TERRE HAUTE —
Talent can be forgotten, overlooked or lost, until somebody takes an interest.
Five years ago, in a sociological experiment crafted by a Washington Post columnist, renowned classical violinist Joshua Bell played incognito in a busy subway station in D.C. Using a $3.5-million Stradivarius, Bell played six Bach pieces for 43 minutes. A total of 1,097 people passed by Bell, who sells out famed venues 200 nights a year. Just six commuters stopped to listen to his virtuosity. Only one recognized him. A mere 27 bothered to toss money into his open violin case, most without breaking stride. Those tips totaled $32.17.
Imagine what a thousand people missed.
A little dose of history and fun, playing out this summer on blues radio programs around the world, would not have happened if Steve Rusin hadn’t popped a dusty old cassette into his tape deck last year.
That tape had captured an aural snapshot of American cultures intersecting, right here in Terre Haute.
One microphone. Two musicians. A guitar. A harmonica. Just 176 seconds of sound, created in a home studio in Terre Haute decades ago.
Rusin looked twice at the 35-year-old cassette he found while discarding items in a drawer last year.
He’d just retired and wanted to weed out a stack of tapes. The label on one jarred his memory.
In June 1977, Rusin worked as a printer by day and a member of a blues-rock band in his off time. A friend, Frank Hensley, employed at a Terre Haute foundry told Rusin about a co-worker claiming to have performed alongside famous names in blues and R&B music. Intrigued, Rusin decided to meet the guy — Johnny Wright. “He’d been saying, ‘I recorded with Ike Turner,’ and we were all saying, ‘Yeah, sure.’”
They met. Wright told Rusin his story. Rusin did a little research. It was true.
Three weeks later, Wright brought his guitar to Hensley’s house, where Rusin and Wright played a stripped-down version of a Wright original, “I Was in St. Louis,” with Hensley capturing the sound on a tape recorder. Wright, then 42, sang the foot-tapper in a solid, bluesy tenor, accompanied by his acoustic guitar and Rusin’s lively harmonica. The first take, jammed at Hensley’s kitchen table, “was magical,” Rusin said. “Johnny was right on the money.” The recording quality didn’t match the performance, though, so they tried again a few days later. Take 2 sounded clearer.
They struck a friendship, and eventually Rusin and others formed the Highway Blues Band to back Wright at gigs in Terre Haute clubs in the 1970s and ’80s. They continued recording new originals by Wright. Nicknamed “Rollin’ Stone,” Wright was still playing local bars and veterans halls in 1988, when he died at just 58 years old.
“He played right up to the end,” Rusin recalled last week, “and he always wanted to improve. He wasn’t going to give up.”
As time passed, that take of “I Was in St. Louis” blended in with a batch of other tapes in Rusin’s house. He forgot it even existed.
Until that housecleaning moment last year.
Motivated
by history
Rusin listened to it, “and it was so good” he sent the tape to close friend Mark Cook — an Atlanta-based blues guitarist and recording artist who grew up in Terre Haute — who had the recording’s sound cleaned and mastered. Rusin paid the licensing for “I Was in St. Louis,” as well as the production cost of pressing 300 CDs of the song. Emphasizing that he is making no money off the project, Rusin sent copies to friends and family. “I did it for historic reasons,” he said.
One buddy, a veteran Nashville guitarist now living in California, received a copy and suggested Rusin send the disc to blues radio and Internet shows around the U.S. and world. Skeptical, Rusin mailed it to 50 blues programs. To his surprise, the duet by Wright and Rusin cracked playlists of shows from Alabama to Europe.
“Now, I’m getting mail from Dublin, Ireland, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Texas, Washington, Kentucky — just a bunch of them telling me they are playing the tune and what a great tune it is,” Rusin said. “A DJ from London just sent me a request for all the Johnny tunes I have.”
Rusin shook his head in disbelief as he spoke.
“I just couldn’t believe people were interested in something so long ago, and without a band, and with no screamin’ guitars,” he said.
“I was 27 then, and I’m 62 now,” Rusin added, “so it’s all kind of a shock to me.”
