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have that kind of natural kind of
appropriation of the stuff. There's
another guy named Zach. Let me see

Harrell “Rell” how you pronounce his name. This
Davenport kid's really phenomenal, man. He
plays with a guy named Doug
Deming. Do you know Doug Deming?

BiTS: Yeah.

MH: Okay, his name is Pomerleau,
P-O-M-E-R-L-E-A-U. Zach is a
drummer for Doug Deming, but he
also doubles on harmonica as he
drums and plays really good guitar.

BiTS: That's seriously unusual. Seriously unusual.

MH: He's phenomenal, man.

BiTS: I can't say I've heard of him, but I shall look
him up now.
Zack Pomerleau
MH: Yeah, well, I'd say he's maybe 25. He's a
really young kid, and when I first met him, it was
back in Maine, and I didn't even know it was the
same guy. Let me see how old he is here.

BiTS: I always had the feeling that young black
people, in particular, shied away from the blues,

especially roots blues, because it was kind of
reminiscent of Uncle Tom and all that kind of
stuff.

MH: Well, you know what's funny about it is this
kid, this 16-year-old kid, who's a black kid, the
one in Mississippi, Harrell, I mean, he had such a
great story that just like completely got me. He
said, this is crazy [chuckling]. He said he had
borrowed a 78 from his uncle, a 78 record, and
he was walking home with it, and this record was
worth like, 3-400 bucks, this 78. And he was
walking home with it and some bullies stopped
him as he was walking home from school and
they looked at it, and they took it, and they
smashed the shit out of it and beat him up. And I
thought, man, anybody that sticks with the blues
after that, that's really seriously saying
something. You know what I mean?

BiTS: Yes, I do indeed.
MH: Yeah, and it was like, in other words, he embraced the fact that he loved blues even at the
stake of being beat up for it. I just thought that was such a heavy story, you know, that he did