Perusing the Top 40 Blues Charts, you’re bound to find artists who are predominately in their 50s, 60s or even 70s. Milwaukee artist Carl 'Buffalo' Nichols is in his early 30s, and he says the blues has been "trapped in amber," and he hopes a new generation of musicians will step up to shake up the genre.
Nichols' new album "The Fatalist" comes out Friday, Sept. 15. He joined NHPR's Rick Ganley in Studio D to chat about the blues and play a few tunes.
Transcript
Rick Ganley: You've said somewhere that the blues has been trapped in amber. What did you mean by that?
Buffalo Nichols: Yeah, I don't know. As time goes on, I understand less what I say, but I think at the time I was feeling like the name or the word 'the blues' is associated with different eras of music, and none of them from this century.
And I think there are a lot of people who like exactly that about it— that it hasn't changed. But I do think that it was stifled by, you know, those people trying to maintain what they thought [the blues] was supposed to be.
Ganley: It seems like what people think of blues, they think a lot of classic rock now, too. I think that's become so entrenched in our culture.
Nichols: Yeah, a lot of people. Especially in the 60s and the 50s with the British invasion, even from the beginning, a lot of these artists were pretty open about their influences, but I don't think a lot of people were interested in digging and finding out more about this. Like we know the names and we know some of the songs, but there's a whole world of music beyond that. And, you know, classic rock... it owes a lot to the blues.
Ganley: I know you told Rolling Stone last year that to make the blues relevant to a new generation and, you know, convince more young Black musicians to play, the first step is representation.
Nichols: Yeah. That's a quote that's been haunting me. But I'm sorry.
Ganley: I'm sorry to bring it up, but—
Nichols: No, no, it's all good. I think it's worth it because I need to, like, maybe clarify some things. More representation from Black artists doesn't mean less representation from white artists.
Ganley: I think that's true about everything. I think people need to see themselves reflected in the art they want to make, right?
Nichols: I think that my age has complicated things for me. Because when my album came out, I just turned 30 and it was just after like the height of COVID. So it was like two years of waiting for the album to come out too.
So I'm like, all these thoughts are the thoughts of a 20-year-old, really. And all the music that I loved was music of a youth culture. Whether it's like hip hop, or punk or metal, there's room for everybody in it.
But the culture itself is decided by young people generally. And for some reason the blues is the complete opposite where people— you know, it's not even like a middle aged thing. It's like people 60 and older get to say what's going to go on and everybody else has to follow in line. And, you know, young people don't really like things that operate that way.
And people want to wonder, how do you get younger people in the blues? And that's the first thing— you got to let them. If they say something that's worth being said, you should listen.
Ganley: So you performed a song that is on the new record, 'The Fatalist.' It's 'You're Going to Need Somebody on Your Bond.' Is that Blind Willie Johnson originally?
Nichols: I'm not quite sure. I've always played the Blind Willie Johnson version. But, you know, Charlie Patton's done it. Taj Mahal has done it.
Ganley: So many people have covered it. But you did it with a drum machine and sampler today. Tell me about that.
Nichols: Yeah, that was the thing that has been on my mind for the last ten years is making the blues feel like it's something that comes from the same place that I come from. But just personally, I grew up discovering music in an era of sample based hip hop. I always felt really connected to that music, and it was music that I made when I was young, so it just felt really natural to to combine those two things.
Ganley: What makes a really good show for you when you come off stage?
Nichols: Usually it's judged by if I don't say anything embarrassing, that's good. That's a good start. There are some things that you can be proud of, like winning over a crowd that was hesitant to you. You know, it feels like you've succeeded in a way, but to me, that's not what I'm after.
To me, I know I've done a good job when I walk away feeling like I couldn't have done anything different. You know, it's all about feeling like you've done everything you can as a performer to express yourself. And sometimes you just know that you gave it your all.
"The Fatalist," comes out this Friday, Sept. 15, and Buffalo Nichols be back in New England later this month, performing at the Freshgrass Music Festival in western Massachusetts.
