Satan and Adam
Encyclopedia
Satan and Adam, a blues
duo
consisting of Sterling "Mister Satan" Magee (born May 20, 1936; Mount Olive, Mississippi
) and Adam Gussow
(born April 3, 1958; New York City, New York), were a fixture on Harlem's
sidewalks in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Magee sings in a style that fuses blues with elements of soul
and rap
, plays electric guitar
with withering intensity, and uses both feet to stomp out polyrhythm
s on a homemade percussion setup that includes hi-hat cymbals topped with tambourines and maracas
. Gussow plays amplified
harmonica
in an equally fluent and original way. Together, Satan and Adam have, as journalist
Richard Skelley noted, "redefined and shaped the sound of modern blues so much that 'I Want You' from their Harlem Blues debut was included on a Rhino Records release, Modern Blues of the 1990s.
on May 20, 1936, Magee was raised in St. Petersburg
, Florida
, where he came of age dabbling as a piano
player in local churches and suffering his parents' ire when he drifted into the blues. As a young man he worked local blues clubs under the moniker "Five Fingers Magee" and was billed as "the fastest guitar player in the world." After a stint in Germany
as a U.S. Army paratrooper
in the 1950s, Magee was demobilized in New York
and ended up settling in Harlem. A sometime-songwriter for Jesse Stone
, Magee recorded several near-hits on Ray Charles's
Tangerine label in the early 1960s, including "Get in My Arms Little Girl." His proficiency on guitar earned him gigs with a number of rhythm-and-blues performers, including James Brown
, King Curtis
, Big Maybelle
, Joey Dee and the Starlighters, and a transvestite duo known as The Illusions That Create Confusion. In the mid 1970s he played sessions with Paul Winley and the Harlem Underground, a loose-knit unit that included George Benson
.
In the late 1970s, after the death of his wife, Magee gave up guitar, roamed widely through Mississippi, Florida
, and Puerto Rico
, and returned to Harlem reborn, refusing to be identified by his birth-name and demanding that his associates call him Satan. His longtime friend and business manager, Harlem producer and record-store owner Bobby Robinson
(of the Fire
and Fury
R&B labels), rented him an apartment and put a guitar in his hands. Soon Magee was strolling the streets, playing for what he later referred to as his "wino buddies." By 1983 he had added a hi-hat cymbal to his mix and begun to perform as a one-man band on 125th Street
in front of the New York Telephone Company office, sometimes accompanied by drummer Pancho Morales and other musicians.
Around this time Gussow, a Princeton
graduate and English M.A.
student at Columbia University
, first saw Magee and his trio performing on the corner of 114th Street and Broadway
. (Gussow relates the story in his 1998 blues memoir
, Mister Satan's Apprentice.) Gussow, a guitarist and harmonica player whose performing experience had previously been limited to a handful of high school and college bands, was galvanized by the encounter. After dropping out of grad school
, Gussow spent several years as a part-time street performer in New York and Europe
. Gussow's transformation from an academic
to a blues player was facilitated by lessons he took from his mentor, New York harmonica virtuoso Nat Riddles
, who had performed and recorded with Larry Johnson
, Odetta
, and others, and by his acculturation into the jam session
life at Dan Lynch, a storied East Village
juke joint
.
In October 1986, Gussow encountered Magee again, purely by chance, this time at Magee's regular stretch of sidewalk near the Apollo Theater
. Gussow, a semi-seasoned street performer by this point, sat in. The two musicians—one older, African American
, and southern-born; the other younger, White
, Ivy-educated
, a New York suburbanite--hit it off.
What began as a streetside encounter ended up blossoming into a twelve-year success story. The duo's initial notoriety accrued in the summer of 1987, when the members of U2
wandered by Magee and Gussow with a video crew in tow, capturing the Harlem duo at work. Thirty-nine seconds of Magee's original composition, "Freedom for My People" were ultimately included in the Rattle and Hum
documentary.
