Tag: Big Mo John Heim

Connections Between Psychiatry, Artificiality and Blues Music?

I heard a song on the KCCK Big Mo Blues Show that I first heard in June of 2025. The song is “Artificial” by Walter Trout.

At first blush, I agree with what I think is the point of the song, which is basically a protest against artificiality which could manifest in a range of ways from superficiality and dishonesty in communications, attitudes, style of clothing, relationships, and all the way to Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The other connection I make is to the artist himself. Walter Trout developed Hepatitis C (eventually leading to liver transplant) according to a Wikipedia article which connected his lifestyle to contracting the disease. In my role as a consultation-liaison psychiatrist, I saw many patients with Hepatitis C who were referred to psychiatry from gastroenterology.

I was the main psychiatrist who evaluated them for treatment with Interferon-alpha. At the time it was the only treatment for Hepatitis C and was frequently associated with many side effects including depression. I was also one of the psychiatrists consulted as part of liver transplant evaluations.

Trout got very sick from Hepatitis C and made a remarkable (even miraculous) recovery after his liver transplant. Interferon is no longer used to treat Hepatitis C. It has been replaced by direct-acting antiviral (DAA) agents. They’re much better-tolerated and more effective.

The other aspect relevant to Trout’s song is ironic. The newest scientific literature supports the idea that AI can be helpful for diagnosing Hepatitis C, predicting its progression and response to treatment.

That doesn’t mean I’m completely sold on AI.

Aside from that, there’s interesting research suggesting that there may be a link between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and Hepatitis C infection (which could be hiding deep in the brain’s choroid plexus lining the cerebral ventricles). In other words, some people might have mental illness because of the liver disease itself.

If you think about the dictionary definition of the word “artificial,” you can hardly dismiss this kind of research as insincere.

Big Mo Blues Show and The Elvis Connection

The Big Mo Blues Show was really interesting last night. I’m just going to highlight a number done by John Hiatt called “Riding with the King.” The lore about this that I picked up from the internet is that Hiatt originally wrote and sang the song for the 1983 album Riding with the King. It was a tribute to a king known as Elvis Presley. The short story is that the song was inspired by a weird dream that the album’s producer, Scott Matthews, had about flying with Elvis Presley.

Years later, in 2000, the song was covered in an album by Eric Clapton, and the other king, B.B. King. The album was also called Riding with the King. Some reviewers thought the product was too slick, although to be frank about it, Hiatt’s production didn’t chart in the U.S.

The first time I heard Hiatt, I think it was on the Big Mo Blues Show. He sang “Gone,” which was on the album Crossing Muddy Waters, produced in 2000, the same year Clapton and King made the album which had the cover of Hiatt’s original song “Riding with the King.” I liked “Gone” because it was funny. I’m partial to humor in just about any context.

That reminds me of the Elvis Presley connection here about “Riding with the King.” About 8 years ago Sena and I made peanut butter and banana sandwiches, which Presley made famous. I blogged about it but I can’t find that post anymore. We didn’t really like the sandwich, although I wonder if the guy who had the dream that inspired the song “Riding with the King” had a PB & Banana sandwich just before bedtime. I kept the pictures but the post is—Gone!

Big Mo Blues Show Christmas Music Featuring Peter Green

Last night was the second time John Heim (aka Big Mo) introduced the song “Silent Night” by Peter Green and the Men in Blue using the title in German, “Stille Nacht.” He also played it last Friday night, saying “Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht” in what sounded like perfect German. I immediately liked this version.

I might be remembering this wrong, but when I was a kid, I think I somehow got assigned to sing “Silent Night” when I went out caroling (in a horse-drawn sleigh, no less!) with the members of our church. It’s a good thing smartphones weren’t around to record that.

I remember last week trying to find it on the Big Mo Blues Show playlist but I couldn’t. Then I tried to find it by searching the title in German. I forgot or didn’t hear the name of the band. I gave up looking for it and I wondered why he said the title in German.

So, after I heard it again last night and looked for it on the playlist, I found it right away on the web.

I have never heard of Peter Green, so I looked him up and found a Wikipedia article about him. His original name was Peter Allen Greenbaum. I found out that Greenbaum is a German surname (originally Grünbaum which means greenery or green tree. As an aside, Heim is also a German name. It means “home.” For many people (just listen to his Shout-Outs list!) the Big Mo Blues Show is home.

Those are just observations I find interesting and maybe point to a clue why Big Mo pronounced the title of the song “Silent Night” in German.

Anyway, the Wikipedia article doesn’t say anything about Peter Green’s ancestry. He was born in 1946 in London and died in his sleep at the age of 73 on Canvey Island, Essex.

