Charley Sayles Has Something to Say

Charlie Sayles liners by Ron Weinstock

Charlie Sayles has come away from playing blues on the Streets of New York and Washington, D.C. Today, he might be found headlining at various Washington DC area clubs like City Blues, or Afterwords, or open at Tornado Alley for Kim Wilson. One might find him at festivals including the Smithsonian Festival of American Folk Life, the D.C. Blues Festival or the Pocono Blues Festival, or he might be at Carnegie Hall for a folk music concert that was part of Carnegie Hall's centennial celebration, In addition to tours of England and Europe, Charlie also has been traveling more in the Northeast United States and recently completed a very successful Canadian tour. While still not a “blues superstar,” Charlie's increasing visibility in great part is due to his first JSP album, the highly acclaimed "Night Ain't Right" that made made many aware of Charlie's highly personal and distinctive blues. Charlie's new album, "I Got Something to Say" will certainly increase the number of Charlie's fans.

Charlie was born January 4, 1948, in Woburn, Massachusetts with his parents moving to West Medford, Massachusetts a couple of weeks later. His parents separated at the age of 2 and Charlie grew up in a succession of surrogate families with music being a main comfort for him. He served in the Army, seeing duty in Vietnam and then Germany. He first picked up the harmonica while in Army. After his discharge from the military in 1971, he found employment opportunities fairly limited, and started traveling around America, visiting cities like Nashville, Atlanta and St. Louis before landing in New York.

While playing on New York's streets, Charlie was filmed for a BBC television show and discovered by Dave Sax who was riding a Broadway bus when he saw Charlie playing on the streets. Sax produced “The Raw Harmonica Blues of Charlie Sayles" for Sax’s Dusty Road label and the 1000 copy pressing is now a rare collector's item. In 1975, the late Ralph Rinzler, organizer of the Smithsonian's Festival of American Folk Life, discovered Charlie and placed him on a New York bill with Pete Seeger and then on a variety of Festival appearances. Rinzler was one of those responsible for Charlie Sayles eventually ending up in Washington, D.C., and making the transformation from a free-wheeling street musician to leader of his own band. In the years since he has been breaking into D.C.’s club scene. It hasn't been easy as he worked small rooms, often for the door, and still played on the street, supplementing his income by teaching harmonica, first to inmates at D.C.’s Lorton Reformatory, and then  to a number of blues enthusiasts.

One of the first times this writer met Charlie was at a harmonica workshop the D.C. Blues Society had organized. He has had the pleasure of seeing Charlie at Washington area clubs like Fins (now Cowboy Cafe South), Afterwords, T.T. Reynolds or 15 Minutes and at a variety of events that the D.C. Blues Society produced, including the D.C. Blues Festival. Charlie launched the Blues Society's 'East of the River' concerts held among community groups in Anacostia part of Washington, and this writer remembers a resident of the housing complex near the park Charlie was playing at came on out and Charlie had him sit in on the melodica with the band. Charlie has never disappointed with his live performances, which includes a sprinkling in of harmonica blues classics from the second Sonny Boy Williamson and Little Walter in addition to his originals. He has garnered not only fans, but friends among the Washington blues community.

Which leads to the present album. Recorded at Solo Studios in Annandale, Virginia, near Washington, it was produced by D.C.’s most celebrated blues artist, Bobby Parker. Parker is another of Charlie's fans and friends and has played with Charlie now and then (for some of us not enough). With Bobby at the helm there is a bit more more body in the mix, and the backing is tighter. Bobby told me that this album takes Charlie Sayles up to another level. The recording may be tighter and cleaner, but Charlie's music maintains its raw edge.

Parker's hand is evident on the opening “I Got Something to Say.” Drummer, Daryl “Slam” Stewart from Deborah Coleman’s band, and bassist Anthony Gonzales, from the band of local R&B legend Phil Flowers, kick off a funky groove reminiscent of Parker's “Bobby-A-Go-Go,” before Sayles enters with some choice harp. Charlie sounds like he is trying to sing with his harp. It's a device frequently he uses beginning a song and contrasts with his solo playing. Another example of this is the intro to “Mississippi Saxophone,” where Charlie plays a riff that presages how he enunciates the phrase “Mississippi saxophone, saxophone.” Dig Deborah Coleman’s guitar on this track.

Charlie’s strongest songs often center around fractured relationships, usually involving someone betraying Charlie's trust like “Two-Timing Woman.” Even when Charlie sings how “I Love My Baby” he includes a plea for his girl to just treat him right. A different type of betrayal is dealt with in “Hey Joe,” which is not the song associated with Jimi Hendrix. Charlie has waiting for this Joe show up and repay the money Charlie lent him. Charlie’s patience is wearing thin and he’s packing some bill collecting gear.

In contrast, a good portion of this album is devoted to getting a funky groove down and getting people on the dance floor. “Mississippi Saxophone,” “Funky Sound,” and Well Now” are examples as the rhythm section get a groove cooking. “Mississippi Saxophone,” has been a favorite of Charlie's recent live performances as he sings about blowing his lonely little horn to make him feel good.

“Zydeco”, Charlie's celebration of the goods times associated with the Louisiana musical genre that has great popularity in Washington, is another high point here. It should be noted that the lyrics are Charlie's impression of zydeco as he does not actually play zydeco music. 22-year old Shawn Kellerman from Kitchener, Ontario, who counts Mel Brown among his influences, provides the hard-edged guitar here.

Also Charlie's harp is featured on two instrumentals, the moody “Little Walter Blues,” and the aptly-titled romp, "Screecher.” They provide additional samples of Sayle’s instantly recognizable harp playing. With only three albums over two decades, Charlie Sayles may not have recorded prolifically. However, he has not wasted his time in the studio. "I Got Something to Say will hopefully allow Charlie to make the next leap as a performer. He always puts out when he performs, just like he does here. He certainly has paid his dues and with his talent and originality, it is time he reaped some rewards.

This is from my draft for the liner notes for this album from 1995 or so. Here is Charlie performing "Zydeco." 

 

Bobby Parker Shine Me Up

Bobby Parker
Shine Me Up
Blacktop

Bobby Parker’s second Black Top album certainly shows that the acclaimed Bent Out of Shape was no fluke. | should caveat that Bobby is one of my favorite artists, and one of the benefits of living around D.C. has been the opportunities to see him relatively frequently and get to know him. 

