Adam Gussow
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Adam Gussow (born April 3, 1958) is an American scholar, memoirist, and blues harmonica player. He is currently a professor of English and Southern Studies at the
University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi (byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment. ...
in
Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
.


Life and career

Gussow spent twelve years (1986–1998) working the streets of
Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...
and the international club and festival circuit with
Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
-born bluesman Sterling Magee as a duo called
Satan and Adam Satan and Adam was an American blues Duet (music), duo consisting of Sterling Magee, known by his stage name "Mister Satan" (May 20, 1936 – 6 September 2020, in Gulfport, Florida), and Adam Gussow (born April 3, 1958 in New York City, New York) ...
. Along with Canadian harmonicist
Carlos del Junco Carlos del Junco (born May 17, 1958) is a Cuban-Canadian harmonica player. Career Del Junco was born in Cuba and moved to Canada with his family in 1959. He started to play harmonica when he was fourteen. He graduated from Ontario College of Ar ...
, Gussow was one of the first amplified blues players, in the late 1980s, to make overblows a key element of his stylistic approach, adapting
Howard Levy Howard Levy (born July 31, 1951) is an American multi-instrumentalist. A keyboardist and virtuoso harmonica player, Levy "has been realistically presented as one of the most important and radical harmonica innovators of the twentieth century. ...
's innovations in a way that helped usher in a new generation of overblow masters such as
Jason Ricci Jason Ricci (born February 3, 1974) is an American harmonica player and singer. In addition to his solo albums, Ricci has appeared as a guest harmonica player on albums with Johnny Winter, Terence Blanchard, Nick Curran, Ana Popovic, Walter Tr ...
and Chris Michalek. According to a reviewer for ''American Harmonica Newsletter'', Gussow's playing is characterized by " chnical mastery and innovative brilliance that comes along but once in a generation." When Satan and Adam were honored with a cover story in ''
Living Blues ''Living Blues: The Magazine of the African American Blues Tradition'' is a bi-monthly magazine focused on blues music, and America's oldest blues periodical. The magazine was founded as a quarterly in Chicago in 1970 by Jim O'Neal and Amy van ...
''
magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...
in 1996, Gussow was, according to the editor, "the first white blues musician to be so prominently spotlighted in the magazine’s 26-year history."() Born in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, raised in suburban
Congers, New York Congers is a suburban hamlet and census-designated place in the town of Clarkstown, Rockland County, New York, United States. It is located north of Valley Cottage, east of New City, across Lake DeForest, south of Haverstraw, and west of the Huds ...
, educated at
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
(B.A. 1979, Ph.D. 2000) and
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
(M.A. 1983), Gussow is the son of
Alan Gussow Alan Gussow (May 8, 1931 – May 5, 1997) was an Americans, American artist, teacher, author and conservationist devoted to and inspired by the natural environment. Life and education Gussow was born May 8, 1931, in New York City but grew up in ...
, an artist/environmentalist, and Joan Dye Gussow, an author, nutrition educator, and organic farmer. He has an atypical pedigree for a blues musician. In ''Mister Satan’s Apprentice: A Blues Memoir'' (1998), he credits his career to the mentorship of two older African American performers: Nat Riddles, a Bronx-born harmonica player who had worked with
Odetta Odetta Holmes (December 31, 1930 – December 2, 2008), known as Odetta, was an American singer, actress, guitarist, lyricist, and a civil rights activist, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement". Her musical repertoire co ...
, Larry Johnson, and others; and Magee, a guitarist/percussionist with whom Gussow teamed up after a chance afternoon jam session on Harlem’s 125th Street. As Satan and Adam, Magee and Gussow recorded three
album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
s during their years as a touring act: ''Harlem Blues'' (1991), which was nominated for a W. C. Handy Award as "Traditional Blues Album of the Year"; ''Mother Mojo'' (1993); and ''Living on the River'' (1996). A brief extract of Magee and Gussow performing on 125th Street was included in U2's ''
Rattle and Hum ''Rattle and Hum'' is a hybrid live/studio album by Irish Rock music, rock band U2, and a companion rockumentary film directed by Phil Joanou. The album was produced by Jimmy Iovine and was released on 10 October 1988, while the film was distri ...
'' documentary. Gussow has produced or co-produced two additional Satan and Adam albums: ''Word on the Street'' (2008) and ''Back in the Game'' (2011). In August 2010, Gussow released his first album under his own name, ''Kick And Stomp''. Recorded in
Oxford, Mississippi Oxford is a city and college town in the U.S. state of Mississippi. Oxford lies 75 miles (121 km) south-southeast of Memphis, Tennessee, and is the county seat of Lafayette County. Founded in 1837, it was named after the British city of Oxf ...
, it features Gussow in a one-man band setting—singing, blowing amplified harmonica, stomping on a foot drum, and clanking on a tambourine pedal. Gussow's other musical credits include five months with the bus-and-truck tour of Big River; commercials for
Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...
,
Nestea Nestea is a Swiss brand of iced tea and pop beverages owned by Nestlé, manufactured by The Coca-Cola Company and distributed by Nestlé's beverage department in the United States and by Beverage Partners Worldwide (BPW),Swatch Swatch is a Swiss watchmaker founded in 1983 by Ernst Thomke, Elmar Mock, and Jacques Müller. It is a subsidiary of The Swatch Group. The Swatch product line was developed as a response to the "quartz crisis" of the 1970s and 1980s, in which i ...
