Blues disciples

When the legends meet the young bloods at Rock Crusher Canyon, they're going to have a wang dang doodle of a time.

By JORGE SANCHEZ

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 28, 2000

CRYSTAL RIVER -- Muddy Waters sang The Blues Had a Baby, and They Named It Rock and Roll. Those youngsters he was singing about are grown up and ready to carry on with the next generation of blues.

Those baby blues artists, who grew up listening to Waters as well as the Stones and the Beatles, take their place alongside the legends for a three-day festival at Rock Crusher Canyon.

The pairing promises a satisfying journey down the blues highway. The new generation plays with heavy hits of rock, giving the blues a bold new sound.

The Legends

[Publicity photo] Deborah Coleman plays guitar like her early heros, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton.

The Queen of the Blues, Koko Taylor, has come a long way since her childhood days on a sharecropper's farm in Memphis, Tenn.

Her big break came when Willie Dixon spotted her at a show and later wrote the classic Wang Dang Doodle for her to record in 1965. The funky song is still a concert staple for her.

After 15 albums, nine nominations and a Grammy award, countless W.C. Handy awards and thousands of shows, Taylor's voice is one of the most-recognized in the blues. Her smoky, raspy sound has mellowed over the years, but it's still best described as a force of nature.

"It's just getting way down deeper inside me, because I've been singing all these years," she said.

For her latest CD, Royal Velvet, the queen's court includes B.B. King, Keb' Mo', Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Johnnie Johnson. Melissa Etheridge also sent her regards, in the form of her hit Bring Me Some Water, which Taylor remade for Royal Velvet.

Among the best cuts is Blues Hotel, a great roadhouse party song, with B.B. King on guitar and sharing lead vocals. Taylor sings one verse, he replies with another, throwing in a guitar fill or two along the way.

"It's just an honor to work with B.B." she said. "You know, we go back quite a long ways, almost 40 years. He's like family."

Delta bluesman Keb' Mo' breaks out the bottleneck for an achingly tender dobro accompaniment on The Man Next Door, written by Taylor.

"He's my hang-out buddy." Taylor said of Keb' Mo'. "I was talking to him at a show in Alabama, and he said that he wanted to make a record with me. I showed him that song right there. I never thought it would turn out so beautiful," she said. "But that's how I work sometimes, I just write the songs and the arrangement comes from somebody else. "This is my best CD, and certainly not my last."

Asked about her influences, Taylor speaks without hesitation.

"Muddy Waters. He's gone, but let me tell you, his music sticks to my ribs just like red beans and New Orleans rice."

Son Seals has both played and lived the blues.

In 1997, an ex-wife nearly killed him when she shot him in the face. He required massive reconstructive surgery. Then in 1999, a small cut on his left foot became severely infected, and his leg was amputated because of diabetes complications.

Seals said he's taking better care to manage his diabetes with proper diet and medicine.

The fiery guitarist, whose live performances have been captured on Live And Burning and Spontaneous Combustion, rebounded this year with Letting Go, which is enjoying crossover sales.

And he's touring again. He recently spoke from his native Arkansas, where he was doing a string of road dates.

"I'm blessed, that's the word I use to describe it," he said. "I'm doing just fine."

On Letting Go, Seals re-issues one of his classics, Funky B--. He noticed at some concerts young people would be yelling for him to play the song. It turned out that the jam band Phish had covered the song, and it was a popular concert song for them. On Letting Go Phish member Trey Anastasio is featured as lead guitarist on the Funky B-- remake.

"We're getting lots of Phish-heads in the audience these days," said Ann Wright, Son Seals' manager. "Phish is in town (Chicago), and I've been hanging out with them for a couple of days. They're like family."

Seals also talks about the crossover.

"We had a lot of young kids in the audience, who I know were too young to have heard me play these songs in the clubs. We found out Phish had been doing them for a couple of years," he said. "We called them just to say thanks, and that's how the relationship started. I've performed with them a couple of times and the kid, Trey, from the band turned up on my new CD. It's really helped me reach a new audience."

