Brass Against at The Great American Brass Band Festival...

Despite this photo of some of my instruments, the tuba, the resonator guitar and the washboard (I don't really play the washboard I just take it to backyard party jams where it attracts people that play nothing and think, "I can play this" and it makes my tunes more interesting)  I'm not a metal guy. I'm talking about the particular genre of heavy rock music, not instruments made of metal' It's music that I really can't define because I know so little but I can tell you I enjoyed the performance of Brass Against at the Great American Brass Band Festival in Danville, Ky. which we attended a few weeks ago very much.   

Brass Against covers music by heavy rock bands such as Tool, Rage Against the Machine, Black Sabbath, Soundgarden and Led Zeppelin in a brass band format fronted by a lead singer in a kilt. 

Of course with heavy rock music you need heavy instruments and my favorite dude in the band was tuba player Joe Exley. If you have heard tuba on records, TV and video game soundtracks it was probably Joe. 

There is actually a message to the music and the group chooses political songs to raise awareness of issues, encourage activism and change. According to quotes attributed to guitarist Brad Hammonds, they "wanted to do something besides simply expressing views on social media."

This band brings to mind the words of my grandchildren when they try to pick up something and are surprised when it is beyond their strength, "Heavy!" 

Brass music can open up the world for you. As I said I'm not familiar with many of the tunes they cover but check out he video of their mashup of The White Stripes and Curtis Mayfield. Anyone covering Curtis is cool in my book and Jack White is a favorite around here. It might just make you grab up a washboard.  

 

Sooza Brass at The Great American Brass Band Festival...

 We saw many bands at The Great American Brass Band Festival on our recent trip and they were all great. One that stood out for me was Sooza Brass from Gainesville, Florida. 

I could plagiarize from the band's website to describe their music but using my own words I'd say they have some similar elements to a couple of dual sax and drum bands which I have seen and bought cds by called Moon Hooch and Big Blitz. Afterwards I met the band, a bunch of friendly nice young people who when I told them my impressions they said, "Yeah!" 

Seems a popular brass band style of dress is the Dickies zip up coverall type garment which is how my dad dressed to go fishing. Louie Meshoit, the Cajun fiddle player in the Lost Bayou Ramblers wears a pair on his gigs. Like Louie my dad chose the lighter browns and sky blues while the brass bands choose black or maybe dark blue. I happen to have one of these garments in dark blue but it's never occurred to me to wear it to a gig. I do like the look. It gives the band a post apocalyptical/tech/punk/Devo sort of vibe that they fine tune with their music to get the message across.

I did meet the tuba player, Bianca at the merch booth and bought a t shirt with a tuba on it. She had a nice tuba tone with a bit of grit to it and I ask how she got that sound. She said "plug ins" which is some kind of digital thing and makes me think she might be good at math since I'm still using tube amps, Big Muffs and envelope filters to chase sounds I hear in my head and they need no math.  

I suggest adding Sooza Brass to your playlist.

 

   

 

The Hot 8 Brass Band at The Great Americian Brass Band Festival...

 We saw the Hot 8 Brass Band at the Great American Brass Band Festival in Danville, Ky. I think the last time I saw them was in New Orleans at a Frenchman Street club in 2018.  The tuba great Bennie Pete was still leading the band. Bennie passed away due to COVID in 2021 and their latest release is in his honor and remembrance and is called "Big Tuba." Naturally this release is my new favorite and I bought it as soon as it came out. The Hot 8 has always been one of my favorites and they do a great job of bringing all the elements of New Orleans culture that I love so much together in a rocking show. 

Of course I think the tuba player in this band (I couldn't find a list of band member names) is great but my favorite guy in the band is one of the trumpet players. He's the guy on the left in this photo. 

Last time we saw them in New Orleans he was stone cool onstage but he seems to have a more prominent role center stage singing, second line style dancing, sweating and soloing that really highlights the joys of New Orleans brass band street culture. It makes me feel happy watching him. 

That looks like a happy drum and tuba section right there.

Trumpet and trombone.

Big Tuba!

I guess if I would have headed over to the merch tent I could have met the guys and I'd had names and probably a new t shirt but the weather was iffy and the Hot 8 set was cut short by rain and lightening. Actually when lightening was reported the band said "they say lightening but we will play one more," but festival officials quickly said, "no you won't" and that was it. It was enough and I though a great set.

 Instead of heading to meet the band we headed for the parking lot in the rain and our car was the last one there.

