Friday, December 17, 1999

By KIRBY PRINGLE

    SYRACUSE, N.Y. – When Johnny Rawls wants to spice up his music, he adds a bit of nutmeg – the Nutmeg Horns.
   Rawls will be in town at 10 p.m. Saturday when his band performs at the Highdive, 51 Main St., downtown Champaign.  And even though his horn section won't be along for the ride, expect a rollicking good time.
   Not that Rawls, no relation to R&B singer Lou Rawls, wouldn't like to have the Nutmeg Horns on stage with him.
    "I just play with them at big festivals or when I'm on the East Coast in their area.  I just played with them last weekend in Connecticut.  It's a lot of fun to play with them.  They just uplift the whole thing.  It just gets kinda expensive to tour with them all the time," Rawls says from a stop in Syracuse, N.Y.
    Rawls, in fact, started his musical career playing clarinet and saxophone in grade school.  He picked up the guitar at age 12, influenced by his grandfather, John Paul Newson, a blind guitarist who performed in the Hattiesburg, Miss., area. 
    "I do all the horn arrangements with my partner, Bruce Feiner.   I love the horns," he says.
    And you may, too, after listening to Rawls newest album, "My Turn to Win" on London-based JSP Records.  This R&B/soul/blues album has vestiges of the Memphis Stax sound, along with shades of Al Green, B.B. King, Johnny Taylor, Otis Clay, O.V. Wright and others.  Rawls and Feiner also wrote all the songs ("Lucy" was written by Rawls, Feiner and Eddie Gillespie).  This is a standout album for lovers of horn-enhanced soul and blues.
    The Nutmeg Horns include Feiner on tenor saxophone, Robert Feiner on baritone saxophone and Jim Hunt on trumpet.  Other band members are Rawls on guitar and vocals, Roosevelt Purifoy on keyboards, Kevin Bibbs on bass and Allen Kirk on drums.  Feiner also plays keyboard and strings on the album. 
    "We have great chemistry," Rawls says.  "I'll come up with something or he'll come up with something and we'll work a song out over the phone.  Or sometimes it'll wait until we can get together."
    "My Turn to Win" is Rawls' third solo effort for JSP Records.
    "I was on another label, and they just heard about me.   Everybody knows everybody else in blues music," Rawls says.   "They're a great label to work with.  They give you the space you need, and they also have nationwide distribution, so people can find your records."
    In addition to heading his own band, Rawls also produces other artists and works for JSP in an artist and repertoire (A&R) capacity.
    "I just finished a project with Phil Guy, Buddy Guy's brother.   It's called, 'Say What You Mean,'  and I also did another project with Mary Taylor.  Her album should be out in February," he adds.  "I like producing.  I like getting off the road.  It gives me something different to do.   It's like going to the kitchen and creating something – I like creating music."
    Rawls is always on the lookout for new talent, too.
    "I'm looking for a talented young guitarist right now.   Know of any?" he says.  "I'll hear about somebody on the road or somebody will come up to me and say, 'Hey, you've gotta hear this guy.'  We've gotten a lot of people that way."
    Rawls grew up in the Hattiesburg area and says half his influence comes from "that Memphis sound and the other half from the area of Mississippi that I'm from – gospel, Delta blues, the Staple Singers, B.B. King, O.V. Wright..."
    He's getting ready to head back into the studio in March – "I have eight or nine songs ready for it: – and expects the new album to be released in late spring or early summer.

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