"The blues is a gift that African Americans gave to American music. The blues was always there at the heart of everything, but it wasn’t expresses with such feeling."

Rusty Ends: Hillbilly Hoo Doo Blues

Rusty Ends is the real deal, a true link between the rock and blues of the 50’s and 60’s and the 21st century. Rusty learned his craft as a teenager playing in the bars and taverns up and down Dixie Highway between Louisville and Fort Knox. The audiences were made up of a combination of soldiers, bikers, laborers, hustlers and working ladies (a vocal, volatile and sometimes lethal combination). In 1969 he did his first recording session with the band Cooper ‘n’ Brass at Phillips International Recording Studio in Memphis Tn. owned by legendary Rock ‘n’ Roll pioneer Sam Phillips. The record was “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is”, a regional hit in the southeast and one of the most popular records in dance clubs in the northeast. In the early 90’s Rusty decided he wanted to focus on his first love … The Blues and was a founding member of the Rusty Spoon Blues Band. Rusty has backed up some legendary performers including The Shirelles, The Drifters, Bobby Lewis, The Coasters, The Marvelettes and The Little River Band. At Blues Festivals he has played on bills that included Koko Taylor, Otis Rush, The Excello Blues All Stars (along with many other legends) and has played in recording sessions behind Kelly Richey, Robbie Bartlett, Wayne Young, and the great Blues Man Eddie Kirkland.                               (Photo: Rusty Ends, Louisville-based singer/guitarist)

Around 2010 Rusty disappeared from the music scene. When Rusty disappeared it was rumored he lived in the Everglades and studied Native American mysticism with an old Seminole Medicine Man. Rusty has never confirmed or denied this rumor. Another rumor, one that Rusty denies, is that he was first mate on a shrimp boat. In his denial of this rumor Rusty stressed the point that he would never work that hard. Rusty and the band do a combination of covers and originals combining Rock-A-Billy, Blues, Soul and anything else that catches his attention. This unique combination and the heart of Rusty has resulted in a real Kentucky burgoo he calls Hillbilly Hoo Doo. One of the big reasons devotes of vintage recordings seek them out is the claim that without all the “modern recording trickery and techniques“ the older records have a rawer sound of an artist being captured in an intimate and up close and personal and honest environment. That axiom was taken to the heart by Louisville guitar man Rusty Ends and his HillBilly HooDoo band on their new release from Earwig Music, “Roadhouses, Juke Joints And Honky-tonks” (2025). The dozen original tunes and a few bonus cover songs were recorded hot off the floor at Delmark’s Riverside Studios in Chicago by Rusty and the rhythm section of Uncle Dave Zirnheld on bass and vocals and drummer Gene Wickliffe along with guests Roosevelt Purifoy on keys and guitarist Wayne Young, who co-wrote four songs with Rusty for the project co-produced by Michael Frank of Earwig Music.

Interview by Michael Limnios               Rusty Ends @ Blues.gr, Interview 2020

Special Thanks: Rusty Ends & Betsie Brown (Blind Raccoon)

Who are some of your very favorite artists or rather, what musicians have continued to inspire you and your music?

There are so many I can’t name them all.  Of course, the Kings, B.B., Albert, and especially Freddy. Otis Rush for both his guitar tone and his voice. Percy Mayfield is one of the greatest writers ever, “His Please Send Me Someone To Love” is a perfect song. Guitarists Wayne Bennet and Mel both did something I am always trying for, combine jazz and soul in a way that works. Freddie Robinson went back and forth seamlessly. Before I get off of guitar players, I have to mention my favorites tone masters Les Paul, Santana, Fran Beecher, Cliff Gallup, and Wes Montgomery. My earliest would be Wynonie Harris, Ivory Joe Hunter, Fats Domino, and especially Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, and Carl Perkins. Without those last three I would probably have lived my whole life just for the annual two-week vacation. I have so many more I know I have to stop somewhere, but if you asked me tomorrow with the exception of the last three, I would probably name a whole different.

How do you think that you have grown as an artist since you first started making music? What has remained the same about your music-making process?

Two things that just naturally happen, I have gotten better as a musician (you have to keep growing or it’s time to quit), and I have learned to appreciate almost all styles. And hopefully I have learned to communicate with an audience. The blues has always been heart of my style, I always try to make music with feeling, and at the end of the night I want people to go home feeling like they had a good time.

"Music would have soul and meaning again. I don’t mean a deep life message, but it would be an important part of people lives. It brings me down when I see a good band in a club really working and half the people at the bar are texting or taking selfies, or when you see a great concert and all people talk about is the light show. The human touch is going away." (Photo: Rusty Ends)

Currently you’ve one more release with Earwig Music of Michael Frank.  How did that relationship come about? Do you have any interesting stories about the making of the new album “Roadhouses, Juke Joints And Honky-tonks“?