In 2014 my family, or most of us as I remember (only two grand kids at the time) all went to New Orleans for some of the early season Mardi Gras. There were no big floats but mostly walking parades and low crowd numbers with many brass bands and tubas. I snapped this photo after a parade and I did not know who it was at the time but it's Mr. Big Tuba, Bennie Pete of the Hot 8 with family. I don't think we saw the Hot 8 as such that weekend but Bennie was just out sitting in on the parades and enjoying the community, culture and this photo shows what kind of guy he was. 

Join the family. Get some Hot 8 right now.

  

  

   

 

A Road Trip...

 We are back from an 1800 mile round trip to Danville, Ky to see the Great American Brass Band Festival. It was a fun time at the festival, we stopped to visit family and along the way stayed in nice campgrounds in Arkansas and Kentucky in our camper. I'd highly recommend Jacksonport State Park.   

There was a very good little museum in the park headquarters telling the story of the area. It's the usual thing where big rivers and steam boats make markets and other places accessible, slave labor and fertile ground produce riches for those that have them but then there are floods, war and eventually the railroad bypasses the place and makes the steamboat obsolete and judging from the population stats the area has been in steady decline. You can see it in some of the houses and yards we passed on the way in the park. There were run down properties with old boats, cars and lawn mowers abandoned in the yard. 

You see the same thing in our East Texas area or maybe in our volunteer work for Saint Vincent de Paul we see it more. When we go homes to see how the charity can best assist people it literally looks like something has blown up there from the debris scattered about. Even in my neighborhood there are places close by with this junk car/trashed out chic look and I don't think the people there are particularly poor. 

In contrast Kentucky, where visit to see family and have found a couple of music festivals to like, seems like an unusually clean and orderly place and I can't quite put my finger on why. There is lots of agriculture work which can be difficult to make a living from but I rarely saw a disorderly property and it sure looks like they like to keep the yards mowed. 

For reference I'll post this photo of "The Lawn" where spectators sat on the Center College Campus where the brass band festival was hosted. It's very well kept and much of the surrounding area is like that.

I don't know if it's the influence of people working the land, the Amish community near by or the local  Shaker Village history that contributes to this neatness but it's certainty a notable thing. Some might even use the word, "picturesque." 

Whatever it is we could use some of it around here. I don't know enough about the history of the area to be aware of any boom and bust times as seen in the Jasksonport area that have had generational impacts on recovery. Makes me wonder, not to say anything good about data centers, they seem universality opposed by the general population locally and in Kentucky but if they pass us by will it be like the decline of steamboat usefulness and the next thing you know we can't keep our yards mowed? 

The Kentucky countryside outside of Danville was dotted with these signs. I did not see any signs in favor.  

I'll keep thinking on this and welcome any comments on ideas readers may have. Upcoming blogs will run down the music and bands seen at the festival, something I know about. 

 

  

     

It Was a Good Weekend For Music...

 It was a good weekend playing music with people and for people. It started out with a Children's choir rehearsal on Friday night, busking at Fae's Hideaway, a Ren Faire Pride Event Saturday and ended up playing with the children's choir for Spanish Mass at St. Patrick's Sunday morning.  

I was glad to get the invite for the Pride Event. Nice people put together a DIY day of local vendors selling arts and crafts with many people wearing costumes or sword fighting and it was the perfect thing to have a tuba player playing grooves, harmonica and didgeridoo. . 

Note that I also used my turtle shell shaker, the instrument that I am second most famous for playing. 

I got to jam on a tune with a strolling musician (i think I heard his name as Dawson, but you know the ears, tuba and big Fender amps) on uke playing a bit of harp, tuba and percussion. 

It was also the first time I opened for a harp player, Tris Day. As they say, check her out on the streaming platforms. 

Mass was good with the kids today. Great fun playing with Maria and Hugo who are the group leaders and we often have a great mix of kids singing, playing guitar, flute or Cajon drum. This photo grabbed off a video a couple of weeks ago. 

I think I might have actually grown up to be everything I wanted to be, 

Of course you have to eat and there was crawfish Saturday evening at the big Agular birthday party. 

 

Used Shirts...

 I have about three shirts that my parents gave me for Christmas sometime in the late 70s. They are good shirts, durable and besides needing an occasional button or slight mending by my needle and thread capable wife they have served well and I still wear them often. Besides a few other shirt gifts I have received such as the big foot and tuba shirts that everyone feels are so appropriate I get my shirts at the thrift store. There's one particular snap button western shirt I own, bought used that lately I have seen two others like it. 

Someone asked me yesterday the question, "when did you have it done?" I couldn't exactly say so I said, "before COVID," and they understood and it immediately cleared up all confusion. So this western shirt I got before COVID. I was standing on a French Quarter street corner. It was morning of a bright spring day full of possibility and I spotted a guy coming down the street pushing a wheeled clothing rack stocked thick with shirts. I stopped him, you can do that in the great southern cities. Try it in the northern towns and that person might fight you off. 