With his health restored, Seals is emerging from a period of inactivity. He's happy to be playing his guitar and singing songs in concert again.

"I just try to give them the truth, to play the blues, the songs I've written," he said. "That's what they've come to expect at a Son Seals concert, and that's what I try to deliver. I don't change my style."

Seals has spent many years playing in North Chicago bars but said he's enjoying touring the nation.

"I probably won't play Chicago again this year. Sure, I like playing there, but you've got to get out and see the rest of the country," he said.

Pinetop Perkins ranks among the greatest blues piano players, and the fact that he's 87 years old only slows him down a tad.

"My fingers ain't what they used to be, that's for sure," he said. "I used to run to the piano every time I saw it. Well, I may have slowed down, 'cause I don't run no more -- in either direction."

Not that the blues world has noticed. Pinetop Perkins has won the W.C. Handy award for best keyboard instrumentalist every year since 1992. The Handy awards are the equivalent of a Grammy for blues artists. Perkins also continues to record and tour.

Perkins is one of the last Mississippi bluesmen still performing. He gained national recognition in 1969, when he replaced Otis Spann in the Muddy Waters band. His piano can be heard on classics such as The Blues Had a Baby and My Baby Ran Off With The Bus Driver. His signature solo song is Pinetop's Boogie Woogie, a definitive work of honkey-tonk piano playing.

"I played and toured with Muddy for 12 years, 12 long years," he said, referring to Waters' hectic touring and recording schedule.

"His music and mine were so similar that we didn't have to make any charts or things such as that. He would just hum the song and we'd know just what to play."

Perkins will be performing with guitarist "Steady Rollin' " Bob Margolin, also an alumnus of the Muddy Waters band.

"He's my main man now," Perkins said.

The Young Bloods

Shemekia Copeland's first CD, Turn the Heat Up, showcased a 19-year-old with a great voice fronting a powerhouse band. Living Blues magazine named it the best debut album of 1998. Her follow-up, Wicked, released Sept. 11, has received good reviews. Copeland is quick to give credit to Etta James and Koko Taylor but says her path is different.

"Hey, I didn't grow up on a plantation, picking cotton. I never drank bathtub gin," she said. "So I have to sing about what's in my heart. You always want to take the music a step further."

Copeland started early. Her father, the late Johnny Clyde Copeland, was a Texas blues guitarist. When she was only 15, she was the opening act at many of her father's concerts.

Her inspiration came from many contemporary sources, including the guitar players she heard in Harlem, where she was born and raised. She assembled her band by going to New York City blues clubs on jam nights and picking out promising players.

She cites Muddy Waters as one blues influence. "I also grew up listening to Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. I like Patsy Cline and Hank Williams."

Those influences are clearly reflected in her songwriting. On It's 2 a.m., a track from Wicked, a Keith Richards-influenced guitar growls as Copeland summons up the lovesick blues.

"I sing about what I know," she says of the sincerity and passion in her recordings.

It must be working. After the Blues in the Canyon gig, Copeland embarks on a concert tour as the opening act for B.B. King.

Singing the blues is one thing, but strapping on an electric guitar and blowing an audience away with firebrand chops just this side of Stevie Ray Vaughn is something few women attempt.

Deborah Coleman plays guitar like her early heros, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. In her first bands, her bandmates wanted her to play bass.

"But it was too late by then. I'd already heard their music and made up my mind that playing lead guitar like that was what I wanted to do," she said.

"It's pretty aggressive; that's how I can describe it best."

From the opening song on her CD Soft Place To Fall, Coleman's guitar and voice powerfully examine love and its many turns. A torrent of meaty guitar work expresses her lust for a man in Look What You Do to Me. She pays homage to Muddy Waters' Mannish Boy in I'm A Woman.

"Yeah, it's his famous blues lick. I remade the song after Koko Taylor wrote and recorded it," she said.

