recorded live-to-tape at The Bomb Shelter in Nashville, Tennessee, and produced by Max Hightower. The album’s even-dozen tracks are made up of mostly original songs, along with Max’s unique takes on the Guitar Slim classic, “Things I Used to Do,” and Johnny Shines’ “I Don’t Know.”

Interview by Michael Limnios                         Special Thanks: Mark Pucci Media

Even though you started with the guitar, the harmonica became your instrument of choice. You've mentioned that your relationship with it is almost spiritual. How does such a small instrument manage to give shape and meaning to your every breath?

When I first heard James Cotton playing harp on that Muddy Mississippi Waters cassette tape, I wasn't even sure what it was because it had this distorted, aggressive sound.

When my grandma's old Silvertone with a loose neck and three strings didn't work out, I asked my other grandma if that was a harmonica I was hearing on the cassette tape. She said yes. Then she bought me my first harp... key of C.

Luckily, most of the album is in the key of G, so that put me in the right key for harp. I didn't know anything about cross patterns.

I would stand in front of my cassette player trying to play the notes Cotton was playing. I would rewind it a little, over and over, until I started figuring out what he was doing.

I was getting pretty frustrated because there was one sound that I just couldn't figure out. Then, out of frustration, I sucked in on the harmonica so hard that I bent my first note. It was kinda spiritual. I was hooked.

I would sit by my radio every day, all day, determined to figure out what Cotton was doing on the harmonica. Mom would sometimes knock on the door and say, "Okay, that's enough. Take it outside."

After all these years, I'm still trying to figure out what he was doing... and that definitely gives shape and meaning to every breath.

Besides being an active musician, you are also involved in teaching. How do you pass on the feeling and soul of the Blues to a student, something that theoretically cannot be written down on sheet music?

I don't do as much teaching anymore, but when I do teach, especially if it's someone young, the first thing I try to teach them is how to listen.

We can all hear music, but a musician listens... I mean really listens. You start breaking it down and hearing the little things that you probably never noticed before.

I'll show them the basics, then try to get them to bend a note. Then we'll sit and listen to some of the old greats, and I'll give them a little history lesson along the way. I want them to understand where this music came from and hopefully get them excited enough to want to dig deeper.

You can't really teach somebody the feeling and soul of the Blues. You can show them  to find the notes, but you can't give them the feeling.....If the Blues gets a hold of them... the feeling and soul will follow.

“When we got in the studio, everybody started throwing ideas on the table as we ran through it, and it just kind of took on a life of its own. Even the ending wasn't really planned ....it just felt natural. Joe started playing that lead sitting down, and somewhere along the way he stood up... and we just let him go.” (Photo: Max Hightower)

The title of your new album is "The Blues Chooses You". How exactly did the Blues "choose" you, and how did this concept influence the creation of the record?

When I was about 12 or 13, we were the only guys in the neighborhood that had friends with a satellite for TV. Back then that was a BIG deal because we only had about four channels, and that's if you put some aluminum foil on the ends of the antenna.

About 10 or 12 of us went over to my friend's house just to see all these stations. They were scrolling through the channels and I caught maybe five seconds of this Black dude in a sailor suit playing guitar, and something about "Purple Haze"... then they changed the station. I said, "Turn it back! Turn it back!"

Finally they did, and everybody else immediately started complaining. "Turn it! This is stupid!" It didn't matter. Out of 10 or 12 guys in that room, for some reason I was the only one completely mesmerized by this guy.

When I got home I asked my mom, "What is Purple Haze?" She laughed and said, "You're talking about Jimi Hendrix."

I'd saved up some money, so I asked her to take me to the record store. The only Hendrix album they had was Nine to the Universe. I took it home and had absolutely no idea what I was listening to. I'd never heard anything like it. It sounded like a jam session, and I wanted to know everything about this guy.

I started reading the notes and somewhere along the way I found out that some of his influences were Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters. At the time I was trying to figure out how in the hell somebody could be influenced by water that was muddy. I had no idea Muddy Waters was a person.

Later, me and some friends were at the mall and I was looking everywhere for a Robert Johnson album. I couldn't find one, so I finally asked the guy working there, "Do you have any Robert Johnson?" He said, "Oh yeah, sure," and walked me over to a section that said BLUES. I didn't know anything about Blues. Man, I didn't even know there was a Blues section in the record store.

I found a Robert Johnson cassette, but then I looked down and saw Muddy Waters. That's when I realized... Oh! This is an actual guy!

I pulled out this black cassette that said Muddy "Mississippi" Waters Live. There wasn't a picture or anything on it, so I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into.

When my mom picked us up from the mall, I had this little cassette player in the back seat. No headphones. You had to hold the speaker up to your ear. I didn't want to bother everybody else in the car, so I leaned against the door with that little speaker pressed up against my ear and hit play.

At first it sounded almost like a preacher saying, "Oh yeah... everything gonna be alright this morning... oh yeah..." Then he let out that WOO! and the band kicked in. I literally felt something go through my whole body. Almost like a drug.