The guy had taken thrift store snap button shirts and embroidered various designs on each shoulder. I was having modest success playing music and making cigar box guitars at the time so I was on the look out for stage costumes so this fit the bill. I bought one with crawfish on each shoulder. 

I used to like crawfish. On trips to Louisiana it was old cheap food that didn't fill you up too much so you could drink plenty of old cheap beer. The salty, spicy taste also made you want to drink more old cheap beer so it was really a hand and glove kind of thing. They go together. Now days I don't drink beer and for the price crawfish sell for I usually spring for the lobster. I'll just wear my embroidered shirt when I eat it.

I don't know how many shirts with crawfish that street vendor had that day. I have never seen another one. I was walking across the parking lot of a big box building material store and I spotted a shirt of the same pattern on a skinny wizened up little guy. It looked in good condition. These are after all quality shirts. I didn't mention to him I had one just like it or take a photo because my wife has coached me not to talk to other guys about what they are wearing. Not that there is anything wrong with that it's just something that might not sit in the moment right, which is a moment in the parking lot of a big box building materials store. 

The second shirt I saw like mine was in an online video released by New Orleans based folk singer Mark Rubin. I follow him on Facebook and he's a banjo/tuba/punk/bluegrass/Jewish dude. Pro tip: when you follow stuff like this on social media it wrecks the algorithm. When I saw his shirt I headed over to his band camp page and bought his latest release. I guess I should have left a comment, nice shirt. 

Here's the shirt in action.

Once I was at a little BBQ festival and saw a band play. I'd say they played about 75% of the songs a band I was in planned to play at a different festival he next day. I told the singer about this and he said by way of explanation, "Them are good songs." I guess you could say, "Them are good shirts."

That morning in the French Quarter I also bought another shirt but it will be another blog post.

        

         

Grupo Generacion Mix at the Lufkin Heritage Festival...

 I went downtown yesterday to see my friends from church, Grupo Generation Mix play at Lufkin Creative's Heritage Festival. I had last seen the group at the Fiestas Patrias Festival at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in September and while I enjoyed that performance (what's better than friends playing music?) I believe this group is improving and with it's mix of various generations should be gigs to keep an eye out for at future events. 

Grupo Generacion is made up of family members and participants in St. Patrick's Bilingual Youth Choir. This music is an expansion of that project and I don't really know what you call the style but it's dance music with lots of cumbias. I've known some of the members for years even going back to the 1990s when we had a kids choir at St. Pat's and the early 2000s when we had a bilingual choir so I feel this group has that same spirit combined with more ambition to present itself to the greater Lufkin Community at events like this. 

That's Hugo on bass. I worked with him at the old paper mill another lifetime ago. The mom of one of the singers sang with us when she was a teen in our church groups and still comes for the Quinceaneras, weddings and funerals we play for.  

Check the lady in the boots dancing. Cathy who worked 30 years as a labor and delivery nurse, says she delivered her as a baby. That's her dad, Enrique on guitar. 

There were also traditional dancers in the style of Oaxaca (I think) and I had some real good food truck quesadillas.  I think earlier in the day there were some DAG (dude and guitar) acts and other entertainment. It was a good show and I look forward to the next festival in this great downtown space. You might even see a Drum and Tuba Christmas pop up gig here soon. 

 

Lady Trucker at The Jessie Mae Hemphill Festival...

 I don't think I should write about the Jessie Mae Hemphill Festival without talking about Lady Trucker. 

Apparently there is a core group involved in many of the little festivals that take place in and around Clarksdale and Lady Trucker is at the center of this. We met her the night before the festival at Red's in downtown Clarksdale when she was selling Red's t-shirts and offering a VIP festival pass of you bought one. I bought a shirt.  

Next afternoon we arrived at the festival and Lady Trucker was everywhere. She was directing the bands where to go and between bands she would sing a song. Here's Lady Trucker on the left and that's the late R.L. Boyce's daughter laying down the groove on tambourine. R. L. played drums for Jessie Mae before his debut album in 2013. One of Lady Trucker's helpers, Jankey is on guitar on the far right.   

Later that night Lady Trucker served me a bowl of spicy gumbo and fixed Cathy a pulled pork sandwich. When I say she did everything I'm not kidding. 