Gussow left New York several times over the next year to play harmonica with a touring production of "Big River," but always returned to Harlem. As Magee refined and developed his one-man band sound with the addition of a second hi-hat cymbal and wooden sounding board, Gussow was forced to evolve an equally innovative sound, one in which traditional amplified Chicago
harp
was cross-fertilized with funk
-guitar licks and jazz
sax
phrasings. Magee and Gussow made the streets their only venue until 1990, when they recorded a demo
at Giant Sound in New York, opened for Buddy Guy
at a Summerstage
concert in Central Park
, and began to play club gigs at a restaurant called Chelsea Commons (24th St. and 10th Ave.) That summer they traveled to Halifax, Nova Scotia
and participated in the International Busker Fest. After three and a half years of relative anonymity, they finally had a calling card, and a name: Magee and Gussow were now "Satan and Adam."
1991 marked a major turning point in the duo's fortunes. After being discovered during a steady gig at a lesbian bar in Greenwich Village
, they signed with major management, went on a tour of the UK with Bo Diddley
, and released their first album
, Harlem Blues. The album, which captured the raw, explosive vitality of their streetside sound, caused a minor sensation. Quint Davis
, the founder of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, told their manager, "I don't know where you found them, but I'm going to make them stars."
Between 1991 and 1998, Satan and Adam toured widely, including Italy
, Switzerland
, Finland
, and Australia
and countless club gigs in the eastern half of the U.S. They recorded two more albums: Mother Mojo (1993) and Living on the River (1996). They performed at blues, jazz, and folk
festival
s in Philadelphia, Chicago, Newport
, Saratoga Springs, Kansas City
, Los Angeles
, and many other locations.
In 1996 they were the cover story in Living Blues
magazine—the first time in that magazine's history that an interracial
act had ever been featured on the cover.
After a charmed rise, the duo's fortunes took a disastrous downward turn in 1998 when Magee, who had recently relocated from Harlem to Brookneal
, Virginia
, had a nervous breakdown
and, after briefly resurfacing, dropped completely out of sight. Satan and Adam effectively dissolved as a partnership.
After a long silence, Magee has recently come back into view. He is currently living at the Boca Ciega adult care facility in Gulfport
, Florida
, a small community next to St. Petersburg. His guitar skills, which vanished with his breakdown, have partially reconstituted themselves with the help of harpist T. C. Carr and other Tampa-area blues performers who have dedicated themselves to furthering his comeback. In late 2005 and early 2006, Satan and Adam played several comeback gigs in Gulfport and Oxford
, Mississippi
, where Gussow is currently an associate professor
of English
and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi
.
Beginning in the summer of 2007, the duo has begun to play occasional road dates and has added a drummer, Tampa resident David Laycock (a.k.a., "Dave on Drums"). A feature-length documentary on the duo entitled Satan and Adam, directed by award-winning filmmaker V. Scott Balcerek, is currently in post-production
. A new book by Gussow entitled Journeyman's Road, collecting magazine columns and other of his writings, was published by the University of Tennessee
Press in 2007 and further detailed the Satan and Adam story. In 2008, Gussow released a double CD of early work by the duo entitled Word on the Street: Harlem Recordings, 1989, for download on his Modern Blues Harmonica website (see below).
In 2011, the duo released a new album, Back In The Game.
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
duo
Duet (music)
A duet is a musical composition for two performers. In classical music, the term is most often used for a composition for two singers or pianists; with other instruments, the word duo is also often used. A piece performed by two pianists performing together on the same piano is referred to as...
consisting of Sterling "Mister Satan" Magee (born May 20, 1936; Mount Olive, Mississippi
Mount Olive, Mississippi
Mount Olive is a town in Covington County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 893 at the 2000 census. It was the hometown of former NFL quarterback Steve McNair.-Geography:Mount Olive is located at...
) and Adam Gussow
Adam Gussow
Adam Gussow is a scholar, memoirist, and blues harmonica player.Gussow is currently an associate professor of English and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi in Oxford...
(born April 3, 1958; New York City, New York), were a fixture on Harlem's
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
sidewalks in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Magee sings in a style that fuses blues with elements of soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
and rap
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, plays electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
with withering intensity, and uses both feet to stomp out polyrhythm
Polyrhythm
Polyrhythm is the simultaneous sounding of two or more independent rhythms.Polyrhythm in general is a nonspecific term for the simultaneous occurrence of two or more conflicting rhythms, of which cross-rhythm is a specific and definable subset.—Novotney Polyrhythms can be distinguished from...
s on a homemade percussion setup that includes hi-hat cymbals topped with tambourines and maracas
Maracás
Maracás is a town and municipality in the state of Bahia in the North-East region of Brazil.-References:...
