Comment on this story What: Bill Sheffield with the Walking Wounded When: Thursday, August 12, 9 p.m. Where: Preservation Pub Cost: Free   What: Bill Sheffield with the Walking Wounded When: Friday, August 13, 9 p.m. Where: Brackins Blues Bar Cost: $6

Bluesman Bill Sheffield changes his tune

by Clint Casey

After 35 years in the industry, legendary bluesman Bill Sheffield has come full circle, back to his roots. Sheffield swapped his trademark electric guitar for a Martin acoustic, finger picking stripped-down music in the vein of blues icon Robert Johnson.

“I haven’t picked up an electric in three or four years. For me, all music is acoustic. I just got out of a solid body sound. I get more response from an acoustic instrument,” he says. “It feels more like I’m doing something.”

Sheffield says his early interest in the blues serves as the backbone of everything he plays. “My father hipped me to Jimmy Reed. I got started with that, and, in the late ‘60s, Paul Butterfield and John Mayall. Then I started exploring the older stuff, trying to find the real old performers. It’s always been a big part of what I do,” Sheffield says. “It’s certainly a big part of my vocal approach. And now, very much the guitar, because I’m playing mostly ragtime and blues styles on the guitar.”

Living in the mountains of Woodstock, Ga., he took time off from a rigorous touring schedule to record his recent release Hearing Things. “I’m starting to get back in more out-of-town work, but just for the last five years I’ve played right around Atlanta. I toured for a long time.” Sheffield worked with Roy Buchanon in the ’70s, and was in the band Cool Breeze, touring extensively on the eastern seaboard. Later he was in a band called the XL’s. “Over the course of 35 years I’ve been in bands, I’ve taken a different approach with it to let it develop—playing more guitar, and approaching it more from an acoustic standpoint,” he says.

On Hearing Things, Sheffield wanted a specific overall sound, using a “Robert Johnson approach,” he says. “Most of the songs are me playing and singing. I think there’s a purity to that that’s important, and it was the concept for the record. And then a couple of the tunes felt they could use a little bit more. I added bass and drums on a song, and I’ve got Hammond organ on a song.”

Sheffield collaborated with legends Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Big Mama Thornton over the course of his career. “I opened for all those people back in the ‘70s, and [at that time] there wasn’t much blues going on. I had a blues band, so when performers came to town and needed an opening act, I was the guy,” Sheffield says. “I did a whole week of shows with Muddy, and that was a lovely experience.

“They’ve been on the road a long time, and [they’d] sit in the back and play cards and fool around. It kind of annoyed them to have to get on the stage by that time. But they were [nice], and it was a real eye-opening experience. I was just a kid back then.”

At his upcoming local performances, Sheffield will be supported by the Walking Wounded, a full band with a drummer, bass player, and harmonica player. He says he plays primarily blues clubs but is hoping to branch out. “I feel a little confined in just the blues format, and the new CD has got blues on it, but it’s not constricted to that. So, finding the right venue is really the issue—a place where they accept blues but have an open mind about it. The music that goes on there isn’t just blues—not unless you consider ‘Mustang Sally’ blues.”

Sheffield leaves in October for full-blown European tour in promotion of the new album. “I don’t know how long it’s going to be this time, but typically it goes quite a while. This’ll be my fifth trip over there. I do a lot better over there.”

August 12, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 33 © 2004 Metro Pulse