Even before Wednesday’s sun completes its morning ascent, Michael Garrett Wolancevich will already be on the road to Memphis where, that same evening, he and the band he has been with for decades will be inducted into the Blues Foundation Blues Hall of Fame.
That accomplishment will highlight a long and remarkable journey in the 62-year-old life of the guitarist for Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials, a Chicago band that’s been making award-winning music together for the past 37 years.
This Hall of Fame induction is likely a first for the Fox Valley, and certainly for Yorkville, a distinction that humbles the already humble Wolancevich, who tells me he “can’t get my head around” the prestigious award, noting the caliber of artists who he and the band will be joining.
“I know we have worked very hard to do this. But it is such an honor to be in the same place as Stevie Ray (Vaughan) and B.B. King,” he said. “It blows my mind.”
Wolancevich, who goes by the professional name Mike Garrett, developed a passion for the blues in his hometown of Detroit. Thanks to that strong blues connection to Chicago, he made his way from Motown to Chi-town in the mid-1980s, where, hanging around the greats, “you only get better,” he noted, “because you want to be as good as them.”
It was a warm night in June of 1986 that talent and fate collided.
As Wolanvecich recalls, he’d been spending seven nights a week at the legendary B.L.U.E.S. on Halsted, and on this particular evening was listening to “a great artist named Jimmy Johnson.”
Because the two had mutual friends, a quick connection was made: At one point, Johnson, a multi-instrumentalist, handed Wolancevich his guitar while he picked up a harmonica and the duo began jamming.
Also present that night was Bruce Iglauer, president of Alligator Records, “who came up to me later and complimented me … he loved the way I didn’t overplay,” recalled Wolancevich, referring to how “real blues players are minimalists. They know how to be sassy and sweet without playing 20 gazillion notes.”
As it turned out, Lil’ Ed’s band had just made its debut record – “Roughhousin’” – and wanted to go on the road, but because the guitarist for the band did not want to tour, the group was looking for a replacement.
The rest, as they say, is history.
“We really hit it off. We are like family,” Wolancevich said of lead singer Lil’ Ed Williams and his half-brother James “Pookie” Young, as well as drummer Kelly Littleton, who joined a year later.
Wolancevich’s first show with the band was at a Minnesota college town in March of 1987. Until then, he was still “swabbing floors trying to make a living” while continuing his quest to get even better as a guitarist and vocalist.
“I knew I loved the music and wanted to learn … it just never seemed realistic to be a touring musician,” he insisted.
But tour he did – all over the world.
Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials, which has been described as a “snarling boogie-blues machine,” has been nominated for eight Blues Music Awards as Band of the Year and won the award twice. Having built up a loyal following over the decades, the group has not only played in every state, members have become extensive globetrotters, with tours twice a year in Europe – including a memorable performance at a Roman amphitheater, as well as multiple tours in Japan and gigs in India, Australia and Russia.
At its peak, Wolancevich said, the band was performing 260 nights a year, always “hitting the road hard” after putting out one of its eight records.
These days the group plays between 80 and 100 shows a year, and that’s OK with this music man, as well as wife Lisa, an Aurora woman he married in 1994 after fate and love brought them together at, where else, a Chicago blues club.
Lisa Wolancevich recalls how a good friend, who thought she was “too sheltered,” took her to see Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials at Wise Fools Pub, but first introduced her to the band through its album “Chicken, Gravy and Biscuits.”
The friend, Lisa said, “wanted me to go up and talk to Mike so she could go and talk to the drummer” who she “had a crush on …They ended up never going out and we ended up getting married.”
The couple settled in Aurora, then 15 years ago moved the family – they have two children and seven grandchildren – to Yorkville, where Lisa and Mike are active in the community and he continues his remarkable career with the band.
Having returned from a tour in Florida, and performances in Minneapolis, when I spoke with Wolancevich on Friday, he was gearing up for weekend shows at Kingston Mines in Chicago. Locally, the group has performed at Blues on the Fox in Aurora, and he especially enjoys playing at The Venue in downtown Aurora.
Wolancevich recalls sitting in his van when Alligator Records president Iglauer, who “turned out to be the most important man in my life,” emailed the band about their being chosen for the Blues Hall of Fame. Other past recipients include artists like Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Ray Charles, Eric Clapton and Billie Holiday.
Although he’s not heard of any particulars, Wolancevich will “be prepared to play if asked” at the official induction on Wednesday or the black-tie awards ceremony which takes place the following day.
As he makes that eight-hour journey from Yorkville to Memphis on Wednesday, no doubt this 2024 Blues Hall of Fame inductee will be pinching himself along the way.
“There are so many great artists out there … I still wonder how this all happened,” he said of the band’s success. “This is such an honor … I am truly blessed.”
dcrosby@tribpub.com
