Thursday, March 20, 2008

Steinbecks...Northside Tavern






A great time had by most at Steinbecks monday night. My thanks to Irish Jim, the hard working crew, and the 80-100 or so that came through the door to see us play.

This weekend is another 'Chicken Raid' blues festival, in honor of Frank Edwards.

http://www.myspace.com/thechickenraid





Mr Frank was a great old dude....Once, about 12 years ago, Danny and I were playing in Beaufort,SC....Mr Frank asked to tag along 'so he could see he doctor'....

After a wild night, he woke us up and asked us to drive him waaaaayyyy out into the marshes. We arrived at a trailer with a garage next to it. Mr Frank walks into this grage while the hungover band waited in the van for his return. About a half hour later, he comes out and starts peeling off large bills to a middle aged black man.

I later found out this was the real life son of Minerva, the Lowcountry "root doctor" who works spells for Jim Williams in the Midnight in the Garden of good and evil. This was a decade before I even heard of the book or movie, yet unbeknownst to me I was meeting the progeny of a central character. To this day, it bothers the heck out of me that I do not know what went on in that garage.

I was honored to play with Mr Frank on his last performance in 2002. It was one of his strongest sets ever, and he was a very,very old bluesman.

The defining difference I noticed about Mr Frank was his atheism. Most old time blues stars and pioneers ( Like Cora Mae Bryant, pictued above ) were uber-religious. Not Mr Frank.

I hope he was wrong, and he's in blues heaven, drinking coke, eating cake and chasing big hipped women!

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