Tacoma blues picker James “Curley” Cooke hopes to play with not one, not two but all three of his popular bands at today’s Blues Vespers concert.
Comfort permitting, Cooke will perform at Tacoma’s Immanuel Presbyterian Church this evening with Double Cookin’, his duo with fellow guitarist Rod Cook; Cooke N’ Green, his acoustic project with harmonica player Paul Green; and his popular quartet, Blues to Burn, featuring vocalist Annette Taborn.
No easy task these days. Cooke – known as an early member of the Steve Miller Band and for founding the Pacific Northwest Blues in the Schools program – was diagnosed with lung cancer this year. And as he undergoes treatment, the Vespers show represents one of the few chances his fans have to see him this fall.
“We’ll see if I can play,” Cooke said during a recent phone interview. “I’ve canceled almost all my gigs up here for the year. I have no calluses. That’s part of the deal with chemotherapy. I’ve literally no calluses on my hands, so it’s painful to play.”
Jokingly he added, “My hands are like baby hands, you know. I plan on playing some; a little bit, but not for any length of time.”
Today’s show is one of two shows scheduled this month in his honor. The next is a seven-hour gala coming together for Nov. 29 at the Spar Tavern in Tacoma’s Old Town. The lineup is still shaping up, but organizer Ted Brown said the show will likely include appearances by local blues legend Little Bill Engelhart, Seattle bluesman Mark DuFresne and Toast, a band that features the other half of Double Cookin’.
When asked what he admired about Cooke’s style, Rod Cook reflected, “He’s a very aggressive player, I would say. He has a very unique but really effective finger style of playing (that’s) really very strong. Also he’s always been known as just being an excellent rhythm guitar player. This goes back to, I think, to his days with Steve Miller. He’s a great player. It was always a pleasure and a bit of an education to work with him.”
But Cooke is equally admired for what he’s given back to the community, namely through Blues in the Schools, a nonprofit program patterned after similar programs elsewhere.
Since 1998, Cooke and other musicians have gone into local schools and centers for at-risk youth to teach kids with little or no musical experience. After several sessions, those young pupils know enough chords put on a performance and bit about the music’s history to enhance their appreciation of what they’re playing.
“It seems like a really positive thing for the kids. I’ve seen it with more troubled kids,” said Cook, who recently sat in for his Double Cookin’ band mate at Echo Glen Children’s Center in Snoqualmie.
“You kind of watch ’em turn back into kids for an hour, you know,” he said. “And then I’ve also done a program at an alternative school where the kids were more well-adjusted, and they were really, really enthused. It was a real positive thing for them, I think. And you never know. Some of them will, hopefully, go on to embrace music and actually pursue it.”
Learn more about the program online at www.bluesintheschools.org.
Ernest A. Jasmin: 253-274-7389
ernest.jasmin@thenewstribune.com
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