Here's a brand new video of Nemeth at work in a club. Nice harp playing, but what interests me is an element in his vocal styling that sounds--to my ears, at least--like a direct hit from Junior Parker. It's the way he works his one-octave range: way up through the tenor range to that upper tonic note, then back down at the end of the phrase to the tonic note at the bottom of the octave. In several cases he then drops all the way to the blue third BELOW that lower octave. This means he's working what is effectively about a two-octave range within one vocal chorus. This makes him a heck of a singer, as regular ol' blues harp guys go:
Great stuff! Yeah, Mike Fugazzi turned me on to John Nemeth thru my set list thread-wow, what a set of pipes on this guy! ---------- Todd L Greene. V.P.
Yeah I agree John Nemeth has a helluva voice. His vocal range is pretty wide and he is influenced by Junior Parker (as you rightly noticed) among others. John cites one of his main influences as Junior Wells for vocals and harp.
For those who can travel and are interested. John Nemeth, Mark Hummel and Rust Zhin are performing here just North of Baltimore on Saturday April 17 in a Balt Blues Society Event. Cost is $25-$30 depending if you advance tix or at the door. Email me if anyone is interested in getting together to party ----------
The Original Downtown Philadelphia Fatman... Accept No substitutes!
My band opened for John last month. I agree on the power of John's vocals. Gives him a range for phrasing that is expansive.
He played thru a HG2, tilted and miced. Suckers LOUD. Looks like he's using a miced bassman here.
I used my Traynor YGL-3 that I had just resoldered, modded, and bridged the channels. My anal bass guy insisted it be miced, so I've learned not to argue...besides, we had the best sound guy in the area and I knew he would dial it in good. Sounded fine...first two songs I played soft and more or less background. Third song was "Do It Again" where I feature solo, but still not loud. Then I started honkin'. Sound guy later informed that he dialed to 0 and it sounded fine.
John and Kid Andersen were both open and friendly. Rest of the band? Not so much.
Little Joe, was it a HG2 or Double Trouble? ---------- Mike Fugazzi http://www.myspace.com/niterailband http://www.youtube.com/user/NiteRail http://www.twitter.com/NiteRail http://www.facebook.com/mike.fugazzi
Nemeth is a phenom. You can hear Wells in his vox but also here in the solo where he cops a signature sequence from Jnr. (Which I think is from "It's My Life, Baby" and which Sugar Ray copped when he did "Country Girl" on the Knickerbocker LP).
Yeah, you're right, Mike. It was a Double Trouble, cream colored. Still surprisingly compact. I'm thinking it has had some special juicing, cuz it has way more presence than most 2X 6V6 amps to my recollection...but maybe that's how its engineered.
Needless to say, I was quite occupied with my own gear that night.
Really good stuff, nice and tight. The singing is coming from the diapraghm, not the throat like most 'rock' vocalists - most people can get up to three octaves with the right technique; less effort, more sound, especially miked up. That's why his voice cuts through so well. And kudos to the drummer for keeping it down.
