Curtis Salgado

by Richard J. Skelly Harmonica player, songwriter and singer Curtis Salgado artfully skirts the lines between blues and soul at his live shows and on his recordings. Salgado grew up in Portland, Oregon, listening to black blues and soul artists who rose to prominence in the 1950's and 60's, vocalists like Johnnie Taylor, Otis Redding and O.V. Wright. You can hear the influence of these artists in his singing. In interviews, he credits his parents and siblings for having hip musical tastes; everything from classic jazz from New Orleans to Fletcher Henderson big bands to Kid Ory and Wingy Manone were played on the family stereo, and one day his sister brought home a Little Walter recording. After his mother got him a harmonica and a basic instruction book, he was off and running. He worked as a sideman with guitarist Robert Cray and with the Rhode Island-based horn band, Roomful of Blues, for a number of years before embarking on his own career. Over the years, with Roomful of Blues and with Cray, he's sat in with a number of his blues heroes, including Muddy Waters, Albert Collins, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Bonnie Raitt and Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan, the latter three more his contemporaries than the older masters. Salgado began his recording career under his own name with "Curtis Salgado & The Stilettos" in 1991 and "More Than You Can Chew" in 1995. He released "Hit It and Quit It" in the late 1990's. Since the late 1990's, Salgado has recorded three albums for the New Jersey-based Shanachie Records label, "Wiggle Out of This," "Soul Activated," and "Strong Suspicion." Any of his Shanachie Records releases are good representative samples of what his energetic live shows are all about. In early 2006, Salgado was diagnosed with liver cancer, but subsequently got a transplant in September of that year. By early 2008, he was given a clean bill of health and was back on the road.