A Washington area native, Bobby Radcliff once mentioned to me that years ago Parker was as good as his better known Chicago contemporaries. Listening to Shine Me Up, one would suggests that in some ways Bobby betters them. Ten of the eleven songs are Parker originals, and neither Buddy Guy nor Otis Rush have contributed any comparable body of new songs in recent years. And, they are good songs mixing hooks with catchy riffs and tasteful horn riffs covering a wide soul-blues palette. 

For example, It’s Unfair, a terrific slow blues, opens up with a James Brown horn part before Bobby sings about women treating men like toys as the band captures some of the flavor of the classic Stax recordings of the seventies. Bobby adds a pleading vocal and his buzz-saw guitar with the skill of a surgeon finely opening up his patient. The title track finds Bobby asking his woman to “Shine me up baby. Make me feel good for you and me. | feel dull and I’ve had a bad day darlin’, and | really need sympathy... .’ Splib’s Groove finds Bobby working over a go-go groove, and Somebody’s Coming In My Back Door is a classic blues theme freshly reworked by Parker. 

The one cover is a lesser known Little Willie John recording, Drive Me Home. The choice of the song may have been fortuitous, but Parker’s keen, high-pitched vocals owe a bit to the past rhythm and blues giant, although Bobby brings plenty of his own personality to the songs. It has taken Bobby Parker years to get to where he is now, which is one of the blues’ most sizzling vocalist-guitarists. He also happens to be one of the best songwriters in the idiom.

This review appeared in a 1995 issue of Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 205), and likely also appeared in the DC Blues Calendar, the DC Blues Society's newsletter. I probably received a review copy from Black Top Records. This may be available used or as a download. Here is Bobby Parker performing "Watch Your Step" a few months before he passed away in 2013.

 

Bobby Parker Watched His Step

While I have posted this review before, here is my 20 year old review of Bobby Parker's first Black Top album, Bent Out of Shape from 1993. It originally appeared in the March 1993 Jazz & Blues Report (and undoubtedly in the Dc Blues Society's newsletter at around that time. The album currently is out-of-print on CD but one may be able to locate it on ebay or from blues music vendors. Downloads of the album are available on itunes and amazon. To these ears, Bobby's two Black Top albums are as good as any blues albums of the past two decades. It is unfortunate he never had another CD issued but there is a DVD of him live at Montreux that is part of the DVD set from 2003 that is representative of his live performances. I mention that Santana not only cited Bobby as an influence but had him on the bill with Carlos as well as have Bobby share the stage with him. As a friend of Bobby, I thank you Carlos for your love of the music and your acknowledgement of those who helped shaped your own music. I know you are going our sorrow with the passing of someone who meant so much to you as us.

Bobby Parker has been tearing up Washington D.C. area clubs for the past three decades. This Louisiana native was raised in Los Angeles, but the musical bug hit him, and by the mid-fifties he was playing with Paul Williams' band, backing up numerous R&B legends at the Apollo and on tour. Later he moved to DC, where he was a mainstay in the 14th Street clubs. In more recent years he has played a variety of Washington area venues. Bobby recorded a fine 45 for Vee-Jay which included a superb minor-key blues, Blues Get Off My Shoulder, with the first recording of You Got What It Takes (later a hit for Marv Johnson). A year later, he recorded for the Philadelphia V-Tone label, Watch Your Step, which was based on Dizzy Gillespie’s Manteca (with a bit of Ray Charles influence) that was by Spencer Davis. This record led him to be invited to Europe in the late sixties where Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page was one of his fans, and tried to sign him up to that label. He did record for Blue Horizon, cutting the great It’s Hard But It’s Fair.

The release of Bent Out of Shape by Parker on Black Top will certainly open a lot of ears that haven’t heard these rare records, or seen Bobby in performance. Bobby Radcliff told this writer that twenty years ago, Parker was as good as the better known Chicago stars like Otis Rush and Buddy Guy, and I understand from others, that this recording is not different from what Parker was doing twenty years ago. Having watched Bobby for several years one could sense here was someone special, and this recording captures it. The album is comprised of Bobby’s originals with the exception of the Carey Bell song, Break It Up, that Bobby often opens his live dates with. The remakes of his early recordings are all strong performances. Watch Your Step is a particularly hard-hitting reworking of his V-Tone recording, although without a vocal chorus. The title track is evocative of some of the late Z.Z. Hill’s recordings, but the band here plays with more of an edge, and Parker’s fiery guitar matches his deep soul singing. Bobby’s A-Go-Go actually a mistitled Go-Go Blues),his tribute to the Go-Go music scene, is perhaps the weakest track here, but that aside, the music here is first rate and almost worth the wait for it to come out. This is simply one of the best blues releases on Black Top of the past few years, set apart not only by Bobby’s strong guitar playing, but by his fervent, soulful blues preaching.

Here is a little clip of Bobby, Carlos Santana, Buddy Guy and vocalist Barbara Morrison that is on the Buddy Guy DVD that is part of the Carlos Santana Blues at Montreux DVD package I mentioned above.

Bobby Parker - The Link From Dizzy To The Beatles

It has been a couple days since my friend Bobby Parker passed on which has led to numerous expressions of sorrow of a loss of a terrific musician, but also a person. I will be blogging about Bobby's contributions to the blues and the DC music scene in subsequent posts, but for this post I want to focus on perhaps his most famous recording, Watch Your Step. As an introduction we have the late John Lennon discussing this recording and the impact it had on himself and The Beatles.

One thing Bobby does not say in this clip, but which he told me on several occasions, is that the guitar riff was itself inspired by a riff in Dizzy Gillepsie's Manteca. Bobby loved jazz and his long-term fans will remember him opening his shows with Thelonious Monk's Straight No Chaser, using the Miles Davis arrangement. here is a clip of Dizzy playing Manteca.

 Now let us listen to the full original V-Tone recording of Watch Your Step.

I will let you fine folk go to youtube on your own to listen to The Beatles. Incidentally, John Lennon is also said to have noted that not only I Feel Fine, but also Day Tripper were inspired by Watch Your Step.

Why I Was Elsewhere Yesterday

Bobby Parker was one of the highlights of the 1st DC Blues Festival.  If you are going to celebrate a 25th Festival you could have brought back some of the local legends still with us.

As a Duke Ellington composition puts it, “Things Ain’t What They Used To Be.” Looking back 24 years ago around this time I remember meetings that Michael Roach, Eleanor Ellis and I had at a District of Columbia recreation center  near Dupont Circle. The DC Blues Society held instrumental workshops at that recreation center where the likes of Neil Harpe and Michael Roach (then the Society’s President) would teach guitar and Charlie Sayles teach blues harmonica. I would conduct listening sessions of recordings from different blues traditions there as well. That afternoon, Mike mentioned that there was interest on some folks in having events East of the Anacostia River, and one such event turned into the first DC Blues Festival.

