Mulebone brings blues to Lake Street Studio Stage
From staff reports
In the absence of Manitou Music series concerts in 2021, Lake Street Studio stage will welcome Mulebone for a blues concert on Wednesday, July 14, at 8 pm—the first in a series of concerts this summer. Lake Street Studio is located at 6023 S. Lake St., in Glen Arbor—across the street from Cherry Republic. Tickets cost $20. More for more information, call 231-334-3179.
Mulebone is a partnership comprised of multi-instrumentalist, John Ragusa and roots music specialist, Hugh Pool. The launching pad for their musical expression is traditional blues. Any given week may find them playing clubs in NYC or entertaining at private parties thrown by David Rockefeller, Bruce Wasserstein and list of other East Coast residents who are enthusiastic about bringing these boys in for a party by road, sea or air.
In Mulebone, John plays conch shell, Jew’s harp, cornet, all manner of flutes, tin whistle, and chimes in on the harmony vocals. He is member of Beth Nielsen Chapman’s group as well as his own John Ragusa outfit and plays regularly in conjunction with Deepak Chopra’s speaking engagements. Amongst dozens of studio credits are contemporary jazz greats Joe Taylor, Jeremy Wall and world music icon Tom Ze.
Hugh says, “One time we were in Lexington, Kentucky sitting at an outdoor cafe and John played me a bunch of melodies sliding a straw up and down in a cup of ice water”…you get the drift. Hugh plays guitars, harmonica, boot board and sings, all with a mouth full of whiskey and a giant heart. He has played his brand of blues in clubs and at festivals from Jakarta, Indonesia to North Cape, Norway; From Vienna, Austria to Ottawa, Ontario and has been critically lauded by The New York Times, New York Press, The Village Voice, Pittsburgh Press, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Blues Revue Magazine … the list goes on.
Together in Mulebone, Hugh and John play slide guitar boogies, 1 chord trance riffs ala Howlin Wolf the uptempo rags of Reverend Gary Davis and country blues of all shapes and colors. Sometimes they play close to the source, almost as if tracing the image, and at other moments, they re-examine the source, float above it, take a new look as one understanding their home from a distant land.
