- Hello and welcome to "Applause Performances."

I'm Ideastream Public Media's Amanda Rabinowitz and host of the music podcast "Shuffle."

I'm joined by longtime Cleveland blues man, Austin "Walkin' Cane" Charanghat.

who's performed locally since the early '90s.

Today he tours the world, no longer with a walkin' cane, but always with his distinctive voice.

He's also got a new album out, recorded in famed Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and he's here to talk about it.

Austin, welcome back to The Idea Center.

Thanks for joining us.

- Hi.

It's good to be back.

It's been a long time.

- Yeah, how about you start with a song?

- Start with a tune.

All right, well, I'll start with "Living, Working, Dying."

(upbeat blues music) ♪ Living, working, dying ♪ ♪ Don't you miss it?

♪ ♪ Living, working, dying ♪ ♪ Don't you miss it?

♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ Oh, don't you miss it?

♪ ♪ Living, working, dying ♪ ♪ Oh, don't you miss it?

♪ ♪ Gonna dig me a hole and put the devil in ♪ ♪ Gonna dig me a hole and bury my sins, hey, yeah ♪ ♪ Dig me a hole ♪ ♪ To put that devil in ♪ ♪ Dig me a hole and hear the angels sing ♪ ♪ Living, working, dying ♪ ♪ Don't you miss it?

♪ ♪ Living, working, dying ♪ ♪ Don't you miss it?

♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ Oh, don't you?

♪ ♪ Living, working, dying ♪ ♪ Oh, don't you miss it?

♪ All right.

(upbeat blues music) ♪ Woke up this morning ♪ ♪ Blues walking like a lamb ♪ (upbeat blues music) ♪ Woke up this morning ♪ ♪ Blues walking like a lamb ♪ (blues music) ♪ Lord, I've changed my ♪ ♪ Gonna change my ♪ ♪ Gonna change my, change my ways, yeah ♪ ♪ Oh, I've changed ♪ ♪ Lord, I've changed my, hear the angels sing ♪ ♪ Living, working, dying ♪ ♪ Don't you miss it?

♪ ♪ Living, working, dying ♪ ♪ Don't you miss it?

♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ Oh, don't you miss it?

♪ ♪ Living, working, dying ♪ ♪ Oh, don't you miss it?

♪ All right.

(upbeat blues music) - Wow, what a way to get things started.

- Good morning!

- Yes, that was excellent.

- Thanks.

- You've got a new album that was recorded in Alabama, but the story starts in Memphis.

Can you talk about that?

- I was heading down to Memphis, 'cause I have like a almost, you know, being a road guy, I have lots of almost like different families.

You know, I go to Memphis, I have my Memphis family.

I go to, you know, Clarksdale, Mississippi, I've got that family.

I go to, you know, Europe or wherever, there's just people everywhere.

And my Memphis people were like, man, you should just come down and hang out.

You're not working because of Covid.

Everything got canceled.

So my buddy said, you can stay at this house, this Airbnb that they were rehabbing.

And then my other buddy goes, "Yeah, "so you're going to Memphis, you know, Muscle Shoals is only like 2 1/2 hours away."

And I emailed Fame Recording, and they said, "Well, do you want to come on Tuesday or Wednesday?"

Like, Wednesday?

Like, okay.

So I got in my car on Monday morning and I drove to, you know, Alabama.

It took me like 12 hours or something, 13 hours, and got there, and actually I take that back.

I left on Tuesday, and I got there and recorded at 10 in the morning.

It was a pretty amazing feeling, because so many great people recorded there.

- Yeah.

- Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, I mean, Solomon Burke, the Allman Brothers started in the other studio, which I thought was pretty great.

- Can you talk a little bit about your guitars that you have here?

- Oh, this guitar here is a National M2.

National Guitar started in the 1920s, and they started, the Dopyera brothers came up with a design where they'd put an aluminum cone inside the guitar and make it almost like a speaker.

In the days before electric guitars, they get drowned out.

