Harry Garner Knows the Blues in Philly, Cleveland and La Grange

Take the rock and psychedelia of 1960s Philadelphia, mix in the working-class country music influences of Cleveland, top it off with good old-fashioned Chicago blues and you'll get Harry Garner. Oh, and don't forget to sprinkle in some hard times throughout.

"I want to mix psychedelic, country and blues, a little bit of rock and put it all together and make it just something newer," Garner, who lives in La Grange, said in a recent interview. "You have to make each song your own."

The leader of The Harry Garner Band, one of the three headliners at the first annual La Grange Park Jazz and Blues Festival on July 24 at Memorial Park in La Grange Park, brings his classic Seydel harmonica and powerful vocals to the table, but it's never been all about him.

In fact, getting the musician to talk about himself can be difficult, because as Garner says, "I don't want to hog the spotlight."

He loves highlighting the abilities of his band mates: Mark Wydra and his son J.R. Wydra on guitar, John Brumbach on tenor sax, Mike Scharf on bass and Jon Hiller on drums.

"I've got some of the best musicians in Chicago playing with me. So I try to keep the focus on the band and not me," Garner said in a recent interview. "The band's named after me because I do all the work. But I try to keep the emphasis on the quality of musicians."

Of course, it can't be all that easy talking about his life.

Growing up during the firebomb-laden race riots in Philly meant his family kept a fire extinguisher handy in the middle of the living room. Bricks were thrown through his family's windows; a building across from their street was burned down one night; chalk outlines, visible on Garner's way to school, betrayed murderous happenings from the night before. 

But, his father would play old campfire songs on his guitar and harmonica after dinner, and eventually it was young Garner's turn to step up.

"He put me in guitar lessons, and gave me a harmonica. Didn't show me a damn thing on it, but he gave me a harmonica," Garner said, then laughed.

Garner found the guitar awkward; it did nothing for him, he said.

"But the harmonica was so mysterious. It was interesting. You can't see what you're doing on it. You just got this thing in your mouth," he said. "It's like a blind man trying to find his way down the street."

Garner's father later took his own life, succumbing to depression. For Garner, music was a way to deal with such feelings without letting them become destructive.

"I think that's part of what the blues is really about. The blues is about surviving depression," Garner said. "Country, blues–people associate that with crying-in-your-beer songs... but that's only a part of it. The other part of it is perseverance, helping to survive those hard times, looking for a way to express yourself and let out these feelings in a positive way."

Of course, hard times wouldn't be complete without heartbreak.

He laughed hard when asked what brought him to Chicago in the first place—a telltale sign that it must have been for a lady.

He laughed. "It was! That's where the blues comes in."

Garner, a former Marine and Vietnam veteran who helped organize the Vietnam Vets Motorcycle Club in Cleveland, met the woman when he visited Chicago to attend the funeral of the president of the Chicago chapter. And, the two began a long-distance relationship between the two Midwest cities.

"We spent that summer bouncing back and forth between here and Cleveland. Well, she just hated Cleveland. Hated Cleveland. So I came up here," Garner said. "In the course of that relationship I settled down, sold the motorcycle and bought a wedding ring, a house, raised two kids. And then tragically went through the divorce, lost the house. You know—really discovered what the blues was about."

The divorce put Garner in dire financial straights. He was kicked out of his little urban apartment, and didn't know where to turn.

He soon found himself in La Grange—"paradise," as he calls it.

"I was broke. I had no money. And I saw an ad in the newspaper and it was for these people down here in La Grange, renting out the upstairs of their place," Garner said. "On my word, they rented me the place and I've lived there 15 years, never had a lease, never had a raise in rent, pay no utilities. And these people are like surrogate relatives to me. They watched my boy grow up from 6 years old, to he's now 22."

It's not just the kindness of strangers that won Garner over regarding La Grange.

In addition headlining La Grange Park's Jazz and Blues Festival this month, The Harry Garner Band frequents local haunts such as Tavern on La Grange and the Harlem Avenue Lounge in nearby Berwyn, which Garner calls "one of the best blues bars in all of Chicagoland."

There's a "real nice music scene" developing in La Grange, he said.

"People are friendly here, and it's a real comfortable, safe atmosphere to be in. It's the nicest place I've ever lived, coming from the inner cities and seeing the real rough side of life," he said.

But even in La Grange, Garner hadn't seen the end of tough times. Always having worked at mills throughout his life, the industrial downturn hit him hard. After lay-offs at several different mills, he had to switch vocations, taking a job as a truck driver for a small plumbing company. Six years later, he developed cancer and was laid off in the middle of chemotherapy.

"I lost my health coverage, lost my chemo," Garner said. "At that point I was forced to seek help from the Veterans Administration at Hines Veterans Hospital. I had two surgeries there. I'm on the mend. I'm doing great; I'm a cancer survivor."

And Garner hasn't lagged in his commitment to veterans' issues. He temporarily moved to Washington D.C. to volunteer to guard the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall as it was being built.  He helps raise money for veterans injured in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through the Wounded Warrior Project and The Harry Garner Band will be playing all three days of the Salute the Armed Forces Festival at the Hawthorne Racecourse in Stickney, IL, during the second weekend in August.

All the rough moments in his life culminated in The Harry Garner Band's studio album, Hard Times. The album is an achievement Garner is fiercely proud of, but he never forgets all the people who helped him get this far.

"I think Chicago blues people—both retro and today—are always kind to people that they think have talent and are up-and-coming. I was invited up to play with so many greats as I was learning how to play, and welcomed with open arms. That gave me confidence and made me feel accepted. And as time goes on and I make my own way, I don't forget the people that helped me," Garner said. "You don't see that so much in other genres as you do in the blues."

It's a tradition Garner tries to carry on.

"I do the same thing. We'll bring guests up to play with us," he said. "As long as we see that they have some talent, we bring 'em up. It's like giving back once again."

To hear some of The Harry Garner Band's music, check out the group's MySpace page.