Cover photo © 2024 Tina Abbaszadeh
Relationship experts state that “power couples” are confident and driven in their mission and are also encouraging and supportive of each other. And while most people assume it would be extremely difficult to work side-by-side with one’s spouse, (especially in the music industry), couples such as Annika Chambers & Paul DesLaurier, Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi, Tommy Castro & Deanna Bogart, The War and Treaty, Jason Ricci & Kaitlin Dibble, and Eric & LaDonna Gales show that it can be done successfully and with style. Joining that short list of blues “power couples,” and displaying a wonderful synergistic blending of their talents, is Christoffer “Kid” Andersen and his wife, Lisa (Leuschner) Andersen.
“Kid” is a guitarist, singer, composer, arranger, and record producer/engineer who is perhaps best known as the guitarist for Rick Estrin and the Nightcats. Originally from Norway, he began playing in bands at the age of twelve and became fascinated with the blues after seeing a clip of Robert Cray and receiving a cassette tape of Stevie Ray Vaughan. From there he learned about the three “Kings”, T-Bone Walker and Howlin’ Wolf. He also started to learn about playing behind a harmonica player by listening to a Little Walter album. Kid has been living in the United States since the age of 21, loves America (even with recent political events), and has indicated that he feels “as much American as I do anything else”. He first played with Terry Hanck’s band, later joined Charlie Musselwhite’s band, then toured with Elvin Bishop before joining the Nightcats after Little Charlie Baty retired. He has been nominated numerous times for a Blues Music Award in the Best Instrumentalist-Guitar category.
Lisa became known to many when she made it to the final rounds of the show American Idol. Her performances were sensational, and she was generally viewed as being “robbed” when she did not make it to the Top 12, and then was picked for a wild card slot but, explanation, was never given the chance to sing. She is also a vocal instructor and singer with Foreverland (a tribute to the music of Michael Jackson).
Together this power duo has performed together as “Kid and Lisa”, recorded together, and jointly own Greaseland Studios (like “Graceland” but nowhere as fancy) where Kid is the CEO. Greaseland Studios has produced well over 200 albums, including critically acclaimed releases such as the Blues Music Award-winning albums by Rick Estrin & the Nightcats, Jason Ricci & the Bad Kind, John Nemeth, DK Harrell, The Nick Moss Band, Terry Hanck and Curtis Salgado. (And many others which were nominated for Blues Music Awards, such as the albums by Terrie Odabi, Wee Willie Walker, Chris Cain, Frank Bey, Mark Hummel, Billy Price, and Kevin Burt, just to name a few). Blues Blast Magazine had the opportunity to catch up with this couple recently and Kid explained why it was important for him to start his own studio.
“When I was making records in other people’s studios, it was a big hurdle. You have to communicate your vision to another guy who has no reference for it, and you might be uncomfortable in another person’s space. Or you tell the technical engineer what you want, and they get defensive and start talking over your head. I just wanted to cut out that part. If I do everything, I don’t need someone to stand in-between me and my vision. I learned everything I have to know so there didn’t have to be that in-between person. I started Greaseland with the intention originally of making my own music whenever I wanted to, without depending on anyone else. But with getting good at it, people found out and then I started helping other people. I know a lot of like-minded people who have had the same frustrations, so with me being a musician, I can make that vision happen for other people.”
“My only interest is making music and making it as fun as possible for the artist. People feel comfortable working with people they know will identify with their vision. The fact that it is in our house keeps the cost down and takes some of the pressure away. With the low-pressure situation, you have a more creative environment. I want everyone in the same room, not having one person come in and do their track, and then another. My role as a producer is to facilitate the proper understanding of communication between the front man and the guys in the band so they don’t have to get mad at each other. Plus, people feel comfortable here and they are not afraid to touch stuff. I’ve got cool stuff—a bunch of different instruments lying around.”
Greaseland Studio is well-known for the impressive number of instruments available, including about fifty guitars, many different types of bass guitars, a tambura, a sitar, a Hammond B3 organ, several Fender Rhodes keyboards, a Hohner clavinet, old synthesizers and a grand piano that is in their kitchen. But it is Kid’s talent as a mixer and producer that makes the studio truly special. Jason Ricci noted that he was initially hesitant to use anybody other than Tony Daigle for his Behind the Veil release because he had been so happy with Daigle’s prior work; however, Mike Zito strongly encouraged him to consider Kid. Ricci explained, ” I was definitely not interested even though I knew Kid was doing some ridiculously brilliant work. Having heard what he did for Aki Kumar way back on the “Aki Goes to Bollywood” record, I knew he was brilliant, but I was just protective and also worried that Kid was getting too busy, popular and trendy… BUT Mike insisted. Anyway, the result was crazy. There are so many things in the mixing of the record that I would have to explain now to another person in order for them to do what Kid did. Stuff I never thought I would have the privilege of having someone want to do to our music. It’s not just different levels and mixes, but old Chess-influenced tricks like adding Reverb on certain parts of solos, and keeping it bone dry on other sections. Every song was treated like it was its own album. Everything was cared for and watered and loved. He’s simply incredible. It would be tough for me to go anywhere else after this, and I hope we both stay healthy enough to do it again and again.” John Nemeth, who has been making records at Greaseland since 2008, summed up the experience by simply noting, “You won’t find two more talented and kind individuals than Kid and Lisa Andersen.”