A few months later in late August 1989 (I believe two Saturdays prior to Labor Day weekend) the Society produced the DC Blues Festival in Anacostia Park. A couple hundred people showed up on that overcast day and I remember that Guest Services provided only one food truck (which ran out of food except ice cream), so I was hungry. I also remember was the outstanding music that day. The festival opened with Flora Molton joined by Eleanor Ellis opening with her truth music. Other acts that day included Franklin, Harpe & Usilton joined by Phil Wiggins; Archie Edwards; Ben Andrews; Bobby Parker; Nap Turner; the Uptown Rhythm Kings; and Jesse James & the Raiders. Charlie Sayles and His Blues Disciples (which also included Larry Wise) may also have performed. Also Mike Roach brought on the finger style guitar master, Duck Baker, who did a couple of wonderful numbers. 

Eleanor Ellis was among those who founded the DC Blues Society and helped produce the 1st DC Blues Festival. At the first festival she performed with Flora Molton. She is one of the finest acoustic blues practitioners alive. If she was at the Blues Festival, she would have been with the Archie Edwards Ensemble. She should have been on the main stage

In the intervening years a number of the performers, Flora Molton, Archie Edwards, Ben Andrews, Nap Turner and Jesse James (Johnson) passed on while the Uptown Rhythm Kings broke up. It should be noted that a number of the performers, Franklin, Harpe and Usilton, Daryl Davis, Bobby Parker and Charlie Sayles are still with us. Also with us are Eleanor Ellis who played with Flora Molton as well as Phil Wiggins, who sat in with Franklin, Harpe & Usilton. 

The next year, the Festival moved to Langdon Park in NE Washington where it was for three years and in 1993 the Festival moved to the Carter Barron where for the first few years it took place on the Saturday after Labor Day. What a line-up we had back then. It was the first time that we had Saffire-the Uppity Blues Women, along with Willie Kent and the Gents, Johnnie Johnson (Chuck Berry’s pianist); The Nighthawks, Jesse Yawn & the Soul Providers; The Whop Frazier Band; Mixed Blend with Bernée Colbert (and David Cole on guitar) and Eric Butz and Friends opened it. The mix of National acts and touring acts was quite something and acoustic blues was an integral part of the Festival.

Two years later on September 9, 1995, Bobby Parker headlined a festival line-up that also included Daryl Davis; the wonderful Mississippi Heat; Larry Wise; Delta blues man John Weston; West Virginia traditional bluesman Nat Reese and the trio of Franklin, Harpe and Usilton. Again I note the mix of acoustic and electric blues at the festival as well as an outstanding mix of local and national acts on the main stage.

Phil Wiggins and the Chesapeake Sheiks is a marvelous new group featuring one of the DC Blues Society's founders. 

Which brings me to this year’s DC Blues Festival, the 25th and the 21st at the Carter Barron. One would think the festival would be a celebration of the Society and its heritage and that at least one or two of the performers from the first few festivals might have been included in the line-up on the main stage. I will let you go to the DC Blues Society’s website to view the line-up for this year's festival. In my humble opinion a line-up that included Franklin, Harpe & Usilton (and friends); Charlie Sayles, Daryl Davis and/or Bobby Parker would be at least as entertaining (if not more so) than the scheduled line-up. You could have celebrated Bobby's Birthday. I would not be as negative about this line-up if this wasn’t the 25th Festival and the line-up indicated some awareness of the Society and Festival's history. The Archie Edwards Barbershop Jambassadors (who usually include Eleanor Ellis and Rick Franklin) should have been on the main stage, not outside the main gate of the Carter Barron. Phil Wiggins could have been featured with his marvelous new ensemble the Chesapeake Sheiks. Even if just one or two of these performers had been part of the main stage, it would made things better.  All I know is that the DC Blues Festival ain’t what it used to be.

I should note that no one from the DC Blues Society came to me asking for suggestions for this year’s festival (or my reaction). If they are unhappy with my criticisms and believe they had an outstanding line-up, that is fine. Its free and I am sure those who attended enjoyed themselves But it could have been better. I was elsewhere.

The photos in today's blog entry are © Ron Weinstock

Happy Birthday Bobby Parker

Two DC Music Icons - Bobby Parker (on left) and the late Chuck Brown (on right)
Photo © Ron Weinstock

One of this city's true icons, Bobby Parker, turns 76 today. He was born in Lafayette, Louisiana August 31, 1937. If you are in the Washington DC area today and want a double dose of great blues, catch Chris Thomas King's early set at Blues Alley and then head out to Madam's Organ for Bobby's last Saturday of the month show.  For more on Bobby you can check out his All Music biography. Here is the link to Bobby's own website, http://bobbyparkerblues.net.

Here is Bobby doing one of his earliest recordings, Blues Get Off My Shoulder from the 1990's at Fleetwood's in Alexandria.

Here is Bobby from this past June at the Silver Spring (MD) blues festival.

WAMA - How about Jazzing Up Your Hall Of Fame

Edward 'Butch' Warren belongs in
the Hall of Fame of Washington DC Music

I have in the past blogged about Washington, DC area musicians that have been long overdue for being honored by the Washington Area Music Association in their Hall of Fame, In the past I have noted the Bobby Parker, DC's Blues Legend and major influence on many artists including Chuck Brown; Haywood 'Little Sonny' Warner, one of the greatest blues vocalists from the area; and Mr. Personality himself, Lloyd Price, who was based in Washington for several years and who made musical history here. Their continued omission in WAMA's Hall of Fame reflects poorly on those in WAMA who make the selections for the Hall of Fame.

I do have a couple of names from the world of jazz that also deserve to be recognized.

Edward 'Butch' Warren is a Washington native that in the sixties was one of the leading hard bop bassist and part of Blue Note's House Rhythm Section (Sonny Clark on piano and Billy Higgins on drums) for many sessions such as Clark's Leapin' and Lopin'; Dexter Gordon's Go and A Swinging Affair; Don Wilerson's Preach Brother! and Jackie McLean's Vertigo. He also recorded with Herbie Hancock, Takin' Off (with the original recording of Watermelon Man); Kenny Dorham's Una Mas; and Thelonious Monk's It's Monk Time. Warren, in fact, was part of Monk's Band for 1963 and 1964.   He has had hard times but his return to music in recent years has been very heartwarming and in 2011 he produced his first album as a leader, French 5Tet, that the website capitalbop.com selected as among the five best new DC jazz recordings of 2011. Few have produced such a body of recordings as he participated on. Here he is seen playing Kenny Dorham's Blue Bossa in France. He played on Dorham's original recording.

