"Guitar Mystic" Hugh Pool Interview
www.HughPool.com
Interview by Roger Zee (10/06/21)
Roger Zee: Who inspired you to take up guitar and sing? Do you play any other instruments?
Hugh Pool: I guess I must thank my brother for that. He died in a motorcycle accident at age twenty-three with me only fifteen. But in the ten years prior to that, he exposed me to a lot of different music. As a little kid, I remember him taking up harmonica. I'd hear him play it, then sneak into his room later and try and do what he did.
A few years later, he saved up money, bought a stereo, and started buying record albums and 8-track tapes. I remember Jethro Tull, "Aqualung," The Allman Brothers' "Eat A Peach," Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits 1 & 2," and a great album by Jesse Collin Young called "Songbird."
Entering high school, he started getting into Bluegrass. And through that, at ten, I became real familiar with Lester Flat and Earl Scruggs as well as all six sides of "Will The Circle Be Unbroken." I'd hear the Bluegrass music through the wall and sometimes they'd show me the record covers.
My sister, ten years older than me, also exposed me to music though, she kinda moved out by the time I turned eight or nine. She owned the Mamas and the Papas album where they're all in the bathtub. That record starts out with the song "Monday, Monday." Some pretty heavy shit that transports you to another place. Then she started dating and married a guy who actually knew how to play guitar. And most importantly, taught me how to tune one!
Didn't own a guitar until fifteen. I came down with Mono and stayed out of school for a couple of weeks. My good buddy Bob owned a Stella that someone gave him. He had no interest in it and I bought it for twenty-five dollars. It came with the Mel Bay, Pointer 1 book in the case. Since that day, I've never stopped.
I should add that my mom always displayed an adventurous spirit. She'd regularly buy music at Woolworth, I guess just based on the cover. I remember her playing Jean-Luc Ponty, Spyro Gyra, and Switched On Bach on of all things, our 8-track player.
My dad always sang snippets of songs from South Pacific, Oklahoma, and Showboat on the weekends. We all sang "Oh What A Beautiful Morning" at his memorial service. One night, when seven or eight years old, I remember he got the family out of bed in order to listen to an Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Symphony Orchestra album.
Even though nobody really played an instrument proficiently, I see now through answering this question that music surrounded me and I focused on it for as long as I can remember. I currently play guitar, harmonica, plus a little mandolin, banjo, and lap steel. I mean I make records and I own a studio. I play a lot of different stuff.
RZ: Tell me about some of the musicians and groups you've gigged and recorded with.
HP: In the late 80's, I got invited to front a Country Blues trio called The Catfish. We made three DIY records but only ever played in Scandinavia and Germany. It included a washboard player from Arkansas called Professor Washboard and keyboardist Brian Mitchell. Brian's a heck of a talent. And prior to this, we put together a Blues group in NYC called The Ramblin' Riverside Blues Band with another big talent, Frank Christian, RIP.
I also made five records with flutist John Ragusa. He's off the chain talented and we perform in a duo we call Mulebone. The group normally tours in the Summer months. My other mainstay performing collaborators in the NYC area and beyond include Ken Rich and Keith Robinson. But directly and recently within the family, we added James Wormworth, Whynot Jansveld, Keith Christopher, Mike Merritt, Charles DeChants, Barry Harrison, Admir Hadzic, and Ethan Eubanks.
RZ: What instruments/string/amps do you currently use?
HP: If I'm known for anything, I guess it's for playing slide guitar on a 1930 National Triolian. I like smaller amps. My favorites -- a Gibson GA-20 and a Fender 1956 Deluxe. The Gibson actually used to belong to the Lawrence Welk Orchestra! I bought it from the guitar player's grandson back in the 90's. A guy in a 1956 Cadillac hearse delivered the Fender to me one snowy night.
I use a Coricidin bottle which I found in the medicine cabinet at my house before I even knew about slide guitar. That bottle moved with my family twice. When my parents sold the third house and retired to Florida, they said, "Whatever you don't take we will throw out." I went home to get what I could, opened the medicine cabinet and said, "I'll be damned!" That's that thing which everybody writes about when talking about Duane Allman. In front of my eyes for so long, I didn't even see it.
For strings, I like a good snap. So I use 12's on my slide gits and 11's on the ones I primarily fret with my fingers. I use an SG with a Bigsby an awful lot too. I'm on my third pickup set in that thing. I think it's a Rio Grande, Fat Bastard, and a Bare Knuckle in there now. Oh yeah, and importantly, on the National rig there's a DeArmond "toaster top." I love DeArmond pickups. I've collected many over the years. They're just fabulously thick and maybe a tiny bit lo-fi, which I'm always a sucker for.
RZ: Talk about your recording studio, Excello, and your songwriting career.
HP: The two actually connect because I earned the money to invest in Excello from song usages, primarily on the ABC show called "The City" starring Morgan Fairchild. I also actually appeared in about ten episodes. They also used a great deal of music from my album, "Spirit's Treat Me Gently."
