foggy headed Ponderosa Stomp report
The_Hook_Up
8,182 Posts
wow! so far so good! First off, the kickoff soul party was unbelievable! we got about 300 folks in the door(funking awesome for a sunday night) and I cant think of a party more world class soul being played...folks like Mr. Finewine, Tony Janda, High-C, Agent 45, soulmarcosa, Chase one from Memphix, and my little ol self playing the best tunes to dance and tie one on to. strutters like Pickwick 33 and Funky mcStay were in the house. Seriously, I cant think of a night in the world that had as many quality tunes going for 6 hours straight...We had a nice phone call also..."would it be possible to put Mr. Hubert Sumlin on the guest list?" Well, yes, it would be our pleasure...Then after only 2 hours of sleep, I manned a table at the record show. It was a small show, but it was quality...things like Strata raers, oneness of ju ju, dumb rare early RnB, 4 dollar copies of "Hey Joyce" and other gems all over the place. Plus I made some good scratch. Roy Head, for some reason, walked in the record show and yelled at me for some reason, and then walked away..strange dude.Then after the record show the festivites began...The first day was killing it with performances from the Hi-Rythmn section backing Percy Wiggins(man, what a voice), Wille Cobbs and a killer performance from Syl Johnson. In the other room Harvey Scales killed it, unfortunately the scheduling had Dennis Coffey playing on another stage at the same time...I only saw a couple minutes of him, but from the reports i got it was raw like "hair and thangs"...man. the Archie "If you see any Drells, youre drunk" Bell played. The horn section was rusty, but he tore it up. Then after Willie T, Eddie Bo took the stage...among other tunes, he brought out "Check your bucket" and "hook and sling". At this point I had been up for something like 18 hours drinking, so I dont have a good recollection of the rest of the night.Last night was rockabilly themed so I took off after DJing and seeing Lady Bo...perhaps someone else has a report...tonight, there is more soul with Barbara Lynn playing...cant wait!!!More reports and perhaps pictures(someone have any pics to post?) to follow...
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As for the rest of last night, Hayden Thompson, The Fabulous Wailers and Travis Wammack's solo set were all great. "Scratchy" was bittersweet. Wammack brought out his original bass player, who said he hadn't played bass with a pick in 30 years, and it showed....
Echoing Er*c's thoughts though, Syl Johnson and Harvey Scales were both in great form on Monday night. The only reason the horns were off during Archie Bell's set was because there were a couple (few?) players up there who weren't part of the regular Top Cats line-up and I don't think they had rehearsed at all - they just weren't ready for the Tighten Up.
Tonight's schedule... http://www.knights-maumau.com/night3.pdf
+ Syl Johnson
+ Eddie Bo
+ Archie Bell
+ Harvey Scales
+ Roy Head
+ Hi Rhythm Section
+ Partying until 6am
+ River Records
+ Pho Sai Gon
+ Crazy dancing girls
+ John the Big White Cat
= UNFUCKWITHABLE
Anyone who didn't show up in Memphis for this party is a punk.
Big props to Er*c & Andr*w for making my first trip to Memphis amazing.
ILL BE BACK!!!
Anytime dood! Thanks for coming out, hanging out, and playing out...was a lot of fun.
Still trying to digest the fact that all these people..Soulstrutters and Raer Legends alike were all in the same building...good fuggin times.
I am tired, really tired this Thursday AM...but was it ever worth it!
I have a few pics of Barbara Lynn and Bobby Patterson(glad I endured Filmore Slim's set, Bobby Patterson was worth the wait and torture) that I will post later...I know there are some folks who took pics Sunday and Monday night night..will try and track those folks down.
new orleans was busy wondering why ira decided to do this in memphis on the three weekdays directly after jazzfest. it truly made no sense and the buzz was negative in the city.
Great to meet Andrew and Brian. Great to hook up with a bunch of Memphis friends from before like Chad from Memphix.
William Bell was amazing - as he always is.
Barbara Lynn last night was even better.
Eric I think we still haven't met - but there's still time I'm sure.
OKAY? I live in a city where it's business as usual to see dull 12-bar shuffle "blooze" bands butchering "Hoochie Coochie Man." I didn't come all the way to Memphis to see Fillmore Slim doing the same thing. Actually he wasn't so bad back in the fifties (early 60's?) - I have his classic "You've Got The Nerve Of A Brass Monkey" on a compilation of Dootone's blues artists - but as of Sunday he wasn't really bringing much to the table (IMO). Bobby Patterson's southern soul and bizarre asides ("why you need 2Pac when 1Pac will get you a hamhock?") were more to the point.
This was from a bit where he made fun of his son being a huge hip-hop fan, and proceeded to spoof the names of rap acts. There were other examples, but that was the only one I remember (besides, his delivery was so rapid that most of the audience didn't get it right away). There was also another weird spoken word bit that he repeated - something about "when I die, don't bury me deep, just put a bowl of chitlins at my feet, and gimme some biscuits to sop up the gravy & meat" (okay, I'm messing it up, but it was something along those lines). And I thought that guy from Lansky Bros. clothing store (in Memphis) had some twisted sayings...
If I write more, I'll post it. Didn't take any photos though; forgot my camera.
Coffey fools
Harvey batches
eddie doods
Buckwheat tricks (this dude worked a Hammond for three days straight, 6 hours a day)....dude is dude
I didn't get in nearly as much record digging as I would have liked, but really enjoyed my first real trip to Memphis. I was in a garage band who had a show at the young st. deli cancelled on us back in 2000 which was the only other time I had been there. Now I'm looking forward to going back!
The highlights of the Stomp were many but I, for one, really missed The Rock N Bowl (which was not an option for reasons which occured pre-Katrina). The Gibson guitar factory is very...professional and seemed a bit too sterile for my tastes, not to mention the lack of real beer. But all in all, it was another highly memorable event which I'm glad to have been there to see.
Harvey Scales, Syl Johnson, Eddie Bo, William Bell (easily my favorite set), Clarence "Frogman" Henry, Hayden Thompson (and here I didn't think I liked rockabilly), Barbara Lynn, Archie Bell...the list goes on.
I regret leaving before Bobby Patterson came out but by that point of the third night of the Stomp, I was feeling the fatigue and *really* not enjoying Fillmore Slim at all.
But I saw old friends, made new ones, ate well, had a BLAST at the soul party on Sunday night (and knowing what Big Tony had in store, I did finish my set with a couple funkier tunes for him) and look forward to the next Stomp.
I'll have some pictures up somewhere soon.
FUCK YES.
Hammond + Leslie + chops + Al Sharpton process = ONE HELL OF A PERFORMER
I mean really - laying Hammond on top of "Hook & Sling"?
outstanding photo of harvey, that pose is so... him.
agent45: nice the obligitory nathan bartell photo op. whose copy??? who is the "bartell owner"??
wow, this whole event looks like a super fun time, shoulda went!!
my question is this, how does one get the artists to perform the songs that collectors know and love?? any event organizers on this board? anyone here deal with an artist directly in this respect? i may be in this position myself sometime soon and i really need some pointers.