Dear John,
Dear John,'ve made it through the halfway point of good ol' Valley summer. as usual, it's just as horrible as always. But we can take some solace in the fact that the rest of the country is getting a taste of it as well. And lots of them have massive humidity.
Still kind of slow about town but there is still plenty to do and hear. Janey's continues to feature first-rate acts as do the Rhythm Room, Steel Horse, Monastery, Rip's. and a number of Glendale clubs and little neighborhood joints all over town. Plenty to keep us Blues heads busy.
I've started recruiting judges for this year's Showdown so keep rehearsing.
I've been trying to get more info on the annual Bisbee Blues Festival but have received no feedback from my connections. According to various sites The Cedric Burnside Project and IBC winner Jarekus Singleton are headlining. They do have a Facebook page that gives some info.
Keep yourself hydrated, it'll be over soon.
Have a week!!
Sincerely,Jim Crawford, PBS |
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 | | | The passing of Willie "Po' Monkey" Seaberry has clouded the future of his iconic juke joint.
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Lifelong farmer and owner of one of the last remaining juke joints in the country, Willie "Po' Monkey" Seaberry has died at the age of 74. His namesake juke was also his home in Merigold, Mississippi, but on Thursday nights, the sharecropper's shack would come alive with all the sights and sounds one would expect in the Delta MERIGOLD, Miss. - Thursday is known as "family night" at Po' Monkey's juke joint here, but that doesn't mean you should bring your kids to this patched-up sharecropper shack that has swayed with rhythms and blues for nearly 50 years. The distinction here is with Monday, the only other night that Po' Monkey né Willie Seaberry, 65 and a farmworker by day, opens his little club. On Mondays, the strippers make the two-hour drive from Memphis to work a raunchier crowd for tips. Not that some Thursday patrons, mostly black men and women, middle-age and up, aren't above a little dirty dancing themselves, although fully clothed. The D.J. stretches his definition of the blues, playing modern R&B that has every bottom shaking. If there is a floor show on Thursdays at this club, one of the last old-style juke joints, the kind where the Delta blues once incubated, it is offered by Mr. Seaberry himself. Around 9 p.m., as patrons begin to fill a room decorated with toy monkeys, beer posters and a silver disco ball, Mr. Seaberry emerges in a startling suit of red with white pinstripes and a snazzy white hat, and smoking a cheroot. He works the crowd, which includes retired teachers, current and former farmworkers and a sheriff from Greenville, as he ferries $2 cans of beer. An irrepressibly smiley man with a trimmed moustache, Mr. Seaberry grew up in a nearby shack, at the tail of the era when mechanization of cotton farming and the lure of Chicago depopulated the region. But he has never let poverty stop him from strutting. Later, he disappears to his bedroom at the back and re-emerges, now wearing a white suit; soon, he changes into a plaid suit with a red derby, and still later into dark pink. "If I don't get out there acting like a clown, people think there's something wrong with me," Mr. Seaberry explained. He said he owned more than 100 suits. "A lot of folks wanted to get out, listen to the blues and fight and shoot," he said of the onetime proliferation of such clubs, adding that his own has never seen much violence. For much of the last century, juke joints were the main nightspots for rural blacks. Now, with the casinos of Greenville a half-hour away and younger blacks into hip-hop, Mr. Seaberry does not open his club on weekends. The word "juke" is believed to be derived from the African-influenced Gullah dialect of the Southeast coast, in which "jook" means "disorderly" or "wicked." In 1934, the folklorist Zora Neale Hurston wrote, "Jook is a word for a Negro pleasure house," often a "bawdy house" where black workers "dance, drink and gamble." In the Delta of northwest Mississippi, an alluvial plain where cotton and sharecropping long ruled, juke joints were condemned by preachers as the houses of the devil, but they offered welcome relief from drudgery. Touring these clubs in the early 20th century, men like Charlie Patton, Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson pioneered the blues as an art form. Just when did Mr. Seaberry start the club? His own memories can be vague. "I don't know exactly to a T," he said. "Maybe 40 or 50 years ago." And what is the source of the name? "Po' Monkey is all anybody ever called me since I was little," he said. "I don't know why, except I was poor for sure." He doesn't recall any blues stars ever playing at his club, which has live music on special occasions. The place doesn't make much, he said - guests pay $5 to enter and can buy beer or bring their own liquor and buy mixers. The pool table costs 75 cents a game. "I was going to get married once, even got a license," he said, "but we started getting into it, and the preacher never did register that license." He has farmed all his life. Now, on the adjacent corporate farm, he spends these days in overalls on a tractor, preparing fields for soybean planting. Alfred Kemp, 67, who was helping serve drinks, said, "I grew up here with Willie, chopping and picking cotton." He thinks the club opened around 1961. "When I was a boy, there was a juke joint every five miles," he said. "Now this is the only one around." In earlier, tenser days, the local white people seldom ventured to Po' Monkey's, but in the last decade some have started dropping in. Blues fans from Japan and Europe have also found their way down the unmarked gravel track off Highway 61, seeking an authentic juke joint experience as they tour Delta landmarks. But on the music front they may be disappointed. Although Mr. Seaberry said, "I love all music as long as it's the blues," the line drawn in his club is at hip-hop culture. Hand-lettered signs say "No Rap Music, Just Blues," and ban baggy, falling-down pants. The other night, the 38-year-old D.J. spun nary a B. B. King song, let alone the earlier blues that grew out of gospel, field chants and brilliant guitar innovations. "Let's hear some oldies," the D.J. announced as he put on a Bobby Bland song from the 1960s and then a revved-up version of Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get it On," a 1970s hit. "No one really wants to hear the old blues any more," Mr. Kemp, Po' Monkey's boyhood friend, said. But he added, "For almost 50 years, we've been having a good time here." |
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Moved? Changed email addresses? Please let us know of any changes in your address, email, or phone number so we can keep you informed about the Blues community in Arizona. Email us at: info@phoenixblues.org or write to: Phoenix Blues Society P.O. Box 36874 Phoenix, Arizona 85067 |
GOT BLUES? If you are a Blues musician, a group, or a club that features Blues music, and would like to be listed, please send your info to info@phoenixblues.