Carter Jefferson was one of the fine tenor saxophonists who emerged in the seventies and was taken too soon from us in 1993. He played in the backing bands of The Temptations, The Supremes and Little Richard before playing with Art Blakey and Mongo Santamaria. Between 1977-1980 he was a member of Woody Shaw's Band, arguably the leading hard bop ensemble of that time. After his time with Shaw, he spent time with Elvin Jones, Roy Haynes, Cedar Walton, Jerry Gonzalez, Malachi Thompson, and Jack Walrath.  He only recorded one album as a leader, but left an impressive body of work on the recordings by Shaw and others. Here is carter Jefferson as part of Woody Shaw's great band.

There are others that are also worthy including the marvelous drummer, composer, educator and leader, Nasar Abadey; or the legendary pianist and composer, Freddie Redd, who recorded for Blue Note as well as composed music from the legendary play, The Connection. I am sure Michael West from the Washington City Paper and other publications, or Luke Stewart and Giovanni Russonello from capitalbop.com could make additional suggestions. 

Blue Bird Blues Festival Celebrates 20 With Bobby Bland

Bobby Bland at the 2004 Pocono Blues Festival. Photo © Ron Weinstock

The 20th Annual Blue Bird Blues Festival takes place Saturday, September 22 at Prince George's Community College with the legendary Bobby 'Blue' Bland headlining. The Free Festival takes place from 12:30–6 p.m. at Prince George’s Community College's Largo campus. There will be the live entertainment, along with children’s activities, music workshops, food and crafts to engage the senses and offer entertainment for the whole family. Admission is free. 

Headlining will be the great Bobby Bland. Bland has been one of the most prominent blues singers for over fifty years with countless classic recordings. He has been honored by The Blues Foundation by being inducted to The Blues Hall of Fame as well as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and The Rhythm and Blues Foundation who awarded him a Pioneer Award. Bland had 23 top ten hits on the Billboard R&B charts including Farther Up the Road, I'll Take Care of You, I Pity the Fool and Turn On Your Love Light. The English Ace label labelled a compilation of some of his classic Duke Recordings simply as The Voice. 

In more recent years, Bland has been recording for Malaco and continues to produce timeless and soulful blues recordings including Members Only, You've Got to Hurt Before You Heal and a terrific cover of Ain't No Sunshine. Bland has long been a favorite in the Washington DC area, and it is a coup for the Blue Bird Festival to be featuring him this year.

The Orioles at Wilson Plaza, Washington DC in 2010. Photo © Ron Weinstock

Also on the line-up on the outdoor stage will be Clarence Carter. Carter, like Bland, has been a mainstay on the southern soul-blues circuit for decades with such classic recordings as "Patches" and "Strokin'." Local favorites Bobby parker and The Orioles will be among those performing on the main outdoor stage. There will also be a full program of blues also at the the Nap Turner Stage located in Queen Anne Fine Arts. Performers on this stage include Daryl Davis, Phil Wiggins, Little Bit A Blues featuring Warner Williams & Jay Summerour, and The Jewels. 

It promises to be a terrific day of blues and congratulations to Prince George's Community College for continuing this terrific annual event.

Dr. S.O. Feelgood and Chick Willis Highlights of Lamont's Blues Fest

Chick Willis takes to the crowd at Lamont's

It was a nice day of downhome blues, Saturday May 19 at Lamont’s for a Blues Festival in PoMonkey MD. Featuring mostly Washington DC area performers along with the Stoop Down day, a few hundreds came out to the picnic grounds and Entertainment Complex.

Chet Hines aka Dr. S.O. Feelgood

The day started with the Lady Rose Band. Lady Rose is a good singer and her band is tight although the guitarist sounded a bit heavy handed at times. Also, the material was mostly covers with a fair amount of funk and soul and less focus on blues. Chet Hines aka Dr. S.O. Feelgood was up next with one of the highlights of the day. With a tight trio of backing musicians, Dr. S.O. Feelgood encouraged the crowd to party while he sang about his preference for full figured women with meat on their bones singing. He brings so much personality and interacts with the crowd so well and at one point sang his heart out withour a microphone.

Jim Bennett

Members of Clarence ‘Bluesmen’ Turner Band were late, so to help pass the time, Jim Bennett, a local southern soul performer of note did a couple of numbers including a blues. Bennett is a smooth, expressive singer in the vein of a Jerry Butler. After a further delay Clarence ‘The Bluesman’ Turner and turned a lengthy set (which pushed back the starting time for two headliners) that included a nice rendition of Little Johnny Taylor’s “Everybody Knows About My Good Thing,” as well as some blues warhorses like “Sweet Home Chicago.”

Chick Willis

Next up was Chick Willis, backed by Bobby Parker’s rhythm section. Opening up with his “Rib Shack,” it was a set of songs that might be familiar from Chick’s fans, but performed with feeling and panache as he went out into the audience a couple times, before performing his classic “Stoop Down Baby” to the audience’s delight. Bobby Parker came on shortly after “Stoop Down,” bring up the rest of his band, opening with a solid rendition of Guitar Slim’s “(You Give Me) Nothin’ But the Blues,” and some Albert King numbers that sounded as solid as eve. Dusk was approaching, so we left before Bobby’s set ended. Afterwards, there was an after-party inside with the soul-funk Gridlock Band.

Bobby Parker

It was a gorgeous day of weather for the music. Lamont’s will be celebrating its 22nd year on June 9 with a soulful revue that includes Eddie Levert, lead singer of The O’Jays; Frank Washington, lead singer of The Spinners; The Hardway Connection, previous winners of the International Blues Challenge and other groups. The Dc Blues Society will be presenting a day of blues at Lamont’s July 21 with the Daddy Mack Blues Band and Preston Shannon headlining.

Dancing to the Stoop Down man, Chick Willis

Chuck Brown Godfather of Go Go Has Passed On.

Chuck Brown at 2009 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival

Chuck Brown, the Godfather of Go Go, that uniquely Washington DC musical form of funk, passed away Wednesday, May 16 at the age of 75.