This is really our 3rd. Release on Earwig. He re-released a cd we did on Rollin’&Tumblin’, and a IY project we had out. I connected Michael because I contacted him about career guidance. At the time I had been playing for about 60 years and needed a jump start. We talked for a while, he liked our music and I liked him, I could tell he cared about the music. When we decided to do a new project Michael asked us to consider doing it in Chicago. We recorded at Delmark and the first thing was the vibe. You can feel the magic from all of the great artists that recorded there. Getting to work with Roosevelt Purifoy was very special.  He is one of the most soulful musicians I have ever met. He would run a song once and knew exactly what to play.  And I got to jam at Rosa’s Lounge one night with some great musicians and met Willie Buck and Mary D. Lane, real deal Chicago blues singers.

What touched you from the songs “Honky Tonk Man”. “Linda Lu”, and “Night Life”?

“Honky Tonk Man” is a song Lonnie Mack recorded and Lonnie was a major influence on almost every guitar player of my generation who came up in the KY., In., Ohio, and Ill. Area. He had a unique style and played rock, blues and country in the same song, this was not a big hit for him but I really like it and think it mixes everything really well. “Linda Lu” is a song I have been doing for years. Ray Sharpe, who had the original hit, was a blues singer guitarist sometimes called the black rockabilly. I like it and it makes me feel good. Willie Nelson’s “Nightlife” has beeb recorded by B.B. King and Luther Allison as well as numerous country singers. It shows that Willie knows the blues, and with a little chord alteration here and there it is the kind of blues that would have been great for Charles Brown or Billie Holiday.

“Technique is a tool. It is great to have it can help us express ourselves better. But it is only a tool. Music is emotion, lift people up let them know we share there heartbreak.” (Rusty Ends, Michael Frank, Dave Zirnheld, Roosevelt Purifoy, Julia A Miller & Elbio Barilari, Delmark’s Studio / Photo by Keith Age)

Your work is known for creatively reimagining blues and rock n’ roll tradition. How do you balance respect for the roots with experimentation?

I firmly believe that any style has to be allowed to evolve, otherwise it just becomes an artifact, a museum piece. I like to see younger players coming up and doing new things. I am fascinated by the relationships I see between various styles. I truly believe that every truly American style of music comes from the blues, and I have no problem using what I like from other styles, especially rock, country, and jazz. I won’t get on my soapbox but I am more worried about people taking the feeling out of the blues. It bothers me when I know the audience is just waiting for the next hot guitar solo or a light show. I really miss when you went to a blues club and there was a genuine exchange of energy back and forth between the artist and the audience.  I miss the “That’s right” and the “talk to me”. I am much more concerned with losing the feeling than I am mixing styles. And they are two different things.

You’ve worked in many different settings, from clubs and studios to open air festivals, road houses, and juke joints. How do you navigate between these different worlds?

You just have to be able to put the audience ahead of your ego. In the real world you can be an artist or you can be a working musician. If I go into the studio as a side man my job is to give the artist and producer what they want. If I go in to do my own project I can do what I hear. I will say I enjoy the studio but I don’t like to drag it out. If a project takes more than a week I get bored.  I love the festivals, most of the folks are there for the music and we just have to play the best we can. Road houses and juke joints remember all the folks are there for a good time. Choose your songs wisely but if you help them dance and forget their troubles for a few hours they go home happy and you’ve done your job. I really like it when I get a chance to back up an older artist that I respect and maybe they even influenced what I do. Don’t go into that with the thought wait until I burn up a coule solos and steal the show. Your job is to make that artist comfortable and usually recreate their sound. Steal the show and you’ll never get called again.

”I really miss when you went to a blues club and there was a genuine exchange of energy back and forth between the artist and the audience.  I miss the “That’s right” and the “talk to me”. I am much more concerned with losing the feeling than I am mixing styles. And they are two different things.” (Rusty Ends, a link between the rock and blues of the 50’s/60’s and the 21st century / Photo by Melvin Grier)

What are you doing to keep your music relevant today, to develop it and present it to a new generation?

I try to always write something different, even when I’m saying the same thing. I am crazy about Jimmy Reed but there was only one Jimmy Reed. Sometimes I write something and it just begs for the Jimmy Reed sound so I usually discard it and play a Jimmy Reed tune that night. I like to write with other people and it makes me look at songs differently. I write a lot with Wayne Young and we have come up with some nice songs. When we get done I may rearrange it for a blues audience and Wayne may arrange for a rock band.  It can be hard to write it the way I feel it and make it relevant but with Gene Wickliffe on drums and Uncle Dave Zirnheld on bass we will play with it to make it fit our style and be contemporary to an extent. A lot the songs I write and hope other people will record I just try to write the best song I can and let the artist adapt it to their styls.  That is the main thing in writing, write the best song you can, and let the artist do what they want with it.

