BEMENT - Not many blues musicians started their lives in a safe, prosperous little town surrounded by corn and soybeans.

Despite this handicap, Billy Galt determined at a young age that he was made to belt out the powerful songs of pain and struggle that rose from the experiences of living in the Mississippi Delta, Memphis and Chicago's South Side.

Growing up in Monticello, Galt was hooked on the raw power of the blues after listening to his sisters' record collections, which included blues masters B.B. King and "Hound Dog" Taylor.

"I just liked the starkness of the music, especially the 'Hound Dog' Taylor stuff," Galt said. "It just fascinated me somehow."

He decided to earn his living as a musician not long after that. He picked up a bass guitar, took a few lessons and landed gigs with local bands. He later mastered the six-string, acoustic and electric guitars.

Galt, 47, plays with his trio, the Blues Deacons, at festivals and fairs, while giving solo performances on a steady basis. He can be seen Thursday evenings at Katz on Merchant in Decatur, Fridays at Jimmy Ryan's in Decatur, and Mondays at Judy's Crossroads Cafe in Bement.

At a recent Monday night performance at Judy's, which is owned and operated by his wife, Galt demonstrated his versatility. Sitting on a stool near the kitchen door, cradling his acoustic guitar, his play list included rock/country/soul classics such as "Fire and Rain," "Lyin' Eyes," "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" and "Heartbreak Hotel."

While Galt would sing the blues every night if there were enough blues fans around to satisfy his material side, he enjoys singing some of the songs that Central Illinois audiences prefer.

"I was a real hard-core blues guy," Galt said. He lived on the road for most of the 1980s before returning to Monticello with his bride, whom he met in Hattiesburg, Miss. "Obviously, blues isn't a big sell around here right now."

The Blues Deacons have released two CDs containing songs Galt wrote, including his autobiographical tune "I Played the Blues on the Street." The Deacons have played at the House of Blues tent at the Illinois State Fair and at "Bluestock," a national event held in Memphis.

When Galt set out as a young man to make his living as a blues man, his first stop was Chicago's Maxwell Street, the storied outdoor marketplace just southwest of the Loop.

"For a kid from a farm town, it was like going to a different planet," Galt said, with a bright grin that's never far from the surface. "The whole funky, greasy vibe of it."

He recalls his first visit to Maxwell Street at the age of 20 as "almost an epiphany."

"It was really bizarre. It was all this crazy clutter. You could buy everything: bicycles, old clothes, furniture. It was a real nasty part of town.

"The coolest thing was the music. In the early '80s, it was still happening: about six street bands in a four-block area. They were all fantastic. It was all blues."

While he was gaining experience and confidence, there was little monetary reward on Maxwell Street.

"Playing from 7 in the morning to 4 o'clock in the afternoon, you'd make like $14.61," Galt recalled. "But later on we knew where to go in Chicago."

Galt found a spot on State Street to play to business people and homeless folks during the lunch hour, then lugged his guitar and generator-powered amplifier to the Water Tower on Michigan Avenue to play into the night.

"Sometimes we'd get kicked off a corner by the police," Galt said. "For the most part, people really enjoyed it. You'd be seen by thousands and thousands of people."

Later each night, he found a parking place to stash his Suburban and crawl into his sleeping bag.

"I was one step up from the street people," he said, adding that living on the edge helped him become an authentic blues man.

When the Midwest weather turned bitter, Galt and fellow musicians would head to better climates, such as New Orleans.

Playing on a narrow side street near Bourbon Street during his first Mardi Gras, a crowd of people stopped to listen - so many, that he had to swing the neck of his bass guitar back and forth to keep from getting crushed. It was a great time for Galt, playing to an appreciative audience.

"People started dropping beads on my bass," Galt said. "We played there for 10 days. I was like a bead tree."

In the late 1980s, Galt's rambling days ended after he met a cheerful blonde loaded with musical and culinary talent. Judy, a lead singer in a country band at age 12, was working in a country-gospel group at the time she met her future husband.

Judy Galt occasionally takes the floor at the cafe while her husband accompanies her on guitar. A highlight of their recent gig together was her moving rendition of "Me and Bobby McGee."

Billy Galt has an ability to sound a bit like the artists whose songs he covers, including Bob Dylan, Jim Croce and Otis Redding. However, he acknowledges that his wife is the most talented singer in the family.

But his lack of natural singing ability was just another bump in the road on the way to becoming a blues artist.

"I didn't sing much when I first started," he said. "I had to work hard to get up my vocal abilities. It's almost a necessity if you're going to be a full-time player."

Billy Galt

Performances:

5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Mondays: Judy's Crossroads Cafe, Illinois 105, southwest corner of Bement, 678-7777

8 to 11 p.m. Thursdays: Katz on Merchant, 112 Merchant St.

6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Fridays: Jimmy Ryan's, 101 S. Main St.

On the Net: www.bluesdeacons.com

hfreeman@herald-review.com|421-6985