He was a gifted blues rock guitarist and singer-songwriter and was founder and original leader of the band Fleetwood Mac. He was a very influential figure in the British blues movement. Some thought he was greater than the other often-mentioned blues guitarist, Eric Clapton.

Peter got some coaching early in life from his older brother but was essentially self-taught by the age of 11. In the mid to late 1960’s people were calling him “The Green God” which was similar to what many were calling Eric Clapton (“God’).

Around 1969(70) Peter started to develop signs of mental illness and during the 1970s he also used LSD several times. Eventually he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Like other people who develop psychiatric illness, it was probably difficult to settle the chicken/egg question of which came first. He attributed much of his mental health issues to his use of LSD. He was hospitalized and treated with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in the mid-1970s.

However, by the 1980s, he returned to the music scene. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. He was described as being more interested in expressing emotion in music rather than displaying dazzling technical skill. He influenced many musicians.

Merry Christmas!

Big Mo Pod Show: “California Bluesin”

Well, I listened to the Big Mod Pod Show today and I have a couple of thoughts. Big Mod mentioned something about some kind of an AI assistant maybe selecting some records on the KCCK Facebook site. He didn’t sound all that pleased with the choices the AI makes, specifically with the John Lee Hooker tune, “Mr. Lucky.”

Big Mo Pod Show 085 – “California Bluesin”

I may have the wrong understanding about the “AI guy blues buddy” on the Big Mo Facebook page but if it’s the AI guy like CoPilot or Gemini, then it would be great if you could deactivate it somehow. I know I get pretty annoyed with AI when I search the web (not always, but sometimes it’s annoying).

I just happen to have the 1995 CD called “The Very Best of John Lee Hooker.” Far be it from me to be the judge of what’s the best for any blues artist, but I think the CD is pretty good, though I haven’t listened to it in a while. The other thing I have to admit is that I’ve found differences of opinion on is whether “Hobo Blues” is a 12-bar blues type number or not.

If Big Mo says he can’t understand why Hooker would confine himself to a constraining 12-bar blues song, then I’ll have to agree with him.

Then, of course, I ran into something else I don’t know about and that’s something called “trance blues.” Supposedly, John Lee Hooker did trance blues. How I find out about things I don’t know anything about is to peck around the internet and I found this link that defines it as something that has “a strong electronic component.”

I don’t know about “electronic” and I noticed some authors describe trance blues as “repetitive and hypnotic.” Does that mean that 12-bar blues is not trance blues?

So, here’s the thing. I’ve got my own pesky AI assistant Gemini that I never ask for any advice from, but it never misses a chance to make a point about some query I have for the internet—like trance blues.

Gemini says Hooker’s “Boogie Chillen” is an example of trance blues and also mentions that “Hobo Blues” is another example of it.

I don’t know if I can get this straight. Is 12-bar blues an example of a chord progression pattern and is trance blues a genre of blues which has a repetitive, hypnotic rhythm? It’s over my head.

Big Mo Pod Show: “Tribute”

I’m writing about the Big Mo Pod Show from Big Mo’s blues show that was aired on November 7, 2025. I’m a little late, but it doesn’t matter that much because Big Mo will be recorded tonight (Friday, November 14, 2025). He’ll be at the Beaker Street Live show instead.

Big Mo Pod Show 082 – “Tribute”

I think I might have dozed off while listening to his blues show last Friday night because I didn’t remember 3 songs from the list on the pod show:

Luther Dickinson & Datrian Johnson – “Sitting on Top of the World”

John “papa” Gros – “Crazy”

Dr. John – “Food For Thot”

Contributing to my memory loss is this: the 3 songs are not on the list of the songs played that night. So, I can’t say much about the discussion Big Mo and Noah had about the songs, based on what I don’t remember hearing. However, I can take it on faith in Big Mo’s extensive blues knowledge about his idea that the broad spectrum of American music has more blues in it than not.

On the other hand, I can say from reminiscence that I think I first heard Mississippi John Hurt’s song “Make Me a Pallet On Your Floor” many years ago when I first started listening to Friday night blues show. I tried to recall what I was doing in 1966 when Hurt died. I was just a kid.

While I can say I think I wasn’t listening to the blues, I think I can pick out popular songs from 1967 that tend to confirm Big Mo’s statement about most music having threads of the blues: “When a Man Loves a Woman” is just one example I think might fit.

I think I found a Wikipedia article about Mississippi John Hurt that might fit nicely with Big Mo saying he read the story about how Hurt was rediscovered back in the early 1960s. The detail of Avalon being his hometown is mentioned in the section “Rediscovery and death.” Just like Big Mo says, he wasn’t making it up.

