Piazza and Mighty Flyers ready to take off again

" I had to do a lot of other jobs, but there was nothing musically I ever wanted to do but play the blues. "

By Norm Shaw

Rod Piazza has had a lot of jobs that involve cutting. He's cut hair and he's cut grass. But his greatest success has come in what was always his first love - cutting records.

And not just any records, but blues records.

"I had to do a lot of other jobs, but there was nothing musically I ever wanted to do but play the blues," Piazza says by phone from his Southern California home. "It was a pretty rough road. The blues was tough in the '70s. You could work on Sundays and Mondays, but everybody wanted rock 'n' roll and disco on the weekends."

Piazza persevered, though, and he and his band have gone on to become one of the most popular acts on the road today. Along the way, Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers have received five W.C. Handy Award nominations for Best Blues Band. This year, Piazza was nominated for best harmonica player, and his wife, Honey, was nominated as best keyboard player.

More accolades are expected as Piazza and his band release their newest record July 8. Tough and Tender is the first new studio album from the band since 1992. It follows the very successful Live at B.B. King's Blues Club, released in 1993 on the Big Mo label and recorded at the Beale Street club.

Piazza admits he's not an expert on the history of Beale Street, but he knew a good thing when he heard it.

"I really liked the sound of the club," he says. "Of course, the name didn't hurt at all."

Piazza says Memphis remains one of his favorite tour stops because of the crowds and a need to visit Interstate Barbecue on South Third. Piazza knows more than a little bit about tour stops, too. He's basically been on the road for more than 20 years.

In 1965, Piazza formed his first band. He was 18 and loved the blues. The Dirty Blues Band released its first record in 1967, with the second coming the next year. He then joined Muddy Waters' former harmonica player, George "Harmonica" Smith, to form the double-harmonica band Bacon Fat. Two more records from Bacon Fat followed, as well as a chance to tour with such legends as Big Mama Thornton, T-Bone Walker and others.

It was around this time that Piazza first met Honey Alexander, a piano player and fellow blues lover. Their on and off musical relationship was cemented by 1976 when they formed Rod Piazza and the Chicago Flying Saucer Band. Piazza calls it a turning point. He and Honey began writing songs together and touring non-stop. By 1980, they had been joined by bassist Bill Stuve and the Mighty Flyers were born.

After a decade of independent releases and more touring, Piazza and Alexander married in 1989. That led to the great success they are enjoying in the 1990s. Together, they wrote or co-wrote all but one song on Tough and Tender, their new record on the Tone-Cool label. Their writing partnership is fairly open, Piazza says.

"Honey will write some words, and I'll think of a bag to put it in," he says. "Or I'll write some words and she'll find a tune. Usually, she'll have the words to a song and I'll find a hook for it. It's important each song has some kind of identity to it. Each one has to be special, each one has to have its own identity."

On Tough and Tender, the Piazzas and Stuve are joined by Rick "L.A. Holmes" Holmstrom on guitar and Steve Mugalian on drums. Holmstrom writes the one tune not penned by the Piazzas. Unlike past records, Piazza says this time the band took more time with the songs before entering the studio.

"This record basically came together in my garage," Piazza says. "We played the tunes live for a couple of months, and then settled in and recorded. We sent it to Tone-Cool, and Rosy (Tone-Cool president Richard "Rosy" Rosenblatt) was well aware of our abilities. He said it was the first thing that was not a hands-on project for them.

"I was talking with a guy the other night, a harmonica player, and he said he had heard an advance copy and that it was best studio record we had made. I told him that's because it was the first one I'd produced. But I'm so close to it, it's hard to be objective."

Now it is back on the road for Piazza and the Mighty Flyers, but it isn't the non-stop touring of the past. Today, the band likes to go out on the road for three weeks at a time, then return home to California for a couple of weeks. The tours start in the spring and end before winter. An oversees trip or two is usually planned for the cold months, when driving can be hazardous.

But the weather is about the only thing that can slow down Piazza and the Mighty Flyers. With the release of Tough and Tender, the band will truly be flying high.