[Harp-L] Mark Ford article + pics

["M. N." <mnessmith@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

A few weeks back I asked you all for info on Mark Ford since I had taken on 
a freelance assignment to preview the Ford Brothers' Band's gig in Prague, 
Czech Republic. Well, here's that story. I wasn't given very much room to 
play with length-wise, but I WAS able to convince the editor to put the 
brothers' pic on the cover of the newspaper's entertainment supplement that 
week! For the interview, I sat with Mark and Robben while they had dinner at 
their hotel. Tremendously nice guys, very funny and full of love for music - 
that's clear. The article isn't as "harmonica-centric" as I would have 
wanted, naturally, since it was written for a general newspaper audience. 
Anyway, enjoy ..........

www.praguepost.com/P03/2005/Art/0512/calen1.php

Band of (blues) brothers: Mark, Patrick and Robben Ford carry on the 
tradition

By Mark Nessmith
For The Prague Post

The year is 1969 and the Charles Ford band ? featuring future blues/jazz 
fusion guitar hero Robben Ford, nascent harmonica virtuoso Mark Ford and 
eldest brother Patrick Ford on drums ? is opening a show for Muddy Waters at 
the Keystone Corner in San Francisco.

"That place was a major Hell's Angels hangout," recalls Mark with a laugh. 
"And oddly, it was right by a police station."

More than a little in awe of Waters, Mark approached the blues giant and 
asked if he'd like to sing a song with the brothers' band. "He just turned 
me down. I felt kind of ashamed for having even asked him," Mark says. "He 
scared me a lot. I was so little, like 16.

"Then we were playing our next set and Robben's soloing on a slow blues," 
Mark continues. "All of a sudden everyone starts clapping, and here's Muddy. 
He comes up and says, 'These little white boys got everything but one thing 
? me!' And then he sang, 'I'm not going east, I'm not going west, I'm not 
going north or south. I'm going just around the corner to my baby's house!'"

Waters later had the brothers come up and jam with his band. "We were all 
elated, like little kids," Mark says.

Following that gig, legend has it that Waters urged Chess Records to sign 
the Charles Ford Band, which they'd named for their father. Robben nods with 
a smile. "Pat has the contract that Chess sent, framed and on his wall."

But instead of signing with Chess, the brothers broke up the band.

"Mark basically bailed," Robben says. "He didn't want to do the whole thing 
anymore."

Mark nods. "I was 16 years old, man. I was not ready to move to Chicago and 
start playing the clubs."

Robben concurs. "I don't think I was ready for that."

The three went their separate directions, with Robben becoming the most 
high-profile Ford. He worked with blues singer Jimmy Witherspoon and later 
followed his jazz fusion muse, forming the Yellow Jackets and playing as a 
member of Miles Davis' band for five-and-a-half months in 1986. ("It was 
great at first, but in the end it was a weird bunch of people that weren't 
friendly. It was a drag.")

Patrick formed the Ford Blues Band and also founded Blue Rock'it Records, 
which has recorded big-name blues artists including Charlie Musselwhite and 
Brownie McGhee, as well as the little-known (but profoundly talented) Chris 
Cain. Mark Ford, while recognized as one of the most powerful blues harp 
players in the world, never took to the musician's life and now works as a 
paramedic, performing with his brothers only when the mood strikes him.

As family life and solo-career constraints have allowed, the three brothers 
continue to tour and record as the Ford Brothers Band. They recently 
released a tribute CD to Paul Butterfield, and another to Mike Bloomfield on 
Blue Rock'it. Those two discs mark something of a link in the chain between 
Muddy Waters and the Fords, as both Butterfield and Bloomfield were 
champions of and disciples of Waters, and both played on his seminal Fathers 
and Sons record.

"Mike Bloomfield was my first guitar hero and Butterfield was Mark's first 
blues harp hero," Robben says.

Bassist Dewayne Pate and guitarist Volker Strifler round out the band on 
this tour, which includes dates in Germany. Robben says they will play tunes 
from the latest Ford Brothers Band CD, Center Stage, from each brother's 
solo CDs and from the Butterfield and Bloomfield records.

"It's a real smattering of all those things," he says. "This is going to be 
a little bit of everybody's stuff, a lot of fun."

Mark Nessmith can be reached at features@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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As a Harp-L bonus, here are some pics from that show that were posted by the 
promoter: http://www.livermusic.cz/historie.php?id=16
MN