Bikes, Blues and Boomers

Back in the summer of ’72 I lived with a bunch of bikers in North Little Rock who rode with a motorcycle club called the Road Barons. It was a lot of fun. Even though I didn’t ride, they didn’t mind me hanging around, because I was always pretty quick to pick up a guitar. They were a raggedy-ass bunch (but I was kind of raggedy-ass myself). We usually had about four bikes apart in the front yard (or living room), as they were continually looking for parts for their panheads, flatheads or shovelheads. I’ll bet they didn’t have more than $500 in each bike.
Take a walk down Dickson Street this week and you’ll see a different picture.
You’ll still see quite a few raggedy-ass bikers, but you also see a lot of do-rags hiding twenty dollar haircuts. Today a Harley Fat Boy will set you back, what, eighteen grand? You gotta have means to put a ride like that under you. And from what I hear, there’s a pretty good demand for what Harley is putting out.
I think it’s the same phenomenon that’s driving the market in vintage guitars. You have a big group of folks who have come into a little money in their maturity, and are saying, “I want a guitar just like I had when I was in high school playing with the Mohicans, that I sold to go to med school.” And, of course, there’s a finite number of ’68 Teles, so the price just keeps going up. That’s why I’ll never get one of those ’59 Les Pauls like Mike Bloomfield played that are now going for over $100K. I guess there are a lot of products like that: muscle cars, toys, baseball cards, comic books. So whether your interest is sixties Strats or Softails, you’re just gonna have to pay more. Damned doctors.

Bikes Blues BBQ and Big'uns

The week of the 26th finds us with a couple of appearances associated with Fayetteville's Bikes Blues and BBQ festival, quickly becoming the Sturgis of the South. There's some great music added to this mix of loud pipes. Come down and hear Big'uns on the main stage at 6:00 on Friday and stay around to hear one of our favorite acts, the Groove Hogs, later in the evening. I can guarantee you will never, ever pay less to hear a tighter group.
We'll be sharing the venue at George's with the Groove Hogs on Saturday night; they'll be outside, we'll be in. The action should start around 9:30.

UPDATE***UPDATE
Late change: Big'uns will now be in the garden at 9:00. The Groove Hogs are playing a show from 6-9 inside.

Sometimes it's not about the song.

Musicians and people who consider themselves musically sophisticated can be particular about the songs we listen to and perform. We tend to be suspect of anything that has pervaded the popular milieu too deeply.
But the best musicians can take any song, no matter how banal and overplayed, and add soul and energy to it to create a great performance. The first time I realized this was in the 70’s listening to the late, great Little Rock jazz pianist Art Porter, Sr. Art had a regular gig at Cajun’s Wharf in Little Rock for many years. He didn’t keep the gig by playing Bill Evans material all night—although he was quite capable of doing just that. He played songs the restaurant’s patrons knew, and he did it in a very accessible, but artful way. I once heard him play an inventive, inspired version of the theme from the Andy Griffith show (not a bad song, but not typically found in the jazz canon). The masses loved it. The musicians in the house appreciated it.
Now, Art could have narrowed his repertoire to material that might have been considered more “artistic.” But the venues for that kind of performance are very limited, especially around Little Rock. He would have had to hit the road to make a living. Instead, he decided to stay around home, teaching, entertaining and bestowing other legacies, including the more widely known Art Porter, Jr. And in doing so, he artfully adapted his repertoire to popular acceptance.
Musicians around the world face the same choices as Art Porter: You can stay “artistically true” and either hit the road or play less frequently around home (in which case, you’ll need to supplement your income—but you’d better not supplement it too effectively, or you won’t be a “real” artist). Or you can play to the local market. The best musicians can keep it real and do it their own way, even when they’re playing “Brick House” for the two thousandth time.

Big'uns Live at George's Saturday Night

It's been a sobering couple of weeks if you've watched the news at all. I've been kind of busy myself with day job attention to the effects of Katrina (hence the lack of activity here).
Maybe it's time for a lighter weekend.

Big'uns will be staying up late with the kids on Saturday night.
Playing inside at George's after the Razorback game.
Send a buck or two to the Red Cross or Salvation Army or better yet, your local evacuee shelter, then hug the young'uns and come out and spend a few hours celebrating how lucky you are.