Once, when times were troubled, things were changing and American culture was pushing boundaries, music and the people who made it had a nasty bite. Led by the New York folk crowd, musicians took on the establishment, banged the drums loudly and gave no quarter. The folkies led the charge, but it bled to other parts of the popular American mainstream. Even the non-mainstream was angry.
And, along with Dylan and his New York crowd, California helped lead that charge. From San Francisco to Los Angeles, pop musicians wrote songs that challenged the status quo, asked pointed questions about the way things were and generally became a pain in the ass to the established rules of life in America. Then . . . well, I guess they gave up, that or were assimilated back into the old-line mainstream.
When was the last time a song with the power to change, tunes like “For What It’s Worth” or “Break on Through” or “Chimes of Freedom,” found a place on the pop charts? Musicians turtled down and wrote tunes about kissing the girl, or bouncy dance tunes, or . . . well, whatever. They wrote about themselves, about the party or their own personal heartbreak, not about the shitty human condition.
The chitlin’ circuit was home to nearly every African-American musician making a mark on American popular culture beginning in the early 1930s. It was, and remains so to this day, a series of small clubs, juke joints and dive bars that gave black Americans a place to play, drink and, in nearly all venues, gamble. In fact, most of these clubs in the early days were secondary businesses for their owners, who often were numbers runners, bootleggers or brothel owners.
Preston Lauterbach will join T. Michael Crowell on Sunday, Aug. 21, on Offramp at 6:30 p.m. on KSDS Jazz 88.3 to chat about his "The Chitlin' Circuit and the Road to Rock 'N' Roll."
That’s not likely to surprise anyone with even the slightest knowledge of how music developed in this country. Crime has always been part of the entertainment world in America. What is surprising in Lauterbach’s book is just how deep that attachment was between these businessmen and crime. Even Al Capone has his hand in the chitlin’ circuit, but that’s quite a story unto itself.
Lauterbach’s is a book full of interwoven stories about the circuit and the men (mostly, but there were plenty of women making money in these clubs) who made the chitlin’ circuit so critical to the development of popular American music. There was Denver Ferguson in Indianapolis, who as a printer ran the numbers racket in that Indiana’s city’s “Bronzville” neighborhood and was one of the first to recognize that more money could be made through entertainment.
Who do book if you want to have an interesting and exciting blues festival?
Everybody probably has an opinion about that, but I’m one of those fortunate guys who actually gets to do it. I am producing theAimLoan.com San Diego Blues Festivaland I faced a large number of options before choosing a headliner for the Sept. 17 event.
After considering various factors – live performance, cost, ability to connect with an audience and ability to sell tickets – I wound up hiring Tommy Castro.
Now, Tommy Castro isn’t exactly a household name, but you’d be surprised the number of big-name blues artists he can run circles around. Tommy is an old-school musician, working night after night to perfect his craft, has been a road warrior for more than 15 years and is willing to take artistic challenges in his music.
Blues musicianCandye Kane has just been yanked from a blues festival in Pelham, Ala., because her past rankled some of the members of the region’s chamber of commerce.
Candye and her band had a contract to play the Shelby Blues & BBQ event Oct. 1 in the Birmingham suburb of 20,000 people. Her Piedmont Talent booking agent was then told the reason she was not being hired is because she is allegedly gay and that she once engaged in a porn modeling career.
Candye controversy
“This is the first time I have ever had a contract for a show that has been invalidated because of my past,” said Candye from an airport in Detroit en route to an apparently more enlightened Kitchener Blues Festival near Toronto.
“I am outraged that my sexual preference or my career choices are being attacked. My show is empowering and positive.”
Candye opened a public debate on this when she posted news of the festival cancellation – and the reasons behind it – on her Facebook page on Aug. 6. That posting has resulted in more than 100 notes of support from friends and fans, including the marketing director of a music magazine and record company president.
For the record, Candye Kane describes herself as both heterosexual and bisexual. And, while she doesn’t deny her past working in the sex industry, that occurred long before she became and internationally acclaimed musical artist with 11 albums to her credit.
Yet, the Greater Shelby County Chamber of Commerce rescinded the contract offer after learning of Candye’s background during an Internet search. Candye has been playing festivals and club gigs for two decades throughout the United States and Europe for two decades without ever having run across this attitude.
Meanwhile, the head of the Shelby Chamber said her organization has never had any contact with Piedmont Talent and denied that there was ever any verbal or written contract for Candye’s services. Jennifer Trammell, president of the chamber, told Frogger Dogger that there were no comments about Candye’s background as well. She said agents from the Magic City Blues Society had recommended Candye as a performer.
So what does a weary bluesman do after three decades of one-night gigs on the road?
If you are Anson Funderburgh you retreat to your home outside Dallas in 2005, take care of your sick friend and devote nearly every waking hour to caring for your two young children.
“I kind of became Mr. Mom,” Anson says. “I just kind of geared it down.”
Mr. Mom, with a guitar
Anson developed a reputation as one of the most tasteful of blues guitar players, a master of nuances that others wished they could achieve but rarely did. Anson Funderburgh & the Rocketsalso featured the seminal bluesman Sam Myers and were a top draw wherever they played in the United States and Europe.
But after six years, Anson still is reluctant to stray too far away from his home in McKinney, Texas.
That makes all the more impressive that Scottie Blinn, proprieter of the Rock Academy of San Diego, has lured Anson out for two guitar workshops on June 11.
Anson is excited because he knows there are too many generic guitar players in the blues and wants to encourage people to tap into their talents.
When he was 10 or 11, got his first guitar from a co-worker of his mother’s and it came with a box of .45s.