When we visited the North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic earlier this summer there was some restrictions on photos. Only photos during the first two songs were allowed and no videos. Sometimes in the press area some performers had asked that only certain photographers have this prime viewing spot and there were people at the stage to enforce these rules. Because of this I asked Lady Trucker if it was ok to bring my 35mm camera in. She said, "this is tourism. You can do what you want."

At the end of the evening Jankey showed me the back of his guitar which was signed by many of the Mississippi greats. 

 

  

KwannyKash...

One thing I really liked about the Jessie Mae Hemphill Festival we attended in Clarksdale, Mississippi was how accessible the performers were. If you didn't introduce yourself to them they usually came and introduced themselves to you. It was that relaxed and casual of an atmosphere. Cathy even got her photo on the facebook page of Spit Cup and the Jukes hanging out with the band. One artist I met and talked to was Kwandarius Anton "KwannyKash" Perry.  

KwannyKash was not a performer but was introduced and had his folk art instruments on display. I was naturally interested because of the cigar box guitars I used to make so I introduced myself and we had a visit.  

KwannyKash told me that he was making instruments, music and writing poems and enjoying himself when one day someone saw him and said, "hey this is folk art." He said, "I did not know this. I was just doing me." His next scheduled gig was an appearance at the Mississippi John Hurt Foundation Homecoming in Avalon, Ms. 

KwannyKash was a nice guy and he gave me a drawing with a story he had written. I am going to use his comment, I was just doing me as inspiration to myself as I seem to have hit some road blocks in  consistent production of my on music. I will aspire to do me more.     

 

 Last night I was at our St. Vincent de Paul meeting and a member brought a mattress as a donation. That's valuable because we consider it a dignity issue to get beds for people clawing the way out of poverty. We made our way to the back of the church property to unload to our storage and in the dark we startled someone from the open air shed beside the locked storage. I called out to the person and they stopped. To appear nonthreatening in the dark (I'm a big hairy guy) I asked if we could help in anyway. The young man stopped and walked back. There has been an old piano stored in the open shed.  It belonged to a parishioner in the neighborhood who moved and supposedly the family was going to take it for restoration. The young man said, "I come by every night and play." I asked him to play for me.

 

 He tinkled the keys in the dark of the open shed. Not a concert pianist by any means but I thought about what KwannyKash said. 

I was just doing me.    

Best I Figure 2010 Miles...

The best I can figure it from place to place of latest travel trip in our camper was 2010 miles over 11 days and that's not counting detours for fried catfish, the Moogsuem and thrift shopping. We visited family, Morgan, Ali and kids in South Carolina, Cathy's sister Margret in Kentucky (with a side trip for the rest of that crew in Evansville, In.) where we missed a visit with my cousin Carolyn because she was under the weather and the Jessie Mae Hemphill Festival in Clarksdale, Mississippi and a final stop to see nephew Chase and HD in Shreveport. I don't think I've missed anything.  

Morgan and crew on Lake Harwell.   

Margret and Kevin's Lake house in Dunmor, Ky on Lake Malone. We camped in Lake Malone State Park just across the lake. This is Muhlenberg County of the famous John Prine song. The house is nice but no photos of the inside which is all torn up for renovation. This lake which is about the size of the old papermill lake back home looks like a great place to fish and hang and enjoy some old school lake time.  

Great scenery around the lake and though we are not big fall color people you could catch a breath of the changing season as we cruised around the lake. 

Our next stop for the Jessie Mae Hemphill Festival was the old Stovall Gin Company outside Clarksdale Mississippi. This is the exact location where folklorist Alan Lomax recorded blues singer Muddy Waters for the library of Congress in two session during 1941 and 42. It's still a working farm bt there are four camper hook ups for water and electric. No showers or other perks and we had the place all to ourselves. A worker for the farm stopped one day because he though we were the crew to set up the stage for the upcoming Mighty Roots festival on the grounds next weekend. 

Clarksdale is a great place. I had last been through for a brief lunch stop 30 odd years ago but the people are friendly, at the festival you could just sit around and chat with the performers, food was good, when seeing the love music there was places for old people to sit and there were no crowds. Oh yeah, the music was great also.  

At the festival you wouldn't see the big worldwide names but there were plenty of local and regional legends. Names like Kimbrough, The Rising Stars Fife and Drum Band, the organizer of the festival Lady Trucker of boundless energy and huge singing voice, Lighting Malcom a great Texas band Spitcup and the Jukes and more. Together they put on a great show. 

One example was this guy who they all called Mr. Farmer. He filled in for Mr. Joe Ayers, famous as a member of Jr. Kimbrough's band who had had a fall. If this is the fill in act I know Joe would have been great. 

The family visits were great. We can't wait till next time. Clarksdale, see you again.