Hello John, As you might have heard, Eric Ramsey and Cros killed it at this year's IBC in Memphis. Eric took home top honors in the solo/duo category, and CROS/Charles Mack took home second place in the band category. I told Eric's wife I feel like a new dad. I couldn't be prouder of those guys and their hard work. We all know who the best band is and you guys worked your patooties off to make The Valley , PBS, and you, our supporters, feel like a million bucks. Good thangs are headed your way. I can feel it. We have a huge benefit on tap for Saturday. Lynsey, our favorite person at the Rhythm Room, will have to undergo extensive orthodontic work to the tune of mega bucks. Check out the flyer at the bottom of the page and come on out. We have some of the best of the best lined up ready to help out. You can too. Have a week!! Jim Crawford Phoenix Blues Society |
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Delta Time II
by Mike Bass
Beale Street has changed over the years and many clubs do not regularly have blues, but the festival or other blues events in Memphis are the time to make sure you catch some good blues music. If you are planning a trip to Memphis hoping to see blues in addition to Elvis (who ain’t leavin’ this building), then your chances are likely hit or miss. The most memorable act of the weekend had to be The Dempseys. They are three young shirtless rockabilly cowboys who act like the didn’t take their ritalin as they should have. When I walked in the Blues City Café, the bass player was standing on the bar playing an old stand up bass. He was pounding it furiously. Standing awestruck by this sight on the bar, I was oblivious to the fact that the guitar player was standing near the front door rather than at the other end of the club on stage. Soon the drummer came off the stage keeping the beat by rapping his sticks against everything along his way to the bar. He climbed up on top of the bar and started playing the bass beat with his sticks on the strings of the bass while the bassist fretted the instrument. The guitar player joined them and wailed on his guitar while standing on top of the bass which was still on the bar being pounded by the drummer. All three of these shirtless wonders played every instrument. Like Chuck Berry’s duck walk, it was a lot of showmanship, but a lot of show nonetheless. And a lot of talent, too. We spent the rest of the weekend staying up late, seeing music on Beale Street, eating barbecue, and of course, eating at Denny’s. As the excitement part of our trip ended, Sue and I made our way back to Clarksdale and our friends departed for home. We stayed in the Shack Up Inn. Shack Up Inn is a bed and beer located on the Hopson Plantation outside of Clarksdale and only two miles from Robert Johnson’s famed crossroad intersection of US 61 and US 49. It was in Hopson where they first totally mechanized the production of cotton. The owners have moved old plantation shacks to the area by the plantation commissary and spiced them up with central heat and air and one television station. The television station of course is the blues channel. On our first day, they cooked barbecue in the commissary. I think they were showing off for the Food Network which heard about the Shack Up Inn the night before at the Ground Zero Club. Luckily we arrived in time to get in on Clarksdale’s award winning specialty. The sandwich I had was as fine as I have ever tasted. The company was pretty good too as we sat down and had a few beers with the locals and soon new all the town gossip. We stayed in the Pinetop Perkins Shack which is named for the piano player and former Hopson Plantation resident. The cabins are rustic. The bed is lumpy like your grandma’s spare bed. The floors have cracks. While in the commissary I reminisced about my great grandmother’s shack being as primitive, but without the AC or the light fixtures. A patron named Harlon told me he grew up in a shack like that saying, “When the dogs would get to fightin’ underneath the house, the dust would come flyin’ up through the floor. It was out of the Shack Up Inn that we made short excursions during the day looking for historical blues sights. There is a lot to see around Clarksdale for a blues fan. The area and surrounding counties are homes to such legends as B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Ike Turner, Johnny Winter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, Pinetop Perkins and many others. We drove to Friars Point, MS, where Robert Johnson used to play on the sidewalk in front of the local store. He also mentions Friar’s Point in several songs. Sue also said she felt his presence here which gave us good mojo for the rest of the trip. I’m not sure about the good mojo part as Johnson was poisoned by a jealous husband and eventually died of pneumonia at age 27. But as it turned out, we