Paul Rishell – Master of the Country Blues Guitar

Craig Sonnenfeld, Guest Blogger

It has been my privilege for the last few years to study guitar with Paul Rishell. Below is my brief description of Paul’s life and music career with Annie Raines after a recent conversation with Paul.

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Paul Rishell has been a legendary figure on the Boston/Cambridge music scene since the 1970’s. A master of the acoustic rural blues style guitar and a haunting vocalist, Paul has recorded, performed and taught in the area for several decades including a current stint at Berklee College of Music. With his musical partner, virtuoso blues harmonica player Annie Raines, Paul has released several CDs on the Tone-Cool label. The duo’s album ‘Movin’ to the Country’ won the 2000 W.C. Handy award for Acoustic Album of the Year. Their most recent CD ‘A Night in Woodstock’ (2008) is a recording which continues the duo’s fine interpretations of traditional country blues songs mixed with originals. It also features Lovin’ Spoonful founder John Sebastian. This live performance from the Joyous Lake club is also available on DVD.

Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1950, Paul also grew up in New Jersey, England, and Connecticut as his father’s professional assignments with Standard Oil changed. As a teenager, Paul started playing drums and then electric guitar and had several bands. A friend played two LPs of acoustic blues for Paul which forever changed his musical direction. The recordings were Son House’s 1941 Library of Congress Recordings and Koerner, Ray and Glover’s 1964 ‘Blues, Rags and Hollers’ album. The rhythms and depth of feeling in these recordings set Paul on the path of learning the guitar stylings of House and other pre-war blues masters such as Blind Blake, Blind Boy Fuller and Robert Johnson.

After high school, Paul moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts on the advice of other musicians who were familiar with the local blues and music scene. He played in bands, worked as a studio musician and met other artists who were in the area at the time, such as then Radcliffe student Bonnie Raitt.

In 1972 he met his long-time idol Son House at the Cambridge home and office of blues artist manager and photographer Dick Waterman. They played together for hours and this set Paul on a path to perform and educate audiences and students about the classic music and rich tradition of American country blues.

Paul’s musical partnership with Annie Raines began in the early 1990’s after Annie sat in with Paul during several band and solo concerts. Paul’s first wife Leslie was his manager at the time and loved the sound that the two musicians were able to create together.

Annie (born in 1969) is a native of Newton, Massachusetts and a self-taught blues-harp prodigy. After a year at Antioch College, Annie decided to follow her muse and establish herself as one of the premier players in the country. Listening to any of her recordings with Paul or seeing Annie’s amazing performances in person will convince anyone that she has accomplished her goal. She is also a fine vocalist and songwriter, and also plays mandolin. Annie first recorded with Paul on the Charley Patton classic ‘Some of These Days’ on the 1994 album ‘Swear to Tell the Truth’. Paul and Annie became a premier act in the Boston area and they have toured nationally and internationally playing in several blues festivals.

Sadly, Paul’s wife Leslie (they had one daughter, Vanessa) was diagnosed with breast cancer in the mid-‘90’s and passed away in 1996.

Annie and Paul became closer personally over the years and they married a few years ago. Both continue to teach in the area. Paul has released an instructional DVD for blues guitar for the TrueFire company and Annie has also created one for blues harmonica. Paul has been playing pedal steel guitar for the last several years and would like to do a recording of half blues, half country music in the future. He also has a goal of creating a film score.

When I listen to a Rishell-Raines recording, there is always a point at which I feel transported to another time and place. It’s usually a setting either in the rural south or on a city street corner listening to some ace blues musicians. I know that this is an idyllic picture that I create in my mind and that the lives of most of the old blues masters were extremely difficult as they faced poverty and racism in the years before World War II and after. However, the way these heroes of the blues expressed themselves, and the modern interpretations that Paul and Annie give to the old blues classics in their vocals and musicianship take me to a very special emotional place which I want to revisit again and again.

For more info, visit www.paulandannie.com.