org and we'll be happy to list your event in our weekly Out & About section of the newsletter. |
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| Out & About Tuesday, July 19 Carvin Jones, 7 p.m., Dirty Blonde, Chandler Hans Olson, 7 p.m. EVERY TUESDAY, The Hall, Scottsdale Wed., July 20 Carvin Jones (acoustic), 7 p.m., Culinary Dropout, Tempe Paris James, 5:30 p.m., II Vinaio, Mesa Bad News Blues Band, Every Wed., 9:30 p.m., Chicago Bar, Tucson Thursday, July 21 Hans Olson, 6 p.m., Handlebar, Apache Junction Friday, July 22 Rocket 88s w/RJ Mischo, 9 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Big Pete Pearson, 7:30 p.m., Janey's, Cave Creek JC & the Juke Rockers, 7 p.m., Dillon's Bayou, Peoria JPowers Band, 7:30 p.m., American Italian Club, Phoenix Hoodoo Casters, 9 p.m., Momma Juggs, Coolidge Carvin Jones, 9 p.m., Rookies, Anthem Blues Review Band, 7 p.m., JC's Steakhouse, Gilbert Paris James, 7 p.m., D'Vine Wine, Mesa Saturday, July 23 Tommy Dukes Blues Band, 9 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Rocket 88s, 7:30 p.m., Janey's, Cave Creek JC & the Juke Rockers, 7 p.m., Handlebar, Apache Junction Jump, Jive & Wail, 7 p.m., Desert Ridge Mktplace, Phoenix Sugar Thieves Duo, 3 p.m., Phx Convention Ctr, Phoenix Sugar Thieves, 8 p.m., Pho Cao, Scottsdale Blues Review Band, 8 p.m., All American, Scottsdale Carvin Jones, 7 p.m., Jetaway Dave's, Phoenix Ray Ray & BluZone, 8 p.m., Crown King Saloon, Crown King Mojo Rats, 8 p.m., Monastery, Mesa Paris James, 7 p.m., D'Vine Wine, Chandler Sunday, July 24 Two Flavor Blues, NOON, Copper Star, Phoenix Monday, July 25 Carvin Jones (acoustic), 6 p.m., Monastery, Mesa Nina Curri w/Dan Rutland EVERY MONDAY, 7:30 p.m., Coach House, Old Town Scottsdale |
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Weekly Jams
NEW JAM Rocket 88s, 6 p.m., Saint Nick's Tavern, Phoenix
Ray Ray & BluZone, 5 p.m., Wild Willy's, Avondale
R.d. Olson JAM, 2 p.m., Sally's BBQ, Prescott
Bourbon Jack's JAM w/Kody Herring, 6 p.m., Chandler
MONDAY
NEW JAM Ray Ray & Bluzone Every other Monday, Opa Life Cafe, Tempe
Bam Bam & Badness Open JAM, 9 p.m., Char's, Phoenix
NEW JAM R.d. Olson Blues Band, 2 p.m., Sally's BBQ, Prescott
TUESDAY
Gypsy's Bluesday Night JAM, 7 p.m. Pho Cao, Tempe Bumpin' Bud's 1st & 3rd Tuesdays JAM, 7 p.m., Marc's, Glendale WEDNESDAY Rocket 88s, 7 p.m., Chopper John's, Phoenix Tool Shed JAM Party, 7 p.m., El Dorado, Scottsdale THURSDAY Tool Shed JAM Party, 7 p.m., Steel Horse Saloon, Phoenix Jolie's Place JAM w/Adrenaline, 8 p.m., Chandler Brad's Place JAM, 7 p.m., Ahwatukee (Every other Week) |
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