did have a good trip the rest of the way. We visited the Delta Blues Museum where we saw many historical objects such as guitars, personal notes and even a telegram from the Rolling Stones to Muddy Waters. There is also the exact plantation shack in which Muddy Waters grew up on the Stovall Plantation outside of Clarksdale. We also picked up a Delta Blues Map which I highly recommend if you plan to go searching as we did. With our map and a blues encyclopedia in hand, we found the graves of Charley Patton, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Robert Johnson. None of these men are entombed in noble places. There are no historical markers or signs pointing the way. Then again, searching out these remote places on your own is part of the adventure, but I still recommend the map. All are on a road that will never make it on a map. Charley Patton’s grave sits in an unmown graveyard next to a cotton gin in Holly Ridge. Robert Johnson is buried at a church on a dirt road between Morgan City and Itta Bena and off a State Highway that was not on our AAA highway map. Trust me, get the blues museum map. We stood and viewed the murals at Tutweiler Station where W.C. Handy was inspired. We drove past Dockery Farms where some say Charley Patton started the blues. We traveled to Moorhead, MS, just to find the exact spot where the Southern cross the Dog. We even drove through the crossroads a couple of dozen times. We may have even driven through the crossroads where Robert Johnson made his deal with old Scratch. Many towns in the delta claim to have the crossroads where the deal was done. The crossroads with the monument has two or three convenience stores, Abe’s Barbecue, Dixie Donuts, and a Church’s Chicken. No one really knows where the crossroads is located or if Johnson’s fabled pact was actually made. The roads have been moved from the thirties. Most people don’t seem to care. The blues map explains all of this and goes further to jokingly say, “If you ask us one more time if that is really the crossroads, we’ll punch you in the mouth.” Sue and I also had our time sitting on the front porch of our shack soaking up the relaxation that the vast expanse around us provided. We visited with the neighbors on the porch of their shack. We even spied Charley Musselwhite two shacks down dancing to the blues. It is funny how sometimes we think we may enjoy one thing more than another. As it turns out, our favorite part of the trip was just hanging out in our shack. It was also interesting to wonder how many plantation workers sat on the very porch where we sat and sang music to cure what ailed them. It was relaxing. Delta time is slow. And easy. Especially when your Delta time is spent at the Shack Up. |
| Music Makers
COLD SHOTT and The Hurricane Horns The Sugar Thieves Gary Zak & The Outbacks Eric Ramsey
Hans Olson Rocket 88s JC& The Rockers
Smokestack Lightning Carvin Jones
Poppy Harpman & The Storm https://poppyharpman.com/ Hoodoo Casters RHYTHM ROOM WESTSIDE BLUES & JAZZ https://westsideblues.com/
Nina Curri Paris James Mother Road Trio Blues Review Band Reverbnationbluesmanmike Mike Eldred
Big Daddy D & The Dynamites Facebook www.bigdadddyd.com Cadillac Assembly Line Facebook https://cadillacassemblylineband.com/ Innocent Joe and the Hostile Witnesses Facebook
Dry Heat Chuck Hall Facebook Pop Top Facebook Tommy Grills Band Facebook Sweet Baby Ray SweetBabyRaysBlues.com Thermal Blues Express Thermal Blues Express.com Common Ground Blues Band Facebook Billy G & The Kids billgarvin.com
Backdoor Funk Facebook.com/backdoorfun
OUT & ABOUT
Tuesday, May 10 Gypsy & Hooter’s Blues JAM, 6 p.m., Pho Cao, Scottsdale WednesdayMay 11 Carvin Jones, 7 p.m., Bone Haus Brewery, Fountain Hills Tool Shed JAM, 7 p.m, Blooze Bar, Phoenix Johnny Miller JAM, 7 p.m., Coop’s, Glendale Thursday, May 12 Big Pete Pearson, 6:30 p.m., Westside Blues & Jazz, Glendale Sugar Thieves Trio, 8 p.m., The Womack, Phoenix Carvin Jones, 7 p.m., Good Time Charli’s, Chandler Hans Olson, 6 p.m., Handlebar Pub, Apache Junction Friday, May 13 Primer/Corritore CD Release Party, 8 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Cold Shott & The Hurricane Horns, 7:30 p.m., Westside Blues & Jazz, Glendale Chuck Hall, 6 p.m., Local Jonny’s, Cave Creek Tommy Grills Band, 8 p.m., West Alley BBQ, Chandler Carvin Jones, 7 p.m., Red Mountain Bar, Mesa
Saturday, May 14 BENEFIT FOR LYNSEY, 7 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Sugar Thieves, 6 p.m., Kazamierz, Scottsdale Cadillac Assembly Line, 7 p.m., 1227 Tap, Phoenix Blues Review Band, 6 p.m., Voodoo Daddy’s, Tempe Carvin Jones, 8 p.m., Jolie’s Place, Chandler Leon J, 12:30 p.m., Javelina Leap Winery, Cornville
Sunday, May 15 Carvin Jones, 5 p.m., Gold Stallion Restaurant, Gold Canyon Leon J, 12:30 p.m., DA Ranch, Cornville Monday, May 16
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