[Harp-L] Re: was Sonny Terry/now JC Burris video

[Bob Loomis <miltloomis@xxxxxxxxx>]

Paul Routledge wrote:

(Quote)All that talk  of the great Sonny Terry made me do a YouTube search  
for his stuff and I fund some stuff by J.C. Burris (Sonny's nephew).
I played the Sonny Terry and J.C. Burris songs for years on harp and  
still do. I love 'em so much!!!!!
Here's the link for the J.C. Burris stuff
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edX_vVtmdTA
(unquote)

In 1962, when I lived on North Beach in San Francisco, haning out and trying to be a beatnik, J.C. was a frequent sighting. He was normally a friendly guy, but could be mean when he'd had a few too many. One night while I was with friends at the old Mike's Pool Hall (not the later, upscale version hat evolved after Enrico Banducci bought it), J.C. came
 to our table and asked if we had any change so he could get a drink. He was pretty far gone already and when I demurred (I was living on $23 a week in those days), he became angry and said: "I got a razor in my pocket and I'm gonna cut your eyeballs out!"

I mentally gulped, an came back with my usual attempt to make light of bad situations: "I already have bad eyesight, J.C., I don't need itto be worse."

He was totally boggled by my reply (or maybe by the fact I knew who he was) and mumbled something angry and shuffled off without fulfilling his threat.

On another occasion, I shared a bottle of wine with him and a couple of other friends in the entryway to what was then the Fox and the Hounds, a coffeehouse run by Leo von Riegler, and one night in the wee hours heard beautiful harping reverberating in the air shaft at the cheap hotel where I lived for $5 a week. It was a fantastic, soulful sound, and I was enthralled. He apparently
 was staying with someone there for the night.

I also heard that the reason he drank so much was because of something that happened when he was a young boy in the South. According to the story, he and his older brother were walking down the road on a hot day and were thirsty. They knocked on the front door of a cafe and were told to use the back door. When they went to the back door the older brother apparentlyassumed he could walk in to get the drink of water. When he opened the door, the owner (or whoever) fatally wounded him with a shotgun. I have no idea if this is true, it is just the story that made the North Beach rounds.

A year or two later I saw him perform at folk festivals with his handcarved dancing dolls (sorry I'm having a senior moment about what they are called) ... He apparently had gotten his act together vis-a-vis not drinking and had become a successful folk circuit act. I was glad to see this. I still have an old J.C.
 Burris LP somewhere in my music archives. I'll have to dig it out. He was a fine harper!

Bob Loomis
Concord CA  USA