Adam Gussow

Adam Gussow
Background information
GenresBlues
Occupations
  • Musician
  • author
Instruments
  • Harmonica
  • guitar
  • percussion
Years active1986–present
Formerly ofSatan and Adam
Websitewww.modernbluesharmonica.com

Adam Gussow is an American blues harmonica player and author, best known as a member of Satan and Adam.

Biography

Gussow was raised in the downstate New York hamlet of Congers, New York and educated at Princeton University and Columbia University. He credits his music career to the mentorship of two older African-American performers: Nat Riddles, a New York harmonica player who had worked with Odetta and Larry Johnson; and guitarist Sterling Magee.

From 1986 to 1998, Gussow played harmonica in the New York-based duo Satan and Adam, alongside Sterling Magee. They released five albums: Harlem Blues (1991), Mother Mojo (1993), Living on the River (1996), Word on the Street (2008), and Back in the Game (2011).[1][2] A brief extract of Magee and Gussow performing on 125th Street was included in U2's Rattle and Hum documentary. In 1996, Living Blues called Gussow "the first white blues musician to be so prominently spotlighted in the magazine's 26-year history." (David Nelson (September 10, 1996), Living Blues, #129)[full citation needed]

In August 2010, Gussow released his first solo album, Kick and Stomp, which features him as a one-man band, playing harmonica and percussion.[3] From 2010 to 2012 Gussow co-organized and produced Hill Country Harmonica, a teaching-intensive event at Foxfire Ranch in Waterford, Mississippi, with an evening concert component.[4]

A professor of English and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi[5], Gussow is the author of an autobiography, Mister Satan's Apprentice, as well as Seems Like Murder Here: Southern Violence and the Blues Tradition (2002); Journeyman's Road: Modern Blues Lives from Faulkner's Mississippi to Post-9/11 New York (2007); Busker's Holiday (2015), a novel about the summer busking season in Europe; Beyond the Crossroads: The Devil and the Blues Tradition (2017), which won the Living Blues readers' poll as the "Best Blues Book of 2017".[6]; and Whose Blues? Facing Up to Race and the Future of the Music (2020).

Gussow's YouTube channel features more than 500 videos and tutorials teaching on playing blues harmonica.

A feature-length documentary about Gussow's decades-long partnership with Magee, entitled Satan & Adam, directed by V. Scott Balcerek premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2018.[7]

Gussow's currently plays with Sir Rod & the Blues Doctors, a trio featuring Magee's nephew, Roderick "Sir Rod" Patterson on vocals, Gussow on harmonica and percussion, and Alan Gross on guitar.[8]

Bibliography

  • Gussow, Adam: Seems Like Murder Here: Southern Violence and the Blues Tradition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002.[9]
  • Gussow, Adam: Mister Satan's Apprentice. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009.[10]
  • Gussow, Adam: Journeyman's Road: Modern Blues Lives from Faulkner's Mississippi to Post-9/11 New York. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2007.[11]
  • Gussow, Adam: Busker's Holiday.[12] Modern Blues Harmonica: 2015[13]
  • Gussow, Adam: Beyond the Crossroads: The Devil and the Blues Tradition. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017.[14]
  • Gussow, Adam: Whose Blues? Facing Up to Race and the Future of the Music. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2020.[15]

References

  1. ^ "Satan and Adam: Word On The Street (raw Harlem blues)". Modernbluesharmonica.com. Retrieved March 20, 2013.
  2. ^ "Satan & Adam: Back in the Game". Modernbluesharmonica.com. May 21, 2011. Retrieved March 20, 2013.
  3. ^ "Kick and Stomp: a solo album by Adam Gussow". Modernbluesharmonica.com. Retrieved March 20, 2013.
  4. ^ "A North Mississippi Blues Harp Homecoming". Hill Country Harmonica. Archived from the original on July 12, 2011. Retrieved March 20, 2013.
  5. ^ "Department of English". Retrieved January 9, 2025.
  6. ^ "25th Annual Living Blues Awards (2018)". Living Blues Magazine. August 1, 2018. Retrieved July 28, 2023.
  7. ^ "Viewpoints - world premiere: Satan & Adam". Tribecafilm.com. Retrieved July 3, 2020.
  8. ^ "Sir Rod & the Blues Doctors". Modernbluesharmonica.com. Archived from the original on March 4, 2022. Retrieved March 4, 2022.
  9. ^ Seems Like Murder Here: Southern Violence and the Blues Tradition, Gussow. University of Chicago Press. Retrieved January 10, 2016.
  10. ^ "Mister Satan's Apprentice — University of Minnesota Press". Upress.umn.edu. Retrieved January 10, 2016.
  11. ^ "List | University of Tennessee Press". Archived from the original on September 29, 2011. Retrieved July 28, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  12. ^ Adam Gussow (October 15, 2015). Busker's Holiday. BookBaby. ISBN 9780996712408.
  13. ^ Adam Gussow. "Busker's Holiday". Modernbluesharmonica.com. Retrieved January 10, 2016.
  14. ^ Adam Gussow (2017). Beyond the Crossroads: The Devil and the Blues Tradition. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-14696-33664.
  15. ^ Adam Gussow (2020). Whose Blues? Facing Up to Race and the Future of the Music. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1469660363.