The music holds up, though. Wright’s professionalism shines, as does that of Rusin, who still plays blues harp (harmonica) on the prolific Cook’s albums. Wright’s voice sounds deeper than it did on his 1954 version of “I Was in St. Louis,” released as a single by DeLuxe Records in Cincinnati. But he bends, plucks and strums his guitar strings as deftly as he’d done a generation earlier.
The simplicity appeals to blues aficionados. The “authenticity” impressed them.
“Johnny’s sound is fairly clean and uncluttered,” Cliff McKnight, host of the British-based “Nothing But the Blues,” said in an email interview. “The version of ‘I Was in St. Louis’ with just Johnny and Steve, which I played on my show, recalls the classic guitar and harmonica combos like Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee, Big Joe Williams & J.D. Short, but also modern combinations like Paul Rishell & Annie Raines, and Moreland & Arbuckle.”
Obviously, McKnight — and others — liked the song.
“Steve has since sent me more tracks,” McKnight wrote, “and I’ll be playing them on my show.”
Can’t be
duplicated
Wright compiled a small, but popular list of singles for a handful of labels. Of those dozen tunes, the ones earning the most notoriety were those recorded with Turner’s band. With the future Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Famer on lead guitar, Wright sang and played rhythm guitar on “Suffocate” and “The World is Yours.” Those and other Wright singles, including “Look at That Chick,” “I Got to Have You for Myself,” “Who Was,” “I Stayed Down” and “Winehead” are long out of print, but sought-after by fans of the St. Louis blues sound. The impact of black blues artists — introduced to white audiences at the dawn of rock ’n’ roll in the 1950s — was vast.
Wright was indeed “in St. Louis” at the peak of his career. Born in Tennessee, Wright and his family moved to Richmond, Ind., after his father died, and then in 1950, Johnny moved to St. Louis to work full time as a musician. He wound up inheriting Chuck Berry’s house-act job at The Cosmopolitan nightclub in East St. Louis in 1955, after Berry became a national star and left. That level of fame eluded Wright, who struggled with personal and financial problems.
“Johnny’s story is not untypical in the blues,” McKnight said.
He first moved to Terre Haute in 1960 to be near relatives, then soon left for California. He returned to Terre Haute in the late ’60s, got the foundry job and lived out his life with his wife, Dorothy. In the late ’70s and early ’80s, he recorded a few more singles with Rusin — “Coal Shed” and “Bad Air Boogie,” the latter inspired by his dusty workplace.
“He had a great voice,” Rusin said, “and limited but primitive guitar playing — things the old guys did, things we can’t duplicate. It’s basic E, A and B7, two-finger chords, but what he did with it really works.”
As McKnight put it, “I think he’s a hidden gem — maybe only 14 or so recorded tracks, but there are plenty of blues artists who recorded less than that but are still interesting. Volume doesn’t equate with quality.”
The photo gracing the cover of the “I Was in St. Louis” disc is poignant. Wright, the veteran, is wearing a suit, tie, dress slacks and shiny shoes. He’s leaning on the shoulder of Rusin, looking fresh-faced and very ’70s in a sweatshirt and jeans. Together, they breathed new energy into Wright’s old songs. Now, a half-a-lifetime later, Johnny’s music is experiencing another revival.
“I think he’d be pleased as punch to know a song he recorded 35 years ago is getting some airplay,” Rusin said.
A hidden gem, hidden no more.
Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.
Opinion
MARK BENNETT: Sound preservation
Decades later, obscure Terre Haute recording gives late bluesman new listeners worldwide
- Opinion
-
-
RONN MOTT: Mushrooms = Hoosier happiness
Someone wrote or said a few years ago a statement that would define the word “Hoosier.” According to this urban legend, a Hoosier is somebody dribbling a basketball around the Indy 500 while eating a fried, morel mushroom. It did not define me, at the time.
-
EDITORIAL: Insult to an independent press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
-
READERS' FORUM: May 17, 2013
Hinduism doesn’t deserve ridicule — Shefali Purohit, Terre Haute
-
RONN MOTT: Israel’s Air Force
Recently the Israeli Air Force bombed and rocketed a convoy leaving Syria going to Lebanon with rockets that were going to be used to attack Israel. It did not get there. It was destroyed.