; and two decades as a harmonica instructor at the Guitar Study Center in New York and Jon Gindick's harmonica jam camps. In 2010,2011 & 2012, Gussow (along with business partner & entrepreneur Jeff Silverman) organized and produced Hill Country Harmonica, a teaching-intensive event at Foxfire Ranch in Waterford, Mississippi with an evening concert component. Blues harmonica players and teachers at the first two events have included
Billy Branch Billy Branch (born William Earl Branch, October 3, 1951) is an American blues harmonica player and singer of Chicago blues. Branch is a three-time Grammy nominee, a retired two-term governor of the Chicago Grammy Chapter, an Emmy Award winner, ...
,
Sugar Blue Sugar Blue (born James Joshua "Jimmie" Whiting, December 16, 1949, Harlem, New York City) is an American blues harmonica player. He is probably best known for playing on the Rolling Stones' single " Miss You", and in partnering Louisiana Red. T ...
,
Jason Ricci Jason Ricci (born February 3, 1974) is an American harmonica player and singer. In addition to his solo albums, Ricci has appeared as a guest harmonica player on albums with Johnny Winter, Terence Blanchard, Nick Curran, Ana Popovic, Walter Tr ...
, Mitch Kashmar, Phil Wiggins, Annie Raines,
Johnny Sansone John "Johnny" Sansone (born September 27, 1957), also known as Jumpin' Johnny Sansone, is an American electric blues singer, songwriter, harmonicist, accordionist, guitarist and piano player. He was nominated for seven music awards in 2012, incl ...
, Charlie Sayles, Billy Gibson, Jimi Lee, and many others. In addition to Mister Satan's Apprentice, which received the "Keeping the Blues Alive" Award from the
Blues Foundation The Blues Foundation is an American nonprofit corporation, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, that is affiliated with more than 175 blues organizations from various parts of the world. Founded in 1980, a 25-person board of directors governs the ...
in Memphis, Gussow is the author of ''Seems Like Murder Here: Southern Violence and the Blues Tradition'' (2002); ''Journeyman's Road: Modern Blues Lives from Faulkner’s Mississippi to Post-9/11 New York'' (2007); ''Busker's Holiday'' (2015), a novel about the summer busking season in Europe; and ''Beyond the Crossroads: The Devil and the Blues Tradition'' (2017), which won the Living Blues readers' poll a
"Best Blues Book of 2017."
Gussow's most recent book is ''Whose Blues? Facing Up to Race and the Future of the Music'' (University of North Carolina Press, 2020). Gussow’s essays and reviews have appeared in '' Southern Cultures'', ''
African American Review ''African American Review'' (''AAR'') is a scholarly aggregation of essays on African-American literature, theatre, film, the visual arts, and culture; interviews; poetry; fiction; and book reviews. The journal has featured writers and cultural c ...
'', '' Harper's'', ''
The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...
'', ''
American Literature American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition thus is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also inc ...
'', and many other publications. Since uploading his first video on February 22, 2007, Gussow has been running
YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
tutorials aimed at passing on his proficiency and knowledge in the harmonica to those who are interested in learning to play blues harmonica. Gussow from his first lesson says, "I'm tired of this mystification, I'm going to teach you all I know." As of April 2020, Gussow has uploaded more than 570 videos to a channel with more than 70,000 subscribers; a second channel, started in September 2015, has another 96,000 subscribers and more than 200 videos. A feature-length documentary about Gussow's decades-long partnership with Magee entitled "Satan & Adam," directed by award-winning filmmaker V. Scott Balcerek and featuring cameos by The Edge, Rev.
Al Sharpton Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. (born October 3, 1954) is an American civil rights activist, Baptist minister, talk show host and politician. Sharpton is the founder of the National Action Network. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democratic ...
, journalist Peter Noel, and others, premiered at the
Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...
in April 2018 and streamed on Netflix from June 2019 to June 2021 Gussow's current musical act, Sir Rod & The Blues Doctors, is a trio featuring Magee's nephew, Roderick "Sir Rod" Patterson on vocals, Gussow on harmonica and percussion, and Alan Gross on guitar.


Further reading

*Gussow, Adam: ''Seems Like Murder Here: Southern Violence and the Blues Tradition.'' Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. *Gussow, Adam: ''Mister Satan's Apprentice.'' Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press], 2009. **The story of an unlikely musical partnership, the blues, and race in America, with a new preface by the author *Gussow, Adam: ''Journeyman's Road: Modern Blues Lives from Faulkner's Mississippi to Post-9/11 New York.'' Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2007 *Gussow, Adam: ''Busker's Holiday.'' Modern Blues Harmonica: 2015 *Gussow, Adam: ''Beyond The Crossroads: The Devil And The Blues Tradition.'' Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017 *Gussow, Adam: ''Whose Blues? Facing Up to Race and the Future of the Music.'' Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2020


References


External links


Modern Blues Harmonica with Adam Gussow websiteAdam Gussow, English Department, University of Mississippi website"Modern Blues Harmonica channel," on YouTube"Satan & Adam" documentary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gussow, Adam 1958 births Living people American blues harmonica players American essayists American memoirists Harmonica blues musicians Musicians from New York City People from Congers, New York