Gene “Birdlegg” Pittman puts his all into performing—his own way.

Words by Janine Stankus Photos by Eric Morales

Making a life out of what you love takes tenacity and energy—something Mr. Gene “Birdlegg” Pittman has in no short shrift. He likes to “hit the stage hot” with high-tempo melodies, unscripted movements, and fast, clear harmonica solos played straight to his audience.

The 74-year-old blues singer, songwriter, and harmonicist has built a career on equal parts talent and charisma. “If you were going to work your way up, you couldn’t do it silently,” he asserts. “You gotta be humble, but in another sense, you gotta be an attention-getter, you know?”

Born in 1947 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Birdlegg was raised around the blues, his grandfather being a guitarist. Yet, he didn’t decide to teach himself to play harmonica until 1974, while he was enrolled at Shippensburg State College (now Shippensburg University).

Academic life didn’t suit him but neither did “joining up,” as Birdlegg calls it. He decided to break the cycle of military service in his family.

So instead, he dove heart-first into the blues and booked it to San Francisco, where some of his idols like Taj Mahal and John Lee Hooker held court. In the blues world, a harmonica player has to really fight for a place on the stage, but Birdlegg was determined. “I never grew up feeling that I couldn’t do something,” he affirms. “I always thought, ‘One day, I’m going to be on stage. I’m going to do it differently.’”

Different he did: practicing religiously, picking up gigs, and bringing his own flavor to the music, though he insists “nobody liked it at first.” He used his charm to get in with some of the best musicians in the Bay Area. “Cool Papa” Sadler became a mentor, and they played together for 13 years. In 1980, Birdlegg fulfilled his dream of becoming a frontman, forming his own outfit, Birdlegg & the Tight Fit Blues Band.

The blues have taken this rural Pennsylvania upstart all over the world. He’s toured Europe and South America and talks excitedly about plans to bring the blues to new crowds in India and Asia. It was in 2010 that he traded the Bay Area for Austin. He had no trouble finding his way into the music scene here. “I just told everybody that I was the best…that’s really all it took,” he exclaims, with a jovial laugh.

Birdlegg plays at clubs across town and at Eastside’s Skylark Lounge, still moving and shaking and playing up a storm. Local blues ambassador, Eddie Stout, produced his 2013 album, Birdlegg, on his Dialtone Records label. Birdlegg assists with the annual Eastside Kings Festival, which highlights the rich tradition of post-war blues that exists right here in our neighborhood.

For Birdlegg, “real” blues is something that must be preserved. It’s not just a style; it’s a heritage. It’s about finding enjoyment in the world, creating laughter out of hardship, connecting with people and the past. For all that he’s poured into his music career, it wasn’t energy spent but given—to a calling. “I’m a blues torch-bearer,” he announces lively. “It’s my job to keep it going.”

In the beginning…
Birdlegg remembers his first audience fondly: the cows in the fields outside of his dorm room at Shippensburg State College. “They would run over full speed when I started playing. I think the worse you were, the more they liked you,” he chuckles. The name “Birdlegg” has decidedly unglamorous beginnings, but it stuck with Mr. Pittman all the way to the stage. A friend came to visit him in his new Oakland apartment, and he answered the door in a towel. “She didn’t even say hi!” he remembers. “The first thing she said was, ‘When you make it, you ought to call yourself ‘Bird Leg.’” And so it was. He threw in an extra “g” for flavor.

Contact:
(512) 297-1892
birdlegg47@gmail.com