Aayan Naim grew up in Chicago, across the street from Muddy Waters. With a musical childhood like that, it’s no wonder he grew up to play the blues.
“I would see him [Muddy Waters] coming and going. And every now and then, you would hear music. I was quite young. It was interesting,” he said.
The famous drummer Sam Lay was also Naim’s neighbor, he recalled. “You’d have Howlin’ Wolf, Sam Lay, and Muddy Waters, all in that area.”
Naim’s Chicago childhood still influences his playing style. “I remember being told, ‘Play what you feel. Don’t be concerned with how the other guy is doing it. Because no one can do what you feel better than you.’”
Naim’s band, The Good, the Bad and the Blues, was formed six years ago. The present members are Wayne Harris, bass and vocals; John Cunningham, keyboards and vocals; Hollywood Mike, drums, and Aayan Naim on lead vocals and guitar.
The band’s name is a play off the spaghetti western, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. While the blues is often thought of as music which deals with the more tragic side of life, the band’s name implies that it is a genre beyond simple concepts of good and bad.
As Naim explained, “It is more than just music. It’s an expression of the soul and the emotions behind it.”
The guitarist remembers being struck by the power of the blues as an adolescent, when he heard B.B. King perform “The Thrill is Gone.”
“I remember hearing that song when I was young, and not understanding all of what it was saying, but feeling all of the emotions in it. I then found myself playing it over and over again,” Naim said.
While he always loved the blues, Naim started out playing funk and R&B. The legendary Toledo blues band The Griswolds, along with Crawdaddy, inspired him to shift his focus.
“I played behind Crawdaddy at a concert. At first, I thought the music was quite simple. But the more I played it, the more complicated it became. I just had a natural affinity for it, and it just worked.”
I first came to Toledo on a vacation, in the winter time, and it looked like a giant wonderland. I was a junior in high school and we came here on a visit. I thought ‘This is the coolest place in the world.’ I just fell in love with it. And when I became an adult, I moved here,” Naim said.
Other band members, Wayne Harris (bass and vocals) and John Cunningham (keyboards and vocals), are both natives of Toledo. Their drummer, Hollywood Mike, is from Detroit.
The Good, the Bad, and the Blues made it to the finals in a blues contest in Memphis, competing with musicians from all over the world. They were among the top eight bands in the competition.
“It hit me that people came from all over the world to the United States to emulate this music. It’s basically twelve bars of music that changed music forever,” Naim said, describing the genre. The band has an album in the works, and their new website will be up soon.
Summing up the band’s philosophy, Naim said, “You don’t really play the blues. You have to be the blues.”
See more info and tour dates at The Good, The Bad and the Blues website here.