That was it. There was no turning back.

Out of all those guys sitting in that room that day, I was the only one who wanted them to turn Jimi Hendrix back on. Jimi led me to Muddy, Muddy led me deeper into the Blues, and I've been chasing it ever since.

That's why I called the album The Blues Chooses You. I sure wasn't looking for the Blues. Hell, I didn't even know what it was. It found me.....And I think that idea carried into this record. I didn't want to force anything or try to make some perfect flawless Blues album. I wanted to get the right people in a room, hit record and follow that same feeling that grabbed me in the back seat of my mom's car all those years ago.

“I guess if I learned anything standing beside guys like Hubert, it's that you don't have to play a hundred notes to say something....it's the space between the notes that makes what you do play mean something. Sometimes playing nothing is the greatest note of all.” (Photo: Max Hightower)

The album was recorded live-to-analog tape at The Bomb Shelter in Nashville. Why did you choose this vintage approach, and what does it bring to the final sound that digital technology just cannot capture?

I guess it goes all the way back to that first Muddy Waters live album I heard. Then there was Hard Again, which Johnny Winter produced and they basically recorded live in the studio. Muddy didn't want to wear headphones, so they ran his vocals through the board and back out through an amplifier in the room so he could hear himself.

When you really listen to that album, it feels like you're sitting in the room with them while it's happening. Everybody is playing off each other in real time. Then there's Hooker 'n Heat, another one of my favorite records. Those records have a sound and a feel to them that I've always loved.

Back then they were recording to tape and using real tube preamps and all that old gear. Nowadays we have plug-ins that can mimic tape machines, old preamps and just about anything else. And they do some amazing things... but to me, it's just not the same.

A lot of records today are tracked separately. You can sing a song five or six times, take the best parts from every vocal, put them together, tune whatever needs tuning and basically fix anything you want. It's a great safety net, and I'm not dogging new technology at all. Maybe that's exactly what some people want. I just believe you can lose something when you depend on that safety net too much.

That's one of the reasons I chose The Bomb Shelter. I wanted a studio and an engineer that understood what I was trying to do. I wanted us together in one room, playing live to real analog tape, using real vintage gear and feeding off each other.

I'm not looking for perfect. I'm looking for that thing that happens when everybody locks in and you know you've got it. You might have some bleedover or a rough edge here and there, but I don't care. That's part of it. You're not just recording a song... you're capturing a moment.

As one of the founding members of Plate Full O' Blues, you know firsthand what it takes to build a band. How critical is that collective chemistry among musicians when you are all cutting tracks live together in the studio?

It's everything. I mean, you can have some of the greatest musicians in the world together but if there's no chemistry there no fire... It only takes one cocky or bad attitude and the session is going to be a waste. You can lay tracks or whatever but the magic is gone.

“When I first heard James Cotton playing harp on that Muddy Mississippi Waters cassette tape, I wasn't even sure what it was because it had this distorted, aggressive sound. When my grandma's old Silvertone with a loose neck and three strings didn't work out, I asked my other grandma if that was a harmonica I was hearing on the cassette tape. She said yes. Then she bought me my first harp... key of C.“ (Photo: Max Hightower)

The press release mentions that the album’s sound blends "New Orleans juju," "Carolina soul," and "Chicago fire." How did you and your collaborators manage to balance these three distinct musical flavors?

I've worked with a lot of great bass players and drummers over the years, but the first time I worked with Brandon Phelps and Stedman "Fleetwood" Williams Sr., something just clicked. I can't really explain it. The pocket was there, the feel was there, and it just worked.

It was the same thing with Rob Davis on the last album. Rob was born and raised in New Orleans, and that stuff is just in him. He's not trying to play New Orleans music ... it's part of who he is, and when he sits down at that piano or organ, it comes out.

I've known Joe Moss for years, and we've always talked about working together. I knew his style really well, and when I started thinking about this album, I knew he was the perfect fit. Hands down.

Joe grew up around all those heavy hitters in Chicago back in the day, and he's not just playing guitar on this record. He laid down 100 percent Grade A, pure Chicago blues. You can hear where he came from in every note.

That's really what made this band work. Everybody brought years of experience and their own thing to the table ....Chicago, New Orleans, Carolina, all of it.

I wasn't exactly sure what was going to happen when we all got in that room together. But I knew one thing they were all good solid dudes with no egos or attitudes. Nobody was trying to prove anything or outplay anybody. We just listened to each other and played off each other. Once that tape started rolling, all those different backgrounds came together and became one sound.

Along with your original tracks, you included two classic covers (Guitar Slim and Johnny Shines). What drew you to these specific songs, and what unique spin did you want to bring to them?

I was fooling around one day with an arrangement in open D tuning, but I couldn't come up with any lyrics for it. So I just started singing a few lines from the late, great Eddie "Guitar Slim" Jones' "The Things That I Used to Do" over it. I never intended on using his lyrics with that arrangement. It was just something I was messing around with.

