Cobb >> “Blues is like any kind of food,” said Johnny Cipressi, band leader of Johnny Tsunami and the Hurricanes. “Some people like it, some people don’t. Some people like it spicy, some people like it bland. It’s total personal preference.”
For Cipressi, his preference leans towards Texas style blues rock. But he wasn’t always playing the blues. He grew up listening to rock guitarists like Eddie Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix and Randy Rhodes. For a time he hoped to become a heavy metal guitarist but, a self-professed lazy musician, he didn’t want to practice scales and metal went by the wayside. “I saw Stevie Ray Vaughn in 1984 and that pretty much changed everything,” Cipressi said. “I got a glimpse of how simple music could be and how it made me feel. I’ve been sticking with the blues since I saw Stevie Ray.”
In 2005, Cipressi began Johnny Tsunami and the Hurricanes, performing at Jellystone Park this afternoon for Friends and Family Concert: Rock On!
The band’s lineup now is completely different from how it began. Bassist Paul Dowling joined in 2008, drummer Steve DuBois in 2009 and keyboardist Tom Aiken in 2012. “I went through a few drummers and bass players before I found the right guys,” Cipressi said. “I just gained so much confidence having the right guys behind me.”
Though Cipressi is the band leader, and he controls what the group performs and posts on social media, the other group members are far from a back-up band. “They’re my brothers,” Cipressi said.
Cipressi began the group after facing frustration while having to take direction from different musicians. “This band was basically constructed because I couldn’t stand the wishy-washiness of other band leaders,” he said. “I kept feeling shut down and monitored being in other bands … I took the lead because I was in three bands, and I had fun in all the bands … I just thought I could do something a little bit more extraordinary.”
The group plays a little bit of everything, from surf and swing to straight-up Texas style blues. But overall, they identify as a blues rock band, emphasis on the rock. “I don’t want to play blues in little clubs, I want to play rock in venues,” Cipressi said. “The whole blues thing is that I’m such a rocker and I play these tiny little places and everybody wants me to turn down. These rock concerts, they don’t ask you to turn down, they actually want you to turn up.”
Even with his rock leanings, blues still holds a certain appeal. “The blues to me just always felt like coming home. It felt like a grandma’s hug. There’s just something super comforting about the blues,” Cipressi said. “I just felt the blues wasn’t nearly as pretentious, or had any kind of attitude, I just felt like it had a friendly vibe to it.”
As for the Texas style blues, Cipressi favors them for their authentic feel. According to the band leader, the main difference between Texas style and Chicago style is the southern’s state use of horns, while up north they favor the harmonica. “For me, Chicago blues sounds … like people came from the south and went to Chicago and it sounds like they’re trying to prove something,” Cipressi explained. “I think Texas blues, because it’s from the south … that is more authentic.”
But he emphasized that it all comes down the personal preference. He doesn’t dislike the sound of the Chicago blues, only prefers the Texas style.
Cipressi started showing an interest in music at the age of 10 while watching Creedence Clearwater Revival on TV. He borrowed guitars until he was 14, when he finally got his own instrument. “I think I was really studying music before I started playing,” he said.
His stepbrother and a few neighborhood friends showed Cipressi a few chords, and his music took off. “Within the first two years I was playing lead guitar pretty good,” he said.
At the same time, he began writing songs, some of which were far from masterpieces, by Cipressi’s own admission. As a teen, he was listening to psychedelic acid rock bands like Rush, which had a large influence on his music. “I started out at 14 playing the guitar and then I was writing really dumb cliché songs that were just embarrassingly fantasy driven,” he said. “I would listen to these really weird bands. I just had this kind of ethereal mystic approach to music when I first started.”
It wasn’t until he was in his 30s that Cipressi “really buckled down and started writing songs that actually made sense.”
Now, Johnny Tsunami and the Hurricanes perform mostly originals, written by Cipressi. “I don’t like the expectation of covers,” Cipressi said. “My heroes are absolute badasses. For me to try to play Hendrix, I’m setting myself up for disappointment.”
Those interested in heading out to Friends and Family: Rock On! this afternoon should leave all their expectations behind. “Come open minded. Just enjoy and just roll with it,” Cipressi said. “Music is like feelings, they just happen.”
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
