A great night in Clarksdale, Mississippi.
I made the drive up there from Nawlins cause I knew Robert Belfour was gonna be there. Most of you already know about the Ground Zero blues club in Clarksdale, lovingly remodeled to look like a juke, plywood dance floor, 25 different brands of beer for sale, 3/4 of them with a name ending in "Lite." I had my heart set on barbecue all the way from the Louisiana border but had to do with the fried catfish plate and hush puppies. No chicken wire protecting the players from the crowd, but they might reconsider that since one very drunk young Mississippi redneck tried to climb over the barrier for who-knows-what-reason while Belfour was playing "What's Wrong With You?"
Belfour was amazing, like you said JohnM, he must be at the height of his powers right now, just thump-thump-thumping away with that thumb on "Breakin' My Heart," "I Got My Eyes On You," "Pushing My Luck," and "Old Black Mattie." That was pretty much it, he did a 7-song set and got out of there to make room for the next three acts--Paul "Wine" Jones followed by T-Model Ford followed by a young white guy named Jimbo Mathus who, I'm told, used to be with the Squirrel Nut Zippers but gave up the high life of alt-rock to move to Mississippi and start a power trio a la the North Mississippi Allstars. An entire evening of 1- and 2-chord grooves, Belfour by himself and Jones and Ford each with their own drummers who played a snare, bass, hi-hat and ride cymbal and that's it--two power duos. Not a bad lineup for $10. (For another $5 you got a plate of grits and eggs and bacon and a plastic cup of champagne at midnight.) I got a good look at Belfour's left hand while he was playing Old Black Mattie and watched him use his pinky and ring finger to do those triple and quadruple pull-offs that make the core lick sound like it does. I've been messin' around with those ever since. Not much else to say beyond that, the players kept laying down groove after groove, the dance floor was full of people two-steppin', everyone working up a big sweat, everything smelling of smoke and beer and deep-fried fish and cornmeal. When Jimbo and his band started playing the younger crowd took over and started jumpin' around and falling on the floor, the place started looking like Ole Miss against Oklahoma State in the Cotton Bowl. I stumbled back to my room at the Uptown Motor Inn, a true blues motel if there ever was one, only thing missing was a flashing neon light outside my window. I listened to local kids racing their big 'ol pickup trucks around town as I fell asleep.
The couple who run the Cat Head art/CD/bookstore down the street from Ground Zero definitely have the fever, and really want people to travel to Clarksdale to enjoy the Delta Blues Museum and to get a feel for the blues heritage of the area. They did their best to lure out-of-towners to enjoy the blues on New Year's Eve in Clarksdale. It must be frustrating on occasion, delta time being what it is. They booked a band to play in Red's Lounge (a nasty-smelling juke on the edge of downtown) on Wednesday afternoon from 1-5; I walked into the place at 3:00 and the band hadn't started setting up yet. Walking around town and sticking my head into cafes, antique shops, and what have you, it's pretty clear that there are those shop owners who get the idea of using the blues to attract people to downtown Clarksdale and those who say "I have no idea what they're trying to do over there with that music stuff." Two miles from Delta Donuts on Highway 61 there's a strip mall that calls itself the Blues Shopping Center, but it doesn't have a music store.
There are some locals who are jumping at the chance to pass down the music. A guy who calls himself Big T spends one night a week teaching a bunch of high school students how to play delta blues. They've organized a student band, and held an open rehearsal on Thursday night at a local cafe. When the weather is warmer, I heard they move their instruments to a gazebo right next to the Delta Blues Museum so tourists can hear them practicing their Muddy Waters licks after seeing the cabin that Muddy was born in, which has been completely reconstructed inside the museum. And WROX--the station of Early Wright--has been revived, and is playing a lot of blues. It had some transmitter problems that kept it off the air during my visit, but like lots of other small-town stations, it's trying to survive as a niche operation with the help of the web: www.wroxblues.com.
I took the great circle route home, driving through Sledge, Senatobia, Galena and the completely empty town square in Oxford (it was 1/1/04) before heading home. I took my first-ever look at the Mississippi hill county where all that good music I heard Wednesday night came from, really pretty country. I'm debating making the trip one more time at the end of January from the 2004 Blues First and International Blues Challenge being put on by the Blues Foundation in Memphis, but I'd have to miss a couple of Mardi Gras parades to do that. Check out www.blues.org. They're holding a contest for the "World's Best Unsigned Blues Band," with a bunch of acoustic acts in the fray. Ground Zero has booked Sam Carr for that Saturday night.
OK, Happy New Year y'all, hope you get a chance to see all this good stuff on your own someday.
