King Biscuit Time!

The twighlight scene on Cherry Street. I got to get me a Turkey leg. Michael Burks, Marsha Ball (how does she play with her legs crossed?), and Dr John and the lower 911 Band. The sign says:Be Polite! Its King Biscuit Time on the low side of the road.

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There is a light…and fluffy King Biscuit!

In a few hours I will head east to Helena for – the King Biscuit Blues Festival.  Because, I have just found out, it’s back.  Arisen from the dead or, more accurately, rescued from the grips of greed, from the cold hard corporate reality everything has a price – which means it is worth owning and fighting over.  Here’s the release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — October 7, 2010 — HELENA, AR
KING BISCUIT NAME IS RETURNED TO ARKANSAS BLUES & HERITAGE FESTIVAL

In a surprise announcement broadcast on the Main Stage at the opening of the 2010 Arkansas Blues & Heritage Festival, Bill Sagan, founder and CEO of Wolfgang’s Vault said, “On behalf of the whole Wolfgang’s Vault family of companies, including King Biscuit, we are pleased to announce a rekindled partnership between King Biscuit and the Blues Festival. It our pleasure to announce that beginning next year, 2011, this Blues Festival will once again be named the King Biscuit Blues Festival in honor of the great historical music legacy we share.”
Six years ago blues fans and organizers of Helena, Arkansas’s King Biscuit Blues Festival received a shock when they discovered that a contract had been signed that effectively turned their long-lived name over to a management group from New York. As a result, the 25-year old event was forced to change its name from the ever popular King Biscuit Blues Festival to the Arkansas Blues & Heritage Festival.
After several years of effort, event organizers learned that the rights to the name had been sold to Wolfgang’s Vault, a private music-focused company established in 2002 dedicated to the restoration and archiving of live concert recordings and the sale of music memorabilia. After learning of Helena’s interest in having the King Biscuit name back, Sagan negotiated a new relationship with the Festival that will see the name return for the 2011 event.
“This is a dream come true for us to have the name King Biscuit Blues Festival back,” said Munnie Jordan, executive
director of this year’s festival. “This event is all about our heritage and our culture, and this really makes us happy and proud. I want to thank Bill Sagan and Wolfgang’s Vault for making this day possible for us–it’s really a dream come true,” Jordan said.
Bubba Sullivan, founding member of the Sonny Boy Blues Society, echoed Jordan’s comments, “We’re very thankful
to have the name back home. This festival is all about our history, and the name King Biscuit Blues Festival was a big part of that history. We look forward to once again being able to promote the 2011 event as the King Biscuit Blues Festival.” 

What irked me most about this six year fandango was the short-sighted notion that those who bought the name also claimed the legacy.  Claim the name, move the festival, keep the magic. That was the theory, and it failed.  Because a legacy is a spirit, a soul, a sense of place and pride. 

I have been told that patience is simply the ability to accept reality and live in the moment.  So we did.  Carried on with our festival and made it better than ever.  And lo and behold, the good guys won.  There is a light on the low side of the road.

The Donkey Time Arkansas Blues & Heritage Festival Low Side Quick Jive: Larry McCray and Preston Shannon

Here we descend into the land of bad blues hyperbole.  Born in Magnolia, Arkansas, McCray labels his playing as “blues-rock.”  This description of his music comes from his website, larrymccrayband.com: “Understated funk rhythms and crunchy rock riffs meet searing slow blues and booty-bumping shuffles.”  Crunchy?  Like granola?  Generally, I read shit like that and I look for another record to buy.

Shannon follows suit.  On his website, prestonshannon.com, he bills himself as “The King of Beale Street” and promises “soul-filled vocals atop burning, venom-tipped guitar chords.”  I’m not sure what this means.  You mean venom as in the shit that snakes use to kill you?  I feel certain I don’t have much need for poison guitar chords.  The simple truth is that, with the exception of the International Blues Challenge, if I’m looking to hear music – any kind of music – Beale Street is the one place I’m not going.  So there you have it: you’re the king of some place I don’t go.

