Matt Lesch has played the blues for half of his life. At just 14 years old, the multi-instrumentalist caught the ear of blues great Big George Brock, who became a mentor to him. Since then, the now 28-year-old musician has been touring the country, joining blues bands and performing his own music as “the Rattlesnake.”
Lesch told St. Louis on the Air that his first meeting with Big George at the now closed BB’s Jazz, Blues and Soups cemented his career as a bluesman — and that his own reputation preceded him to the veteran blues musician.
“I went up to meet him and shake his hand. He had heard about me through other members of a band that I had known prior to meeting him. I go up to him, I say, ‘Big George, it’s nice to meet you. I’m a big fan,’” Lesch said. “And he goes, ‘You play guitar? You bring it with you? Why don’t you go get it?’ And that was the end of that conversation. He called me up about halfway through the show, around midnight, and he kept me up the rest of the night until about 2:30 playing with them. He told me at the end of the show, ‘I’ma take you down to Clarksdale with me next year.’ And he did.”
Lesch played in Big George Brock’s band until his death in 2020. Brock was 87 years old. Lesch’s appreciation of Brock is evident in his song “He’s a Bluesman” on his latest album “Blues Cut Like Glass.”
Lesch said that his mentor and friend taught him many lessons during their time together, including simple ones like how to greet people.
“Big George was one of those people that’s the same as he is off stage as he is on stage. Whenever you talked to him or heard him play, it was just very welcoming,” Lesch said. “[Big George] would sit and talk to you for as long as you wanted. He would never get tired of telling the same story.”
Along with the lessons Lesch learned from his mentors like Big George Brock, Lesch said he and his friends — fellow St. Louisans Dylan Triplett, Marquise Knox among others — want to bring contemporary sounds and subjects to blues.
“I think one of the most important things — especially for this new generation now coming up, myself included — is that you can't rely on doing the same thing that other blues artists have done. If you take a look at the blues artists from back-in-the-day, they were doing new stuff back then. So, you have got to find a way to take that and make it your own, whether that be the way you perform, certain gimmicks or the way you play,” he said. “Put your own spin on it and put your own flavor on it. Play how you would, not how BB King would, or how Steven Ray Vaughan would do it. Take their influence, and then make your own out of it.”
Lesch continued, “My friend Kingfish said, ‘You can't just sing about the old standard, ‘My baby left me.’ You need to try to push it in a new direction and talk about today's problems.’”
In “Blues Cut Like Glass,” Lesch experimented with writing horn sections for the first time in “Big Legged Woman,” “I’m So Tired” and the titular song on the album.
“It's something that I had to get used to, but something I'm very proud of for doing,” he said. “The melodies of the horn line specifically, I put a lot of my own flavor into how I would play a horn line versus how a horn player would play.”
One thing that stays consistent through the ages of blues music, Lesch said, is that it is a transcendental experience to perform.
“I play a lot of genres, but blues is the one that really touches my soul the most,” he said. “Every time I play, I can really just zone out and just play. Whatever comes out, comes out.”
For more on Matt Lesch, where to see him perform and how he came to be known as “the Rattlesnake,” listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or click the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Darrious Varner is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
