[Harp-L] Blues Scene late 70's

[SONNYTONE@xxxxxxx]

>From the mostly black audiences in the 50's and early 60's, when I was with  
Sonny Terry from Jan 1977 to late 1978, our audiences were 99% white, mostly  
late 30's and above, who may have heard their records or for the older crowd,  
had seen them in the 60's. From what I was told, we were the first blues  
musicians to play in Japan, where we traveled with Lightning Hopkins and a  
fellow he brought with him, not a musician, just to help. Probably most of the  
audience had no idea of what words were being sung, however the blues and folk  
blues transcends all cultures as their feet tapped to the rhythm of what they  
were playing. I had the pleasure of playing duets with Sonny as usual, our  3 
songs, then at the end playing with Lightning Hopkins as he joined Sonny  and 
Brownie for a long finale. I spoke a lot with Lightning during our 6 city  
tour, and have an extremely cool picture of Lightning and Sonny in the hotel  
room. Lightning didn't put up with any crap, as he was stuck with 3  musicians 
who certainly did not have a grasp of the blues. As he had a real  southern 
black voice that if you were not exposed to is as I was  with Sonny, you could not 
understand his singing, even being  American. He got so upset with the bass 
player that he stopped playing his  regular guitar lines and played the bass 
line, turning to the bass player  and saying, Like This, Mother F*****. He 
really hated flying, was a simple  man, who knew one way to where he shot craps and 
one way home in Houston I  believe. My fiancee is a bit older than I and grew 
in Arkansas to a redneck  father, and tells me how she would have to hide her 
transistor radio next  to her ear listening to Randy's Record Mart and Stan's 
Record Shop at night, as  they could be picked up over most of the US. Her 
listening to Jimmy  Reed got her started in her love for the harmonica, she does 
not play, but  heard most of the greats growing up, as she mixed with the 
blacks as  much as the whites. She marched with the SCLC, and has many  stories 
of the racial inequality she experienced. I met her at  the 2000 Dave Barrett 
Masterclass, where I did a seminar and then played  on Saturday night with the 
rest of the pros that did seminars. I  am the exact opposite of anyone she 
would date, as she swore she would never be  with two things. A man shorter than 
her, and an Italian man. Well, I hit both,  had on a silk suit and my hair 
gelled back like Sammy Davis Jr. - We just  hit it off and one week later she 
flew from Calif to Ct. and stayed 10  days, then moved from Calif 5 months later 
and we have been together since. She  said besides my playing, she noticed my 
forearms as I was pretty well defined  from just doing a body building 
competition when I had two legs. I still train 6  days a week and do 20 minutes of 
cardio which truly helps your  playing. I think everyone should workout just for 
the healthy aspect. Lastly,  she recalls when Wolfman Jack took over for the 
controversial DJ in Del Rio,  Texas, selling life sized paintings of  the glow 
in the dark last  supper, as referenced in the Little Walter book. Of course 
his voice was an  attempt to imitate Howling Wolf's unique voice.  Anyone old 
enough from the 50's I am sure can relate to all this.  Hopefully this is just 
to bring back some fond memories, and then the not so  fond racism that Sonny 
talked about with me at length. Brownie felt it more  and many of his songs 
were very philosophical and expressed his  anger of his experiences as he could 
see it and also feel it. Sonny relied  on how he was treated, if you treated 
him well, like Woody Guthrie did, he  was cool with you. If you did him dirty, 
he would retaliate in my  reference to him being told by a white promoter, 
screw you blind man, I'm  not paying you. As Sonny always carried a pistol in 
those days, he said " I was  lucky the MF had on white pants, (Sonny could make 
out blurred  figures), so I just shot at them pants, and hit him in the ass 
twice".  Everyone hit the floor yelling, the blind man's got a gun. Sonny said 
he  tried to hit the man's girlfriend but missed. We had our strong arguments 
as he  was not taking any s*** from me or anyone else still, but after we were 
done, it  was over. Not like his last argument with Brownie that resulted in 
them never  speaking again. It went way deeper than just the argument, as I 
spent a lot of  time talking about real issues with Brownie and why he felt the  
way he did towards Sonny.  Ok, long enough. I hope some of you find this  
interesting, it was real for me and good to hear from my fiancee her growing up  
in those times. I am a hard 53 if you know what I mean, so I have an old  soul 
that hopefully comes through in my music, it is my only outlet right now.  
Happy Holidays to everyone, do not take today for granted and do kind deeds.  
Sincerely, Sonny Jr.  
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