Getting Drenched in the Baghdad Blues
By Russell Drumm
(4/17/2008) Shortly after Zach Zunis returned from Iraq last Thursday, he received an e-mail from a soldier who had attended one of the Bluzapalooza shows that Mr. Zunis and his Fender Stratocaster had taken part in for Armed Service Entertainment.
"Thank you," the e-mail read. "All we're getting is country music."
For the better part of two weeks, soldiers, contractors, and marines in and around Baghdad were drenched in the blues. Mr. Zunis made up the guitar part of the backup band for Janiva Magness, a soulful singer out of Los Angeles, but kept his day job as a sales representative for The East Hampton Star.
The Janiva Magness band included Billy Gibson on harmonica, Tony Braunagel on drums, David Torkanowsky on the Hammond B-3 organ, and Gary "Scruff" Davenport on bass. Bobby Rush, the renowned bluesman, was also on the Bluzapalooza bill with his band and dancers. Chip Eagle, editor of Blues Review magazine, was there, as well as John Hahn, who produced the Bluzapalooza tour.
"I thought long and hard about going," Mr. Zunis said. "At first, my wife said, 'No way!' My first stopper was my family, but I felt like it was the right thing to do, even with my thoughts about the war. For one thing, it would be an adventure, then a musical experience, and a way to give back to those kids — and they are literally kids," Mr. Zunis said of the young soldiers he met.
The musical career that had him playing the blues in a war zone near the banks of the Euphrates River began in Ohio at the age of 10. "My first record was 'B.B. King Live in Cook County Jail.' It moved me. I picked up a guitar, and my brother bought me the first Johnny Winter album. I listened to records. It was an obsession. I didn't have a choice. I had to learn it," Mr. Zunis said.
Early on, he played with the Slugs, a Chicago-based band, and later with William Clark, with whom he played a gig at Amagansett's Stephen Talkhouse in 1990. He joined the Red Devils while living in L.A. and played guitar "with a lot of different people in the West Coast blues community." He backed up Ms. Magness on and off for a number of years and appears on a few of her albums. Mr. Zunis moved to East Hampton two years ago with his wife, Nitchie, and young daughter, Bronte.
He got the call from Ms. Magness a few months ago asking him to join her on the Bluzapalooza tour to the war zone. The groups were scheduled to start off with a show in Kuwait, then perform at three different bases around Baghdad.
"The promoters stayed at Saddam's Victory-Over-Iran palace. We stayed in adjacent buildings. The female artists stayed at Saddam's mother-in-law's place, and others stayed across the street from Uday [Hussein's] palace."
The Victory-Over-America palace, which was under construction at the time of the U.S. invasion, had a "Flintstone village with Barney Rubble and company" on the grounds for Saddam Hussein's grandchildren, Mr. Zunis said with a laugh.
Not so funny were the two rocket attacks that had the blues bands ducking for cover. "There were three of us in what they called the Mayor's Cell, a kind of headquarters. The lieutenant told us to get under a table and threw us helmets. Then, when we're playing, we were actually on break, we heard over a loudspeaker, 'Incoming, incoming!' We got into a bunker. We heard it and felt a rumble. John Hahn, a very funny man, said, 'Was it something we played' "
"It was one of the greatest experiences of my life," Mr. Hahn said on Tuesday. "The feeling we got from the troops and others was a life-changing experience. They talk about getting back more than you give. The clichés are all true."
Mr. Zunis agreed. "The kids loved the shows. Bobby Rush must be 75," he said of the still-vigorous bluesman. "There were kids from Arkansas who knew who he was. They were about the same age as his grandkids."
Mr. Zunis said a high point came at the end of the tour when the groups jammed in a gymnasium in Baghdad and invited musical troops to join in. "There was a bass player, a drummer, and a great trumpet player."
"It made it all worthwhile to hear their comments. They understood the danger level," he said, adding, "Yeah, I'd do it again."