Pianist Joshua White (left) and Mike Wofford meet over music
When the student can nearly match the mentor in style and originality, magic in music is made. That happened this week in La Jolla when Mike Wofford sat down with Joshua White over two pianos in front of house of about 100 at the AthenaeumMusic & Arts Library.
Wofford is a pianist with few peers. A longtime mainstay on the California and San Diego scene, he has a beautifully subtle touch on the keyboard, genteel but definitely no wussy. Now into his 70s, Wofford is beginning to wind down a career that has made him one of the West Coast’s favorite sidemen for players like guitarist Kenny Burrell and sax giant Benny Golson.
Joshua White is approaching 30, a newbie compared to Wofford, who has taken the youngster somewhat under his wing. White’s approach is different than Wofford’s, his style more percussive, his rhythms angular and punchy. He is only beginning to take flight. And there, in a small room filled with folding chairs and a standing-room-only crowd, the sublime beauty of Wofford met the Monkish bounce of Joshua White.
Congratulations to Georgia Myers for winning two free tickets to the Aaron Neville show on May 31 at the Belly Up. Check back for other Froggerdogger ticket giveaways.
Frogger Dogger is giving away two free tickets to An Evening With Aaron Neville at the Belly Up on May 31. To win, all you have to do is sign up on Frogger Dogger’s Fan Page on Facebook. Just click the “Like” button, then e-mail us your name at tickets@froggerdogger.com. We’ll notify the winners on May 27 and they’ll be on the Belly Up guest list.
Every now and then, Mother Nature pulls some nasty tricks on Louisiana. Fortunately, Louisiana is populated by some of the heartiest souls around and if that’s not enough, Aaron Neville has their backside.
Guardian angel
The New Orleans native, Neville looks like a dockworker, but when he starts to singing, he sounds like a guardian angel who will make everything better. It’s a magical quality he possesses – that voice unlike any other – and he shares it generously.
The latest insult to Louisiana is that waters from rains and snowpacks from the north are streaming into its countryside because government officials opened up the levee gates in a bid stem the force of the Mighty Mississippi’s roll into Baton Rouge and New Orleans again.
The river rose all day, the river rose all night / Some people got lostin the flood, some people got away alright / The river had busted through clear down to Plaquemines / Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline
Neville’s singing won’t drain the bayous and small towns of the floods spewing through Louisiana, but he will demonstrate to the displaced that life will go on and that it can be as beautiful as his song.
If you don’t believe it, catch Neville at the Belly Up on Tuesday, May 31. He’ll be packing magic.
Through the years, this band has constantly demonstrated that it can be musically adventurous, compelling and craft damned catchy rock songs. And, Petty’s courageous battles with devilish behemoth record labels earns him bonus points.
But, Tom & his Heartbreakers haven’t always been so virtuous.
A petty theft
Let’s step back to 1976 when the band first arrived on the radio. Their first single was the stunning “Breakdown.” I loved the song from the get-go. It sounded so fresh, so different and was just a plain great song.
When I heard “American Girl,” I thought Roger McGuinnhad brought his Rickenbacker out of the closet and hired some people to be “The New Byrds.” But I enjoyed it so much, I didn’t care and just figured it was Petty’s attempt to capitalize on McGuinn’s signature sound. Neither, apparently, did Roger McGuinn, who found the sound-alike guitar song brought him public attention he hadn’t had in a decade.
It must be good to be Lucinda Williams. She has had a long, successful career. She has found love in mid-life. She has talent in her toenails with a capacity to write songs that reach deep inside us, sung in a voice as gummy and aching as molasses poured over an open wound. She is, well, blessed.
And damn brave, to boot.
Her new release, “Blessed,” carries on her long string of astonishing stories of life. It’s full of raunchy hard times, heartbreak and loss. All classic Lu themes. It rocks, wildly in places. It moans, wanting more, getting less from love. It looks into the soul of the artist and finds one at the top of her craft.
Is it “Car Wheels”? Nope. “World Without Tears”? Maybe. What it really is is a collection of 12 songs, stories that can be as dark and gothic as the best of Faulkner, each one a look into the human condition, or at least, Lu’s condition. She begs for understanding on “Convince Me,” offers loving condolence on “Born to be Loved” and contempt for a loser with “Buttercup.” She rocks it madly on “Seeing Black” and barely makes it above a whisper on “Soldier Song.”
Unless you’re a big blues fan, the name Pinetop Perkins might not mean very much to you.
But Pinetop, who died in his sleep Monday, March 21, at his home in Austin, Texas, led one of the most amazing blues lives anyone has ever had..
Pinetop was 97-years-old and in recent years seemed so spry and full of life that few people believed he really was that old.
A sharp-dressed man
This was a man who played music professionally for eight decades; taught an 11-year-old Ike Turner how to play piano; played on the radio in the 1940s with Robert Nighthawk and Sonny Boy Williamson; replaced Otis Spann as the pianist in the Muddy Waters Band; escaped death at the age of 91 when his car was stalled on the train tracks and he was broadsided by a freight train; and, was the oldest winner of a Grammy Award, claiming his second in February at age 97.
“I knew Pinetop for 20 years,” says Patrick Rynn, a bassist who has played with Pinetop many times through the years and counted him as a friend. “I thought of all the old guys, he was the one who was going to live to be 100.”
Pinetop was born in Belzoni, Miss., a farming community on the Yazoo River north of Jackson. He originally played guitar, but hurt his arm in a fight and switched to piano.
He played in the Delta, recording at Sam Phillips’ Sun Studios in Memphis and eventually made his way to Chicago. He joined the Muddy Waters Band in 1969, remaining there for more than a decade.
