'An integral part of my life': Blues guitarist Willie J Laws brings wide taste in music to Cape Cod concert

When blues guitarist Willie J Laws was a kid, he’d sweep the floors of his grandfather’s beer joint in Corpus Christi, Texas, listening to an eclectic mix of country, soul, R&B, rock and more on the bar’s jukebox that played 45 rpm vinyl records. It was that jukebox that Laws says had a big impact on forming his taste in music.

He’d even sometimes get to take the 45s home with him.

“It was a nice blend of all these genres on that jukebox,” Laws says. “I’d get me some quarters, throw them in the jukebox, and listen to whatever song. And just to watch the machine pick the record up, flip it over, and throw it on the table … that was amazing to me, man. That was magic.”

Nowadays, Laws is creating his own magic on stage and on record with his brand of blues music infused with a myriad of different genres, including funk, soul and R&B. He’ll be bringing his show on Friday, Oct. 28 to the Music Room in West Yarmouth.

With a new record currently in production and shows scheduled, it’s a busy time for the Massachusetts-based musician. He took some time out of his schedule to speak about transitioning from being in the U.S. Navy to becoming a performing musician, and a chance encounter that helped make it all possible.

An unexpected gig leads to a career in music for Laws

Laws has been making his name known in Massachusetts since moving to the state 11 years ago for family-related reasons. Since then, he won the 2011 Mass Blues Society Challenge, was a two-time Best Blues Act nominee for the New England Music Awards in 2015 and 2016, and was a 2015 Best Blues Act nominee for the Boston Music Awards.

Before moving to Massachusetts, Laws’ band was the house band at the House of Blues in Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay and he also played with the Grammy Award-winning Los Texmaniacs.

With such a list of credentials, you’d think Laws would have been one of those musicians who started playing at an early age and has been working at his craft since he could first pick up the guitar. But Laws says he didn’t become “super serious” until 1987 at the age of 26 — after he’d left the Navy because of an accident that injured him.

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“I was really ready to stay in and make it a career,” he says about the Navy. “But music has always been an integral part of my life.”

It was during his time in the Navy that he met blues guitarist Phillip Walker at a music club called Cooper’s Alley in Corpus Christi, setting in motion a future in music for Laws.

“I was still actually in the Navy reserves and I did one of my weekends at the base there in Corpus and when I got finished I went to Cooper’s Alley to have a beer and just check out whoever the band was and it was Phillip Walker,” Laws says. “And it was very seldom that anybody Black (playing) blues would come through that town, so I had to go check it out.”

A local drummer who knew Walker and Laws was also at the club and told Walker about the budding guitarist.

“He told Phillip ‘Hey, that young man over there in the sailor suit, he plays the guitar,’” says Laws. “And then Phillip comes walking over to me and he goes, kind of like a gunslinger because he had the hat, ‘Floyd over there tells me you play the guitar.’ And I said, ‘Yes, sir. I try.’ And he said, ‘Why don’t you take my guitar and my band and play two or three songs?’”

Laws had no prior experience performing in front of a live audience other than “in the choir at church.” And, although the offer caught him off guard, Laws says he was ready.

“I wasn’t nervous,” he says, remembering two of the three songs he played: Muddy Waters’ “Mannish Boy” and a B.B. King tune. “I just went up and did my thing and I’ve been doing it that way ever since.”

That didn’t only get Laws’ music career going, it also started a friendship and mentorship with Walker that lasted until his death in 2010.

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“He immediately took me under his wing and adopted me,” says Laws, calling himself one of Walkers’ “guitar sons.” Soon after their meeting, Walker took Laws out on the road with him to tour.

“Phillip was my go-to guy until he passed away,” Laws adds. “I couldn’t even listen to him (after he passed) and now I listen to him regularly, and I always try to do one or two songs of his in my sets.”

New album in the works

Laws is currently in the mixing stage of his latest album that he’s aiming to release “hopefully before Christmas.”

Laws hasn’t decided on a name for the album yet, but says that it is a kind of full-circle creation for him.

“It’s like everything that influenced me growing up in the late ‘60s, all through the ‘70s, ‘80s,” he says. “I guess there was a lot of that in my subconscious mind, and a lot of it started coming to the surface when I started doing this (new record).”

Some of the songs he “kind of just pulled out on the fly” within the past six months and he credits a spur of creativity.

“You know when that little creative thing hits you because for some people it doesn’t come every day or all the time,” he says.

Paul Nelson, a blues guitarist and producer who is a business partner of the Music Room, is producing Laws’ new album.

“He’s just a great, great producer,” says Laws. “He hears those things that a producer hears and for me it’s great because most of my projects have all been self-produced.”

Laws says he is looking forward to returning to the Music Room, and sees it as a destination more and more musicians are seeking out to not only perform but also record in the studio located in the venue.

“A lot of people are wanting to go down there and do stuff down there,” he says of the Music Room. “I guess, really, it’s because of Paul.”

How to see Willie J Laws

When: 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 28

Where: The Music Room Gallery & Wine Bar, 541 Main St., West Yarmouth

Tickets: $25-$50

Reservations: musicroomcapecodtickets.com/events

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape Cod music: Blues guitarist Willie J Laws to play Yarmouth concert