Excello began its life in Manhattan in the early 1990's as a studio called Cha Cha started by Dann Baker of Love Camp 7 and Bruce Hathaway, RIP. The original studio flooded in 1991 and the two found a space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. They gathered four additional partners and built the first Excello. In 1998, They invited me to buy into the partnership.
We stayed at 21 Powers Street until 2015. During that time, we bought some folks out, one partner died, and I quickly became the main earner and managing partner. PS: not my plan at all when I bought into the place. Anyhow, we really didn't find any helpful interest in relocating the business in 2015. And by this time, my family grew to four with most of our money wrapped up in both the business investment and the gear.
My wife and I found a space in Greenpoint and we moved there. It's less than a mile from my house and I built it hands-on with a contractor and my number one wing man, Charles DeChants. Over the years I've worked with so many talented artists but a few whom folks might recognize: Taj Mahal, Michael Brecker, Debbie Harry, and The National.
RZ: What and how do you practice.
HP: I practiced a lot in my life, but frankly feel that I'm slacking of late. I'm trying. There's almost always a guitar within arm's reach to pick up and play. Normally, my fingers feel a little stiff, so I'll run scales, arpeggios, and finger exercises until they loosen up. Then maybe I'll work on a passage I perform which currently vexes me. Or else I might come up with an idea which I find difficult to play and hammer away at it till it feels easier. If I sense a whisper of a song, I grab a pen. That's always number one.
RZ: Do you teach music privately?
HP: I do if somebody wants to learn something I feel I've got under my hat. It's a pass-it-on kinda thing for me. I've reached that point in life. Same with the studio.
RZ: How has the Pandemic affected you? What's on the horizon?
HP: The pandemic erased all earning but also gave a lot. Everything in life's a coin. You see a down side, there's an up side. You see an up side, unfortunately, there's also a down side. Early in the crisis, I made guitar slides out of wine bottle necks and sold them via my Facebook and Instagram pages. A little later, I started streaming a one hour, Thursday night show called, "Tunes From The Toolshed." Also a slide guitar lesson on Sunday mornings called, "Sunday Morning Slide Guitar Meditations." I felt very fortunate to build up a little community around those activities.
Then in the fall of 2020, I involved myself with several other very rewarding ventures -- one virtual and two in person. I actually involved my daughter in three of them. She's sixteen with a truly lovely voice. I feel extremely lucky that these projects came my way. And I'm also very proud of the work everyone did.
RZ: Describe your most special and/or unusual gig.
HP: Playing in front of a large audience always feels pretty special. I don't often do it. But the five or six times I performed my stuff to 8,000+ folks, those memories stand out. I also remember playing a gig in Kirkenes, Norway. It's as far North as you can go on the European continent, right along the border with Russia. A number of crew from a couple of Russian fishing boats came to the place. The club shit-hot Rocked and smelled of smoked fish and vodka. When we got back to the hotel, we found some smoked fish wrapped in a Russian newspaper and a bottle of vodka tucked into our gear. Those dudes spoke no English whatsoever but wanted to say thank you!
Another time, we played a gig at a rehab center for athletes who suffered spinal injury. It took place in a gym near Huskvarna, Sweden and 100% of the audience sat in wheel chairs. They popped wheelies and danced all over the place. Incredible! After the show they insisted that I get in a chair and taught me how to get a wheelie going, which I did. And then we danced wheel chairs in a group. Thinking about that now, really something special!
RZ: How do you see the future of the music business?
HP: Neil Young once said something like, "All this technology's ridiculous. One day music will play out of a box of air." My future in the music business lies in just continuing to try and find a way to build my brand. I'm a guitar guy. I write songs. I know my way around the studio. Though not a one-size-fits-all business, I think I show pretty good taste.
I don't believe that connecting with people will ever go out of style. I don't think a good song or performance will ever go out of style. Tastes and habits morph and change. I don't see any "stuff it back in the box" on the horizon where technology's concerned. No going back, just moving forward. Business wise, maybe the future belongs to the cockroaches who scurry around and eat up every little discarded scrap.
RZ: What advice do you give up-and-coming musicians?
HP: The fundamental question concerns desire because that will drive you through the ups and downs. You also need to understand that the "music business" stands as the ultimate oxymoron. Beyond those fundamentals, go for your sound, follow your passion, and do it today because there's less time than you think...
RZ: Do you live with any animals?
HP: Yes, with two very well loved cats, Anna and Else. They're kinda fake Siamese and I think the previous owner named them after characters in a Disney movie. They're awesome for my family and give us a great deal emotionally. Such a good day when we got the cats. We try to take good care of them.
RZ: Anything else you'd like to add?
HP: If you can't stand as inspiration, shine as a horrible warning! Seriously, choose a high vibrational level. Act really nice. Try to avoid appearing defensive. Give some stuff away to someone who could use it. Show some young person, or old person, or any person, that you're interested in what they have to say. Listen to people. That's the future for our country and the world!
YouTube - "Baby Please Don't Go" - Hugh Pool Band
YouTube - "How Can You Love Me" - Mulebone
©2021 Roger Zee