Then one night I had a solo gig, and I'd already played about everything I knew. I still had about ten minutes left to fill, so I thought, what the hell, and started playing that arrangement and singing Guitar Slim's lyrics over it. People seemed to love it, and I've been playing it that way ever since. I always make sure people know it's Guitar Slim's song.

When we got in the studio, everybody started throwing ideas on the table as we ran through it, and it just kind of took on a life of its own. Even the ending wasn't really planned ....it just felt natural. Joe started playing that lead sitting down, and somewhere along the way he stood up... and we just let him go.

I've always loved Johnny Shines ... his guitar playing, his voice, his songs, everything about him. He was the real deal, one of the greats. I've been singing "I Don't Know" since I was a kid, so that one goes way back for me.

We didn't try to play it exactly the way Johnny did. There wouldn't be much point in that. We just played it the way we felt it, but at the same time tried to respect where it came from.

I just hope we did it in a way that would've met with Johnny's approval.

“When I get an idea for a song, I'll usually start with a bass groove and a tempo. Then as it starts to evolve, I may jump on the piano and it could completely change direction. Later I'll pick up the guitar and suddenly it could turn into a different song altogether. So yeah, sometimes my brain ends up all over the place.“ (Photo: Max Hightower)

The new album is described as the logical follow-up to "Nothin’ But the TRUTH". How do you feel you have evolved as an artist and producer between these two releases?

I don't really believe I've changed who I am as an artist. If anything, I've just gotten more comfortable with who I am and learned to trust my gut more.

I've definitely learned over the years how I DON'T want to record. That's why I spent so much time finding the right studio and the right engineer. I wanted somebody who understood exactly what I was looking for, and Jack Tellmann was that guy. He was always one step ahead of me. To me, it all starts with the engineer.

One thing I learned from the last album was to come prepared... but don't come over-prepared. I wrote the songs and had the arrangements worked out, but I didn't want everything set in stone. Recording live in one room, without headphones or baffles, gave everybody room to bring their own thing to it. We were constantly bouncing ideas around, changing little things and feeding off each other. That was probably the best part of making this album.

As far as producing, I think I've learned that a big part of it is putting the right people in the room and then knowing when to get out of the way. I brought the songs and the direction, but everybody brought years of experience and their own style to the table.

Put the right crew together, give them room to do what they do, and sometimes the album damn near produces itself.

You have shared the stage with legends like Hubert Sumlin and Willie Smith, and you spent years as a member of Mac Arnold's band. What is the most valuable lesson you learned standing alongside these giants of the Blues?

The first time I stood beside Hubert on stage and he went to take a lead... he didn't play anything at first. Then he just slid his finger down the frets and hit one note. He was kind of hunched over, then he looked up at me and smiled.

I just stopped playing and watched and listened.

He didn't play a lot, but what he did play was badass! I'll never forget it.

I guess if I learned anything standing beside guys like Hubert, it's that you don't have to play a hundred notes to say something....it's the space between the notes that makes what you do play mean something. Sometimes playing nothing is the greatest note of all.

“I'm not looking for perfect. I'm looking for that thing that happens when everybody locks in and you know you've got it. You might have some bleedover or a rough edge here and there, but I don't care. That's part of it. You're not just recording a song... you're capturing a moment.“ (Max Hightower & Mac Arnold / Photo by Paul Jehasse)

You handle almost every aspect of your music—from songwriting and vocals to playing guitar, bass, piano, and harmonica, while also producing. Does having total control over all these instruments make it easier or harder to bring your artistic vision to life?

When I get an idea for a song...I'll usually start with a bass groove and Tempo... Then as it starts to evolve... I may jump on the piano and it could completely change direction... later I'll try it on the guitar and it could turn into a different song all together ... So my brain ends up all over the place.... But if you stick with it ... if it a good song it'll start talking back to you... like a mirror... Sometimes you write the song sometimes the starts writing you... Meaning the words, Melody,  groove begins pulling the song out of you... It's really cool... You're like having a conversation with yourself... sometimes emotional and serious... Other times you can't stop laughing... And then there's no one else around... Then once a song is completed... As for producing... Again, pull  together several sets of fresh ears you trust and just let the song do its thing...

When I get an idea for a song, I'll usually start with a bass groove and a tempo. Then as it starts to evolve, I may jump on the piano and it could completely change direction. Later I'll pick up the guitar and suddenly it could turn into a different song altogether. So yeah, sometimes my brain ends up all over the place.

I guess knowing how to play all those instruments can make it easier and harder at the same time. It gives me a lot of different ways to chase an idea, but sometimes you can chase it too far.

The cool thing is, if you stick with it and it's a good song, eventually it'll start talking back to you... almost like looking in a mirror. Sometimes you write the song and sometimes the song starts writing you. The words, the melody and the groove start pulling the rest of the song out of you.

It's almost like having a conversation with yourself. Sometimes it's emotional and serious, and other times you're sitting there by yourself laughing your ass off at something you just came up with.

Then once I feel like the song is there, I try not to overthink it at that point. You get some fresh ears around you that you trust and let the song do its thing...

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(Photo: Max Hightower)