Big Mo Pod Show: “Cheers to Kevin”

I’m a little slow getting to the Big Mo Pod Show after his blues show this last Saturday night. I guess that’s just the way things go. The title of the pod show “Cheers to Kevin” is a shout out to somebody important in Big Mo’s life. It turns out Kevin was really supportive of Big Mo when he was just getting started years ago when he was first starting on the KCCK blues show. Kevin has also made many donations to KCCK to support the show. Big Mo calls him his favorite bartender.

Big Mo Pod Show 081 – “Cheers To Kevin”

That gets me started with the last of the 5 songs Big Mo and Producer Noah talked about, which was Bob Margolin singing the song “Brown Liquor in a Dirty Glass.” I remember speculating in a past blog that the “dirty glass” part might have meant putting olives or olive brine in the drink—but I don’t think so after listening to the song again.

I’m pretty sure it means the singer is feeling so down and dirty himself that he might actually want a dirty glass in the usual sense of the word.

And by the way, Big Mo mentioned “mambo” again. Last week, it was hard to tell what he meant, but this time it sounds like he might be referring to a Latin American dance rhythm influence—maybe. The influence of different rhythms on blues music was a topic in that maybe steered the discussion about one song on the list, and I believe it was “Star” by Gary Clark, Jr., which Big Mo thought had more of a reggae than a blues rhythm to it.

One interesting song was from someone who has been around a long time but I’ve not heard her before, Duffy Bishop. She sang “69 Years Old.” It mentions Viagra, which is in line with the general theme, which is sex and not just for the old. I stumbled on an article in which she’s interviewed about her music. When they start talking about this “69 Years Old song,” Bishop has this funny anecdote. She had just finished singing it at a club in Daytona Beach and some old gentleman walks up to her and says, “Here, I got something for you, pass these on to someone who needs them,” and then hands her some Cialis.

I’m 70 and I’m a little embarrassed about it but I want to pass the tune on to you guys because we just never know.

Big Mo Pod Show: “The Dark Side of Legacy”

This was a fascinating episode of the pod show for more than one reason. The title is interesting if only in the sense that it might a reference to B.B. King—who wasn’t on the playlist either last night or the song selection for today’s podcast. Briefly, what we learned was that B.B. King had a lot of heirs (17 was the number of dependents) to his fortune when he died and that led to conflict over his estate. This came up during the conversation about Mud Morganfield.

Big Mo Pod Show 080 – “The Dark Side of Legacy”

One song that I couldn’t find on the Big Mo Blues Show playlist was “Floating Bridge” a 1937 classic by Sleepy John Estes and I couldn’t remember hearing it last night. It’s a deeply personal story of his own near-death experience when he nearly drowned but was saved by a friend. Eric Clapton covered it in 1981.

Another thing we learned about was the double neck guitar, which came up in the conversation about the tune “Blue Guitar” by Earl Hooker. Earl Hooker was famous for playing the double neck guitar, a heavy instrument with two necks, in this case a six string and a 12 string. I found a very long and deep web article about multi-neck guitars and they appeared in the late 17th century.

As Big Mo and Noah pointed out, there were other musicians who played double necks, among them Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin (“Stairway to Heaven”).

Big Mo mentioned the word “mambo” while talking about Mud Morganfield, who sang “Big Frame Woman.” I had to look up mambo and I think he might have meant a latin dance of Cuba? On the other hand, I found a reference that the word has African origins as well. Maybe some of you have ideas about that?

Big Mo Pod Show: “High Strangeness”

As usual, I listened to the Big Mo Blues Show last night. Today, we listened to the Big Mo Pod Show, and it sure was interesting.

Big Mo Pod Show 0 78 – “High Strangeness”

First, I’d like to point out that the title “High Strangeness” doesn’t apply to all of the songs on the podcast. In fact, only the first one, “Neoprene Fedora” would sound a little strange as a blues tune, and then only the first couple of minutes or so of this guitar instrumental. We think it has 3 or 4 segments with only the first one sounding mostly like a surfing tune. Most of it did sound bluesy.

The song “Catfish Blues” by Corey Harris was fascinating mainly because it prompted Big Mo to mention MayRee’s hand-battered catfish. We heard him say that this was about MayRee. We’re not so sure. We couldn’t figure out the connection between MayRee and catfish that you could catch in a river maybe somewhere down south, (possibly Louisiana?) in a very specific place where there used to be a couple of shacks where you could get hand-battered catfish.

He had very specific names for places like “Brownsville” or someplace the name of which reminded me of a French word, “rouleaux” (which I connect with stacks of red blood cells just because I learned this is medical school). But it sounded like it was a place. AI popped right up and said there’s no such place by that name in Louisiana or Texas. Big Mo also mentioned that it was close to a “Missouri river bridge.” I think we heard him right. The Missouri runs along the western boundary of Iowa. There are bridges in that area, but I can’t tell which one is referred to.