But now it's got a little bit of a unique sound, and a lot of blues guys used them, I think mainly because they were kind of cheap.

- Yeah.

- You know, so they could get 'em for a decent wage, and they're loud, you could hear 'em at any juke joint or whatever's going on, you know, whatever gig.

And then the Dopyera brothers, they had a falling out with National and formed their own company and that was Dobro.

So, which has kind of become the Kleenex of these guitars, you know, in a strange way.

So I bought this one in 2006 after I won some contest, and I got some money and I was gonna be smart.

Like, "Should I put this on my credit card and get it down a bit?"

And my one friend said, "No.

You gotta buy a guitar, man."

I was like, "You're brilliant."

- [Amanda] Yeah, perfect idea.

- I'm glad I listened to her, you know, because I would've never bought this.

(mid-tempo blues music) ♪ One heart broken, one heart healin' ♪ ♪ One heart lyin', one heart cheatin' ♪ ♪ One heart dyin', there's revealin' ♪ ♪ One heart walkin' away ♪ ♪ One heart walkin' away ♪ (mid-tempo blues music) ♪ One heart cryin', one denyin' ♪ ♪ She is stealin', he's believin' ♪ ♪ One heart dyin', one is beatin' ♪ ♪ One heart walkin' away ♪ ♪ One heart walkin' away ♪ ♪ Give me something to believe in ♪ ♪ Give me something to believe in ♪ ♪ Give me something to believe in ♪ ♪ I keep walkin' ♪ ♪ One heart walkin', one heart walkin' away ♪ ♪ One heart walkin', one heart walkin' ♪ ♪ One heart walkin' away ♪ (mid-tempo blues music) ♪ One heart learnin', one is losin' ♪ ♪ One heart gainin', one is reelin' ♪ ♪ One heart achin', one is beatin' ♪ ♪ One heart walkin' away ♪ ♪ One heart walkin' away ♪ ♪ Give me something to believe in ♪ ♪ Give me something to believe in ♪ ♪ Give me something to believe in ♪ ♪ I keep a-walkin, one heart a-walkin' ♪ ♪ One heart is walkin' away ♪ ♪ One heart is walkin', one heart is walkin' ♪ ♪ One heart is walkin' away ♪ (mid-tempo blues music) - Wonderful.

Thank you, that was wonderful.

You've been all over the world from Clarksdale to Katmandu, Ireland, Australia.

Somehow you ended up in Cologne, Germany.

How did you link up with Hoboville Records in Germany of all places?

- David Spero, around town, manages all sorts of great people, and he's been tied into the business for so long.

You know, over the course of many years now we've become pretty good friends.

And when Hoboville was looking for somebody and asked David Spero like, "Do you know any blues guys?

You know, we wanna do more of a roots label."

And he's like, "Yeah, I got a guy for you."

So that was pretty fantastic.

Opened up a whole new world.

- Yeah, it's been a great relationship.

Can you talk a little bit about your world travels?

I mean, did you ever envision that you would be playing music all over the world?

- No, not one bit.

I was really intrigued when I was young to be able to go travel America.

I thought it'd be really great to be able to play music and just see different parts of America that I've never seen.

I was like a 20-year-old guy or something like that.

And that was a dream.

And I started doing these things like going to Memphis, you know, where it was the International Blues Challenge, which was mainly on Beale Street.

And because I was in the finals, some guy from Katmandu says, "Hey, would you be interested in playing at the Himalayan Blues Festival that I put on?"

Like, Himalayan Blues Festival?

- Yeah.

- Sure.

- So, I went, I had an incredible time, and there, there were a couple of Australian people, and they went back home and they were playing at a festival out there called Blues on Broad Beach.

And the lady, the promoter for that was talking to them and like, you know, "I need somebody, you know, "not too expensive but like a solo person, "but from somewhere else, "it might have draw some kind of like, oh, they have international acts."

And these two said, "Well, you know, we met this guy in Katmandu.