On the title track Coleman expresses her desire to escape her "whirlwind life" and seeks solace in a Soft Place To Fall, accompanied by a dreamy, floating guitar.

"It's just about my lifestyle. I'm always on the run. It's pretty gruesome," she said. "Whenever I can, I just like to find some place to get away from the business.

"I can't go home too often, but I like to cook and go fishing," she said.

The Accelerators live in the Marion County community of Dunnellon, but these bluesmen stay on the road, playing area clubs and recording independent CDs. Lead guitarist and vocalist Keith Caton is a gifted musician, and the band might just be on its way to a breakthrough. The band wrapped up recording on its latest CD, Long Time Coming, with some help from the legendary Bo Diddley, an Alachua County resident who has been Caton's blues mentor for the past decade.

For the cover photo of Long Time Coming, band members are pictured standing around Diddley's favorite ride, a purple 1969 Cadillac hearse.

Caton's electric blues tend to emulate the Chicago style, as played by Waters and Buddy Guy. Tampa Bay area bluesman Rock Bottom (Mike York) recently joined the band, which also includes drummer Chris Chilton and bassist Thom DeRosa. Caton, Chilton and DeRosa have been performing together for about 14 years.

The Accelerators is the only band from last year's Rock Crusher blues festival to return this year. It opened for Rick Derringer recently at Rock Crusher Canyon Garden Pavilion.

Caton said the band is planning a European tour once Rock Bottom's upcoming CD is finished.

"He has a record deal, and we'll be touring as the Accelerators, but plugging his CD," Caton said. "We just want to keep doing what we're doing, and that's to stay busy. We've built up a great network of clubs to play in, and our fan base keeps growing. There's an old saying, "Half the secret to success is just showing up,' and I sincerely believe that's true."

PREVIEW

The second annual Blues in the Canyon music festival is Friday through Sunday at Rock Crusher Canyon amphitheater in Crystal River. Tickets are $25 for one day and $40 for three days, at the gate. VIP tickets are $100 for one day and $175 for three days. Call (877) 722-2696 or visit the Web site at http://www.rockcrushercanyon.com.

Singing the blues

Friday

At the Garden Pavilion. Restaurant and bar open at 5 p.m

7 -- Paul Vesco and New Orleans Jazz & Blues Revue

9 -- Chubby Carrier and Bayou Swamp Band

Saturday

Gates open at noon. Parking lot and pavilion open at 10 a.m.

1 p.m. -- the Accelerators

2:15 -- Debbie Davies

3:30 -- Carey Bell

4:45 -- Hubert Sumlin and Sean Chambers

6:15 -- Bob Margolin and Pinetop Perkins

7:45 -- Shemekia Copeland

9:15 -- Son Seals

Sunday

Gates open at noon. Parking lot and pavilion open at 10 a.m.

1 p.m. -- T.C. Carr & the Catch

2:30 -- Bill Allred's jazz band

4 -- Deborah Coleman

5:30 -- Bobby "Blue" Bland

7 -- Koko Taylor

Get to know the Canyon's party zones

Never been to Rock Crusher Canyon? Here are a few facts about this Citrus County venue.

The amphitheater is a converted mine quarry. Capacity is about 7,500.

The audience sits on lawn chairs or blankets on a manicured lawn facing a tree-lined bluff and the stage.

You can sit or you can dance. Facing the stage, the right side is the Party Zone, where you can boogie all night long without being asked to sit down.

The left side is for those who want to sit and see the show.

The middle is the VIP area, and directly behind that is the "I Don't Care Zone," where sitting and dancing are both tolerated.

Be sure to visit the Garden Pavilion overlooking the amphitheater. On Friday night, Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band will be hosting a zydeco dance party.

There are lots of food choices, including chicken pitas, jumbo turkey legs, crab cakes, fritters, grouper, soft shell crab, barbecue pork sandwiches and Philly cheese steaks. Beer and wine also are available.

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