Pat Gwinn

In the years I have been involved in beach and blues music, I have interviewed many great artists from the Mighty Sam McClain, Drink Smalls, Barbara Lewis, Gerald Alston and Blue Lovette of The Manhattans, Wayne Jackson of The Memphis Horns, Teresa James, Don Wise, General Johnson, Dionne Warwick, Pat Upton of Spiral Staircase, Sonny Turner of The Platters, Andy Kim and others.

y is one of my favorite artists. When Godfrey burst on to the beach music scene in 2002, it seemed as though he was an overnight sensation. I fondly recall the SOS of 2002 when Rickey was performing on the deck in North Myrtle Beach at H’s and then over to The Pad. His stage presence was and remains…remarkable. His guitar play was incredible. His unique voice is captivating.

Jerry West is one of the most prolific guitar players in the region. West has been with Sugarcreek and The Band of Oz for numerous years and admires Godfrey for the unique sound he brings to the stage.

“Pat, the honest to goodness truth, Godfrey is gifted. He does things to a guitar that is different enough to catch your attention. He has a different approach. Bottom line, he is gifted,” West said.

“Well thanks a lot”, Godfrey said. “You know a lot of people did not know I played the guitar because with The Sugarbees I was always on the keyboards. In a lot of the things I have done in the past, as far as going out with people like Sam Moore and Donna Fargo, I played keyboard on both those gigs but my real love is the guitar and it’s a lot easier to carry around than a keyboard,” said Godfrey laughingly.

GWINN: “RICKEY MUCH OF THE INDUSTRY SUFFERS FROM OVER-EXPOSURE IN THE CAROLINAS AND NOT REACHING OUT INTO OTHER MARKETS. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?”

GODFREY: “I know that a lot of the artists in Carolina Beach music use their live playing jobs to make money. With the rising price of gas, this naturally means playing close to each band's home base in order to save money, who can blame them for that. This is a great solution in the short run, but I think, unrewarding in the long run. Already, I've heard from some folks that what's the point in going to see Craig Woolard, or Coastline, play for instance, if they saw them play 30 times last year, and that's two of the best bands. If a band is gonna play the same clubs and festivals year after year, then they have to always keep rehearsing and changing their act, just to keep their audiences interested. This ultimately leads to frustration among band members, thus, a steady turn-over of musician personnel. I think this forces a band to look for new markets, but, these bands being unknown in areas like the mid-west, they can't rest on their past laurels at all, they have to be really tight, and psychologically patient, and also have network connections in these new markets. It's hard to start over, in a sense, the band leaders feel frustrated, but, I feel, in the long run, it's the only way towards upwards mobility.

Now that Bobby Simmons has left me as a partner, due to stress and health reasons, that's forcing me to do just that. For the past two and a half years, I had to catch a greyhound bus twice a week, coming and going to and from the Carolinas just to make what I thought was a negligible income. So, for me, living here in Nashville, this change may prove to me to be easier rather than harder. It's closer from Nashville to Chicago, than it is from Nashville to Myrtle Beach. Nashville to Dallas is not much farther than going from Nashville to Myrtle Beach. I want be coming to the Carolinas to play at all, if the money is low.”

GWINN: “WHO ARE SOME OF THE EARLIER BLUES INFLUENCES ON YOU AS YOU BEGAN DEVELOPING YOUR OWN STYLE OF MUSIC?”

GODFREY: “Well, when I first started learning guitar, those guys were folks like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Johnny Winter, Rick Derringer, and Dwaine Allman. and, of course, all three Kings, B. B., Freddie, and Albert. Later on, I started listening to some of the guys these guys had learned from like T-Bone Walker, Elmore James, Muddy Waters, and even farther back to guys like Robert Johnson. In the '80's, everybody was excited about Stevie Ray Vaughn, even though he didn't do much that hadn't been done before. In the past ten years or so, I've really gotten into Buddy Guy, who is really fun to listen to. Santanna, and older jazz guys like Charlie Christian, and Django Rhinehart were really big influences on my playing.

However, I was a singer first, even before I learned guitar, I think good songs and good singing are even more important than good guitar playing. When nine or ten years old, then, I was listening to Sam Cooke, Otis Reading, Wilson Pickett, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Etc. later I became even more influenced by the great singers Ray Charles, Jackie Wilson, Little Anthony, and Little Willie John, and Louis Jordan, just to name a few.”

