Journeyman Bluesrocker

Blues Breaker

“By the end of the ‘60s, I didn’t feel like a professional,” says Greene, who has short, grey hair, and whose standard attire is black T-shirt, jeans and sneakers. “But by the mid-‘70s, I felt like I’d become a professional. Before that, the bands were fun and laughs, and you’re young; but by the mid-‘70s, when I was with Jimmy Ley, it was a lot more professional, and I went on from there.”

“My influences came from mainly white rock blues guys, mainly British, who were trying to interpret American blues. The Rolling Stones tried to emulate Howlin’ Wolf or Bo Diddley, you know what I mean? That’s a common story, like Eric Clapton trying to emulate Buddy Guy. As the years went on, I was able to make an about face and start paying attention to the older guys, like Albert Collins or Albert King. Stevie Ray Vaughan made a career out of that. I know people, close friends of mine, who can be very judgmental about purism. In the past, maybe true blues musicians saw me as a rock player who played blues, but rock players saw me as a blues player who played rock. I’ve got much better at the old, traditional style of the blues; I’ve gotten much closer to it. But I still like to rock it up a little, know what I mean?”

But Greene also keeps his hand in pop, and it’s paying off. “Angel Love,” a song he wrote with former Breathless band mate Mark Avsec and the guitarist Mason Ruffner, is regularly performed by Carlos Santana in concert and finally surfaced last year on a bonus CD on the 10th-anniversary Legacy edition of Santana’s 1999 smash album, Supernatural. Too bad it didn’t make it onto the original, which sold 25 million. (The Legacy edition of Supernatural has sold about 40,000 copies, according to a spokesman for Legacy.)

Initially called “Too Much About Love,” the tune was one of several Avsec and Greene wrote in the early to mid-‘90s. When Avsec turned Ruffner onto the song, Ruffner, who has worked with Santana, asked whether he could record it and write new lyrics. No problem. Ruffner got the tune into Santana’s hands, and he’s been performing it for more than a decade. Greene doesn’t know how the deluxe edition of Supernatural has been selling, but the royalty money is secondary.

“Whatever it is, if it’s a dollar and a half or a thousand, it’s not occupying my mental spaces,” he says. “I’m just overjoyed that that came about in my life. At my age, it’s not like there’s no good gigs and nice surprises, but that came out of left field.”

What does he look for in a band? “Musical compatibility, being on the same musical page. Having chemistry as friends, and a low-key demeanor, letting the music do the talking for you.

“I’ve been in bands where there’s so much drama, it makes me nervous. Drama musically is fine, but mutual respect is the most important thing. They got to play well and I got to like them. I like looking forward to go to play, not to dread it because there’s all this drama inside waiting for me.”

Over the years, Greene has been able to have the career he wants, largely thanks to the women in his life. His wife of 36 years, Christine, died last year of complications from a lung infection. “My wife always loved what I did musically,” Greene says haltingly. “By not having kids, I was allowed to get away with being a full-time musician.”

Now he lives with Sally Kaseda, a “fan of the blues” he’s known for years. “She loves me, cooks for me, cleans my house. She’s everything. She’s just everything. I could get awfully sentimental. That’s one of my weaknesses.” 

So is northeast Ohio, where he makes his stand. “I was not one of those guys who were obsessed with hustling the game,” says Greene. “I’m very content at home, and having credibility and respect in a smaller area is fine by me. I never had the hunger and fire to go national, that drive to do that.”

Local music fans are lucky Alan Greene chose to stay home. 

[Pictured, top to bottom: Greene on the left, Stevie Ray Vaughan on the right. Greene interviewed Vaughan for “Cleveland Rocks,” a local cable TV access show, prior to a March 6, 1988 Vaughan performance at Rhodes Arena at the University of Akron; photo by Kevin Graelis. Greene plays the Riverwalk Café on the west bank of the Flats, with downtown Cleveland as his background, in 2005; photo by Michele Luoma.]

This feature is the first in a series by Carlo Wolff that looks at the immensely talented, if largely unsung, heroes of Cleveland's blues circuit.

LISTEN: Alan Greene Band - "Born Under a Bad Sign" (Albert King cover)

LISTEN: Alan Greene Band - "Can't Find My Way Home" (cover of Blind Faith song written by Eric Clapton)