Rock 'n' Roll -- UPI Arts & Entertainment

Kim Wilson is the reigning king of blues harmonica, a title bestowed upon him years ago by no less an authority than Muddy Waters, but he hasn't let the accolades upset his priorities. Wilson has chosen to play the music he loves his way, and if that means he makes a little less money, he's more than compensated for the freedom it gives him.

Wilson stays busy fronting the Fabulous Thunderbirds, a band with a blues rock edge and several hits to its credit, and a more traditional blues band under his own name, as well as guesting on a wide range of blues sessions. Wilson is nominated for four Handy awards this year, and will be on hand for the blues community's annual celebration in Memphis next month.

"I get to play with everybody I want to," Wilson said in a phone interview from his Detroit home. "I'm a really lucky guy."

On the Handy-nominated album "Smokin' Joint" Wilson has surrounded himself with the best young blues players he can find, including the extremely talented young guitar players Troy Gonyea and Kirk Fletcher, and Mark Stevens on piano.

"Luckily I've got all these great young players," he said. "If it wasn't for those guys I might not play at all. When you've got kids like that it makes you feel better because there really is a future. I was beginning to wonder if there was anything after the guys of my generation."

Wilson's trademark as a harmonica player is his versatility -- he can play ratcheting, wheezing country blues or brilliant, horn-like note clusters with equal efficiency.

"It's an instrument that can be very uninteresting if you just come at it from one bag," he said. "You can't just sit there with your hands cupped over the microphone getting that dull, flat sound. You've got to have some technical ability but you've got to create a lot of different sounds to keep it interesting. It's just excitement, you've got to have the juice. If you don't have the juice maybe you're not feeling it, maybe you're just playing at it. It don't matter how many notes you can play, you've gotta put 'em in the right place, you gotta create that atmosphere. You learn that off the old records.

"When you hear 'I Just Want To Make Love To You' by Muddy Waters and you hear that Little Walter harp solo, it puts chill bumps on you. He's probably the biggest influence on me because he's so musical. But you have to listen to everybody."

Wilson is the special guest on Big Jack Johnson's latest album, "The Memphis Barbecue Sessions," where he plays his dirtiest, funk-drenched style opposite Johnson's rugged Mississippi delta guitar work.

"Jack is a sweetheart," said Wilson. "The first time I saw him was on that Mississippi River PBS special. I called Mark Carpentieri, who produces and plays drums with him, and said 'I really dig this guy, if you ever need a harmonica player for a session give me a call.' Sure enough one came up. I just like it real. That record, we just sat down and played. We'd never played together before that."

Wilson is a regular on one of the most inventive blues gigs ever thought of, the Ultimate Rhythm & Blues Cruise, which takes a boatload of blues fans and a dozen top blues bands on a tour of the Caribbean. After a hiatus of a few years the cruise resumed earlier this year, and Wilson can't wait for the 2003 cruise, which he's already booked to play.

"There's a lot of return clientele," he explained. "It's a gas. Blues is the kind of music where you hang out with everybody, it's not the kind of music where you're a mysterious rock guy. There are some real cool moments on that boat. Seeing Charles Brown on that boat, seeing Etta James, that was a big deal. Ike Turner was on it this time. Seeing Taj Mahal, hanging out with Taj, me and Taj were sitting around smoking Cuban cigars the whole damn time, just hanging out. I played with him a little bit, we had a jam, Kid Ramos got up with us for a while.

"Each guy would take a turn. Then we let some of the other guys have it. We even let some people who weren't actually professional musicians get up there. There was a 16-year-old kid from Pittsburgh that sounded good.

"We're usually the tiniest boat coming into these ports, there are all these giant cruisers docked there, state of the art things, some of them were probably five or six times our size. But I'll tell you what, when that music cranked up when we were docked, all the people on those big boats were hanging over the rail trying to catch what was going on. It's really damn cool. It's a lot of fun and everybody on it just has a ball."