"I don't know, he's like a nice guy.

"You know, he plays all right.

I think he'd be cool."

So then she listened to my stuff and I get an email, "Do you wanna play at our festival in Australia?"

Like, wow, okay.

And then the New Zealanders got wind.

So I started playing in New Zealand, and then, you know, it's all these weird things like that, and they all kinda started happening.

- Just from one place to the next.

- Kinda mind-blowing.

It's strange that a lot of my friends are thinking about retirement or, you know, or some are.

I'm like, I kind of feel like I've been retired my whole life in a really weird way.

- Yeah, doing what you love.

- I mean, I work hard, but it's fun.

- Yeah.

- And I do.

I love it.

- Will you play us another song?

- Sure.

Here we go.

"Waiting for a Little Sunshine."

(mid-tempo music) ♪ Waiting for a little sunshine ♪ ♪ To come my way ♪ ♪ Come my way, Lord ♪ ♪ Come my way ♪ ♪ Waiting for a little sunshine to come my way ♪ ♪ Lord, take these blues away ♪ ♪ Lord, take these blues ♪ ♪ Rain been coming down in my heart and on my shoes ♪ ♪ Heart and on my shoes ♪ ♪ Yes, sir ♪ ♪ Rain been coming down ♪ ♪ Rain been coming down in my heart and on my own shoes ♪ ♪ And I'm fading ♪ ♪ I'm fading, baby ♪ ♪ Waiting for a little sunshine to come my way ♪ ♪ Come my way, Lord ♪ ♪ Come my way ♪ ♪ Waiting for a little sunshine ♪ ♪ To come my way ♪ ♪ Lord, take these blues away ♪ ♪ Lord, take these blues ♪ (mid-tempo blues music) ♪ Never had much for money ♪ ♪ But made it through the day ♪ ♪ Made it through the day ♪ ♪ Yes, we made it through another day ♪ ♪ Never had much money but made it through the day ♪ ♪ Now hard times have come my way ♪ ♪ Oh, these hard times now here to stay ♪ ♪ Waiting for a little sunshine to come my way ♪ ♪ Come my way, Lord ♪ ♪ Come my way ♪ ♪ Waiting for a little sunshine to come my way ♪ ♪ Lord, take these blues away ♪ ♪ Come take these blues ♪ (mid-tempo blues music) - Lovely, thank you.

Austin, I wanna talk a little bit about your moniker.

- Okay.

- Walkin' Cane.

It's not quite accurate.

Can you talk about that?

- Well, it is accurate, but it's not accurate.

- Okay.

- Okay.

So I was born with an arterial venous malformation.

And by the time I was 16 I was on a cane.

I used a cane till I was 26.

So I figured at that point, you know, I started playing out when I was 20, and I was down in New Orleans and I was walking around the French Quarter, and this guy goes, "Hey, Walkin' Cane, you got some spare change for a brother?"

And I was like, "Yeah, I do.

Here's some cash."

And I was like, Walkin' Cane would be a good thing for me because, you know, I'm stuck with it.

I'm probably gonna be using a cane the rest of my life.

So I thought that, you know, that'll be a good, that'll be my thing.

And then, you know, at 26 I had my leg taken off, and now I don't really need a cane all that much.

If you see me with a cane, I'm probably in a bad way, but usually it's pretty good.

But it's kind of funny, like sometimes I'll go to a gig and I'll wear shorts 'cause it's 180 degrees outside.

Some people might have a couple of cocktails or something and they're like, "I didn't know what happened.

"I haven't seen you in three months.

How, why?"

You know, and the tears and everything.

I'm like, hey, it's cool.

This happened like 20 years ago.

- So Walkin' Cane stuck.

- It did.

It was like a, you know, blues guy.

You gotta have some kind of ailment, you know.

(chuckles) Blind Willie Johnson.

- Do you think that experience in what you've gone through in your life has, I guess, you know, given you this outlet with your blues singing and the emotion that you put into it?

