The blues provided second career for band leader
Pierre Lacocque and his Mississippi Heat Blues Band have a monthlong residency at the Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana in Gary.
They will appear on the Council Oak Bar Stage at 8 p.m. June 4, 11, 18 and 25.
Lacocque is the songwriter and harmonica player for Mississippi Heat, a Chicago-based blues band. He’s got a fascinating back story that includes living in three countries before age 6 and moving to Chicago from Belgium in 1969. His father was an Old Testament professor who taught at the Chicago Theological Seminary, located on the University of Chicago’s campus.
Lacocque had a “pretty sad childhood,” he said. His parents were very strict. But when he was 3, his father bought him a plastic green harmonica.
“I remember crying, blowing into it, literally crying. I felt that harmonica did something to my soul. I knew very, very young that the harmonica was the instrument for me,” he said. “I came to Chicago when I was 16 years old, and it was the first time in my life that I heard Chicago blues. I was taking a walk and I heard a sound I had never heard in my life and I followed the sound. It was like I couldn’t not go.”
He found himself on the University of Chicago campus, watching a harmonica player playing through an amplifier.
“That harmonica player blew me away. It was like a religious experience that literally changed my life,”
he said. “His name was Big Walter Horton. I recognized one song that he was famous for.”
That was a Saturday night. On Monday morning, he went out and bought a proper harmonica and immediately buckled down and began learning the instrument and how to play the blues.
He went to college, studying clinical psychology, existentialism, theology and history of religions; eventually earning a doctorate from Northwestern University. He published articles, wrote a book and worked at Harper College in Palatine. He got married and
had kids.
In 1988, he picked up the harmonica (or “harp,” as the blues players call it) and started playing again. Mississippi Heat formed in 1991, influenced by postwar Delta blues, and has played at music festivals in Scandinavia, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada, Tunisia, Finland, Venezuela and Mexico. To date, the group has 13 albums and a live DVD to its name.
“I’ve been doing this for 30 years. It’s like two careers, two passions, really. I enjoyed my work as a psychologist but music was always very much an inner child interest and a
passion as well,” he said. “I did both for many years. When the boss, meaning my wife, told me you can retire, I retired. I retired three years ago to do this full time.”
Mississippi Heat has traveled the world, and members have come and gone. Most recently, the group picked up a new singer, Sheryl Youngblood.
“She’s very seasoned,
amazing. It was a major plus to have Sheryl join us,” he said. “The band is like a family. Some members have been with me 20 years. Things change over the years, but it’s always a family. I’m very dedicated and devoted to them.”
The rest of the band is composed of guitarist Tom Holland, bassist Brian Quinn and drummer Terrence Williams. They often use several guest musicians at their shows.
Mississippi Heat released a new album called “Madeleine” April 1. He coproduced the album with Grammy award-winning engineer and producer Michael Freeman.
“Quality is a factor, and I’m very happy with the sounds; the mixing and the sounds of the instruments,” Lacocque said. “For me, it’s one of the best we’ve done in years. I’m very proud of this one for the sound and the selection of songs.”
The title track of the new album, “Madeleine,” is an instrumental he composed about his maternal grandmother in Belgium, he said.
“I decided to go instrumental with that song. I found an angle that did not require lyrics. It’s a nonverbal expression of me missing her but also celebrating her,” he said.
Even after all these years, the shows he puts on for audiences still have life and passion, he said.
“It’s original and fresh and full of feeling,” he said. “The music comes from the heart. We have a variety of tempos. We do rumbas — we do all kinds of things to add to the Chicago blues genre.
“Chicago blues definitely has a history, and we honor that. But we are unique. Our motto is ‘Chicago blues with a unique sound.’ It’s fresh and heavily influenced by the 1950s electric Chicago blues. And yet,
I try to bring something creative to it. Overall, we are a fresh, unique band.”