What’s the balance in music between technique (skills) and soul/emotions?  Why is it important that we preserve and the blues?

Technique is a tool. It is great to have it can help us express ourselves better. But it is only a tool. Music is emotion, lift people up let them know we share there heartbreak. That is something that really worries me about the future of the blues, just like so many younger people are so impressed by modern technology they impressed by technique. I once saw B. bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb. King in Chicago and two really well known (and excellent) rock or blues-rock players asked to sit in. They started trying to cut each other and seeing how many notes they could squeeze into a bar until finally one turned to B.B. and told him to take it. B.B. hit about 3 notes with that B.B. tone and touch and I don’t know which was sadder. The way he burnt them, or the fact that so many people int the audience didn’t know he did. Blues is a living breathing thing and we have to keep it that way.  It has to evolve but not just be an excuse for a hot solo, and we must make sure that everyone remembers the people who came  before us.

“I try to always write something different, even when I’m saying the same thing. I am crazy about Jimmy Reed but there was only one Jimmy Reed. Sometimes I write something and it just begs for the Jimmy Reed sound so I usually discard it and play a Jimmy Reed tune that night. I like to write with other people and it makes me look at songs differently.” (Photo: Rusty Ends)

What do you hope is the message of your music? What do you hope people continue to take away from your songs?

A lot of the places I played as a kid were kind of rough and tumble. The audience was blues collar on the way home from second shift, soldiers, bikers, and the ladies that were there to entertain them, they were just living the same life. They worked hard and that bar or club was the place for them to forget their troubles and feel like somebody. I want everyone who hears our music to feel good, forget their troubles for a little while, and know they are somebody. If on top of that they could all realize that they all share the same desires and problems, and how much they have in common, that would be cool.

If you could change one thing in the musical world and it would become a reality, what would that be?

Music would have soul and meaning again. I don’t mean a deep life message, but it would be an important part of people lives. It brings me down when I see a good band in a club really working and half the people at the bar are texting or taking selfies, or when you see a great concert and all people talk about is the light show. The human touch is going away. By the same token I don’t like to go see a band and hear something that’s not there. I want every sound I hear coming from that stage to be the band I came to hear. I don’t want backing tracks or harmonizers. A lot of the younger musicians tell me I better get in step with the times, but to me it’s not an honest reflection of the group.

Are there any memories by The Drifters, Bobby Lewis, and The Coasters, which you’d like to share with us?

Backing every one of those groups was fun and full of great memories. But Charlie Thomas the leader of the Drifters threw a surprise on me. We were rehearsing “On Broadway” and I was ready. I had worked up the solo off of their record and thought be really happy. As soon as I went into it, he stopped me and said, “no man Hendrix”, and also said don’t put that Benson feel on it. So, I took it to neverland and it worked.  Bobby Lewis was fun, knew how to work the crowd, was about energy, and taught us the drummer can’t hit too many rimshots.  The Coasters were fun just like you think they would be.  And the Shirelles were wonderful, the crowd loved them, and when they sang “This Is Dedicated To The One I Love” it was the most soulful and bluest feeling I ever had.

Do you consider the Blues a specific music genre and artistic movement or do you think it’s a state of mind?                         (Rusty Ends / Photo by David Trite, 2019)

The blues is a gift that African Americans gave to American music. The blues was always there at the heart of everything, but it wasn’t expresses with such feeling. When you hear that old mountain ballad “Barbara Allen” it’s heartbreaking (makes you feel like cutting your wrist”, but it doesn’t hit you as deeply as a blues. Without blues we wouldn’t have American music. Jimmy Rogers and Hank Williams were blues men. If “So Lonesome I Could Cry” ain’t a blues, I never heard one. And of course, without the blues we wouldn’t have jazz, rock-a-billy, or rock’n’roll. Even bluegrass, listen to a Sonny Osborn banjo solo and you will hear the blues notes. So, blues is a feeling that has always existed, but a gift from black America, who taught us how to express it.

Let’s take a trip with a time machine, so where and why would you really want to go for a whole day?

Hard decision, but I think I would have liked to have ridden the bus all day with Ray Charles and his band, it would have to be something to just to say you spent a day with that many great musicians, and go to that gig in a tobacco warehouse that night where at the end of the show they Ray he still owed them some time and he made up “What’d I Say” on the spot. Can you imagine the energy. “What’d I Say” and “Please Please Please” may be the two most exciting records ever made.

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