Jazzman Mose Allison, 81, has never gone out of style

Mose Allison might be the only 81-year-old jazz and blues pianist with a song available for the popular "Rock Band" video game series.

 

The track in question is "Young Man Blues." Allison wrote and recorded it in the 1950s, but it wasn't until members of The Who electrified it and made it their own in the late 1960s, that the song's popularity really took off.

 

Allison's first royalty check from The Who's version was somewhere in the neighborhood of $7,000.

 

"I thought it was a mistake," Allison said in a recent phone interview from his home in Hilton Head, S.C. "I was making very little on royalties up to that point."

 

In 2008, the song was not only covered by the Foo Fighters but added as a downloadable track for both "Rock Band" and "Rock Band 2." As of October of last year, the original version of "Rock Band" had sold more than 4 million units, generating revenue in excess of $600 million, according to the Reuters news service.

 

Allison, who stops by the Temple of Music and Art on Saturday, appreciates the publicity he gets from those covers. But he is especially fond of the royalties.

 

"Every now and then somebody will do one of my songs," Allison said. "That's always a good thing. Pete Townshend is a friend of mine. His recording has probably done more for me than anybody."

 

Allison's music hasn't stopped at The Who. Elvis Costello has covered his songs ("Everybody's Cryin' Mercy" and "Your Mind Is on Vacation") . As has Costello's wife, Diana Krall ("Stop This World"), and The Clash ("Look Here").

 

Van Morrison was such a Mose fan, he recorded an entire tribute album. "Tell Me Something: The Songs of Mose Allison" was released on Verve Records in 1996.

 

"I have to watch out for people doing my songs," Allison said. "Sometimes they'll do them and I don't even hear about it until later."

 

Expect to hear those covered classics from Allison himself at Saturday's performance, one of more than 100 stops he plans to make this year.

 

But don't expect any new stuff. Allison said he no longer writes material for the public.

 

"I write songs but usually for my own amusement," he said. "I figure I've covered just about everything I've wanted to cover."