GWINN: “EXPANDING INTO THE SOUTHWEST AND TO THE MIDLANDS HAS TO BE AS EASY…OR CLOSER TO YOU THAN MYRTLE BEACH. A NEW RELEASE COMING WITH ANGEL RISSOFF? “

GODFREY: “Well, I think this year will be a re-building period for me, and I won't make as much money, as I'm gonna focus my priorities on networking. It really does come down to who you know rather than what you know. So, it's up to me alone now, to make those contacts by cutting the degrees of separation down to meeting the right people that can put me in the right places so I can get the work I want. I've really been lucky to have played with, and gotten to know Don Wise, on saxophone, who has played with Delbert McClinton now for almost 22 years. Don and I will be recording together soon on a new project.

One of the most exciting people I've met in the past couple of years is Angel Rissoff, from New York, who has some Beach hit records of his own. We have just recorded a duo together to be release on his new album. Angel is the real deal, a genuine blue-eyed soul brother, and he sings music that I love.”

I feel that I have a good sense of who I am:"hot rockin' blues, with hip-shakin' soul."

As I said earlier, I'm geographically close, within six hours of, Birmingham, Muscle Shoals, Jackson, Mississippi, Little Rock, Louisville, Cincinnati, Knoxville, Chattanooga, St. Louis, Memphis, Atlanta, Dayton is six and a half hours out; Indianapolis, and Chicago is seven and a half hours out; that's a pretty cool assortment of cities to try to get into.

GWINN: “TELL ME ABOUT GARFIELD RUFF?”

GODFREY: “Garfield Ruff was started in December of 1974, and the band officially ended in April of 1980. We made a commitment in 1976 to play only what we wanted to play, which was mostly original music. We just didn't care about the amount of money we made, we were interested in producing good music, for art's sake. We were actually too versatile for our own good, though, I'd say it was basically southern rock. In 1979, we released an album, "Garfeel Ruff" on Capitol Records, and this record went to number two in the upstate region of South Carolina. We also scored most of the soundtrack for a movie, "The Hitter" available on Ebay, starring Ron O'Neill, of super fly fame; and Caesar Adolphus, who was in "The Color Purple" ", and, "Saints Elsewhere." I and my brother, Ronnie, left the band, first, in October of 1979, and in April of 1980, bass player, Frank Wilkie joined the Marshall Tucker Band, after Tommy Caldwell was killed in an automobile accident. It was a wonderful band, but, really we were very different from each other as individuals in our musical tastes, but we still made it work for over five years, which I'm still very proud of.”

GWINN: “YOU HAVE FAMILY TIES IN MUSIC, YOUR BROTHER PLAYED WITH THE LEGENDARY SOUTHERN ROCK GROUP FROM SPARTANBURG, THE MARSHALL TUCKER BAND.”

GODFREY: My brother, Ronnie Godfrey, was also in Garfield Ruff, and he joined Marshal Tucker, about February of 1981, and played with them till early 1985, performing on three of their albums. Ronnie is four years older than me, and also was born blind, and has always made piano his primary musical instrument, though, he's a good player on any keyboard, like organ, and synthesizers. In the earlier days, he was a music teacher to me, and I'd say still a counselor for me when I need to talk things out with someone, still my best friend, his intelect and perceptions are incredible, and his memory is astounding. When he played with Marshall Tucker, they didn't really take advantage of the full range of his talents, especially his songwriting ability. Now, Ronnie makes a comfortable living as a studio musician and arranger, here in Nashville. His wife, Kim Morrison Godfrey also is an incredible singer and writer. They are both well known among the A.-Team studio performers and music industry folks here.”

GWINN: “WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES FOR YOU ON THE ROAD?”

GODFREY: “As a blind person, I always have to think about transportation, and getting rides to places is always a challenge, I always have to ask far enough in advance for assistance with rides, and then, you know, if someone is doing you that favor, you try to compensate them with gas money, but, sometimes, I feel like people expect more than that. It goes to show we all need friends who believe in us. Other than that, really, I function pretty well on the road, I miss being home with my wife, Sue, and daughter, Heather, but they're used to me being out working.”

GWINN: “WHAT IS THE ATTRACTION TO THE BLUES FOR GODFREY?”

GODFREY: “Well, the Blues brings me into contact with a different crowd that is really into guitar players, and it gives me a chance to get down and play that guitar, an added source of pleasure for me. Many Beach and Shag music fans are more into horn bands, and guitar is kind of a background instrument for them. So, I think I get to show more what I can do as a guitarist, and the appreciation level among blues fans is different.”

GWINN: “IS SINGING THE BLUES MORE OF A SOUL VENTURE THAN A COMMERCIAL ADVENTURE?”

