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UP OUT OF THE ASHES:
The Juke Joint Boys
The Juke Joint Boys-David and Kinney Kimbrough, sons of Junior Kimbrough, and Gary Burnside, son of R.L. Burnside-recently recorded a CD, Up Out Of The Ashes, that pays tribute to the music of the late Junior Kimbrough. The CD was co-produced by the band and Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi All Stars. The trio, known earlier as the Soul Blues Boys, were the house band at Junior Kimbrough’s juke joint in
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photograph by Yancey Allison
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Chulahoma, Mississippi, before the club’s destruction by fire-hence the title of the CD. Since the fire the band has tried to reestablish the local juke joint tradition in several locations, and according to David Kimbrough the band will soon by playing regularly at Annie Moffitt’s place in downtown Holly Springs, Mississippi.
Up Out Of The Ashes is on the Juke Joint Music label, co-owned by David Kimbrough and Adrian Pinson. The pair intend to build a studio in downtown Holly Springs and to record several more tribute CDs to Junior Kimbrough, original material by David Kimbrough, and the music of other local blues and gospel artists. To read more about the band and order the CD, see www.jukejointmusic.com.
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MAKING WAVES IN DALLAS-FORT WORTH: HASH BROWN
While most cities outside of Chicago have only a few clubs that feature blues, the Dallas/Fort Worth scene has remained vibrant year after year, with at least a dozen good blues clubs keeping T-Bone’s legacy alive. One of the most active players on the scene is Connecticut transplant Hash Brown, who has been in Texas for nearly 20 years—before he moved to the area he tried his hand at construction, worked in a GM plant, and did a stint in college, where he majored in “pinball and pool.” A triple threat on guitar, harmonica, and vocals, Brown plays six or seven nights a week at clubs such as the Bone, the
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photograph by Scott Ferris
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Hole in the Wall, and R.L. Grifffin’ Blues Palace in Dallas, as well as J and J’s Blues Bar and Key’s Lounge in Ft. Worth. Many of these nights he’s hosting jam sessions with guests including Sam Myers, Lazy Lester, Kid Ramos, Bob Kirkpatrick, B’nois King, Shuggie Otis, Boz Scaggs, and Hank Ballard. Younger guitarists who he’s helped along the way include Pat Boyack, Mike Morgan, Shawn Pittman, and Johnny Moeller.
photograph by Scott M. Bock
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Shortly after moving to Texas, Brown took up residence next door to the legendary Zuzu Bollin, whom he met through Chuck Nevitt of the Dallas Blues Society label. The two soon became a team, touring and recording an album for Antone’s Records. A pattern of working with elder bluesmen developed. After Zuzu’s death, Hash connected with the reclusive Henry Qualls, providing steady lead and rhythm work in accordance with Qualls’ ragged timing. Brown appears with Qualls on the latter’s debut CD as well as on several compilations and often plays with Qualls at the latter’s self-described shack in Elmo, Texas. The two have also to rare gigs in the Northeast and even to Europe.
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Brown has also played with the idiosyncratic pianist Whistlin’ Alex Moore, and for about a year and a half he split time working in the bands of U.P. Wilson and Willie Willis. For years Brown roomed with Sam Myers—they still play together whenever Sam is in town and can be heard together on Cannonball’s . 1999 release Hash Brown’s Texas Blues Review, which also features Bollin, Big Al Dupree, Darrell Nulisch, and other Texas stalwarts. In the mid-’90s Brown befriended drummer S.P. Leary and helped establish S.P. Leary Day in Dallas (although Leary is best known for his work in Chicago with Muddy and Wolf, he went to high school in Dallas and played with T-Bone Walker). Hash and S.P. appear together on Barrelhouse Chuck’s recent CD A Salute to Sunnyland Slim. More recently, Hash has worked and recorded with Big Al Dupree and the recently deceased Robert Ealey, on whose three CDs Brown plays harp. His recordings are rapidly adding up with three of his own and twenty three others as a member of the band or part of a compilation. In May he’ll be touring Europe for a month. -Scott M. Bock
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News From Clarksdale, Mississippi
The cabin Muddy Waters lived in as a youth has returned to Clarksdale following a five year absence and has been reassembled inside the Delta Blues Museum. Originally located on Stovall Plantation just outside of Clarksdale, the cabin was leased to the House of Blues organization by the Stovall family in 1996. The cabin was displayed at the Chicago Blues Festival and the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, but for the last several years it has been stored in a New Orleans warehouse. The Delta Blues Museum plans to display the cabin along with other Muddy memorabilia, including the “Muddywood” guitar constructed out of wood from the cabin; for more information see the museum’s website www.deltabluesmuseum.org or call (662) 627-6820.
Also making a return to Clarksdale is Stackhouse Records, the former home of the Rooster Blues label. The store will reopen in early May in the same funky 232 Sunflower Avenue location, and will be run by Nancy Kossman, who worked at the store before it closed in 1998. The store will sell records, used books, and Mississippi gift items.
On May 27 a new club, Ground Zero, will open in a building adjacent to the Delta Blues Museum. The club will be open for lunch 7 days a week, and will feature a house band of local musicians Thursday to Sunday nights, led by music director Terry “Youngblood” Williams, formerly of the Stone Gas band. The club is jointly owned by Blues Foundation president Howard Stovall, Bill Luckett, and actor (and Mississippi resident) Morgan Freeman—the latter two recently opened a fine-dining restaurant, Madidi, in downtown Clarksdale.
Radio station WROX AM 1450, where deejay Early Wright broadcast for 51 years, switched to the talk radio format in 1999, but recently switched over to an all blues and soul format.
On a sad note: Rita Funderburk, one of the owners of Thompson’s Grocery in Bobo, Mississippi, just outside of Clarksdale, was killed during a robbery at the store on March 28. Her husband and five-year-old son were also injured during the incident. Thompson’s Grocery (a.k.a. Bobo Store) has been a longtime site for live blues and was rebuilt recently following a serious fire. Robert “Bilbo” Walker has been a frequent guest over the years, and the store was (before the fire) the setting for the Jelly Roll Kings’ performance in the television documentary River Of Song.
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