The Blues Masters
Blue Heaven Studios
10.12.2001 - 10.13.2001

Review by Paul "El Dormido" Taylor

The Blues Masters at the Crossroads concerts at Blue Heaven Studios in Salina, KS have been eminently satisfying the past 3 years. The 4th annual event this October 12 and 13th was special, with a nation under general alert from terrorism. The celebration of blues and blues musicians was a celebration of our national character.

Cephas & Wiggins opened both nights of the concert series, and the Duke Robillard Band served as both a star attraction Friday night and as the house band backing Joe Beard and Rosco Gordon on Saturday. Carey Bell and Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown filled out the Friday night lineup. Big Jack Johnson appeared on Saturday.

John Cephas and Phil Wiggins have been a dominant force in the acoustic blues scene since their first recorded effort won a Handy Award. That they opened each night was a stroke of genius. They laid a solid foundation of blues roots that served as a framework from which flowed every other performance that followed. The purity of their music served to clear the palate, wash the soul clean, center the mind, center the heart.

This is front porch, at home party music meant to be shared and indulged in, family and friends milling about, mason jar of corn liquor in hand, leaning back letting it fly. Yet Cephas & Wiggins’ presentation of the music is mannered and thoughtful, informing and explaining what Piedmont blues is and how it’s relates to its cousin from the delta. Just as well, they get on and take you to the heart of the music, that space where a man cries out in pain and loss, a woman moans in sorrow.

Piedmont blues is a 2-finger style of picking, thumb and index finger, versus the single string style, single note runs of the Delta blues. In both styles, the thumb sets the bass line, but a Piedmont guitarist will construct elaborately intricate clusters of notes over that bass line. The rhythmic result is a syncopation that is echoed in ragtime music and jug bands. It creates by turns a rather jaunty air, a light and lilting gayety, but also a compelling forward motion carrying the words of plaint and sorrow to the marrow.

They are virtuoso performers in both styles, with a depth of raw emotion that elevates the experience to raw catharsis.

Phil Wiggins is a phenomenon himself. The Piedmont style gives the harp an equal voice with the guitar, in the call and response patterns from the church, in the rhythmic support of the guitar lines, and as a solo voice. Phil Wiggins handling of those parts of the music brought instant ovations, beginning with the very first chorus through the final number on Saturday night.

Highlights from both nights include “Walking Blues” done Piedmont style, mournful tone razor edged by that rhythmic emphasis, Cephas’ supple voice wrapping itself around the words, lovingly caressing the sorrow and letting it go, rendering the anguish in the rising and falling vocal with the passion of a broken hearted cry.

Then a Delta style tune started with harp and guitar in unison, breaking into Cephas moving vocal, a unison chorus of ‘oh-oh-oh’, rising and falling in a transcendental mordant sorrow that is chilling. A long, drawn out plaint: “I’d rather be the devil than to be that woman’s man…” Also “Good Morning Little School Girl”, a jaunty, rollicking rendition, celebrating straight out lust and gratification.

Saturday night they ended their set with a dedication to 9/11, expressing the spiritual component inherent in black culture. They did “Amazing Grace” in a stately tempo and clear, soaring voices. Their rendition echoes the Alabama Blind Boys version based on ‘House of the Rising Son’, a compelling experience.

Friday night they were followed by Carey Bell with Ted Harvey, James Wheeler and Bob Stroger, a marvelous segue from the country to the city.

Carey Bell spins out a seamless tapestry of Chicago bred urban blues, standard after standard. No need for pyrotechnics here, it’s an ongoing blues narrative, quiet and smooth but no less effective for that. This is smoky bar late night empty cigarette pack half-full glass staring into the mirror behind the bar music, a distillation. You can settle down into it in that timeless moment of the blues, just drifting and drifting.

Saturday night Big Jack Johnson, with Jason Green on Guitar, Bob Beny on bass, Eric Buchanan on drums, took it into the Delta juke joint force of nature blues. Jack brings it with raw and brutal force, not fancy techniques or finesse or subtlety. This is like a strong shot of booze, a slap in the face from a rough lover.