. Gussow plays amplified
Amplifier
Generally, an amplifier or simply amp, is a device for increasing the power of a signal.In popular use, the term usually describes an electronic amplifier, in which the input "signal" is usually a voltage or a current. In audio applications, amplifiers drive the loudspeakers used in PA systems to...
harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
in an equally fluent and original way. Together, Satan and Adam have, as journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
Richard Skelley noted, "redefined and shaped the sound of modern blues so much that 'I Want You' from their Harlem Blues debut was included on a Rhino Records release, Modern Blues of the 1990s.
History
Born in Mount Olive, MississippiMount Olive, Mississippi
Mount Olive is a town in Covington County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 893 at the 2000 census. It was the hometown of former NFL quarterback Steve McNair.-Geography:Mount Olive is located at...
on May 20, 1936, Magee was raised in St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. It is known as a vacation destination for both American and foreign tourists. As of 2008, the population estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau is 245,314, making St...
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, where he came of age dabbling as a piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
player in local churches and suffering his parents' ire when he drifted into the blues. As a young man he worked local blues clubs under the moniker "Five Fingers Magee" and was billed as "the fastest guitar player in the world." After a stint in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
as a U.S. Army paratrooper
Paratrooper
Paratroopers are soldiers trained in parachuting and generally operate as part of an airborne force.Paratroopers are used for tactical advantage as they can be inserted into the battlefield from the air, thereby allowing them to be positioned in areas not accessible by land...
in the 1950s, Magee was demobilized in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and ended up settling in Harlem. A sometime-songwriter for Jesse Stone
Jesse Stone
Jesse Stone was an American rhythm and blues musician and songwriter whose influence spanned a wide range of genres...
, Magee recorded several near-hits on Ray Charles's
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
Tangerine label in the early 1960s, including "Get in My Arms Little Girl." His proficiency on guitar earned him gigs with a number of rhythm-and-blues performers, including James Brown
James Brown
James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...
, King Curtis
King Curtis
Curtis Ousley , who performed under the stage name King Curtis, was an American saxophone virtuoso known for rhythm and blues, rock and roll, soul, funk and soul jazz. Variously a bandleader, band member, and session musician, he was also a musical director and record producer...
, Big Maybelle
Big Maybelle
Mabel Louise Smith , known professionally as Big Maybelle, was an American R&B singer and pianist. Her 1956 hit single "Candy" received the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999.-Biography:...
, Joey Dee and the Starlighters, and a transvestite duo known as The Illusions That Create Confusion. In the mid 1970s he played sessions with Paul Winley and the Harlem Underground, a loose-knit unit that included George Benson
George Benson
George Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....
.
In the late 1970s, after the death of his wife, Magee gave up guitar, roamed widely through Mississippi, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, and Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, and returned to Harlem reborn, refusing to be identified by his birth-name and demanding that his associates call him Satan. His longtime friend and business manager, Harlem producer and record-store owner Bobby Robinson
Bobby Robinson
Bobby Robinson was an American Negro League baseball player. He was known as the "Human Vacuum Cleaner" because of his fielding ability at third base....
(of the Fire
Fire Records
Fire Records was an independent record label set up in 1959 by Bobby Robinson . Among others, it released records by Lightnin' Hopkins, Elmore James and Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup.-Selected discography:...
and Fury
Fury Records
Fury Records was set up by Bobby Robinson in 1957. In 1959 it had a Billboard No.1 hit with Kansas City, sung by Wilbert Harrison. In the early seventies the label launched early rap groups like Grandmaster Flash....
R&B labels), rented him an apartment and put a guitar in his hands. Soon Magee was strolling the streets, playing for what he later referred to as his "wino buddies." By 1983 he had added a hi-hat cymbal to his mix and begun to perform as a one-man band on 125th Street
125th Street (Manhattan)
125th Street is a two-way street that runs east-west in the New York City borough of Manhattan, considered the "Main Street" of Harlem; It is also called Martin Luther King, Jr...
in front of the New York Telephone Company office, sometimes accompanied by drummer Pancho Morales and other musicians.
Around this time Gussow, a Princeton
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
graduate and English M.A.
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
student at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, first saw Magee and his trio performing on the corner of 114th Street and Broadway
Broadway (New York City)
Broadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...