And we’ve got to wade through all of this bad writing to get to music that either speaks for itself – or doesn’t.

The reality is that McCray is a stunning guitarist and vocalist.  I know him from his recording of  “All Along the Watchtower” on “All Blues’d Up: Songs of Bob Dylan” (lame title; decent record).  Watchtower is a deceptively difficult song to play, especially after Hendrix turned it into a “third-base situation” for everyone else (including Dylan), but McCray pulls it off.  What really sold me was his take on “Soulshine.”  You can find several versions on YouTube.  It’s not blues-rock; it’s not “crunchy.”  It’s just blues.  And it’s damn good.

I expect Shannon will also deliver the goods.  I wouldn’t know him from apple butter because, like I said, I don’t go to Beale, but what I’ve heard of his voice reminds me of Bobby Womack, and that’s a good thing.  And I’ll cop to this: loathe the Beale scene as I do, the saying is true – you can fool the drunks most of the time, but you can’t fool the locals for very long.

The bottom line is this: it’s easy for me to dismiss bluesman based on the hyperbole.  It’s over the top, it’s cliché, it’s embarrassing, it’s useless.  It’s also easy for me to dismiss them because when it comes to blues I tend to be an elitist, self-important Puritan.  But I also know what I like.  I like searing guitar, and horn sections, and even funky rhythms. For that reason, something inside of me believes that once they take the Helena stage, McCray and Shannon will disassemble my jaded skepticism, bit by bit until I find myself standing on the low side of the road, happy, joyous, and free.      

The Donkey Time Arkansas Blues & Heritage Festival Low Side Quick Jive: Willie Cobbs

Run your eye down the King Biscuit Festival schedule and all the big names will jump out.  B.B. King.  Dr. John.  Charlie Musselwhite.  Taj Mahal.  And deservedly so.  But I suspect that some of the more inspired performances will come earlier in the day from folks you’ve never heard of.  It just so happens that most of these folk are from these here parts – Helena, Arkansas, Greenwood – the delta.  They connect the land to the bandstand.  And you will miss them because you are still sitting behind a desk in Little Rock or rolling the dice in Tunica. 

So what follows is the first of several posts that will help you get right with the low side of the Arkansas Blues & Heritage Festival.

First up: Willie Cobbs.  Cobbs was born in Smale, Arkansas in 1932.  Smale is a hovel at the crossroads of Highway 49 and Highway 79, southeast of Brinkley and northwest of Marvel.  Hovel is probably generous.  Lots of Jesus.  Lots of catfish.

The story goes that sometime in the 1950s Cobbs moved to Chicago.  Here’s what the “Blues Who’s Who” has to say about that:

Moved to Chicago, IL, 1951; frequently worked outside music in Chicago from 1951; frequently worked/learned/teamed w/ Little Walter working Maxell Street area for tips, Chicago, early 50s; frequently worked w/ Muddy Waters Band in local club dates, Chicago, c1952; served in US Marines in Japan/Caribbean areas, 1953-7; returned to Chicago, IL, to open own Toast of Town Club, 1957.

Sometime in the 1960s, Cobb made his way to Memphis.  There he set his legacy in song: “You Don’t Love Me.”  If you think you don’t know this song, you’re wrong.  Dig out your crusty Super Sessions LP for Stephen Stills’ flange driven take; or your copy of the Allman Brother’s Live at the Fillmore East for fifteen minutes of the brothers at their best; or my personal favorite, the relatively straightforward reading by Magic Sam on his 1969 Delmark side Black Magic. 

Truth be told, Cobb’s original recording is pretty damn good, and it’s easy to see why the tune is so often covered.  There’s nothing special about the lyrics.  Write them out on paper, and they are so underwhelming they nearly vanish.  But Cobb’s voice is a cross between Bobby “Blue” Bland and Junior Parker, the Memphis boys backing him are tight and sticky, and that centerpiece groove just cooks the whole way through.

