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!