. (Gussow relates the story in his 1998 blues memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
, Mister Satan's Apprentice.) Gussow, a guitarist and harmonica player whose performing experience had previously been limited to a handful of high school and college bands, was galvanized by the encounter. After dropping out of grad school
Graduate school
A graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
, Gussow spent several years as a part-time street performer in New York and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. Gussow's transformation from an academic
Academia
Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...
to a blues player was facilitated by lessons he took from his mentor, New York harmonica virtuoso Nat Riddles
Nat Riddles
Nat Riddles was a blues harmonica player who played an important role in the New York blues scene during the late 1970s to mid 1980s. Born in Bronxville, a Westchester County suburb of New York, he was educated at Brooklyn College and the Pratt Institute...
, who had performed and recorded with Larry Johnson
Larry Johnson (musician)
Larry Johnson is an American electric blues singer and guitarist.-Life and career:Johnson's father was a preacher who traveled extensively. This led to Johnson being exposed to blues records by Blind Boy Fuller, who inspired Johnson to learn the rudiments of guitar playing...
, Odetta
Odetta
Odetta Holmes, known as Odetta, was an American singer, actress, guitarist, songwriter, and a human rights activist, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement". Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals...
, and others, and by his acculturation into the jam session
Jam session
Jam sessions are often used by musicians to develop new material, find suitable arrangements, or simply as a social gathering and communal practice session. Jam sessions may be based upon existing songs or forms, may be loosely based on an agreed chord progression or chart suggested by one...
life at Dan Lynch, a storied East Village
East Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
juke joint
Juke joint
Juke joint is the vernacular term for an informal establishment featuring music, dancing, gambling, and drinking, primarily operated by African American people in the southeastern United States. The term "juke" is believed to derive from the Gullah word joog, meaning rowdy or disorderly...
.
In October 1986, Gussow encountered Magee again, purely by chance, this time at Magee's regular stretch of sidewalk near the Apollo Theater
Apollo Theater
The Apollo Theater in New York City is one of the most famous, and older, music halls in the United States, and the most famous club associated almost exclusively with Black performers...
. Gussow, a semi-seasoned street performer by this point, sat in. The two musicians—one older, African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
, and southern-born; the other younger, White
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
, Ivy-educated
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
, a New York suburbanite--hit it off.
What began as a streetside encounter ended up blossoming into a twelve-year success story. The duo's initial notoriety accrued in the summer of 1987, when the members of U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
wandered by Magee and Gussow with a video crew in tow, capturing the Harlem duo at work. Thirty-nine seconds of Magee's original composition, "Freedom for My People" were ultimately included in the Rattle and Hum
Rattle and Hum
Rattle and Hum is the sixth studio album by rock band U2 and companion rockumentary directed by Phil Joanou, both released in 1988. The film and the album feature live recordings, covers, and new songs...
documentary.
Gussow left New York several times over the next year to play harmonica with a touring production of "Big River," but always returned to Harlem. As Magee refined and developed his one-man band sound with the addition of a second hi-hat cymbal and wooden sounding board, Gussow was forced to evolve an equally innovative sound, one in which traditional amplified Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
harp
Harp
The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...
was cross-fertilized with funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
-guitar licks and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
sax
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
phrasings. Magee and Gussow made the streets their only venue until 1990, when they recorded a demo
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
at Giant Sound in New York, opened for Buddy Guy
Buddy Guy
George "Buddy" Guy is an American blues and jazz guitarist and singer. He is a critically acclaimed artist who has established himself as a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound, and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation...
at a Summerstage
Summerstage
SummerStage is an annual, free performing arts summer festival founded in 1986 which takes place at Rumsey Playfield in New York City's Central Park and, since 2010, in parks throughout the five boroughs of New York. In 1994, SummerStage was transferred to the City Parks Foundation, where it has...
concert in Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
, and began to play club gigs at a restaurant called Chelsea Commons (24th St. and 10th Ave.) That summer they traveled to Halifax, Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
and participated in the International Busker Fest. After three and a half years of relative anonymity, they finally had a calling card, and a name: Magee and Gussow were now "Satan and Adam."
1991 marked a major turning point in the duo's fortunes. After being discovered during a steady gig at a lesbian bar in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
, they signed with major management, went on a tour of the UK with Bo Diddley
Bo Diddley
Ellas Otha Bates , known by his stage name Bo Diddley, was an American rhythm and blues vocalist, guitarist, songwriter , and inventor...
