Upper Lake >> Often singers and guitarists find their start in music after hearing a set of notes drift across the radio waves. Or perhaps genesis comes the moment they glimpse a famous face on the television set. Sometimes inspiration is fired during a concert, after countless hours spent waiting outside the box office to score a set of coveted tickets.
Perhaps a less common origin story is having the opportunity to go backstage and hang with one of the most famous musicians of the time. But for Maurice Huffman of Big Mo and the Full Moon Band, his introduction to music happened exactly like that.
When Huffman was 12 years old, he attended a Ray Charles concert in the company of his mother’s friend, who also happened to be a friend of the popular musician. After the show, she facilitated a meeting between Huffman and Charles. They talked for two hours. The interaction lit a spark in Huffman. “I left there thinking, that’s what I want to do for the rest of my life,” he recalled.
A German native, Huffman began his adventures in music overseas. As a singer and guitarist, he fronted his first southern rock band in 1977, and “never looked back.” But this was the 1970s after all, when drugs and drinking ran rampant, especially in music circles. His band was doing well, but Huffman felt a desire to escape from the chaos.
So when he was approached by an opera teacher from Italy, who felt Huffman had potential in classical music, he accepted the opportunity with enthusiasm. He traveled to Italy, where he spent a few years undergoing classical training.
It was a tough program, and strict. “It was a little bit like living in a monastery,” Huffman said. “But it was an incredible experience.”
Before attending the school, Huffman explained that would have extremely sore throats after performances, sometimes resulting in a lost voice for a day or two. After classical training, he could sing all night long, and the next morning show no signs of strain. Though this requires six hours of practice a day, something Huffman hasn’t quite been able to keep up with, he’s still benefiting from the teachings years later.
In 1989, Huffman married an American woman and moved to California. Five years later, he began Big Mo and the Full Moon Band, and officially left classical music behind. Today, he and his band perform all original blues-based music written by Huffman. Each song varies in sound, infused with elements of jazz, county, folk and more. “It pretty much touches every possible style of blues. Not one song is like the other,” he explained. “I think that’s why a lot of people find it entertaining.”
When it comes to songwriting, Huffman’s approach is a little different. “I call it stomach music more than head music,” he said. “When I write music I don’t think I’m very scientific about it. A lot of people will write more with their head, I write more with my stomach.”
This method of songwriting helps to keep the music interesting, Huffman said. It’s also why he doesn’t stick to one specific style of blues. “If you really can feel it in your stomach and you leave space and let it do what it does … the more exciting it is,” he added. “At the same time you can’t let it get away. You have to tame it and let it breathe.”
The response to his music has been overwhelmingly positive. For five years in a row Big Mo and the Full Moon Band played the Monterey Blues Music Festival, winning Best Band one year. Huffman said this accomplishment is what gave him notoriety in the states.
The band stays busy, embarking on tours across Europe two or three times a year. For weeks at a time they travel around the country visiting different cities, from Denver to Memphis. And since the ‘90s, Huffman has had the chance to play on stage with some of his biggest influences: Billy Preston, Etta James and James Brown, just to name a handful.
“It’s just been so fantastic,” Huffman said. “All these people I was listening to in Germany as a kid, they were kind of idols, I got to meet a lot of them. It was a dream come true.”
On Monday evening at the Blue Wing Saloon in Upper Lake, Big Mo and the Full Moon Band will perform, and though they’re regularly a ten-piece ensemble, they’re bringing just five guys up for the show — any more wouldn’t really fit inside.
Joining him will be well-known blues guitarist, Volker Strifler, a fellow German and long time friend of Huffman. The two grew up in Europe together, performing in many of the same bands before coming to the U.S. It was highly coincidental that they both ended up living in Northern California.
Huffman considers Strifler to be “one of the greatest blues guitar players in the world,” he said. “I can say that without feeling like I’m exaggerating. Just coming to see him play the blues guitar is worth the whole night.”
The band goes on at 6:30 p.m. Minimum $15 food and drink purchases requested for table seating. Call 275-2233 for reservations.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