Kid had the opportunity to learn everything he needed to become a master at record producing when he had time off from touring during the pandemic. In fact, while many musicians were doing well just to survive that period, Kid and Lisa seemed to truly thrive, with many loving not only their polished “Greaseland Live” videos, but also the informal, low-tech “Bedtime Jamz” (which started as them just goofing around, but viewers wanted more). Kid discussed this normally stressful time:
“If there is anything I can brag about related to myself, it would be that where other people see problems, I can see opportunities for new solutions and create growth. Challenges are not bad—they force you to do something, and I welcome that. To be honest, for as awful and tragic as everything was at that time, it was my heyday. Somehow everything came together. Everybody was streaming live, but we didn’t want to do what everyone else was doing. Some people were going live with an acoustic guitar in the toilet. We wanted to do a real production. So, the first thing I figured out was, how was I going to get good sound to my streams? Then I had to figure out how to use more than one camera, and then I was just off to the races. I really loved it. Every musician we knew was just sitting at home with nothing to do, so we could get the best people we knew in the state to come here and play for tips. It worked great. We had some success from playing on the ‘Can’t Stop the Blues’ shows, which was a REALLY great vehicle for us during COVID. All of that eventually evolved into the ‘Greaseland Live’ shows. And what was the most incredible and spiritually uplifting for me is that we made it. People supported it and we never went on unemployment. The kindness of strangers and the support of community people who cared about what we were doing—that’s how we pulled through.”
Kid and Lisa got together despite both being biased against the idea of dating someone in the business. Lisa stated, “I didn’t want to be involved with a musician,” and Kid joked, “the last thing I wanted was to be with a ‘chick’ singer.” In fact, when they first met, Lisa noted, “he kept staring at me, and I thought he was weird.” However, fate pulled them together, and Kid didn’t even know Lisa sang when he first became interested in her. He explained:
“I had known her for a few years at that point, and her friend told me that she’s a singer, and I thought, ‘yeah, great’, but then her friend said that she was going to be on American Idol. Now, my twisted brain is actually greatly amused by that show, because it seems their main agenda is to ridicule and shatter the dreams of highly delusional people who are terrible singers. So, hearing that she was going to be on the show, while it was a big deal, was by no means a stamp of quality in my head. However, I watched it, and she sang “Sweet Thing” by Chaka Khan and she actually WAS good. No—she was unbelievably great!.”
They recently recorded their first album together, which is to be released in August. This album is on Jim Pugh’s Little Village label, a non-profit record company with a goal to record artists who might not otherwise get heard. Kid explained his relationship with that company.
“Little Village has been closely intertwined with Greaseland since the very start, with Willie Walker as our first artist. What LVF does is such a worthy cause with an honorable mission. I never wanted to push to release OUR music on LVF. I felt like I would be using this great and noble platform for personal gain, to advance MY music career, and it would taint the spirit of what LVF stands for which is helping other artists. At one point we were going to be on Gulf Coast Records, and it was with the help and encouragement from Guy Hale and Mike Zito that we started what became ‘Spirits and Soul’”.
“But the thing was, Lisa and I are so happy doing our Greaseland thing, and we love the bands we are in. So, even though we had these two albums in us, we never really wanted to make the full leap into pursuing solo stardom. We started to see that we wouldn’t really be right for a ‘normal’ record label that needs to make money from their releases. We still work with Gulf Coast all the time, producing albums for their artists like Monster Mike Welch, Albert Castiglia and Jimmy Carpenter. And we love Mike and Guy to pieces—nothing but love and gratitude there. As for our albums now being released as part of the Little Village roster. It was Jim (Pugh) who brought it up, and I’m glad he did. With everything that Little Village and the Greaseland family have done and accomplished together, it just doesn’t make any sense for us to be anywhere else. It’s our perfect home. We sure are lucky to know some really great people and to play a part in great things being done.”
Kid described the unique appearance of the album.