-
EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: Dashing finish for the Sycamores
It’s always thrilling to see Indiana State University’s athletic teams do well in high-level competition, and two specific teams rose to impressive heights last weekend in the Missouri Valley Conference outdoor track and field championships.
-
Readers' Forum: May 16, 2013
Moving Deming folks sounds ‘nuts’
-
Readers' Forum: May 15, 2013
Participants rise to the challenge: I would like to write a letter congratulating all the Wabash Valley Roadrunners that competed in the One America Indianapolis Mini Marathon.
-
RONN MOTT: Media merry-go-round
Round and round it goes, where it stops nobody knows. That isn’t a unique phrase to this writer or to this era in time. But, when it comes to the musical chairs of broadcasting, it certainly applies.
-
LIZ CIANCONE: Courts see a different appearance than cops
Have you ever noticed the transformation between the arrest of an accused lawbreaker and the first appearance in court?
-
READERS' FORUM: May 14, 2013
ISTEP failure exposes flaws
Community hasn’t changed its spirit
Egregious threat to nation’s defense
-
READERS' FORUM: May 13, 2013
• Women’s group criticizes Bucshon
• Let’s hope this doesn’t come true
• Many get thanks for fest success
-
MARK BENNETT: Life at face value: Mom’s simple advice still presents a valuable daily challenge
Most moms don’t base their advice on scientific research.
(Unless, of course, your mother is a scientific researcher. If so, carry a No. 2 pencil and take good notes.) -
EDITORIAL: Better monitoring needed to prevent local environmental messes
The nasty, hazardous messes lurking in the community raise a bottom-line, red-flag question. Could these environmental problems have been monitored and, thus, prevented?
-
GUEST COLUMN: Nursing more than medicine and bandages
Being a nurse … Like most nurses, I chose this profession because I had a strong desire to help others and no other career would allow me the opportunity to touch lives the way I have been able to through nursing.
-
READERS' FORUM: May 12, 2013
Vigo Youth Football, entering 45th year, seeks new support
Media ignoring important case on abortions
Proud to be old-fashioned
Guns in school? What’s next?
Promoting hate not a ‘brave’ act
-
FLASHPOINT: Again in 2013 General Assembly, middle class generally ignored
Last year, the people of Indiana entrusted the Republican Party with some of their most precious possessions.
-
RONN MOTT: ‘Raccoons II’
In the Algonquin Indian language, raccoon means “working with hands.” They are really cute little fellows until they injure a child, or a pet, or leave feces around where you certainly do not want it.
-
Readers’ Forum: May 11, 2013
I just wanted to express my disappointment at the lack of response shown by President Obama after the Boston Marathon bombings.
-
Readers' Forum: May 10, 2013
CANDLES event plants new seed: On April 26, CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center hosted an event called “Sowing Seeds of Peace: A Celebration of Spring” at the Apple House. Our purpose was to introduce people to our concept of forgiveness as a seed for peace.
-
RONN MOTT: ‘NRA Convention’
At the recent NRA Convention in Houston, Texas, where the right-wing political hot air almost lifted the convention's building off its foundation, the NRA trotted out the forever yours political dame of the right wing, Sarah Palin. Sarah did not disappoint.
-
EDITORIAL: Memo to U.S.A.: You can ‘SPPRAK’ just as we do in Vigo County
Our kids, truly, are ‘Making a Difference’
-
Some words in praise of boring government — Indiana’s
A conservative Republican governor has super majorities in both branches of the legislature. One might suspect such one-party government leads to major changes in public policy. This did not happen in 2013 in Indiana.
-
EDITORIAL: Doc’s prescient prescription
Viewed through a 2013 prism, Doc Bowen’s response to the AIDS epidemic looks merely prudent, routine.
-
RONN MOTT: ‘Heritage gone’
The last high school I attended was being torn down just a few days ago. I didn't learn about it until I saw classmate Dick Mills on television and a display he had put together about State football championships in the middle 1930's. I began elementary school with Dick Mills. That was Matthew South Elementary School on South Sixth Street in Clinton, Indiana. After seeing Dick on TV, it dawned on me that all schools I had attended in Clinton have been torn down.