GODFREY: “Well, I suppose so. Most Blues fans are not hung up so much on what you look like, the car you drive, or what you wear, Etc. They're interested more in the music, not the peripherals. But, even the Blues have been commercialized. One set of Blues fans, especially in the mid-west want you to imitate the old guys. B. B. King is too modern for some of these purists, they want you to sound like Elmore James, Lightning Hopkins, or somebody like Albert Collins. Then, there's another set of Blues fans that want you to sound like Stevie Ray Vaughn, or Kenny Wayne Shepard; But, I, myself, am interested in sounding like Rickey Godfrey. I think each performer should try to find his own voice. There are too many clones out there, already.”

GWINN: “TELL ME YOUR THOUGHTS ON DELTA BLUES.”

GODFREY: “John Hammond Senior in the 1930's brought the publicity about Delta Blues to the White American public. Delta Blues was great, and real, and obviously there was real soul expressed by these great blues men and women. But, it wasn't the only Blues going on at the time. Rev. Gary Davis, from South Carolina was one of the greatest Blues guitarists I ever heard, but he primarily recorded gospel music, so he gets overlooked by those who claim the Blues came from the Delta, which, in truth, is actually a lie, it came from a bunch of places at once, but, the Delta region got all the early publicity.

GWINN: “DO YOU FIND YOURSELF DIGGING A LITTLE DEEPER WHEN PERFORMING THE BLUES?”

GODFREY: “Well, you get to do songs differently from night to night when playing and singing the Blues, and because it's not as structured as singing a Soul song, or a Shag song, you get to cut up a little bit more with the audience. Blues can bore you too, if you're not careful, since the chord progressions are usually simpler, so, you have to bring your attitude with you every performance, especially when playing and singing the Blues.”

GWINN: “WHAT IS DISTICTIVE ABOUT YOUR STYLINGS?”

GODFREY: “Well, I have a really good grounding in that I was influenced by over a dozen great soul singers and I know all their vocal licks. I can sing a song like "You Sin Me" by Sam Cooke: or, "Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye, note for note the way the original records went down. The same for Jackie Wilson and Ray Charles and B. B. King stuff, that's a great education for a vocalist, but, I try to forget about their vocal licks when doing my version of their songs. I really want to sound like Rickey Godfrey.

Now, in Blues guitar playing, I am more excited about what Robin Ford did for Blues guitar, than I am about what Stevie Ray Vaughn did for Blues guitar. They were both great players, but, I want Blues to say a little more than just the stock Blues guitar phrases that most Blues guitar players play. A big influence for me was Django Rhinehart. Some purists, who want the Blues never to change, say "that's not really Blues" and they have a right to their opinion, but I think, too much of the same thing, this constant cloning, is boring. Blues is about expressing what you feel inside, not about following some prescribed intellectual formula. So, if my Blues are a little jazzy, so be it!

But, it don't have to be jazzy, expression is even more important. A lot of Blues guitarists always play at the same volume level all night long. Well, that's what I love about Buddy Guy. Nobody sounds like Buddy Guy, and Buddy Guy doesn't copy anybody. One second he's playing really loud, and suddenly he gets so soft in his playing, you could hear a pin drop, and suddenly, he's loud again, that dynamic range of expression from Buddy is really incredible, and folks tell me Buddy's facial expressions are really cool to watch. A lot of folks could learn about what real Blues is all about from Buddy Guy.”

GWINN: “OBVIOUSLY THERE ARE NO BORDERS OR LIMITS WHEN IT COMES TO THE BLUES…”

GODFREY: “That's right, Pat, it's all about expressing yourself, and what you feel at the moment.”

GWINN: “TO ME RICKEY THE BLUES ARE…PASSIONATE, LOWDOWN AND GRITTY PERFORMANCES THAT STIR THE SOUL….”

GODFREY: “I think that's because the folks who gave us the Blues didn't have anything, not much property to their name, so, they had nothing to lose by expressing themselves in that way, pure downright honesty.”

GWINN: “THE FUTURE OF THE RICKEY GODFREY BAND?”

GODFREY: “Well, as far as Beach and Shag music is concerned, I want to keep putting out records in the Shag market, that I hope folks will like. Who will end up playing with me in a permanent band is anybody's guess, but, it'll be all players, or mostly players from the Nashville area. I want to expand into these other markets, and combine several niche markets, the way Delbert McClinton has. This may, in actuality, take ten years to accomplish, but, I've just begun to rock. As I said earlier, for me it's about: "hot rockin' blues with hip shakin' soul."

Thanks so much, Pat, for the chance to do this interview, I'm very flattered, and I still appreciate the Beach and Shag fans out there!