The “Blues Who’s Who” continues: “Frequently worked outside music, 1965-8; settled in Stuttgart, AR, to operate local taverns in Dewitt, AR, area from 1969.”  That tavern was a juke called “The Blue Flame.”  Long gone now, I suspect the joint was rough and regulars toothless.

Cobbs, though, survived.  Now he works steadily inside music, staying on the low side of the road and making the festival rounds.  Helena is not far from Smale, and I can’t help but wonder if this will be a hometown gig for him.  The Donkey aims to find out.  You should too.

Willie Cobbs takes to the Main Stage at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 7, 2010.  Until then, I'll see you on the Low Side of the Road.  

Doin’ the Hambone

Last night captivated by a 1954 record by “Little Booker” called “Doing the Hambone.”
“Doin’ the Hambone” is kin to another bizarre record, Boo Zoo Chavis’ 1955 single “Paper in My Shoe.” I’ve read that Paper sold over 100,000 copies, which in 1955 meant huge regional hit. This amazes me, because nothing is right about Paper in My Shoe. The instruments are all out of tune, out of time, off the beat. The record careens through the Lake Charles night for a few minutes, starting and stopping, propelled by Boo’s push-button accordion, and then it’s gone. Except that everything about Paper in My Shoe is right. It’s a full catastrophe, raw and real. One hundred thousand Cajuns could certainly be wrong, but not about this.

Hambone is cut from the same cloth. The technical playing of the instruments is better – after all, at the piano is a boy who would later teach Dr. John to play piano – but the performance is no better than solid but sloppy. Booker doesn’t even sound all of his 14 years on the vocal. The actual recording is murky and poor.

But the beat… The liner notes of my re-issue of the Imperial Records LP Various New Orleans Rarities say this beat was produced by some unknown musician slapping an empty case of Dixie beer. I’ve got no way to verify this. No reason to doubt it either and it makes for a great image. That beat is not Earl Palmer’s beat. That beat, if you can even call it a beat, is all over the place. It sounds like hollow bones and is completely entrancing and it ties the whole damn record together.

See, you can hear a place in this record. That place is New Orleans, 1954; and it’s the space between the notes and the instruments and the dudes playing them and the box beater, between the walls of the studio, between the New Orleans inside the studio and the New Orleans outside the studio. It’s real and it’s authentic and it rolls and tumbles down the low side of the road into the heart of the weird and wild American night.

Slip Me A Biscuit

October 7 - 9 will is King Biscuit Time, and this Donkey is wound for sound!  

Anyone still smarting over Helena’s 2006 loss of the ability to use the “King Biscuit Blues Festival” name can take consolation in the fact that the “new” Memphis KB festival never got far off the ground, and, best as I can tell, is not on the books for this year.

In any event, get over it.  The Arkansas festival is flourishing, and, seems to me, has only gotten better since winding up with the moral high ground following the 2006 dispute.

To be sure, the 2010 line-up has some incongruities.   Paul Thorn?  The Kentucky Headhunters?  The US Navy Band?  I find it hard to believe that these slots couldn’t be filled with Arkansas roots and blues artists. 

But there are plenty of them, too.  Helena hometowner Willie “Big Eyes” Smith is a direct link to the Sonny Boy’s original King Biscuit Flower Hour.  Phillip Stackhouse is also from Helena and is the grandson of Houston Stackhouse.   And then you have former IBC winner Burks, Gwen White (Little Rock), Larry McCraw (Magnolia), Willie “You Don’t Love Me” Cobbs (Smale and Stuttgart), and Lonnie Shields (West Helena).

One thing that is missing is the Emerging Artists stage.  Instead, the “emerging artist contest winner” gets to open the festival at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, and that’s it.  If this is truly going to be a heritage festival, then it needs to encourage a relevant, living blues culture.  For this Donkey, that means bring back the small stage, make room for more than one “emerging artist,” and give them all more than one opportunity to shake it.

And Friday and Saturday night the main stage will be as tight and as good as you’re going to get – Friday night with Arkansan Michael Burks, then Marsha Ball, and then Dr. John; and then Saturday night Walter “Wolfman” Washington, Charlie Musselwhite, and Taj Mahal. 

