Beth Kohnen is a harmonica player and vocalist based in the San Francisco Bay area. She grew up in South Portland, Maine playing Bach on the piano and climbing trees. When she was 13 her family moved to Pittsburgh Pa where she studied classical piano with a prof at Carnegie Mellon and sneaked into Pittsburgh's famous Crawford's Grill to hear live jazz and blues.
At Syracuse University she played harmonica in a jug band, loved her poetry and Shakespeare classes, learned to play Bach on a large church organ with foot pedals, and marched for Human Rights. Always one for adventure she spent summers working in an Alaskan cannery and playing harmonica in a coffee house. Later she settled in Seattle and helped run a drug rehab outreach house, playing music on the street to attract young runaways and bring them to a safe place. The economy brought her and her young family to San Francisco where she played harmonica and piano in a small Berkeley church, worked full time as a computer systems designer, and cared for her father who had Alzheimers.
When her father went in 1998, she turned to music and went deeper into blues. Her friend Joe from Chicago introduced her to the music of Big Walter Horton. Big Walter's music gathered her up, brought comfort, and gave her focus. She played and practiced voraciously, gradually altering lyrics just enough to sing about what was happening in her own life: a missing runaway child, a father who slowly but steadily faded, and the inevitable man who doesn't realize the good thing he has. The result is a large body of blues songs both personal and traditional that make you feel good just hearing them. To quote Otis Spann: 'The Blues can heal your soul".
In 2000 Beth began sitting in with Grammy Award winner Steve Freund who was Big Walter's last guitarist. In 2001 she made her first CD "Hard Hearted Woman", with Steve Freund on guitar, Randy Bermudez on stand up bass, Wendy DeWitt on funky piano and June Core on drums. In 2005 she released her second CD "Knee Action" with John Lee Hooker's drummer Willy Jordan, guitarist John Graham, and the amazing "church style" bassist Thomas Wallace. In 2008 she quit her day job and took her music to Paris, the South of France, and New Orleans. In 2009 she auditioned into a college chamber music group and sang Italian opera in order to strengthen her blues vocals. And in 2011 she released her third CD, "Ease My Worried Mind", her favorite so far, with guitarist Rusty Zinn.
Here's a little story from Beth:
When my third CD came out I decided to take it to Robert Watson, family friend and the last guitarist to tour with James Brown. Robert was opening a blues venue up in Kelseyville, CA, called Ty's Blue Cafe and I wanted to play duo gigs with him on the nights he wasn't booking his full band. So I said "Robert, if you listen to my CD I will take you to lunch". Robert likes his food. He said "Sure". So he listened to my CD. And then he took it to his partner and played it. Then, over lunch, he hired me to come play with his band at his venue's private opening-night party.
I was honored -- but also terrified --- besides Robert himself, his band includes musical heavies like Santana's drummer Billy Johnson. On the night of the party I drove up to the gig almost sick with performance anxiety. The weather was so bad everybody straggled in and there was no time for rehearsal. When it was my turn to play I put on a brave face, jumped up on the stage, turned to the guys, stated my groove and key, counted off, and started one of Big Walter's harmonica jump boogies. The band jumped in and the music took off. In the middle of the song I turned around again. All the guys were grinning. It was a wonderful night!
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