“It’s a double CD with two front covers, and the credits are sideways. It’s an unusual release and it made sense for us to do it like that. It’s not what we would define as a blues CD. I don’t want to be one of the many who records something that is not really a blues CD and tries to make a case for calling it the blues. I think of it as unencumbered by genre labels. I know a lot of artists would be afraid to take the risk. It would be easier if we were to fit into a special little box, but we can’t. It would be denying our goals if we made musical choices based on commercial or career considerations.”
Lisa added,
“My CD is called ‘Soul’ and his CD is called ‘Spirits’. We’re on each other’s CD, but he sings lead on his and I sing lead on mine. We’ve been working on these for a long time—since before the pandemic, and we wrote most of the songs.”
Kid revealed that the most emotional song on the double album is one Lisa wrote, called “Family” and the most interesting song on his disk is one about death.
“She wrote ‘Family’ all by herself. It’s about her dad and brother. They both have what used to be called Asperger’s Syndrome, so they’re quirkier than most. Her Dad comes in on the third verse and sings, and it’s a very moving song. I still have a hard time listening to it without tearing up. I wrote one that made Risk Estrin say, ‘you are kind of a morbid MF!’ It’s called ‘Hey Mr. Reaper’ and it’s from the perspective of a person who is dying, and who has accepted that the only problem is it is taking too long. I watched my mom go through that. She died from cancer a couple of years ago. I was in San Jose and got a call from my family in Norway that my mom was dying and she might not make it through the night even. I caught the first plane I could, but this was during COVID. The journey there took four or five whole days, and then I had to quarantine for a week before I was allowed to see her. She miraculously stayed alive until I was allowed to see her. We had one beautiful day together—the perfect ‘goodbye’, and then she was ready to go, but it wasn’t happening for some reason. Watching her suffer, I started thinking of ‘Hey Mr. Reaper, don’t make your rounds so slow’ and I wrote the song for her, and for everyone who has been stuck pining for death like that. Hey—every shitty situation deserves a blues song! And the folks I wrote it for aren’t around to sing it, so I did it for them.”
“Spirits & Soul” (or “Soul & Spirits”, depending on which side you pick up first), is an intriguing album with very diverse song choices. In addition to numerous originals (including a wonderful original by Lisa and her father called “I Miss You”), it contains the Jo Baker/Elvin Bishop song “Rock Bottom,” and Stevie Wonder’s “Free” on Lisa’s disk and Blind Willie Johnson’s “Nobody’s Fault but Mine,” and a unique version of Lennon & McCartney’s “Day Tripper” on Chris’ disk. There are contributions from numerous high-profile guest artists, including Charlie Musselwhite, Latimore, Jim Pugh, Rusty Zinn and Sax Gordon Beadle, just to name a few. One song about feeling the presence of those who have died contains an interesting collection of voice samples in the background, including Little Charlie Baty, James Harman and Michael Ledbetter. And Chris’ disk ends with a powerfully written song that he co-wrote with Guy Hale which warns, “How can you get to dry land on a ship steered by fools? We’re sinking deeper every day…we’re all gonna pay the price…we’re lost at sea for life on a ship of fools.” While difficult to classify, this double album does contain enough bluesy numbers that blues fans will be likely to want to add it to their collection.
When asked if there were any rising young stars that they found particularly promising, Kid and Lisa were quick to agree on who should be named.
“Sean ‘Mack’ McDonald, DK Harrell, and Harrell ‘Young Rell’ Davenport! Davenport is just seventeen or eighteen years old, and he plays harmonica and guitar and he’s awesome. And he’s like a sponge. I first saw him when he wasn’t even good yet, but I knew he had it. Six months later he was incredible. And DK—we think of him as our son. He’s just fantastic! Usually, if I think someone is great, that is the kiss of death, but he appears to be skyrocketing to the top. Just before we made his record, he had such modest goals. He said he just wanted to put a band together and play some festival gigs. He didn’t have crazy expectations. When I think about what he told me his goals were before we made the record compared to where he is now, it is insane. He’s playing every festival on the globe, and he’s loveable as hell. He’s so charming and sweet and genuine and talented. It’s fun to see this whole wave of young, Black blues artists. People used to say that young Black musicians weren’t interested in the blues anymore, but that seems to be changing. It’s the most exciting thing I’ve seen as a blues fan—there’s a whole turning of the tides.”
We can be sure that Greaseland Studios will be around for a long time, and that the “power couple” of Kid and Lisa will continue to support young artists and help musicians accomplish their vision. As Kid indicated, “When you are helping other artists fulfill their musical vision, you know you are contributing something to society.” You can find out more about Kid and Lisa’s latest release at https://www.blues21.com/kid-andersen-lisa-andersen, learn where Kid is playing with the Nightcats at www.rickestrin.com, and follow Lisa’s activities at https://www.facebook.com/lisa-leu-andersen/.
