Long time comin': Local blues, rock legend releases first album

If there's one place in Cape Girardeau synonymous with Bruce Zimmerman, Port Cape Girardeau is that place.

For almost 20 years, the city's old man on the music scene has owned Sunday nights at the Port, and for good reason. Zimmerman knows how to play, and he knows how to entertain an audience.

But he should. After all, he's been playing guitar in bands since he was 9 years old. He's now 55.

But this weekend Zimmerman's regular Sunday night stint at the Port with his Water Street Band (named after the street Port Cape is on) won't be the only show he'll play there. Before that, he'll get warmed up with a first-of-its-kind experience for the local guitar guru and his fans.

Saturday night Zimmerman is throwing a big bash to release his new CD, "Guitar on the Brain." It's a project two years in the making.

"I guess I'm like Steely Dan," Zimmerman said with a laugh as he posts his fliers on the door of the Port's Water Street Lounge. Zimmerman has the run of the place, and the bartender tells him to put his fliers anywhere he wants.

He loves his venue.

"The thing I like about Port Cape, and it's hard to get in most venues, is the fact that you're right in everybody's face, so it's really a clientele that comes here that are really true music lovers," Zimmerman said.

Zimmerman is the consummate live performer. His shows, either with the Water Street Band or by himself, are filled with the kind of electric energy and improvisation skills of a man who understands the soul of live music -- and the connection to the audience that must accompany it.

"He's just a very talented individual," said Ken Keller, bassist in the Water Street Band. Keller wore two hats in the making of "Guitar on the Brain," as one of the many musicians on the album and as the producer/engineer.

Keller, an experienced and talented musician himself, doesn't pretend to surpass Zimmerman's talent. "There's a lot you can learn from an individual like that," Keller said of the guitarist.

Of course Zimmerman has had plenty of time to master the craft.

The bands Zimmerman has played in are too numerous to mention, and it would probably take him hours to think of them all. For more than 40 years he's played music in ensembles -- as a kid in the family band, as a teenager on the cusp of the populist rock 'n' roll revolution, as a young man leading his rock group through smoky dives in a small town and as the man he is now.

"I've played some real dumps," Zimmerman said, his mellow speaking voice almost buried under the horn from a train passing on Water Street. "But that's part of it, that's part of playing the blues. The thing that I found out ... it really doesn't matter what the venue is, if you've got people there that are enjoying it ... if you can see one person out there you feel like you've reached, it gives you a satisfied feeling."

Zimmerman is best known as a bluesman -- an art form he dedicated himself to after disco became popular as a way to return to rock's roots.

But he has played all kinds of music over the years, and those influences culminate in "Guitar on the Brain." The syncopated Cajun rhythms of the opening track, "Zydeco Girl," are followed by a ferocious and funky multi-guitar attack on "Hard Lovin' Woman," both original tunes.

But the last track (number 13 -- Zimmerman says he's not suspicious, though) stands in sharp contrast. "The List" is the epitome of a ballad, filled with slow, delicate piano, soulful vocals and a message of love.

In between are two folksy, twangy Ledbelly songs, a cover of Gershwin's "Summertime" and his two favorites -- "Songs About Cadillacs" and his cover of The Melroys' "Where the Good Ones Go," played with the surviving members of the band.

For "Songs About Cadillacs," co-written with Doug Rees, Zimmerman innovated a new tuning on his 12-string guitar to produce the sound of two instruments instead of one. This track is his proudest technical accomplishment.

"Where the Good Ones Go" has a special place in his heart for different reasons. The song was written by Randy Leiner, the frontman of The Melroys who died in February 2005.

The song questions why it seems the good people die young.

"Randy was a good friend of mine and I wanted to stay true to the Melroys' version but not be a direct knock off," said Zimmerman, his unyielding gaze staring at the street outside. "I think I succeeded in that; I'm real proud of that.

"The lyrics on it, since Randy has passed on, are really appropriate because he was definitely one of the good ones."

Zimmerman has known many musicians in his time, and Leiner wasn't the first musician friend he's lost. When Zimmerman started his regular Sunday night gig, it was as one part of a solo act called Whitey and Slick. Zimmerman was Slick on guitar and vocals, while Doyle "Whitey" Hendrix played blues harp and guitar and sang.

Hendrix died of cancer in 1997.

After all the loss and joy, all the smoky dives and the safety of Port Cape, Zimmerman still isn't done. He's just getting started.

"I don't think there's much chance of getting burnt out at this point," he says. "I probably would have burnt out a long time ago if I was going to. You spend so many years developing your skills, and once you get them really developed to where you can hear things, you can hear music and be able to understand it and know how to play it, it's so much easier to enjoy now than back then because it's so much easier."

Fans can expect another CD, this one completely done with the Water Street band, sometime. Maybe they won't have to wait two more years.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182