Lindy
I made the drive up there from Nawlins cause I knew Robert Belfour was gonna be there. Most of you already know about the Ground Zero blues club in Clarksdale, lovingly remodeled to look like a juke, plywood dance floor, 25 different brands of beer for sale, 3/4 of them with a name ending in "Lite." I had my heart set on barbecue all the way from the Louisiana border but had to do with the fried catfish plate and hush puppies. No chicken wire protecting the players from the crowd, but they might reconsider that since one very drunk young Mississippi redneck tried to climb over the barrier for who-knows-what-reason while Belfour was playing "What's Wrong With You?"
Belfour was amazing, like you said JohnM, he must be at the height of his powers right now, just thump-thump-thumping away with that thumb on "Breakin' My Heart," "I Got My Eyes On You," "Pushing My Luck," and "Old Black Mattie." That was pretty much it, he did a 7-song set and got out of there to make room for the next three acts--Paul "Wine" Jones followed by T-Model Ford followed by a young white guy named Jimbo Mathus who, I'm told, used to be with the Squirrel Nut Zippers but gave up the high life of alt-rock to move to Mississippi and start a power trio a la the North Mississippi Allstars. An entire evening of 1- and 2-chord grooves, Belfour by himself and Jones and Ford each with their own drummers who played a snare, bass, hi-hat and ride cymbal and that's it--two power duos. Not a bad lineup for $10. (For another $5 you got a plate of grits and eggs and bacon and a plastic cup of champagne at midnight.) I got a good look at Belfour's left hand while he was playing Old Black Mattie and watched him use his pinky and ring finger to do those triple and quadruple pull-offs that make the core lick sound like it does. I've been messin' around with those ever since. Not much else to say beyond that, the players kept laying down groove after groove, the dance floor was full of people two-steppin', everyone working up a big sweat, everything smelling of smoke and beer and deep-fried fish and cornmeal. When Jimbo and his band started playing the younger crowd took over and started jumpin' around and falling on the floor, the place started looking like Ole Miss against Oklahoma State in the Cotton Bowl. I stumbled back to my room at the Uptown Motor Inn, a true blues motel if there ever was one, only thing missing was a flashing neon light outside my window. I listened to local kids racing their big 'ol pickup trucks around town as I fell asleep.
The couple who run the Cat Head art/CD/bookstore down the street from Ground Zero definitely have the fever, and really want people to travel to Clarksdale to enjoy the Delta Blues Museum and to get a feel for the blues heritage of the area. They did their best to lure out-of-towners to enjoy the blues on New Year's Eve in Clarksdale. It must be frustrating on occasion, delta time being what it is. They booked a band to play in Red's Lounge (a nasty-smelling juke on the edge of downtown) on Wednesday afternoon from 1-5; I walked into the place at 3:00 and the band hadn't started setting up yet. Walking around town and sticking my head into cafes, antique shops, and what have you, it's pretty clear that there are those shop owners who get the idea of using the blues to attract people to downtown Clarksdale and those who say "I have no idea what they're trying to do over there with that music stuff." Two miles from Delta Donuts on Highway 61 there's a strip mall that calls itself the Blues Shopping Center, but it doesn't have a music store.
There are some locals who are jumping at the chance to pass down the music. A guy who calls himself Big T spends one night a week teaching a bunch of high school students how to play delta blues. They've organized a student band, and held an open rehearsal on Thursday night at a local cafe. When the weather is warmer, I heard they move their instruments to a gazebo right next to the Delta Blues Museum so tourists can hear them practicing their Muddy Waters licks after seeing the cabin that Muddy was born in, which has been completely reconstructed inside the museum. And WROX--the station of Early Wright--has been revived, and is playing a lot of blues. It had some transmitter problems that kept it off the air during my visit, but like lots of other small-town stations, it's trying to survive as a niche operation with the help of the web: www.wroxblues.com.
I took the great circle route home, driving through Sledge, Senatobia, Galena and the completely empty town square in Oxford (it was 1/1/04) before heading home. I took my first-ever look at the Mississippi hill county where all that good music I heard Wednesday night came from, really pretty country. I'm debating making the trip one more time at the end of January from the 2004 Blues First and International Blues Challenge being put on by the Blues Foundation in Memphis, but I'd have to miss a couple of Mardi Gras parades to do that. Check out www.blues.org. They're holding a contest for the "World's Best Unsigned Blues Band," with a bunch of acoustic acts in the fray. Ground Zero has booked Sam Carr for that Saturday night.
OK, Happy New Year y'all, hope you get a chance to see all this good stuff on your own someday.
Lindy