Chris Richards in the Washington Post obituary described what Chuck Brown did in creating the musical form, “Like a DJ blending records, Mr. Brown used nonstop percussion to stitch songs together and keep the crowd on the dance floor, resulting in marathon performances that went deep into the night. Mr. Brown said the style got its name because “the music just goes and goes.” In addition to his originals he adapted songs from Duke Ellington (It Don’t Mean A Thing Unless It’s Got That Go Go Swing); Louis Jordan (Run Joe); T-Bone Walker (Stormy Monday); James Moody's Moody's Mood and Memphis Slim (Everyday i Have The Blues) in his marathon medleys.

While Brown enjoyed some commercial success including “Bustin’ Loose” which topped the Rhythm and Blues charts for several weeks, neither he or other Go Go Bands were ever able to break Go Go outside of the DC metropolitan area. Locally, he was a King and his music inspired and was heard by generations of Washingtonians. I worked with those who went to Brown’s shows, just like their parents had done decades earlier and his recent shows had audiences from 18 to 60. He also played festivals worldwide as this writer saw him at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in 2009.

Chuck Brown at 2010 Tinner Hill Blues Festival

Brown’s brand of funk brought a wide range of musical elements including jazz, latin, gospel and blues, in addition to classic funk and soul. He himself acknowledged the impact of seeing DC blues legend Bobby Parker in inspiring him to be a guitarist and Parker remained a lifetime friend. The two did a couple of shows as part of the annual Tinner Hill Blues Festival, where Brown gave his spin on a number of classic blues songs. Parker himself was influenced by Brown and recorded at least one Go Go Blues number. Also, in conjunction with the Tinner Hill Foundation, Brown provided the narration to Beverly Lindsay-Johnson’s award winning short documentary film “John Jackson; A Blues Treasure.” This film is shown annually at the Tinner Hill Blues Festival.

Chuck Brown will be missed but his many musical achievements will long be part of the DC musical fabric.  Here is the link to the Washington Post obituary.


Here is Chuck Brown performing "Hootchie Cootchie Man."

DC Area Has The Blues

Chick Willis returns to Lamont's for the Lamont's Blues Festival

Just want to highlight and make some comments on upcoming blues events in the Washington Metropolitan area through June that folks might want to be aware of.

Yesterday I attended a production Women of the Blues that takes place at the Creative Cauldron at ArtSpace Falls Church in Falls Church Virginia. This is a blues review that is described as celebrating the lives and music of some of the greatest divas of the 20th Century. Directed by internationally acclaimed artist, Matt Conner, the show will take audiences on a soulful and sassy journey though some of the most memorable songs in the blues canon. It is being produced in conjunction with the Tinner Hill Foundation. It will run this and the next two weekends, Thursday through Sunday through May 20. The Creative Cauldron’s website is http://www.creativecauldron.org/. The link for tickets to this show is http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/193640#comments and there will be a bit more information on the production there.

Ruthie Foster will be at the Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival

Two weekends from now there will be two blues events in the Washington area. The annual Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival takes place May 19 and 20. This event takes place at Sandy Point State Park in Annapolis and is a fundraiser for charities. Frankly, the festival is more of a blues-rock event, especially on Sunday with Jonny Lang as a headliner and performers like Albert Cummings although the Swiss artist Phillippe Faunkauser sounds promising. Sarturday, up against the Preakness in Baltimore, has a stronger line-up for those who want blues, not blues-tinged rock including Janiva Magness, Ruthie Foster and the Delta Guitar Slingers with Michael Burks, Bernard Allison and Lurrie Bell. I would also not mind seeing the Tedeschi-Trucks Band but would have to sit through Big Head Todd to wait for them. For more information on this festival, check www.bayblues.org.

Bobby Parker will be at the Lamont's Blues Festival

An alternative for a straight blues show on May 19 is the Lamont’s Blues Festival at Lamont’s in Indian Head (PoMonkey), Maryland. Performing at Lamont’s will be Chet ‘Dr. Feelgood’ Hines, Lady Rose, Clarence ‘The Bluesman’ Turner, along with DC Blues Legend Bobby Parker and the Stoop Down Man, Chick Willis. After the show outside, it will move indoors for the after-party with the Gridlock Band until the night runs late. Lamont’s Entertainment Complex is at 4400 Livingston Road, Pomonkey, MD 20640 and a phone number is 240 393-2525. It is easier for me to get to and less hassles. Also, every chance I have to see Chick Willis I try not to miss him. I intend to be here unless the Washington capitals are still in the playoff and playing at home.

Walter Wolfman Washington will be at the Western Maryland Blues Festival

The first weekend of June brings the Western Maryland Blues Festival in Hagerstown Maryland. Actually it starts on Thursday May 31 with a prelude show. It begins in earnest on Friday evening, June 1 with a nice line-up of Skyla Burrell Band, Billy Thompson Band, Walter “ Wolfman” Washington & the Roadmasters and Matt Schofield Blues Project. Saturday June 2 the festival has two stages of blues with Hard Swimmin’ Fish, Mike Westcott Band featuring Tommy Lepson, Trampled Under Foot, Ronnie Earl & The Broadcasters, Moondog Medicine Show, Moreland & Arbuckle, The Lee Boys and Walter Trout. Both Friday night and Saturday’s shows take place in downtown Hagerstown. Sunday, there is the annual Festival in the Park at Hagerstown City Park with Paul Pfau Blues Band, Stack O’ Blues, Bad Influence Band and Bobby Parker Band. For more information including cost of tickets for Friday night and Saturday, see www.blues-fest.org.

Ironing Board Sam will be at the Tinner Hill Blues Festival as part of the Music Makers Revue

The following weekend, the same as the Chicago Blues Festival is the annual Tinner Hill Blues Festival produced by the Tinner Hill Foundation and held in the City of Falls Church VA City Park. On Friday night, June 8, the Festival presents at the State Theatre, the wonderful Texas blues powerhouse, Diunna Greenleaf & Blue Mercy. with the superb guitarist Jonn Del Toro Richarson. Saturday, June 9, the Festival takes place at several locations. There will be blues at the weekly farmer’s Market. At 10 Am, Dianna Braithwaite & Chris Whiteley present the history, music and legacy of the Underground Railroad and its connection to Blues Music! at the Falls Church Community Center. At 11:00PM Big Ron Hunter from the Music Maker Blues Revue will create a Tinner Hill Blues Song at his Songwriting Workshop also at the Community Center. The main festival takes place at Cherry Hill Park with performers including the Big Boy Little Band, The Pluckerland Band, Cathy Ponton King Band, Dianna Braithwaite & Chris Whiteley, the Kelly Bell Band, and the Music Maker Revue with Ironing Board Sam, Big Ron Hunter, Ardie Dean, Sol Creech and Pat “Mother Blues” Cohen. There will be screening of the film, “John Jackson; A Blues Treasure”

Other events include a showing of the award-winning short film documentary film on the life and music of John Jackson by film maker Beverly Lindsay-Johnson and narrated by DC legend Chuck Brown, and “Call it the Blues”, a juried Art Show, awards presentation at Art & Frame of 111 Park Avenue  Falls Church, VA 22046 which will be on view all weekend! The winner will be announced at the Festival at Cherry Hill Park. On Sunday, June 10 the Mad Fox Brewing Company & Restaurant will host a Blues Brunch, Tribute and Open Jam featuring musicians associated with the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation. For more information on the festival check out the Tinner Hill website, http://tinnerhill.org/blues-festival. Note that some events have a charge. For more information visit http://tinnerhill.org/blues-festival. I hope to attend some of the events although I will also be attending some of the annual DC Jazz Festival that takes place June 1 through June 10.

