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Post by JamesP on May 8, 2018 7:18:28 GMT -5
Tell us about your most memorable time when you played for others.
I will never forget the first time I walked up to the mic and sang on the radio. I know I must have sounded awful (or at least more than normal). Tennessee Ernie Ford had a big hit out - "Sixteen Tons" and I covered it with Carl Tipton and the band.
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Post by jbone on May 8, 2018 19:46:18 GMT -5
Over several decades I've gotten some pretty great memories. One is, playing a private club in South Dallas near the Vaughn residence, Stevie Ray and Jimmie's childhood home. It was not long after Stevie had passed and we did a couple in his memory. One gal left for a few minutes and came back with a jacket Stevie had given her. Several folks came over on break and shared stories of growing up and going to school with Jimmie and Stevie.
Fast forward a few years to a new band. We all lived around Dallas and one of the guys had us a gig in San Antonio, 3 1/2 miles south. We had a community radio spot in the afternoon so we all had to head down early in separate cars. We got to the campus where the radio station was and barely had time to get to the booth for the show. We got all the gear in- guitars, mics, amps, harps- except even a bass drum and snare. So the drummer grabbed some cardboard boxes of various sizes and managed to play drums om them for 4 or 5 songs, live on air! I have the recording someplace still. We went on to get motel rooms and go play the gig that night.
Same band as above, I got us a gig at a club in the sort of ghetto in Denton Texas. This was a neighborhood club frequented mostly by local black people. We showed up, all of us white except the singer, who was a Jewish gal, who always sat out the first set. We set up and began the night, doing pretty much all blues. End of the first set, last song was Got My Mojo Working, and yours truly was singing. I noticed a black gal coming in, dressed to the 9's, high heels, hair piled up high. We finished the song and this same gal came over and asked to talk to the singer. I replied, which one we have 3? She asked who sang the last song and I told her I had. Skinny white guy. She didn't believe me and asked the bass player, who confirmed it. She went to a table where her friends were sitting and sat down. A few minutes later they got my attention and I went over. That same gal apologized for not believing I had sung the Muddy Waters song, "You sounded so----- BLACK!" Whole table just fell out laughing, me included! They made me an Honorary Brother at Johnathan's Club that night.
Some years later, different band, I got a call from a guy in Hot Springs when I lived in Little Rock, on a Wednesday morning. I was part of a 2-state band. Guitarist lived in Denton Tx and I had a bassist and drummer near me in Arkansas. We were offered a Thursday opening act slot on Thursday night in Hot Springs, warming up the crowd for Bobby Rush. I made my calls to the guys and we took the job. Thursday we converged on the convention center in Spa City and played a really nice hall to about 600 people. It went off but not without a hitch or two: The emcee had no idea who he was introducing and made us sound like hicks from nowhere. Which we disproved quickly, doing mostly covers of Albert King, Albert Collins, Eddie Vinson, Willie Dixon, and other notable bluesmen. At one point our guitarist popped his small E string and had to switch guitars in the middle of a song, and another time I stepped on my mic cable and jerked it out of my mic in the middle of my solo. Otherwise we kicked some butt for the hour set we played, enough so that Bobby Rush asked us over and chatted with us for a few minutes after our set and before his. I have a pic or two from that night of us hamming it up with him. Several patrons insisted on buying us drinks; both the guitarist and I were years sober, so Jolene, and the bassist, and the drummer got to drink free that night!
Some few years later Jolene and I were headed for Clarksdale Mississippi and stopped off in Helena Arkansas to meet with Sonny "Sunshine" Payne at KBBF radio at the Delta Cultural Center. At that time he'd been doing a live radio show for over 50 years. Sonny greeted us and asked if we would like to do an on air interview with him, since he'd had a cancel for the day's show. Of course we said yes! We'd recently published out first cd and he played a few songs from it between conversation bits and on air ads he was doing. It was about 45 minutes of banter and getting our music played on air for the surrounding 50 miles or so! A nicer man we never met. We had hoped to revisit Sonny, sadly he passed last year before we could get back to Helena.
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