[Harp-L] player passing (Jack "Applejack" Walroth)

[Michael Peloquin]

Right on, Mick. Jack was the real deal.
(Hit me back offlist)
Apple was a kind person, brilliant songwriter and a really cool, simple (good simple) and very soulful & effective harp player. We played together for 10 years at The Saloon and recorded 1 album together: Blues Power — Live at the Saloon—good luck finding it.
Here is one of Jack's tunes from the Saloon, Jack and I play some background section parts behind Doug Rowan's excellent baritone saxophone solo. (<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1G16Svv8rU>Blues Power wonders why on 49ers Sunday 1/22/12 at The Saloon in San Francisco, with an original tune by Applejack "Those Lies". Harmonica & vocals: Applejack Walroth, North Beach Horns: Doug Rowan & Michael Peloquin, Bass: Johnny Ace, Guitar: Ron Butkovitch, Drums: Rick Sankey Accompanied by dancing girls feelin' no pain! Filmed by Tina Lewis, Spotlight On Productions.)<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1G16Svv8rU>

Notable in that video: my friend Rick Sankey on drums, who just passed away in January—another very kind person, also from Chicago.
Also, my brother Martin sitting in on hippie hand drum, my hair/relative youth and hair color, another 49ers SB loss.

Apple's blonde Bassman head and Peavey 4x10 cab (I loved playing through that amp) lived in the basement of the Saloon (a room with many tales to tell.)

This Applejack tune, Those Lies<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Y23eWV1TAc&list=PL1mWZQ4JL5vqYez45T1dWXT8ZHdvkxUQs&index=8>, Radiator 110 (with Jack on harp)<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wY_zcFgpkE&list=PL1mWZQ4JL5vqYez45T1dWXT8ZHdvkxUQs&index=4> and 2 more are on Boz Scaggs excellent Out of the Blues album from 2018<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_of_the_Blues_(album)>.
I saw Boz in 2023 and he introduced and acknowledged Jack on 2 of the Applejack tunes he did that night. (He didn't even mention Fenton Robinson or Earl King)

Michael Peloquin
Living back in Illinois now...
________________________________
From: Harp-L <harp-l-bounces at xxxxx> on behalf of Mick Zaklan <mzaklan at xxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, February 24, 2024 8:18 AM
To: harp-l <harp-l at xxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] player passing

  Sorry to report the passing of blues harpist Jack "Applejack" Walroth
recently. Jack, along with guys like Paul Butterfield, Charlie Musselwhite
and Corky Siegel, was in that first wave of young white harmonica players
to hit the blues clubs on Chicago's Southside and learn the music. In the
mid 70's, he moved to California and eventually recorded with Elvin Bishop
and Boz Scaggs. He's also featured on my favorite Sam Lay album, "Sam Lay
in Bluesland". I believe one of our list members, sax/harpist Michael
Peloquin, also did some playing with "Apple", at the weekly jam Jack hosted.
   On a personal note, I wound up following Jack into the local band he was
playing with before he left Illinois. There were quite a few unison riffs
with the alto sax and guitar I remember struggling with and wondering how
he managed to make them sound so effortless. RIP Applejack.

Mick Zaklan