Warner Williams will be at the Silver Spring Blues Festival

Two following weekend on Saturday June 16 will be two free blues festivals. The Columbia Pike Blues Festival takes place at the intersection of South Walter Reed and Columbia Pike in Arlington, Virginia. Performers include Karl Stoll & the Danger Zone, Moondog Medicine Show, Danny Blew and the Blues Crew, Chris Polk and headliners Peter Karp and Sue Foley. Information on the festival is at http://www.columbia-pike.org/?page_id=2172. The same day in downtown Silver Spring, the Silver Spring Blues Festival will take place with an electric stage lineup that is headlined by Warner Williams and also includes Moonshine Society, Fast Eddie & the Slowpokes, and DC Blues Society Band featuring Ayaba Bey. On the acoustic stage will be the Archie Edwards Blues Foundation Ensemble; Sheryl Sears Trio and Cooking with Gas. For more information on this event see http://silverspring.patch.com/events/4th-annual-silver-spring-blues-festival-at-downtown-silver-spring.

That captures some of the more significant blues events in the Washington DC area through mid-June. All photos on this blog entry copyright Ron Weinstock

Whop Frazier - How Bluesy Can You Get

Word came out towards the end of 2011 that William ‘Whop’ Frazier had passed. I had known Whop for about two decades, although I cannot remember when I first saw him, but he played with about everybody playing blues and classic R&B around the Washington DC area. After working as a side man he joined a gospel group and later joined the Bad Influence Band, with whom he recorded his and their first album.

Whop then started his own band, Whop Frazier and Friends By Choice which played throughout the region over the past couple decades. It was always a solid band that would mix in a few R&B chestnuts along with classic and original blues. If Whop played with everybody, pretty much everyone played with Whop at times. Jesse Yawn often sang with Whop and tenor saxophonist Ron Holloway (formerly with Dizzy Gillespie and now touring with Warren Haynes) was a not infrequent guest in Whop’s band over the years. Drummer Earl Ivey and Washington keyboard legend Jackie Hairston were regulars in his group over the years although for specific gigs personnel could change.

Whop Frazier and Friends By Choice Summer 2008 at Wilson Plaza in Washington DC.
From left to right - Jackie Hairston, Whop Frazier, Earl Ivey and (I believe) Tom Newman.

Whop had a warm smile for everyone and it was felt when he sang. He reworked How Blue Can You Get, singing ‘bluesy’ instead of blues and made you feel so good. And he knew how to get the dance floor filled with renditions of Mustang Sally, and other classic R&B numbers like Some Kind of Wonderful or Turn Back The Hands Of Time. Guitarists Michael Tash and Bobby Thompson were among those who developed their chops playing with Whop while Tom Newman or Harold Flood was his featured guitarist over the past few years.

Whop was born August 31, 1943 in Washington DC. In an interview with Felix McLairen published in the December 2008 issue of the DC Blues Society’s newsletter, Capital Blues Messenger, Whop talked about his career and life noting that he “lived and grew up around 14th & U Streets. I hung out a lot and spent time around the Howard Theater just a few blocks from where I lived.”

“I became interested in music ‘cause I was hanging around musicians all the time. I was a young teenager when I started trying to play guitar and got tips from “Skip” Pitts. He was the guitarist who did the wah-wah thing for Isaac Hayes. He said my fingers were too long for the guitar and suggestedI take up electric bass. … I was gigging by the time I was about 14. I played at the Spa Club on 14th and T Streets. I also played the Coach Lounge where Billy Stewart sometime played. In fact, I dated Billy’s cousin for a while. I also played with Bill Harris at clubs on U Street.” Billy Stewart had a number of hits for Chess Records and Bill Harris was an original member of The Clovers as well as a pioneering jazz and blues guitarist.

He first went on the road at the age of 17 with Dee Clark. Locally he “played with Jesse Yawn, Eddie Daye & the 4 Bars. When I was in my early twenties I gigged with Little Royal, Wilson Pickett, and Pookie Hudson. … I started playing Top 40, jukebox tunes. I got into the Blues mostly when I got with Bobby Parker. Bobby was in his twenties and playing with a lot of [local and national] big names, like B.B. King. Later on I also did shows with Blues musicians like Junior Wells, James Cotton, and Bobby Blue Bland.” He stayed with Bobby for ten or so years playing the chitlin’ circuit and credited Bobby for getting him to sing.

Whop explained how he got his nickname, “Well, it came about for a couple reasons. I started out using a pick on the bass that made a whopping sound. But as a teenager I also was known for exaggerating. The guys laughed and talked about me telling whoppers of tales. One of ‘em suggested they call me Whop. The name stuck.”

Memphis Gold, Harold Flood, Tom Principato and Whop Frazier at 2006 Columbia Pike Blues Festival

Whop recorded at several albums that gave a sense of what he was like to hear live. They may not have been innovative, but full of his solid, heartfelt and ebullient blues and soul. His first album was with Bad Influence and then two self-released studio albums, Bathtub Blues and Here I Go Again. A performance at the Bluebird Blues Festival is available at itunes and amazon as a download. On this latter album harmonica player Roger Edsall joins the band with Harold Flood on guitar. Whop could be relied on for solidly played and always entertaining music. Even when not performing, he was there to attend and support other local bluesman. It was always great to see him, whether catching him perform or simply chatting with him. I am among the countless many who will miss him.

He died at the age of 68 on December 22, 2011 of complications from lung and bone cancer. He is survived by his loving wife, Dolores “DeDe” Frazier, four daughters, Amber M. Frazier, Shula Payton, Lisa Frazier, and Cynthia Brooks; three sons, William Frazier Jr., David Frazier, and Isaac Calhoun. He is also survived by 9 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren.