- I have no doubt that it affected me somehow.

You know, I don't really know because I've never lived any other kinda life.

This has always been what it's been.

- Let's hear that voice one more time.

Can play us one more before we say goodbye?

- So "Sun Go Down."

It was the last tune on the new record, and a friend of mine, her son had passed away.

He was 27, and it was awful.

He was a great kid, and it was unfortunate and, you know, addictions and all that kind of thing.

And I was with her the night before I left, or the two days, some previous, something like that.

And I was driving to Muscle Shoals, and she was in my head, you know, just kind of thinking about everything she was saying, 'cause I've been fortunate.

My kids, I've never experienced anything like that.

And we were talking, and I was just thinking about stuff and I started getting a melody in my head and just talking into my phone while I'm driving.

Every once in a while I get, "Oh, that's a good line."

You know.

And then I reached a gas station at some point and I had to take a break.

I'd been driving for like eight, nine hours.

And so I sketched it out real quick.

And I had to pump gas.

So I put the book right there and, you know, recorded myself singing the song acapella while pumping gas.

And then I thought, well, I'll send it to Chris Allen, see what he has to say.

And it was about, you know, 10 o'clock at night or something, and he gets it, and he was working on songs in the garage.

So, 'cause that's where we hang in the summertime.

And so he was working on some stuff and he goes, "Oh, this is cool."

And he wrote it out pretty quick and came up with a guitar part, 'cause it was pretty much a straightforward song, you know?

And he sent it back to me and I went, wow!

All right, we have a song!

So here we go.

"Sun Go Down."

(somber blues music) ♪ Sun go down ♪ ♪ Down for me ♪ ♪ Sun go down ♪ ♪ Down for me ♪ ♪ Sun go down ♪ ♪ Sun go down ♪ ♪ Sun go down ♪ ♪ Down for me ♪ ♪ Pray to see ♪ ♪ Shadows from the trees ♪ ♪ Reflecting like diamonds ♪ ♪ Through the field ♪ ♪ Take the light ♪ ♪ From this day ♪ ♪ Take the light away ♪ ♪ Take the light away ♪ ♪ Sun go down ♪ ♪ Down for me ♪ ♪ Sun go down ♪ ♪ Down for me ♪ (somber blues music) ♪ Take the light ♪ ♪ From this day ♪ ♪ Baby boy ♪ ♪ Taken away ♪ ♪ Carry it from the cradle ♪ ♪ To the grave ♪ ♪ Take the light away ♪ ♪ Sun go down ♪ ♪ Down for me ♪ ♪ Sun go down ♪ ♪ Down for me ♪ (somber blues music) ♪ Sun will rise ♪ ♪ Oh yes, it will ♪ ♪ Sun will rise ♪ ♪ I pray it will ♪ ♪ But for now ♪ ♪ Take away this pain ♪ (blues music) ♪ Take away the sun ♪ ♪ Take away this pain ♪ ♪ Take away the sun ♪ ♪ Take away this pain ♪ ♪ Take the light ♪ ♪ From this day ♪ ♪ Sun go down ♪ ♪ Down for me ♪ ♪ Sun go down ♪ ♪ Down for me ♪ (somber blues music) ♪ Take away the sun ♪ ♪ Take away this pain ♪ ♪ Take away this pain ♪ - Wow.

I could really feel the emotion in that one, beautiful song.

- Thanks.

- Thanks so much for sharing that.

- Sure.

- Austin, it's been such a pleasure talking with you and hearing your music and having you perform it for us.

So, thank you so much for being here.

- Thank you for having me.

It's such a good feeling to be back here.

- My guest has been Cleveland blues man, Austin Walkin' Cane.

His new album, "Muscle Shoals," is out now on Hoboville Records.

I'm Ideastream Public Media's Amanda Rabinowitz.

Thanks so much for joining us for this edition of "Applause Performances."

And be sure to stay up on Northeast Ohio's independent music scene by following our podcast, "Shuffle."