Jack Johnson’s music is another side of blues born in the country, boiling and churning. The lyrics are thrown out with that same fury and abandon, but they keep the structure of the music intact while the guitar has its own way.

Friday night the second half of the concert began with the Duke Robilliard Band. Duke’s music harkens to the Kansas City tradition of big band jazz rooted in the blues, although Duke’s set covers a broad stylistic ground. His band, with Eric Katz on piano and B-3, Del James on tenor and baritone, Mark Texeira on drums, Jesse Williams on bass, and Duke on vocals and guitar, has power, drive, and a big sound that ranges from a touch of Basie, to Chuck Berry style rock'n'roll, with lush, slow blues, and virtuoso blowing throughout.

Gatemouth Brown closed Friday night with a powerful set, driving like the Super Chief tight on rails crossing the plains at full tilt. His band also features a B-3 with alto, bass and drums, very polished, stop and turn on a dime tight.

This is an outer limit of blues though Gatemouth incorporates all of American music, from jazz through country, with all the stops between, tying it together and making it his own.

Gatemouth's music sometimes holds the audience at arm’s length but ends up justifying all the twists and turns with a performance that leaves the audience in awe of the creative breadth of Gatemouth’s conception and execution.

His set ranged from “Strange Things are Happening” with a chilling vocal set over a pulsing guitar figure that slips into the blues with power; a gospel tinged piano driven tune with that sears; and a blues waltz in 6/8 time with a rolling, captivating feel.

Saturday nights second half started off with Joe Beard backed by Duke Robillaird and featuring Carey Bell. This is some hard blowing with Joe Beard singing in a smooth, refined vocal style.

Throughout the set Carey is constantly looking inside the music and picking his way thru the song, picking his spots, his notes, building his phrases, leaving spaces, punching it home. Joe is in command, singing strong, forceful, but with a gentlemanly demeanor throughout. The band passes smiles around, enjoying working the basic blues vocabulary. Joe sets the moods, singing his stories, a gentleman of the blues, relating tales of love with the fatalistic embrace of loss.

Closing the event, Rosco Gordon is a legend that defines R&B. His work is the foundation on which other built their styles. You hear echoes of so many great songs in his tunes, songs that came after his.

He hits the stage wearing black leather pants, a black coat with long fringe at the shoulder, a gold vest over a turquoise shirt, dancing, letting the band cook.

With his polished appearance, sharp hooks, it’s truly Rosco’s cavalcade of hits as the set unfolds.

He does “A Little Bit Of You Love”, with great moves, great phrasing and inflection throughout the song, nailing it as his own. He wrote it, sold it, some one else took the credit, put their name on it, and got the money. He now owns the rights and enjoys the royalty check. It’s his song and he performs it like an owner! The set is definitely a star turn from a master of composition and performance. You see Rosco Gordon, you see living history in action, still cutting it. What is also fascinating and impressive is how the music comes together with Joe Beard and Rosco Gordon fronting the Duke Robilliard band. Duke’s crew watching each other, hitting the changes, looking for the endings, developing each tune on the fly, dragging out of their experience and knowledge an authentic statement of the varied styles of Joe Beard and Rosco Gordon, an incredible feat.

That blending together sums up the special quality of the Blues Masters at the Crossroads series. The music and the musicians draw an arc across the history of the music, from the rural acoustic traditions to the creative range of Gatemouth Brown, and achieve a unity among diversity. The audience also draws together with the musicians, mingling downstairs, talking casually, appreciatively, enthusiastically, and the artist responding warmly and openly.

It seems like a an instant family gathering, people who have loved the music for decades, people who travel the blues circuit, festival to festival, with music the touchstone for relationship.

Saturday afternoon, after Jack Johnson’s band goes inside to set up for the sound check, Jack is leaning against the metal rail outside the church, and Carey Bell arrives with Bob Stroger and friends, each stopping to shake hands with Jack, warmly greeting him as old friends, neighbors. Carey lingers behind and asks after Jack, talks of his broken hip, to which Jack replies, "You're still good." Carey shares his pride in his son, Lurie Bell, who has his own band and 3 CDs out, talking with Jack as if they were leaning over the backyard fence. Just like being home. That's the haven of Blue Heaven studios.