Chicago Red
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Wesley Weisman a.k.a. "Chicago Red" is an American blues and folk singer/songwriter who was born in 1955 to Alvin "Dempsey" Weisman (1920 - 2000) (Russian and eastern European Jewish decent) and Kathleen Conway (1927-1989) (Irish, Roman Catholic decent) on Chicago’s West Side. As in the classic blues song by Otis Spann, Chicago Red came up the "Hard Way."
Red's grandfather, Sol "Kid Willis" Weisman (1895–1995) was a prizefighter when Jack Johnson was champ. Red's father got the street name "Dempsey" by the time Jack Dempsey was the champ, because he was a pretty tough kid too.
Growing up, Red's home life was rough to say the least and Red spent a lot of his childhood with his father and his pals. His father would take him around to all the poker rooms and gambling joints in Chicago when he was a little boy and Red knew all his father’s gambling buddies and “Outfit Guys." Some of his father's friends had names like "Eddie The Flop," "Big Six," "Fat Peepee," "Monk," "Shoe Polish Joe" and "Mike The Blade," One of his favorite uncles was "Two Gun Ike ". Red did not spend much time with his mother because of abandonment by her due to her severe alcoholism. Red had a half sister much older and brother with whom he had little or no with contact with also due to abuse. Red left mostly alone at a very early age, he would draw or play with the piano to keep himself company or his grandfather would find him alone and would spend time with his pugilist grandfather while his father was out gambling, hustling or working trying to support the family. He remembers his father often coming home after gambling for two or three days straight. Red was always much older than his years – he had to be to survive. Music and art were always a part of his life. When he was about 5 years old, his father took the whole family to the Shriner’s Circus, and Red got so excited hearing a live band that he got up and started conducting the orchestra in front of a full audience! With the spotlight turned on him! That he says was his first "break" in show business. There was an old upright piano in the basement at home so Red started playing it at age 5or 6 soon after began piano lessons. In spite all the family chaos, His parents both really tried to encourage him musically. The family had all kinds of 78 rpm records, from Big Bill Broonzy to Beethoven, and every summer the family went on weekends to hear the Grant Park Symphony or The Chicago Symphony with Sir Georg Solti. His father a devotee of classical music encouraged young Wesley to listen to Mendelsohn, Mahler and Mozart because he believed he had to learn and know all about music history. One of Red's fondest memories is when his Dad took him to hear and meet Louis Armstrong and Count Basie. There were also stories about his father taking his mother to see the Mills Brothers at the Drake Hotel on their wedding night, and Jack Teagarden playing on the West Side with smoke literally coming out of his horn. Sometimes, his father would take him down to Maxwell & Halstead streets in Chicago for clothes or hot dogs or Taylor Street for Italian Beefs & lemonade. Blues music was all over the place. Living in a Boy's Home in Chicago in the sixties and early seventies, Red first saw Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters and the music connected with him emotionally. He felt something in the sound and the words deep inside and started to play the guitar and sing. His first guitar was a used Harmony from Sears. He paid $10.00 for it. He still plays a vintage 1960 Harmony Patrician arch-top guitar, made in Chicago. In the early seventies Red moved to Las Vegas, following his father and his business there. In those days he was surround by the last golden days of Jazz and would hear about Ella Fitzgerald singing with Joe Pass in a little club off the strip. During the late seventies and early eighties, Red hitchhiked across the U.S. and traveled throughout Mexico several times – often lying in the back of a pick up truck in the Mexican desert looking up at the sky on starry nights and listening to the recordings of the old bluesmen who he loved and influenced his music such as Big Maceo, Memphis Slim, Otis Spann, Tampa Red, Texas Alexander, Lonnie Johnson and Robert Johnson. After traveling up and down the West Coast, he tried settling in Los Angeles-homeless, back on the street again, he found himself in New Orleans, with its fabled music, food & booze. As if he’d died and gone to heaven.... he almost did, indulging in way too much he returned to the streets of Los Angeles living the blues. Shortly after returning to Los Angeles, a friend was walking across Wilshire Blvd. when a car struck him and he bled to death In Red’s arms. Soon after that, his father got brain cancer, seven other family members and friends died and his sister got esophageal cancer. Then Red was diagnosed with cancer himself and had half his stomach, part of his liver, and esophagus removed. With the help of friends he recorded the CD "IN THIS LIFE" before he went through surgery, knowing this would either be a legacy or an opportunity if he survived. He did survive, and after a 5 year struggle his health returned.He tours occasionally performing in Miami, Houston, Chicago, New Orleans, & Hollywood as well as doing 'Live Sets' on the radio stations, 90.2 WWOZ FM in New Orleans, 90.1 KPFT Houston/Galveston, 91.3 WLRN in Miami and in Southern California on 90.7 KPFK FM, 88.9 KUCI FM and at 88.5 KCSN FM. He slowly has begun to return to the stage in Las Vegas Living mostly in Southern California now you will often find him playing around Hollywood with friends like Kenny Lee Lewis (Steve Miller Band) and Jimmy Powers (Kris Kristofferson, Bonnie Raitt, Buddy Guy, Robert Jr. Lockwood). Michael Fell (Jimmy Smith) also close friend David Fertig. He's also worked and played for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and had his “Cipro Prescription Blues” (from IN THIS LIFE) played on Amy Goodman’s nationally syndicated ‘Democracy Now’ program. Red loves to take the short trip to Mexico every winter traveling about half way down the Baja Peninsula to see the gray whales that come down from Alaska and give birth in the Mexican lagoons. He was quoted as saying. "That's what life is all about, enjoying the beauty of it, witnessing creation."
http://www.myspace.com/chicagoredblues or http://www.chicagored.com/
