LAKEPORT >> Late in 1979, Bill Noteman moved to Lake County and found himself as a lone blues player in a sea of rock and roll and country musicians. He picked up his first gig in the area playing solo acoustic music outside a local business and it wasn’t too long before an incident showed that he was making an impact.
Every day, a man sat at a house across the street from Noteman, listening and observing his performances. One day when this man did something out of character. “He went in the house, and I’m playing, and he comes back out and he’s decked out to the nines,” Noteman recalled. “He walked across the street and said, ‘Man that’s the best stuff I’ve heard since I left the Mississippi.’” Then he gave Noteman a $5 tip. He walked back to his home, went inside and changed into his usual garb, came outside again and sat down on the porch once more.
“That was when I knew the blues had made it to Lake County,” Noteman said. “I’ll never forget that It’ll be there for all my days.”
Sixteen years earlier, in 1963, Noteman started exploring his musical interests, though they’d been there since birth. “Music had always been a part of my family,” he said. “My mother was a singer, my uncles and everybody were trombone players. I had a brother that was six years older than I was and he was way into the blues.” When his brother left the house, Noteman would sneak into his room and listen to old albums, looking up the singers and writers who created this inspiring music. “I love all music but for me personally I like that jumping blues stuff.”
Then the Beatles came out with “I Should Have Known Better” in 1964 and the harmonica was thrust upon Noteman by his band manager. He’s been with the instrument ever since. “Our manager said ‘I want you to learn that opening line,’” he recalled. “That was when I started playing harmonica.”
But it wasn’t until Noteman finished his schooling and enlisted in the military that he met someone who pushed his playing up a few notches. “Out of high school I went into the Navy and just before deploying to Vietnam we got all these new fellas coming in,” he said. He met a man from Mississippi who asked to play his harmonica. His skills blew Noteman away. “I could play, but he taught me how to play,” he said. The two spent their days traveling at sea, riffing together, perfecting the art of the harmonica. “We just spent hours just working and working and working. We’d spend hours together, so much my lips would be bleeding I took everything he had and incorporated it into my own style and that’s where I took off.”
This valuable time not only taught Noteman to play at a superior level, but also gave him a greater appreciation for his newest musical venture. “And it was like, ‘Wow, what an amazing instrument,’” he said.
His years of musical practice lead him through many bands and eventually to his latest group, Bill Noteman and the Rockets, who will be performing the Third Friday Live at the Soper Reese Theatre tonight. Through his performances at various events, he met the men who would form The Rockets: David Neft, Larry “Mojo” Platz, David Falco and Steve Doubis. The group calls Lake County their home. They’ve been together since 1983.
The band used to perform every weekend throughout Northern California, but they’ve had to take it down a notch, due to some health issues Noteman dealt with a while back. “We used to play all the clubs everywhere, all over the place,” Noteman said. “Any place you can play we’ve played. We’ve even done the Russian River Blues Festival. These days I’m being more selective and just taking the ones I really want to do.”
Over the years, The Rockets have joined other bands in the area, so now whenever Bill Noteman and the Rockets get together for a performance, it’s a special event. “The Soper Reese has been so great and they give us January every year,” Noteman said. “The Blue Wing Saloon is a staple. Steele Winery for the Harvest Festival, every year on a Sunday we’re over there.” As for the club scene, Noteman says those days are long gone.
Tonight is one of the few times this year that Noteman and his group will be performing and it sounds like it’s shaping up to be a pretty good show. “If you wanna ‘have a good time on purpose’, come out and catch Bill Noteman and the Rockets,” Noteman said, quoting a line he says regularly on stage. And on stage is exactly where he loves to be. “It’s a fantastic feeling to be able to share what travels through me and to be able to put it out there to people who enjoy it. What it is is it’s a full circle. It’s not like I’m standing up here and you’re standing down there. The energy that you put back starts to create a circle. It just flows between the artist and the audience, and once that wheel gets rolling everybody has a great time It’s an incredible feeling. I become a six foot three harmonica,” he laughed.
The group plays a mixture of covers and original tunes, but Noteman feels passionately about keeping the group’s individualism. “When I put a CD out, that was all my own stuff. We mix those into the sets,” he said. “But we do it our own way. We make it our own. We don’t try and emulate any band and try to make it sound like any band. That’s not The Rockets. The Rockets come just sizzling right off the grill.” Occasionally the band even improvises their tunes. “Sometimes we write stuff on stage. I give them a key and a tempo and I write the lyrics in my head.”
Noteman has a long list of musical influences, including but definitely not limited to Rod Piazza, Little Walter and Paul Butterfield, who tops his list of inspirations. “When I first heard Paul Butterfield I knew white guys could do it,” he said.
But Noteman’s desire to sound unique surpasses his admiration for certain artists. “That was one thing I told myself I didn’t want to do, I didn’t want to copy anybody,” he said. “Then who are you? You’re just a copy of what’s already out there. I use a format, I have a form for a song, but I don’t try to make it sound like a song that’s already been done. Never have, never will.”
To create his music, Noteman simply looks to himself. “I don’t need outside inspiration,” he explained. “After 52 years of playing it’s just engrained in me just as much as my heart, just as much as the blood flows through my veins Music has always been there. My mom used to sing since I was in the womb. It’s just all part of who I am.”
So tonight’s performance is sure to be a unique one and it’s a rare chance to see an old group perform together, for fans and new listeners alike. “This band has been together since 1983 in one form or another. We appreciate all the support through the years and we love our fans,” Noteman said.
The show is at 7 p.m. at the Soper Reese and tickets are just $10. The group will be performing their “west coast jump blues” as Noteman describes it. Don’t know what that is? “Buy a ticket, come and listen,” he said.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
