[Harp-L] Satan and Adam

["Mark Wilson" <markwilson53@xxxxxxx>]

Adam Gussow is not currently a member of harp-l so I told him I'd forward 
this info to the list.  Those of you in the greater Mississippi area should 
make it a point to put these dates in Feb on your calendars.


" It was great to see some of you this past Friday
night at
the Gulfport Casino in Gulfport, Fla. at the "Boca
Ball."
As promised, Sterling "Mr. Satan" Magee and I made
our
initial comeback gig.  As promised, there were
moments in
which everything came together and moments in
which the
struggles he's undergone over the past six years
took
their toll.  He had trouble working his hi-hat
cymbals and
some of that, I discovered later, was due to the
fact that
people had forgotten to bring along his wooden
sounding
> board, which meant that the cymbals were floating
free.
One cymbal, in addition, needed lubrication.  This
meant--as some of you witnessed!--that I was left
hanging
out to dry during part of "Thunky Fing."  Well,
all I can
say is, That is the blues.

What most of you DON'T know is that we played a
pickup gig
the following night, Saturday, in a bar directly
across
the street from the Gulfport Casino, after putting
all his
equipment (and our set list) in order on Saturday
afternoon.
Several local musicians who've been helping
Sterling out
were there to play drums and keyboards.
It was an amazing gig.  Just the two of us alone
were
twice as good as we'd been on Friday night.  And
with the
other two guys added in, the heat went way up.
(Part of
this was the fact that I snuck Sterling a couple
of shots
of Stoly, like in the old street days.  He greatly
appreciated them.)  When Sterling roared the
chorus of "I
Got My Mojo Working," people were stunned.

Why am I writing you now?  To thank you for
showing up on
Friday night; to give you this news of Saturday
night and
Sterling's continuing rebirth.  But also to invite
you--those who made it to Gulfport and those who
didn't--to our next gig.
Sterling and I will be playing together several
times at
the 2006 "Blues Today" symposium here in Oxford,
Mississippi on February 10-11, 2006.  As far as I
know,
we'll be playing an opening set on Friday night at
some
Oxford club, and we'll be playing again on
Saturday around
4:45  PM at Ground Zero, Morgan Freeman's club in
Clarksdale.  There's also the possibility that a
filmmaker
who has been working on a documentary about Satan
and Adam
for the past ten years will show a preview reel,
which
should be amazing--and will give you plenty of
chance to
see what Sterling was about in the old days.

Blues Today will be about much more than Satan and
Adam,
of course.  Blues scholar Bill Ferris will be
there to
talk and show documentaries, there will be other
blues
performers, and of course you'll end up in the
Delta,
which is only sixty miles from here.  If you've
never been
to Mississippi, this is a pretty good way of
getting a
taste of its bluesy side.  We've held three of
these Blues
Symposiums before, and people have a great time.
On
Saturday night, I should add, you'll have a chance
to
choose from half a dozen differerent juke joints
in
Clarksdale and the vicinity.  All that, and Satan
and Adam
too.
If you'd like more information, please check out:

http://www.outreach.olemiss.edu/livingblues/bluestoday/Agenda.html

And please spread the word!  Sterling is one the
comeback
trail.  Those of you who came to Gulfport know
that he's
still working himself back into shape.  I saw
remarkable
progress on Friday, considering the last time I'd
seen him
more than a year before, and I saw another jump
forward on
Saturday night--as did all his musician friends in
town,
who were floored by the "fiery" side that began to
come
back out.
Thanks again for coming to Gulfport.  I hope to
see you in
Oxford in February."
Adam

Adam Gussow
Assistant Professor
Department of English and Program in
Southern Studies
The University of Mississippi
P.O. Box 1848
University, MS 38677
(ofc) 662-915-7333
(h) 662-281-8596