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CURTIS SALGADO CELEBRATES “CLEAN GETAWAY” WITH NEW SHANACHIE ALBUM
AND NEW LEASE ON LIFE
Curtis Salgado has a lot to celebrate. Two years ago he was diagnosed with liver
cancer and told he had eight months to live, unless he got a liver transplant
which would generate medical bills upwards of half a million dollars. With no
health insurance and few funds, the man who is one of America’s finest
blues/soul singers needed a little help from his friends. When your friends and
admirers include the likes of Steve Miller, Robert Cray, Bonnie Raitt and Taj
Mahal, you’ve got a fighting chance. Numerous benefits were held in multiple
cities including a benefit concert featuring Miller, Cray, Taj Mahal, The
Phantom Blues Band, Everclear and Little Charlie & The Nightcats. Through the
generosity of Curtis’s friends, fellow musicians, the Legendary Blues Cruise and
thousands of fans who supported Curtis by attending benefits and auctions or by
making private donations, upwards of half a million dollars were raised and
Curtis got his transplant, though there were a few twists and turns in the road
before that happened. A little less than two years after his initial diagnosis,
Curtis was able to record Clean Getaway, an album whose title has an obvious
double meaning. With its release on July 8, 2008, Clean Getaway is a triumph in
more ways than one, a sublime collaboration with the most respected session
players in Los Angeles that goes to the heart of what music—and life—is all
about.
“I was told I had eight months to live unless I got a liver transplant,” Curtis
recalls, “and I’m thinking how in the world am I going to pay for this? Then the
benefit happened and the rest came from personal donations from so many people.
Bonnie Raitt paid my rent while I was in the hospital. I have known her since
1980 and she’s just the best. Two people gave me their life savings, when at the
last minute, the hospital said we needed thousands of more dollars then we had
or they wouldn’t do the operation. This was seven months in and I’d only been
given eight months to live. When it didn’t look like there would be a donor in
time, my girlfriend even offered to donate half her liver; it turned out that we
were a match. Five days before the operation I was moved from 11 to 24 on the
waiting list…it depended on someone dying in the next five days and donating
their liver and then after the liver is harvested you only have eight hours. And
fortunately for me, that is what happened.”
But a successful transplant was not the end of it. “The cancer metastasized and
showed up in my lung,” Curtis recounts. “Usually when that happens there are
several tumors but I only had one, so I had a successful operation. The doctor
said it was a miracle it was only one tumor. ‘We accept miracles here,’ he told
me, ‘you’re a lucky son of a bitch!’ I’ve had a check-up since then and I’m
clean.”
After his recovery, Curtis needed to get back to work after a year with no
income. “My manager and my producer said ‘you got to make a record, you need to
generate some money.’ I said I wanted to use members of The Phantom Blues Band
who I had seen with Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal; they play with everybody. Taj
had told Tony Braunagel, the Phantom’s drummer, after a jam session we had
together on The Blues Cruise ‘you should do a record with that guy.’ It was the
best experience I ever had. We were either laughing or cutting tracks. Everybody
was creative. It was very uplifting. Some of the cuts are first takes and it was
very inspiring. We did hardly any overdubs.”
Clean Getaway, produced by Marlon McClain & Tony Braunagel, is a seamless mix of
blues, soul and rock ‘n’ roll all held together by the organic grooves of world
class musicians and Curtis’ superlative singing. He has a gift of digging into
the essence of a song without histrionics or gratuitous displays of vocal
chops—though he certainly has more than enough of those.
Few singers would take on the challenge of doing Al Green’s “Let’s Get Married,”
for instance. Curtis put down a totally natural, deeply soulful vocal.
“I was scared to death,” he says modestly, “so I just closed my eyes and did it.
That’s a first take. Everybody said that was special, the singing and the
playing. That’s me standing next to the musicians singing; I wasn’t in a vocal
booth, had no headphones. It just happened.”
The title track, co-written by Curtis, reflects his love of the late, great
Johnny “Guitar” Watson and effectively nails Watson’s funkified mid-period
Seventies style of such songs as “Ain’t That A Bitch” and “A Real Mother For Ya.”
“Alone” is a percolating slab of Memphis R&B written by the under-rated Tommy
Sims. “I Don’t Want To Discuss It” is an obscure Little Richard tune, Curtis’
favorite by the Georgia Peach; it has also been notably covered by Delaney &
Bonnie. Curtis artfully blends the best of both versions. Another original, “20
Years Of BB King,” is an impossibly clever song whose lyrics consist entirely of
the titles of songs by BB King; instead of sounding like an entertaining gimmick
it comes off as completely natural and effective.
Curtis Salgado’s musical journey began with his birth in Everett, Washington, in
1954. His family moved to Eugene, Oregon when he was one and he grew up there
listening to jazz, and to his father, an aspiring singer of classical music. His
ambitions coalesced when, at age 12, he saw Count Basie’s band perform in
Eugene. Curtis became a part of the burgeoning Northwest blues scene starting in
1972 with a band called Three-Fingered Jack. Eventually he hooked up with
up-and-coming guitarist/vocalist Robert Cray, and recorded the album “Who’s Been
Talking.” In six years with Robert, the higher level of visibility enabled
Salgado to sit in with the likes of Muddy Waters, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Albert
Collins and Bonnie Raitt. Aside from being a tremendous vocalist, Curtis is one
of the finest blues harmonica players in the country. In 1979, when John Belushi
was in Eugene filming Animal House, he caught Curtis’ act and liked what he
heard and saw. Curtis took the actor under his wing and schooled him on blues
and R & B history, which Belushi soaked up like a sponge, and used a good
portion of Curtis’ show as the basis for the Blues Brothers act he and Dan
Akroyd put together. The first Blues Brothers album was dedicated to Curtis.
He left the Cray band before it broke through nationally and from 1984 – 1986 he
fronted Boston’s Grammy- Winning Roomful Of Blues before returning to Portland
where he formed The Stilettos, who toured nationally with such acts as Steve
Miller and The Doobie Brothers. He even did a stint as lead vocalist with
Santana in the 1990’s. Curtis released three albums (the first with The
Stilettos, followed by one with his own band and the third, an acoustic gem,
featuring guitarist Terry Robb). After three critically-acclaimed solo albums
with Shanachie Entertainment, Clean Getaway may be the breakthrough that Curtis
has been working toward. But the experiences of the past two years have given
Curtis a new perspective.
“I’m playing music with the most incredible people,” he says, “ people are
supporting me and a record company is supporting me….even in these tough times
in the business. So I’ve got nothing to complain about. To me, I’ve won the
lottery, I’ve won all the Grammys. I don’t need stardom to feel validated. Of
course, I’d like to sell a lot of records, as much for the company as for me,
but on a personal level, I don’t care. I’m alive! People are throwing so much
love at me it’s embarrassing. It makes me humble. So I’m just trying to stick to
my guns, perfect my craft and make great music!”
For more information please contact
Monifa Brown at (973) 579-7763 EXT 26
mbrown@shanachie.com
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