This writer last checked in with the forty-plus-year music veteran Curtis Salgado with his acoustic 2018 duet album, Rough Cut, with Alan Hager and previously with his full band effort, 2016’s The Beautiful Lowdown, widely hailed as his career-best. Yet, there is a dearth of Salgado content on these pages until now. Welcome to “the miracle man,” so dubbed because he’s beaten three major attacks of cancer and a quadruple bypass, and still blows doors off as powerfully whether singing or blowing his harp as when he was John Belushi’s inspiration for the Blues Brothers in 1977. Salgado’s been at it for four plus decades, leading his own outfits and standing front and center for stints in the Robert Cray Band, Roomful of Blues, and Santana. Now he returns, backed by three separate bands on Damage Control.
Salgado’s career jumped several levels after signing with Alligator Records. His Alligator Records debut, Soul Shot, came out in 2012 to widespread critical acclaim. He followed up with aforementioned albums which collectively earned Salgado multiple Blues Music Awards—for B.B. King Entertainer Of The Year, Soul Blues Album Of The Year, Song Of The Year and Soul Blues Male Artist Of The Year. In his career he has won nine Blues Music Awards. We’ll give you more of his storied history later but now to the music.
On Damage Control, Salgado delivers 13 songs—12 originals and a raucous cover of Larry Williams’ Slow Down (remember that one from The Beatles?) Salgado continues to improve as a songwriter, here crafting a street-smart collection of vividly detailed, instantly memorable songs. According to Salgado, Damage Control is even better than The Beautiful Lowdown. Damage Control leans a bit more toward rock n’ roll while the predecessor was steeped in deep soul. Both are great – it depends on one’s preference. In any case, he says, “I want people to relate to the songs. You can dance to it, but the words have to carry the weight. I know if a song hits me, it’ll hit others just as hard.”
Damage Control was produced by Salgado and recorded in three studios with three different groups of musicians, featuring some of the elite players in the business. At Nashville, Tennessee’s Rock House Recording, top notch support included guitarist George Marinelli (Bonnie Raitt), keyboardist Kevin McKendree (Brian Setzer, Delbert McClinton, Tinsley Ellis), singer Wendy Moton (Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton) and special guest Cajun accordionist and vocalist Wayne Toups. At Studio City, California’s Ultratone Studios, guitarist/bassist Johnny Lee Schell (Otis Rush, B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt), guitarist Dave Gross (Gina Sicilia, Mikey Junior), pianists Mike Finnigan (Taj Mahal, Bonnie Raitt) and Jim Pugh (B.B. King, Etta James, Robert Cray), drummer Tony Braunagel (B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt) formed the backing band. And at Greaseland in San Jose, California, guitarist/bassist Kid Andersen (Rick Estrin, Charlie Musselwhite), bassist Jerry Jemmott (B.B. King, Aretha Franklin) and drummer Kevin Hays (Robert Cray) along with Pugh and Finnigan and a three-piece horn section on “Hail Mighty Ceasar” brought similar fire. The horns return for “Slow Down.”
The jaunty opener “The Longer That I Live” could be Salgado’s defiant theme song, encapsulating his perseverance. Its follow-up, the mid-tempo shuffle “What Did Me In Did Me Well” gives us his melodic harmonic playing and the outstanding keyboards of Pugh and Finnigan as Salgado displays a vocal with a bit of falsetto, growls, grit, and croon, all in one song. The rollicking piano drive “You’re Going to Miss My Sorry Ass” is a slyly humorous New Orleans crime story that sounds akin to the Delbert McClinton sound. No surprise that the pianist is McKendree. The tempo change near the end shows Salgado at his testifying best.
”Precious Time” is a blues rocker courtesy of Marinelli’s guitar, McKendree’s keyboards, and Moten’s sweet harmonies while “Count of Three” is a radio-friendly, juke joint rave-up that will inevitably lead to foot tapping. These stomping rhythms inevitably lead to a deep soulful ballad which Salgado and band delectably deliver with “Always Say I Love You (At the End of Your Goodbyes).” Standout track “Hail to Caesar” is a witty roof raiser complete with the three-piece horn section and vocal choruses. “I Don’t Do That No More” is his triumphant journey to sobriety, driven mostly by McKendree’s barrelhouse piano.
“Oh For The Cry Eye” has Salgado seemingly pointing fun at those that endlessly complain about the little things from the perspective of one that’s always remained stoic and optimistic. The title track reprises the theme of the opener, a shuffle, about which Salgado says, “Life is all about damage control…trouble and then some. It’s about dealing with what gets thrown at you and saying, ‘I ain’t finished yet.’” By turns subtle nuance and acute phrasing to potent wailing and blues shouting, Salgado’s vocals cover quite a broad path.
>Zydeco infuses “Truth Be Told,” supplied by Wayne Toups on squeezebox and shared vocals before it transforms into another rowdy roadhouse party. “The Fix Is In’ has Salgado in the mode of a Dr. John-like funkmaster, imparting words of wisdom both in spoken word and sung. It’s only the second time we hear his blues harp, this time blowing in gutbucket style as he bemoans the state of our country in the outro. The brash rollicking “Slow Down” would be the envy of Lennon and company.
As promised, for the newcomers, here’s a bit more of Salgado’s musical story. In 1977, comedian/actor John Belushi was in Eugene filming Animal House. During downtime from production, Belushi caught a typically ferocious Salgado performance and introduced himself during a break. Once Salgado started sharing some of his blues knowledge, a fast friendship grew. Salgado spent hours playing old records for Belushi, teaching him about blues and R&B. Belushi soaked up the music and used his new awareness to portray “Joliet” Jake Blues in The Blues Brothers, first as a skit on Saturday Night Live, then a best-selling record album (which was dedicated to Curtis) and finally as a major motion picture (Cab Calloway’s character in the film was named Curtis as an homage).
Once Salgado, a fellow Northwesterner, joined forces with his friend Robert Cray and began playing together as The Robert Cray Band, he found himself sharing stages with many of his heroes, including Muddy Waters, Bobby Bland, Albert Collins and Bonnie Raitt. After Salgado and Cray parted ways in 1982, Curtis went on to front Roomful Of Blues, singing and touring with them from 1984 through 1986. Back home in Oregon, he formed a new band, Curtis Salgado & The Stilettos, and was once again tearing it up on the club scene. He honed his band to a razor’s edge before releasing his debut in 1991 on the JRS label. After recordings for Rhythm Safari and Lucky Records, Salgado signed with Shanachie Records in 1999, releasing four critically acclaimed albums.
Salgado stays on his high trajectory here and he may be right; this one is as arguably as good as The Beautiful Lowdown– quite an achievement considering how well that one did.
