EVERETT — The morning after Northwest blues legend Curtis Salgado played the Historic Everett Theatre, manager Curt Shriner was on the phone to Salgado’s booking guy.
“When Salgado performed here last May, I had not heard him in concert before,” Shriner said. “I was so impressed. That three-hour show was so good, I didn’t want him to stop. The next day, I reserved a date on his 2015 schedule. I wanted him back right away.”
People who have never heard Salgado, the man who inspired the Blues Brothers, have no idea what they are missing, Shriner said.
“His harmonica playing is awesome,” Shriner said. “And the energy that man has is amazing.”
People have another chance to see the blues man in the theater’s intimate setting on Saturday evening.
Salgado continues to tour in support of his Alligator Records debut CD, “Soul Shot,” which mixes R&B with straight blues and funk.
“The band is really good on ‘Soul Shot,’ and we’ve been given a lot of praise,” he said.
Salgado, now 61, won three 2013 Blues Music Awards including the coveted B.B. King Entertainer of the Year award. He also won top Soul Blues Male Artist for a second consecutive year and for Soul Blues Album of the Year for “Soul Shot.”
The album features four Salgado originals and seven covers, including songs by Johnny “Guitar” Watson, George Clinton, Otis Redding and Bobby Womack.
In an earlier interview Salagado said he enjoys playing Everett, the city where he was born.
“It’s a good place,” Salgado said. “I was a baby when my folks left town, but I always say I was born in Everett.”
Salgado’s parents moved to Oregon and eventually to Eugene, where Salgado grew up and started his career.
It was there, when John Belushi was in Eugene to film the 1978 movie “National Lampoon’s Animal House,” that Salgado, belting it out in a local bar, inspired Belushi and movie director John Landis to create “The Blues Brothers.”
In that movie, the great Cab Calloway plays the character “Curtis.” The Blues Brothers’ debut album, “Briefcase Full of Blues,” is dedicated to Salgado.
The singer, who now lives in Portland, is well-known for his prowess on the harmonica.
“It’s the only instrument where you breathe in and out,” he said last spring. “It’s somewhat cheap and lots of people have one. In the hands of people who don’t know how to play, the harmonica can be very annoying. But for those who know how to get everything out of it, the harmonica is three octaves of a piano. An amazing instrument. It cries, it purrs, it’s percussive and addicting. But only if you can play it.”
Salgado, who taught himself to play harmonica, fronted his own group, the Nighthawks, starting out as a teen in late 1960s and ’70s.
Later, he was a co-star of the Robert Cray Band. As the stature of that group grew, Salgado shared stages with blues icons such as Muddy Waters, Bobby Bland, Albert Collins and Bonnie Raitt.
He also sang and toured with Roomful of Blues, the Steve Miller Band, spent a summer singing with Santana and performed in 1997 on TV’s Late Night with Conan O’Brien.
After fighting some health issues a few years ago, Salgado is back touring regularly.
“I treat every show like it’s the biggest night of my life.”
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @galefiege.
If you go
Curtis Salgado performs at 8 p.m. April 11 at the Historic Everett Theatre, 2911 Colby Ave., Everett. Tickets are $20 to $35. Call the box office at 425-258-6766.
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