“A record of music exists for one reason only, to elicit an emotional response. I don’t think a lot of producers or whatever get to the point where that’s their main focus. You know, they start from the other side, from the other end. ‘I’ve gotta get this or I gotta get that.’ It’s just a matter of focusing. It’s just easier to reach a goal when everybody on the team has the same goals, and the more people involved that don’t see that, the more obstacles there are to get there.”
By the time he was 18 in 1998, Kid Andersen was playing guitar for most of the American blues stars who came through Norway, including Homesick James, Nappy Brown and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith. By age 24 he had emigrated to the United States and was touring with Charlie Musselwhite.
“I had been here almost three years when I got the call from Charlie. That was the first time I was playing with somebody over here that people who actually heard of him. I finally made it in the eyes of people. For career development, I learned a lot. When he sits down and plays the guitar and harmonica on a rack and plays by himself, that’s an elusive thing, a spiritual thing for the blues.”
Now 45, Kid tours with Rick Estrin playing guitar. Rick effused about him in a recent Facebook entry: “I’ll be honest, in ‘08, when Little Charlie left The Nightcats, I didn’t know what the hell I was gonna do! There was only one guy who I knew could fit that slot AND bring his own thing to it. I didn’t know it, but it turned out he was available! Perfect timing! Kid came along and saved my ass!”
Since 2006 Kid also has run Greaseland Studios with 150 producing credits for artists ranging from Tommy Castro to Alabama Mike, from Sonny Green to Ron Thompson, from D. K. Harrell to Wee Willie Walker. Capturing on record the live excitement of a genre born on the back porches of the Delta and steamy late sets of Chicago’s West Side is akin to holding mercury in a sieve. Kid Andersen does it with the finesse of Willie Dixon.
“The bottom line for me that separates me from most guys you meet who operate a studio is for me the studio is a musical instrument, and I treat it and think of it that way. Probably a lot of people in audio – soundmen, engineers, stuff like that – started doing it because they wanted to be involved in music, but they didn’t have any musical talent or skill. They’re like frustrated musicians. I don’t know. I don’t know why somebody else would want to do this.”
It was Kid’s work on Diunna Greenleaf’s I Ain’t Playin’ release in 2022, her first in 11 years, that turned my head around. To that point she was the textbook example of an artist you just had to see live. On stage she brings the urgency of Howlin’ Wolf into sharp relief. Kid Andersen drew it out of her in the studio like squeezing toothpaste from the middle.
“She’s a kick, man,” gushes Kid. “She’s kind of in a league of her own these days. Yeah, she’s badass, man. Yeah, she is. She blows me away. I’d known her peripherally. She was in the IBC at one point. That’s when I first heard of her; I hadn’t paid as much attention to her as I should have.
“D. K. Harrell is a friend of mine who made that happen. He brought Diunna in front of me to join forces, and it was kind of that semi-religious experience where you just go, ‘There it is!’ You have those big guys just go, ‘There she is!’ You see what’s been missing, you know?”
They may call him Kid, but at 45 this producer is as sage as an African griot. How does he do it?
“I came to the technical part of music production from the angle of – I got tired of other people standing between me and what I wanted to hear. And I guess that would be my musical mix. It was really a roadblock having to communicate with another person who doesn’t have my frame of reference on the records I love. For them, there’s no Percy Mayfield. They just don’t know what ‘Hoo Doo Man Blues’ is.
“I’m first a musician and then a producer and then eventually an engineer, just because I get tired of people standing between me and what I want to hear. When I was listening to music, I’d have the same experience you have. I was listening to records. When I first was listening to blues it was a rare occasion I got to hear a live blues act. The records that really captivated me were for starters old Chicago records from Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Junior Wells. All those records took me to another world, especially when I was growing up in Norway.
“At some point I wanted to get involved in being more than just the guitar player, you know, or whatever I play. When I see somebody or hear something I would be like, what are the drums playing, you know? I would be interested in that. Something that most people don’t do. (They might say) ‘How come when I’m recording with my band it doesn’t sound right?’ I kind of get into what everybody is supposed to write, and then I would start playing most of the different instruments to a certain extent. It’s not that I want to be the drummer, but I want to know that I could inform somebody else about what I wanted them to do. Because a lot of band leaders would fail at communicating to their band what they wanted.
“I don’t think I want to force people into doing something they don’t want to do. Also, I’m not like Phil Spector and Ike Turner. I don’t actually use a loaded gun as part of my production.”
Kid Andersen has the wisdom of a man decades older. “I was talking to Elvin Bishop the other day. I don’t think of him as an old man, but he’s 82, I think. Ever since I’ve been in music I’ve never been very far from Elvin. My respect for him grows and grows, as does my admiration. The more I know him the more I see stuff we have in common.
“He’s not the kind of guy who’s solicitously blunt about his most amazing stories and accomplishments. The other day we were talking about Bob Dylan’s ‘Like A Rolling Stone.’ Elvin was at the recording session with Butterfield and the band at the time. They wanted him to play. He looks at the recording chart and goes, ‘Hell no. There’s way too many chords in this.’ Then, he said, ‘There were so many times I got sick of it and I just said I’m out of here.’”
Be sure to check out Spirits and Soul, Kid’s new Little Village recording with his partner Lisa Andersen!
