From: thig@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Terence P Higgins)
Subject: Kenny Neal (Blues)
Organization: Computing Services Division, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 17:17:25 GMT
Followup-To: rec.music.misc
Originator: thig@csd4.csd.uwm.edu


	Here's an interview with bluesman Kenny Neal and a review of his
latest CD. Hope you enjoy it. Please send comments, questions, etc to
thig@csd4.csd.uwm.edu

	The stage of one of Milwaukee's blues clubs is an unlikely place to catch
the latest performance by the winner of the 1991 Theatre World Award for "Most 
Outstanding New Talent On and Off Broadway."
        Unlikely, that is, unless the talent in question is bluesman Kenny 
Neal. The Louisiana native, who will be appearing with his band at the Up
and Under Pub Wednesday, February 3, is equally at home under the bright lights
of Broadway and the dimmed lights of a smoky nightclub.
        "I think that what I do for a living, playing the blues, was the
best preparation for my time in the theater," Neal said in a phone interview from 
Florida. "It taught me to be comfortable in front of all kinds of people,
and to always do a tight, professional job."
        Neal's Broadway stint came in 1991 when he won the starring role in 
"Mule Bone," a musical written in the 1930's by poet Langston Hughes and 
novelist Zora Neale Hurston. He played the role of a traveling musician, 
accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and performing versions of Hughes
poems set to music by Taj Mahal.
        The chance to work with material from some of the most respected 
African-American artists of this century was not a daunting one for Neal. In 
fact, he relished the opportunity.
        "I fell right into the role because the experiences they were
writing about aren't that different than the ones I've lived," he explained.
"Langston 
Hughes loved the blues and always wanted some of his work to be played as
the blues.
        "At the time a lot of the Southern blues musicians didn't accept
that because he was from New York and a serious writer and all that."
        Neal's said his childhood in Louisiana exposed to him to much of the 
same culture and society as Hurston, giving him a base of personal
experience from which to draw.
        While Neal said he viewed his time on Broadway as a success and in 
fact received offers for other stage projects, he wasn't ready to make a
career switch just yet.
        "I thought it was definitely worthwhile and I'd consider the right 
offer to do another play," he said. "I'm not looking for any old offer,
because I still want to make my living as a blues musician."
        That's good news for blues fans, because Neal's most recent
recording "Bayou Blood," (Alligator) is his best yet. It effortlessly blends funky 
workouts such as "Howling at the Moon" with slower, more traditional barn 
burners like "Branded," and that's just the start.
        "Smoke Signals" is a sad and rueful anti-drug song, while "Neal and 
Prey" is a jazzy, fast paced instrumental. There's even a nod to the roots
of Southern blues in the delta-styled "Going to the Country."
        There's so much variety on the disc, in fact, that it seems as
though that was Neal's specific intention. Not so, says the guitarist/harmonica
player.
        "I don't sit down to write a jazz song or a R & B song," he said.
"It starts with the music that I've got going through my head, music that sounds 
good together.
        "I record that first, then sit down and try and write a story to go 
with it. It's not like the album has to have a bunch of different styles,
those are just the way the songs come out sounding." 
        Neal's plans for the future include a family project with his
brothers and his father, Baton Rogue blues legend Raful Neal. Beyond that, it's 
anybody's guess.
        "I'm not making lots of plans for ten years down the road, that's 
never been the way I've worked," he said. "I've got lots of things I want to
do and I've got to believe when the time is right I'll do them."

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