James Strecker: Harrison, your CD ‘This Is From Here’ has been nominated for a Juno as Best Blues Album of the Year. As its creator, what do you especially like about the album and what about it satisfies you the most?
HK: As a creator, I especially like seeing those friends and dog! On my CD “This Is From Here” I have many sweet memories of my times with them.
JS: You have a long list of songs you have written and I wonder what it is that makes a good song.
HK: True, I do have a long list of songs, but what makes a good one, I do not know. Some I have written in minutes, others took years.
JS: How did the musicians on ‘This Is From Here’ contribute to the recording?
HK: The musicians, all pro’s, were given a basic template and allowed to express their creative feel.
JS: I’ve read that you’ve played with a number of major musicians in your time, people like Stevie Wonder, B. B. King, the Stones, and the list goes on. Could you tell us about the ones who meant a great deal to you?
HK: I can only say that it was surreal being in their company. Each one gave me so much to digest as an artist.
JS: While we are at it, please describe briefly at least five key experiences or people from when you were a wee lad to today that made you the musician you are.
HK: Lonnie Johnson, Jackie Washington, Billy Holliday, the Wades, the Washingtons -and my mother. They all got absorbed into my sponge-like mind when they visited my home in Hamilton.
JS: You grew up in Hamilton when a lot of great musicians used to pass through town and gig here. What are some of your favourite memories about these musicians?
HK: Lonnie was a great all-round guitar player, Jackie had this ability to remember everything. My mother had an awesome voice, so did many others.
JS: You talk affectionately of Jackie Washington so, for our readers, please tell us who he was.
HK: Jackie was a genius. He brought many of the folks I mentioned to our home. Everyone loved him.
JS: A few months ago I saw you become annoyed with the music being played at a local restaurant. Granted some of it was thoroughly clichéd and not much more than loud, but please tell us what is good about current popular music and what is bad about it.
HK: What’s good about current music is that the artists are making some money. What’s not good is that I ain’t. I have my tastes in music but I can’t knock success.
JS: If a young musician were to ask you how to succeed in creating and performing music, what five things would you advise?
HK: Number one, get an education, go as far as you are able. Two, read the bios of other artists. Three, four and five, practice, practice, practice. My mother advised me as a youth that the only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.
JS: How often do you surprise yourself as a musician and how do such surprises happen?
HK: My greatest surprise comes every time I finish writing a tune, and that varies.
JS: You play a number of instruments, so please tell us what makes an instrument special to you?
HK: Vocals are my strong suit.
JS: You have been nominated many times for awards and I wonder what effect do being nominated and winning awards have on a musician. Are awards always a good thing or do they have a negative side to them?
HK: Nominations hopefully mean jobs. They mean many things to musicians, and I am grateful each time I get a nomination for my music. It means those who know music, dig it.
JS: Tell us about the award you won in France last year and what it’s like doing gigs in France compared with gigs in Canada.
HK: l love France, and Dixie Frog records are my European distributors. The award was equivalent to a Grammy. I work more there than in Canada and that has got to change. Hopefully it will.
JS: I was playing your CD ‘High Country Blues’ yesterday and certainly admired and enjoyed your versatility, your inside track on the blues idiom, and your range from blues to soul to gospel to R&B. But I also heard some shades of a crooner and song stylist in the mix as well, so might we expect a CD of standards as with Willie Nelson’s Stardust from you?
HK: Perhaps, James. (laughter)
JS: A number of musicians have given me very disturbing accounts of their being black in our society. Do you care to comment on your own experience?
HK: No.
JS: What aspects of your essence as a human being do you bring to your music?
HK: I just write and sing what I can honestly deliver on stage. And that runs the gamut.
JS: Your partner of many years is the award-winning jazz singer Diana Panton, so I wonder how having two major musical players under one roof works out. Care to comment?
HK: No, we are private people.
JS: What’s on your musical agenda for 2016?
HK: I am working on my next release and looking forward to some gigs with the band I recorded with on “This Is From Here.” And having chats and coffee with my buddies at Williams.