Here is a youtube video Whop used for promotional purposes from 2010 with Jackie Hairston, Earl Ivey and Harold Flood on guitar.

Memphis Gold's Story Part 5

Memphis Gold and Deborah Coleman
Photo © Memphis Gold

In August 2009, Joe Kessler and I had a chance to interview Chester Chandler, the blues performer known as Memphis Gold for the Dutch publication Block. This interview was translated into Dutch for publication, but we have felt it would be helpful to have the interview in English. Joe transcribed it and leftThis is the fourth of several parts that will be running the next few days. I should point out that interviews with Memphis Gold have appeared in Jefferson Blues, Blues & Rhythm and Living Blues.

I assumed the name “K.D.” when I got there. When I got there I had to have a name, so I was “Little K.D. King”. Everybody wanted to come in and play with me. They’d put their name on the list and ask to play with me. I was playing lead then and kicking butt. William Goldman and O.C. Nunn out of Chicago would come in. William Goldman recruited me to play at the DC Blues Society’s first Blues competition. 

I finally got a place to stay in a prestigious neighborhood near Nebraska Avenue. The guy let me stay in his basement, an Italian guy. And he would let me keep his properties up, keeping them real nice. So I had a place to stay until I met Barbara (my wife) in late ’93-94 and I moved in with her.

The week I met Barbara, I had already contracted out with Deborah Coleman and Willie Hicks. It was me, Willie Hicks, Deborah Coleman, and a guy named Slam. She said she needed a rhythm guitar player. I met her at India Gate in Adams Morgan (DC). She came to see me play that night. It was me, Willie, and a drummer, Morris. We were a three piece and we used to pack the India Gate, man. We went down to Walnut Creek down in North Carolina. That’s the first time I saw Roy Roberts, I got a chance to play with him, and also I got a chance to play with Bob Margolin. Deborah was opening up for Bob. She met this guy, Keith Federman who became her manager. He didn’t like me. When I opened up, I was killer. I’m walkin all through the crowd, doin my thing, I opened up for Deborah for at least 30 minutes, so I’m outshining her, you know. He didn’t like that. He fired me. I was with Deborah for about a year.

Then I met Charlie Sayles when I went down to Manute Bol’s to jam one night. Charlie said he’d heard of me but never met me, and that everybody used to tell him he needs to get with this guy, K.D. At time, Charlie was sleeping in front of Central Union Mission. I invited him to my house where he spent the night. It just so happened that the next day I was going to the studio to make a little demo. It was me, O.C., and Charlie. From then on, me and Charlie started playing together. It was Barbara’s idea that it was time for me to start doing my own thing, so I started doing my own thing.

Then we started playing at Whitlow’s, J.V.’s, Smokehouse Blues in Centreville. Charlie had me play with him at Fleetwood’s (Mic Fleetwood’s club in Alexandria VA). One day, Barbara’s attorney found a guy from AFE (Armed Forces Entertainment), so then I started getting on the USO tours. Then everything was starting to roll real good. I had regular gigs all the time. I was the first guy to play at Whitlow’s. We were like the house band.

When I started on the USO tours, I was trying to get out of the clubs ‘cuz Barbara’s always had a good business sense and she said if you want to get bigger than what you are now, you gotta get out of the clubs. Then I started playing up at the casinos, like Trump Plaza, with this guy called Greek Horn (?). He said Memphis, if you’re going to get a Marquee value, you’re gonna have to get out of these small places. Since then I’ve played some clubs, but mostly I’ve been kind of silent, but steady going.

I started my first recording in 1997 and finished it in 1998. It was called Memphis Gold. Bobby Parker helped me produce it. I funded it myself. I was working cutting trees down. By this time, I started getting my own little tree company, too. I started climbing. I was climbing everyday and working in Vienna and Great Falls, making chunks and chunks of money. Times were good.

I learned quite a lot from Bobby doing my first album. Bobby didn’t want to give his total 100% to it because he was “one of the premiere blues guys around” and Bobby didn’t want nobody to outshine him, but he did help me with it and I paid him. I learned about mixing, recording, I learned how to do what Bobby said, make it big and fat. I learned what to do to bring over to my next CD which was Prodigal Son.

Memphis Gold at Pocono Blues Festival
Photo © Ron Weinstock

I played the Poconos in 2004, after I sent a demo to Michael Cloeren. When I played it, I was getting other people to try and learn my music, and nobody really wanted to rehearse, so to me, I thought it wasn’t a very good gig. Ralph Oliver was with me at that time, and he and his old lady had just had a big blowout. That just sent him out to the left field. We were on stage trying to grapple to get our shit together, because if you’re gonna do something, the Poconos is the place to do it, and I feel like I didn’t do as well as I could have done. From that day ‘till now, I feel like it was because of that mishap with him.

I enjoyed it, though. Just to be at the Poconos and carry on and play my guitar and have everybody taking pictures. It was a half a year later that the Prodigal Son CD came out. I feel like I was always a step behind. Even the CD I have out now, I was rushing it, I think I could have done a better job. By Prodigal Son, I was trying to show people that I am the real guy, I am the real deal. I wanted to show Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones that I’m the prodigal son, ‘cause I’m the guy who played with Robert Wilkins, the guy whose song you covered on Beggar’s Banquet. I was also trying to prove a point to myself.

I’m the prodigal son. I’m the one who left home, was homeless, and I was joining all this together as being the prodigal son.

I don’t know why I paid off my parents’ house, everybody in my family was begging. My sisters and brothers, too, none of them to this day can remember a dime I gave them. I had about $22,000 dollars. I was paying the light bills and everything, with a smile. I always smile. Every time you see me, normally, I’m the same person. My family was taking advantage of me at that time.


(To be continued)

Memphis Gold's Story Part 4

Charlie Sayles, Shawn Kellerman, Jordan Patterson, Gold at Fleetwood's 1996.
Photo © Ron Weinstock

In August 2009, Joe Kessler and I had a chance to interview Chester Chandler, the blues performer known as Memphis Gold for the Dutch publication Block. This interview was translated into Dutch for publication, but we have felt it would be helpful to have the interview in English. Joe transcribed it and leftThis is the fourth of several parts that will be running the next few days. I should point out that interviews with Memphis Gold have appeared in Jefferson Blues, Blues & Rhythm and Living Blues.