-
LIZ CIANCONE: We always want more than we need
Washington seems more preoccupied with the unemployment rate than they are about the constant stalemate. Still with thousands out of work and the unemployment rate hovering somewhere between 7 percent and 9 percent, it does deserve more than a passing nod.
-
FLASHPOINT: Indiana lawmakers reinforced school safety mechanisms
Nothing is more important to me than the safety of my children. Every parent has felt that instant, apprehensive rush when their child plays too close to the street or falls down while playing soccer and it is our responsibility as parents to implement every safety mechanism we can muster to protect our kids.
-
READERS’ FORUM: May 6, 2013
• Money drives our newfound ‘needs’
• Guns not the only dangerous objects
-
MARK BENNETT: Should I stay or should I go?
Some have their Bill Clinton-era Cavalier packed (with the trunk bungee-ed shut), apartment cleaned (except for the fridge), and iPhone GPS locked onto the fastest route out of Terre Haute. Others are staying — until they find a better job, or because they’re starting a career here, or because this town feels like home. In each case, a new stage of life begins today.
-
EDITORIAL: Education remains worth the cost
Within the next few weeks, each of the local colleges will have conducted graduation ceremonies. A few days later, a different Class of 2013 will don caps and gowns for commencement — the seniors at five Vigo County high schools. It is still a smart, worthy aspiration for those high school grads to replicate the achievement of those college students by earning a higher-education degree.
-
College Class of '13 gets a little extra advice
Local college grads will hear commencement speakers offer life and career advice this month. We’re offering them an extra dose here from folks who’ve found success in various vocations and regions of the nation. Many have Terre Haute roots.
- More Opinion Headlines
-
RONN MOTT: Mushrooms = Hoosier happiness
NM Mom Chases Down Child Abductor
Raw: Crash Sends Car Into Fla. Pool
Raw: Obama Sits Down With Elementary Kids
Dying Man's Blinks Lead to Murder Conviction
Wash. State Releases Draft Rules for Legal Pot
Raw: Driver Ejected From Truck, Over Bridge
Wind Energy Push Leaves Trail of Dead Eagles
Raw: Germany Protestors Picket Barbie House
Horse Saved From Slaughter, Goes on to Win Big
Ousted IRS Chief: Errors Not Caused by Politics
Music Therapy Bonds Parents and Preemies
Terror Suspect Due in Court in Idaho Friday
Tensions As Israel Targets Syria in Airstrikes
Fmr. IRS Head Insists No Politics in Targeting
Raw: Spacewalking Astronauts Hope to Stop Leak
Obama: 'Couldn't Be Prouder' of Jason Collins
Raw: Bear Falls From Tampa Tree
Officials Arrest Man in Idaho in Terrorism Case
Today in History, May 6th
Raw: Child, Stroller Falls Onto Pa. Train Tracks
Lotto Fever Sweeps the Country
Coffee Stop Leads To Arrest Of YouTube Sensation Wanted For Murder
Bearded Dragon Reunited With Owner
Marine Reunited with Warzone Companion
Beyonce Is Pregnant!
SF baseball player overpaid $500,000 RETURNS money -- and team says KEEP IT
$1 Million in Jewels Stolen at Cannes Film Fest
Dad returns from Afghanistan, surprises family during Rays' first pitch
See Jennifer Lopez's New $10m Hamptons Mansion
Woman tricked into taking abortion pill
Emma Watson Goes Pantless
IRS scandal: Republicans seek to tie Obama to agency's woes
Play of the Day: Flipping to Safety
Pregnant Kim Kardashian Squeezes Her Swollen Feet Into Stilettos
Top Videos of the Week: Angry Taco Bell Guy, Glacier Moves on House, Dog Hates Baths
Cindy Crawford Stuns At Cannes
Raw: Marines Come to Obama's Aid in the Rain
CUTE: Monkey shares lollipop with dog, then HITS pooch on head with it
Miranda Kerr Looks Sexy in a Bikini Photo Shoot