, and released their first album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
, Harlem Blues. The album, which captured the raw, explosive vitality of their streetside sound, caused a minor sensation. Quint Davis
Quint Davis
Quint Davis is an American festival producer and director based in New Orleans. He is best known as the producer of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival founded by George Wein. Davis has been involved in the production of the event from its start in 1970. He is the CEO of Festival...
, the founder of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, told their manager, "I don't know where you found them, but I'm going to make them stars."
Between 1991 and 1998, Satan and Adam toured widely, including Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and countless club gigs in the eastern half of the U.S. They recorded two more albums: Mother Mojo (1993) and Living on the River (1996). They performed at blues, jazz, and folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
festival
Festival
A festival or gala is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on and celebrates some unique aspect of that community and the Festival....
s in Philadelphia, Chicago, Newport
Newport
Newport is a city and unitary authority area in Wales. Standing on the banks of the River Usk, it is located about east of Cardiff and is the largest urban area within the historic county boundaries of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent...
, Saratoga Springs, Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, and many other locations.
In 1996 they were the cover story in Living Blues
Living Blues
Living Blues is a bi-monthly magazine focused on covering the African American blues tradition, and America's oldest blues periodical. The magazine was founded as a quarterly in Chicago in 1970 by Jim O'Neal and Amy van Singel. Alligator Records owner and founder Bruce Iglauer was also one of the...
magazine—the first time in that magazine's history that an interracial
Interracial
Interracial is an adjective related to a supposed racial group. It can have different connotations in different contexts:* Interracial marriage is marriage between two people of different races....
act had ever been featured on the cover.
After a charmed rise, the duo's fortunes took a disastrous downward turn in 1998 when Magee, who had recently relocated from Harlem to Brookneal
Brookneal, Virginia
Brookneal is an incorporated town in Campbell County, Virginia, United States. The population was 1,259 as of the 2000 census. It is part of the Lynchburg Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, had a nervous breakdown
Nervous breakdown
Mental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:...
and, after briefly resurfacing, dropped completely out of sight. Satan and Adam effectively dissolved as a partnership.
After a long silence, Magee has recently come back into view. He is currently living at the Boca Ciega adult care facility in Gulfport
Gulfport, Florida
Gulfport is a city in Pinellas County, Florida and a suburb of St. Petersburg. The population of Gulfport was 12,527 at the 2000 census. As of 2004, the population estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau was 12,740. Gulfport is part of the Tampa-St...
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, a small community next to St. Petersburg. His guitar skills, which vanished with his breakdown, have partially reconstituted themselves with the help of harpist T. C. Carr and other Tampa-area blues performers who have dedicated themselves to furthering his comeback. In late 2005 and early 2006, Satan and Adam played several comeback gigs in Gulfport and Oxford
Oxford, Mississippi
Oxford is a city in, and the county seat of, Lafayette County, Mississippi, United States. Founded in 1835, it was named after the British university city of Oxford in hopes of having the state university located there, which it did successfully attract....
, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, where Gussow is currently an associate professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of English
English studies
English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi
University of Mississippi
The University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, is a public, coeducational research university located in Oxford, Mississippi. Founded in 1844, the school is composed of the main campus in Oxford, four branch campuses located in Booneville, Grenada, Tupelo, and Southaven as well as the...
.
Beginning in the summer of 2007, the duo has begun to play occasional road dates and has added a drummer, Tampa resident David Laycock (a.k.a., "Dave on Drums"). A feature-length documentary on the duo entitled Satan and Adam, directed by award-winning filmmaker V. Scott Balcerek, is currently in post-production
Post-production
Post-production is part of filmmaking and the video production process. It occurs in the making of motion pictures, television programs, radio programs, advertising, audio recordings, photography, and digital art...
. A new book by Gussow entitled Journeyman's Road, collecting magazine columns and other of his writings, was published by the University of Tennessee
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...
Press in 2007 and further detailed the Satan and Adam story. In 2008, Gussow released a double CD of early work by the duo entitled Word on the Street: Harlem Recordings, 1989, for download on his Modern Blues Harmonica website (see below).
In 2011, the duo released a new album, Back In The Game.