I’m hoping Taj will revive his four-tuba diving duck horn section for this gig…so if you need me, I’ll be over here, a dreaming donkey on the low side of the road.

Here’s the full line up:

Main Stage – Thursday 10/7

11:30/12:15 – 2009 Emerging Artist Winner – Heather Cross


12:30/1:15 – 2010 SBBS Battle of The Bands Winner-Diddley Squat


1:30/2:15 – 2010 IBC Winner – Grady Champion


2:30/3:20 – Willie Cobbs


3:40/4:35 – Sterling Billingsley Band


5:00-6:05 – James Harman


6:25/7:30 – Reba Russell


7:55/9:05 – Paul Thorn


9:30/11:00 – BB King

Main Stage – Friday 10/8

11:30/12:30 – Sherrie Williams


12:45/1:45 – Big Jack Johnson


2:00/3:05 – Smokin Joe Kubeck with Bnois King


3:35/4:40 – Kentucky Headhunters


5:00/6:10 – Hubert Sumlin & The Willie “Big Eyes” Smith Band


6:35/7:50 – Michael Burks


8:15/9:30 – Marsha Ball


10:00/11:30 – Dr. John

Main Stage – Saturday 10/9

11:30/12:30 – Preston Shannon


12:45/1:50 – Larry McCray


2:05/3:20 – Bobby Parker


3:35/4:50 –  Pinetop Perkins & Bob Margolin


5:10/6:25 – Anson Funderburg & The Rockets


6:50/8:05 – Walter “Wolfman” Washington


8:25/9:40 – Charlie Musselwhite


10:00/11:30 – Taj Mahal

Lockwood Stackhouse Stage – Friday 10/8

11:00/11:45 – US Navy Band


12:00/12:45 – Phillip Stackhouse


1:00/1:45 – Andy Coats


2:00/2:45 – Johnny Billington


3:00/3:45 – Eden Brent


4:00/5:00 – Bernie Pearl


5:30/6:40 – Spoonfed Blues featuring Mississippi Spoonman


7:00/8:10 – Gwen White


8:30/9:40 – Mojo Buford


10:00/11:15 – Bobby Rush

Lockwood Stackhouse Stage – Saturday 10/9

12:00/1:00 – Jimmy “Duck” Holmes


1:20/2:20 – Rev. Roberts


2:40/3:40 –Austin “Walkin Cane” Charanghat


4:00/5:00 – John Hammond


5:30/6:40 – Lonnie Shields


7:00/8:10 – Wumpus Cats


8:30/9:40 – Don McMinn


10:00/11:15 – Earnest “Guitar” Roy

It Begins: IBC 2011

Arkansas River Blues Society, Inc. Announces Blues Competition Weekend – Seeks Blues Talent

The Arkansas River Blues Society, Inc, (ARBS) will hold a Blues Competition Weekend on October 1 and 2, 2010 at the Cornerstone Pub & Grill located at 314 Main Street in North Little Rock.  Blues bands and solo/duo blues acts will compete for ARBS sponsorship to The Blues Foundation’s 2011 International Blues Challenge (IBC) held on Beale Street in Memphis , TN , February 1-5, 2011.

The ARBS event will be a two day event.  Competition will begin on Friday night (October 1, 2010) and end on Saturday night (October 2, 2010).  The IBC rules will be followed strictly.

The first place winner in each of the two categories will receive ARBS sponsorship to the International Blues Challenge in Memphis in February 2010.  The winners in each category are required to participate in all fundraisers that the Arkansas River Blues Society does to raise money for IBC.  ARBS can not guaranty all expenses will be paid.

Applications for entry are available by contacting Chad Carter at ccarter@cablelynx.com.  The entry fees are $60 for a band and $30 for a solo/duo.  All entry packets must be postmarked by September 12, 2010 and mailed to The Arkansas River Blues Society, P.O. Box 128 , Alexander , AR 72002.

My entry is on its way in!  Until then, I'll be working on new material down here on the low side of the road!