Siegel’s holiday blues for Hanukkah

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Corky Siegel

Updated: December 13, 2011 10:43PM

Harmonica legend Corky Siegel recalled his first memory of Hanukkah, when he was about eight years old. “I remember the first candle being lit,” he said. “The first present I got was a harmonica.”

And then, you assume, he became a child prodigy on the instrument. Not exactly. “I never played it until I was 20,” he laughingly admitted.

Siegel quickly made up for lost time, though, and always dazzles audiences by his prowess on the instrument — as well as on a keyboard — when he plays with his Chamber Blues ensemble or Siegel-Schwall band.

The multitalented performer is going it alone for “A Harmonica Hanukkah” at the Skokie Theatre on Dec. 18. “I do solo shows once in a while. I probably always will,” Siegel said. “I have a 10-year period when I had what I call the singer/songwriter scare. I’m not a prolific songwriter but I probably wrote five or 10 songs a year.” Most of the material in Siegel’s solo shows is from that decade.

Holiday style

Despite the name of the show, Siegel will primarily be playing piano at the Skokie Theatre performance. And he may not even perform a Hanukkah tune. He will be doing a blues version of a Christmas song, though.

“It will have a flavor of the holidays,” Siegel said of the show, reporting that he will be doing a little storytelling. That includes a tale told by his lifelong friend Danny Glicken about their experience growing up Jewish in a neighborhood that was primarily Catholic. “In essence, he wrote the story,” Siegel said. “But it’s my story.”

Among the original songs that Siegel will perform is his evocative, “Southwest Coast Blues” from the early ’70s. He noted that the last verse of the song includes a prediction that actually came true.

Siegel sang, “The waves are splashing and the dead fish are flashing on the lake again. And the wind is shifting and the smog is drifting in on Chicagoland. And I’m sitting here thinkin’ am I gonna have to be here ’til the very end, waiting for the palm trees to grow on the southwest coast of Lake Michigan.”

The songwriter laughed as he related, “In the last 10 years they’ve been planting palm trees on Oak Street Beach and they’re there all summer.”

Musical gift

Siegel compared preparing for a performance to the giving of a gift. He likes the excitement of thinking about the person you’re giving the gift to, shopping for the present and wrapping it. “There’s so much joy in thinking about others and thinking about giving them something,” he said. “How they receive it can turn the giving of the gift into an event.

“As an artist, the same thing applies,” Siegel continued. “You’re thinking about what you’re going to play. You’ve practiced it. You’ve put all this love and joy into it. If the people respond in a physical way to let you know that they’re appreciating it, it’s an event. If they don’t respond in a physical way, it becomes a concert.”

Siegel is hoping that “A Harmonica Hanukkah” will be an event. We’re confident it will.