I’m thinking this story might just be adding texture to the whole MayRee’s hand-battered catfish yarn.

Another puzzle was somebody Big Mo mentioned called Tail Dragger, to which Corey Harris had a connection. Big Mo didn’t expand on this, but I did manage to find out about somebody named Tail Dragger Jones, who was an American Chicago blues singer. He has an interesting Wikipedia entry on the web. He shot and killed a blues artist known as Boston Blackie and did prison time for it.

And we had the impression that the last song reviewed on the podcast, “Take It Easy” by Ruthie Foster, was a blues song that was readily applicable to anyone having a tough time in life. On the other hand, Big Mo thought it was about women being mistreated by men and how to bear up under this burden.

Conversely, our impression is that most blues songs done by men often have themes that remind you of the chauvinistic attitude men have for women. Just listen to any of the other songs on the podcast list and look up the lyrics (because you can’t always understand them on the recordings).

I especially like songs which have lyrics that I can clearly understand, and “Take It Easy” is one of them.

Big Mo Pod Show: “Passin’ the Torch”

I caught the Big Mo Pod Show last night and listened to the podcast this afternoon. That’s later than I usually do because we were running around today learning how to use our new smartphones. You know, the makers don’t send the phones with even basic instructions. I guess they just expect you to guess right.

Big Mo Pod Show 077 – “Passin’ The Torch”

It’s like passing the torch (the title of the pod show) with the burning end towards your face. The phones are really slippery because they wash them with triple muddifying brahma bull body wash and add a 3-inch charging cable.

Anyway, I think the passing the torch title really comes from the Morganfield family. One of Muddy Water’s sons named Mud did a number called “She’s Getting her Groove On.” Mckinley is another son of Muddy and he’s also a blues musician.

Big Mo called one of the numbers on the blues show last night a novelty song: “Willie Dixon’s Gone,” by Tom Hambridge. Producer Noah asked him point blank, “What makes a song a novelty song?” to which Big Mo replies, “Ohhh, that is so hard!” He named a few like “Alley Oop.” And in general, his answer was that novelty songs are “overdone” and “over-shticked.” So, the novelty songs are comical.

But for comical, I don’t think you can beat one of my favorite songs that Big Mo played last night but didn’t make today’s list: “Can’t Even Do Wrong Right,” by Elvin Bishop. He grew up on a farm in Iowa. He even did a song titled “Calling All Cows.” I’ll let you look that one up.

Big Mo Pod Show: “Planting Seeds”

The Big Mo Pod Show title is about planting seeds in a metaphorical way. One of the seeds Big Mo sows is his comedy bit on MayRee’s hand-battered catfish. It’s just one of his hilarious faux sponsor routines that he frequently tweaks, and the subtle changes are difficult to catch if you don’t listen to his show every Friday night. It evolves, kind of like a shaggy dog story joke. My lame imitation from my crippled memory is below:

You see, MayRee’s hand-battered catfish is better because it’s battered, cooked to perfection with manic delight, packed with nitrates at her shack which you can find at the corner of Highway 6 and Snowflake Drive, and if you tip her and give her a wink, she’ll set you up with a mason jar of her famous kickin’ mule’ not sure if it’s all the way legal, but it comes in 3 flavors, Classic Clear, Golden Grabass, and just right for the holidays, Pumpkin Spice, that’s Mayree’s hand-battered catfish; it’s better because it’s battered.

You get the idea. I’m still trying to sell him on my design for a MayRee’s hand-battered catfish tee shirt. Don’t know why he’s not biting that hook. The catfish could be a fire truck red color, just sayin’.

So, the pod show title is “Planting Seeds” and that’s related to the idea of fundamental, historically important basic elements of blues music, specifically in the case of Jessie Mae Hemphill’s song “Jump, Baby, Jump.” Both Big Mo and Producer Noah agree that this example of North Mississippi hill country folk trance or hypnotic griot music (or grio, pronounced Gree-oh; a kind of West African traditional oral folklorist) which serves as the seed or basis for building on other layers (instrumental or otherwise). That’s just what I picked up from the internet.

Big Mo distinguishes this from “production” style music you hear a lot of nowadays on the radio and I get his disparaging tone about it.

Big Mo Pod Show 076 – “Planting Seeds”

Anyway, that’s the rich music history part of the pod show, which you can get by listening to KCCK on your radio dial at 88.3 or click on the Listen Now to hear by internet.

Now, what is also great about the show is Big Mo’s own historical perspective on music. That’s what you get by growing older. And that’s why my favorite song from last night from the Big Mo Blues Show was Curtis Salgado’s “The Longer That I Live.” I can identify with the lyrics.