When I came back to Memphis, I started working on the river. I was doing revetment work. I was going on the Mississippi River taking big chunks of land out and sinking mats down with concrete, with wire in them. I was a pretty smart black guy, and the offices were run by the white guys. The white guys were in the office and the black guys were doing all the hard labor - from Friar’s Point, down on 49, the crossroads. All these guys were coming from Memphis and Mississippi to work on the river. I was what they used to call a voucher examiner. I was kind of smart and made E-6 (in the navy). They hired me. Guys would stay out 30 days at a time and I’d figure up where they’d stay for a month in the hotel and send it back to Memphis on a government voucher. They’d get paid 30 days and get paid enough money to go out for 30 more days.

I’d go from Cairo, IL all the way down to Gretna, LA. Some of the guys would go down on a boat, I drove down in a van with the office personnel. We’d go down this long highway 61 with so much fog, really foggy, one time I was driving and ran up on two little lights. I was panicking, and it was two little white old ladies, who had a head on incident with a guy who was drunk in a truck. And the motor had pinned these ladies. They were like a pancake. So the guy had a truckload of beer, and the top of his head was cut, a big chunk was cut out.
We’d drive down and stay in hotels for 30 days. Then we’d go on to Clarksdale, then on to Greenville, then to Yazoo. I was steadily going down in Mississippi, and I’m looking for Juke joints down there too. I’m looking at all these guys and starting to get my blues thing on. I got me a guitar, out of the pawn shop, an electric, and amp. I started playing, again. If you went into a Juke joint, and you could play guitar, you were the shit. And I could pull a girl every night and take her back to my hotel room. I was playing a lot of Jimmy Reed stuff. “Oh baby, you don’t have to go…” 

I’d get into a long groove, maybe John Lee Hooker stuff. Straight ahead stuff. And then I finally ran into a guy who was doing a lot of Howlin’ Wolf stuff. He called himself “Little Howlin’ Wolf”. And I thought “Man, this guy is rollin!” To me, Howlin’ Wolf is the very best I’ve ever heard of blues guys. When it comes to Howlin’ Wolf, this guy put everything into it. So I started to get into a little Howlin’ Wolf stuff. And I started to build a little confidence and started singing, because if you didn’t sing, you were just laying back playing. When I started playing with the Fieldstones, man, those guys wouldn’t let me sing or do nothing. All I could do was play rhythm. 

When I got back to Memphis, I started playing all over Memphis. That was for about 3 years. Around 84, I was playing regularly with the Fieldstones, Ben Wilson and the Hollywood All-stars, with Uncle Ben in the park, with Earl the Pearl.

When I was 14 or 15, I used to play with Big Lucky Carter. He was living in Orange Mound at the time, I used to sit on the front porch with him, he was playing different stuff and I really got a lot from Big Lucky. He showed me a lot of chords. Memphis sat in with Big Lucky when Carter was among the featured Memphis blues acts at a 1997 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Big Lucky sat in with Memphis at his regular gig at Whitlow's at the time). 

I was playing for tips out in the park. Then, all of a sudden, I became one of them main stage guys. It happened so fast. People from overseas were coming to find some blues and I was playing with the JJ Blues Band. After playing with the Fieldstones, I started to get my own little thing together with these other guys: Little Howlin’ Wolf, a guy named John Moore, and so we started playing in the park. David Evans, Evelyn Young (sax player), and my sweetheart, Jesse Mae Hemphill. We were playing in the park. Jesse Mae was playing with bells on her feet and a big cowboy hat on, and have chewing tobacco in her mouth and she’d kiss me, and whoa no! Then David started giving me little gigs and stuff and I was following them around, the older cats, like Little Apple White, Wilroy Sanders and Wordy B. Perkins. Little Apple White was a good singer. I started watching him sing, that’s when I started singing. “If I don’t start singing, man, I’m just gonna be a rhythm guitar player.”

How I really made my mark with these groups is when I got a wireless. They didn’t know anything about a wireless. So I could step out in the crowd, and pick with my teeth, and behind my head.

At that time I had a little bit of money because I had started working at the Humko Oil Company and at the post office part time. I was different from everybody because I used to wear a suit and tie into the Juke joints. I had to do this because the only time you could go out on the river was in the late fall.

Memphis Gold at Church in Memphis
Photo © Memphis Gold

After a while, I was getting kind of sick of Memphis. It was getting commercial, and white guys were getting all the (music) jobs. They were kicking us out. Beale Street was changing. They were coming back to the Elvis Presley thing, rockabilly. And then I was tired. I’m the type of person that stays at a place only so long, and is kind of worldly. I’ve always been a world traveler. I was the only one of my father’s kids who would take off and go where they wouldn’t see me for a long time. I was the prodigal son.

I left Memphis in 1991. I drew all my retirement down from the government, and I paid my parent’s house off. And I had $100 and a 1 way bus ticket and said, “Where am I going?” And I came to DC, arrived to stay at the Central Union mission on a Friday. They put me on lockdown. They said if you’re gonna stay here, you have to stay here for the whole weekend, and be indoctrinated, and you have to stay until Monday morning. I started keeping my clothes at the bus station. Everyday I would go to the bus station and change so I wouldn’t look homeless. I walked around until my $100 ran out, and then I started to pan-handle a little bit, but I said this ain’t me. The heck with this. So I went up in Tenlytown (DC). I put an application in at Hechinger’s (hardware) and I got the job, but I was still homeless. I was going back to the shelter every night.

Then things got a little better for me and I started working for United Methodist Church near New York Avenue, doing custodial work. They started letting me stay at church and gave me the keys. They trusted me so much. I was a southern boy and had a southern aire about me. I saved up and got a lawn mower from Hechinger’s. I got my own customers, cutting lawns and landscaping. I didn’t have a car, and would walk miles from Maryland into DC with my lawn mower. I started making some money, and one day went to a pawn shop at 14th and P, and saw a Stratocaster that was $600. “Aww man, I had $50 in my pocket.” I put it in layaway. And I worked 4 or 5 months or so, real real hard, until I got that Stratocaster.

Then I walked around the corner to the Vegas Lounge. Big Foot Emmitt Cottrell was on drums. Tony or Gale on bass. Willie Hicks would be there sometimes. I would sit in with them on an open jam, and they said, “Man! Where did you come from?” I said I’m from Memphis on Beale Street, and jet said, “I gotta have you, man!” Jet started paying me $40 on the weekends. Bobby Parker would come in every now and then, and also Phil Flower Sr. I got to play with him.

Memphis Gold and Ron Weinstock
Photo courtesy Ron Weinstock

(To be continued)