Page 2B - THE CHARLOTTE POST - Thursday, August 25, 1988
LICKS
Raw & Beautiful;
The Power of Blues
BY SHERRY LUCA
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Prim
itive blues, country blues, front
porch blues -- all names for
Delta blues, the raw, plaintive
songs of that flat and fertile tri
angle of Mississippi black
land.
Those are the native notes
bluesman Jcimes "Son" Thomas
has just secured on record — a
personal album that, for the
first time, can actually be
called his. The record is named,
naturally, "Gateway to the Del
ta."
"Well, my mind runs that
way," says the thin, sly blues-
man of the title.
Thomas is a native of Eden, a
patch of a town Just north of
Yazoo City on Highway 49
where he lived and worked,
hard, for more than half his 61
years.
There, with funding from the
Mississippi Arts Commission
and Rust College in Holly
Springs, Thomas felt the mem
ories and sang the songs — front
porch blues, literally, into a
microphone for half the cuts on
the album. The rest were re
corded at Rust College in Holly
Springs.
"I went to some of the places
where 1 had such hard times,"
Thomas says of the Ironically
named Eden. "1 wanted to
record on some of the land
where 1 was working."
The result is a music docu
mentary -— songs that buzz
with the heat, humidity and
harshness of a sharecropper's
life in the Delta. These are
dressed-down blues — orna
mented only by the mood and
skill of the player, not the volt
age of his equipment.
"1 makes up my own music,"
Thomas said. "1 don't write mu
sic, and i don't play out of no
book. I do my own recording —
making my own notes."
Authenticity weis the goal that
led the album's recording party
"back in the hills" of Eden, the
musician said, to the porch on
the log cabin of James and Mag
gie Rouster, old friends of
Thomas'.
"We wanted Son to have a
sense of place," said Sylvester
W. Oliver Jr., the album's execu
tive producer. Oliver, a practic
ing ethnomuslcologist, is direc
tor
of
institutional
advancement at Rust College.
'The music scene was in that
area — with his friends, where
he grew up, where he farmed.
This wasn't just an Insensitive,
plastic kind of production. It
was one (in which) he could actu
ally relate to the days, the times,
the place . . . the events that al
lowed the music fervor within
him to be developed," Oliver
said.
"That live portion in Eden, I
think, is a very significant
recording event. It's outside, on a
front porch and you can hear the
crickets screaming, the bird fly
ing by, the dog barking here and
there. The goal was to try to
catch it in a natural setting. I
think we succeeded in doing just
that," Oliver said.
Thomas is co-producer of
"Gateway to the Delta," along
with Walter Llnlger, a research
associate at the Blues Archives,
a branch of the J.D. Williams Li
brary at Ole Miss. Linlger pro
vides harmonica accompani
ment for Thomas on half the
songs on the album. He fre
quently accompanies Thomas
in live performances as well.
Rust College has its own record
label, Rustron Records and mu
sic publishing company, Rustco,
both established to help pre
serve folk traditions of Missis
sippi and the Mid-South, Oliver
said. "Gateway to the Delta" is
the first blues album for Rus
tron, which usually concen
trates on gosp>el recordings. The
album was released Aug. 1.
"Gateway to the Delta" features
11 songs, some of them Thomas'
own and others by Elmore
James and Arthur "Big Boy"
Crudup — "Elvis Presley record
ed some of his songs and made
all the money. He never made
none," Thomas said. It's a typi
cal pattern of commercializa
tion of the blues — from source
to someone else's success.
The Mississippi Arts Commis
sion Individual Artist Grant of
$5,000 for the album's pre-
production, and the more than
$5,000 provided by Rust College,
gave Thomas artistic control
over this production.
'This is the first time that Son
Thomas actually had artistic
control over his music. Most of
the other records, he didn't even
know he made," Linlger said, re
ferring to Import records and
Chamber Music Concert
Davidson, NC - A chamber mu
sic concert of music for flute and
strings is scheduled for Septem
ber 2 at Davidson College.
Music professor Yvonne Ken
dall leads a group of musicians
in a program that begins at 8:15
p.m. in Hodson Hall in the Cun
ningham Fine Arts Building. The
concert will include "Quartet" by
Ammadeus Mozart and "Quintet"
by modern American composer
Amy Beach. The concert is free
and sponsored by the Depart
ment of Music. For more infor
mation, call 704-892-2357,
weekdays 8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. and
2-5 p.m.
Kendall has a master's degree
in flute from the New England
Conservatory of Music in Bos
ton. She Is joined by local musi
cians and the concert-mater of
the Baltimore Chamber Orches
tra, violinist Ronald Mutchnik,
who also has a degree from the
New England Conservatory in
violin.
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m\
blues anthologies.
"This one, he was involved
from the very first step. It was a
very pain staking experience for
him . . . His proverb is, don't
make your move too soon."
"I love it," Thomas said, satis
fied with the freedom to control
his work.
"Gateway to the Delta" has been
two years in production, delayed
by personal stresses on the mu
sician, and a January 1987 acci
dent in which he was severely
burned.
The accident raised doubts
whether the project could be
completed, Oliver said. "With our
nourishing — calling him up,
supporting him spiritually — we
nourished him back to good
mental health."
Thomas said, "I'm doing a
whole lot better than I thought
I'd be doing. I would love to
thank all the people who helped
me when I was in the hospital —
some 1 didn't even know." About
his playing, the bluesman said,
"Well, I can do pretty good . . . but
I never brag."
"Gateway to the Delta" repre
sents a significant collaboration
of black scholars and artists to
help preserve their folk music.
Rust, an historically black pri
vate college, did the recording.
Jerry W. Ward Jr., a professor of
English at Tougaloo College,
wrote the liner notes for Thom
as' album, praising Thomas' ar
tistry with strong and vivid
prose.
'The black community is able
to reclaim its own musical heri
tage," Linlger says of the album.
"Son has become an icon; he's an
aritifact."
Oliver estimated that 90 per
cent of interpretations and aca
demic studies of blues music are
done from a white perspective.
"I think this could be another
opportunity for blacks to begin
to actually have their own per
spective of the music shared
with people all over," he said.
"Not only is it significant, it
makes a statement regarding the
capability of blacks in the state
to make a valuable contribution
to the preservation of Mississip
pi culture. We've been doing it
through our festivals, and
through working with artists to
get them jobs for their music.
This opens up another avenue
for us in trying to preserve the
folk heritage."
Rust College is the album's dis
tributor. "Gateway to the Delta"
is not available on cassette now,
but may be in the future, Oliver
said.
Record stores or individuals
who would like to order
"Gateway to the Delta" should
write to Rustron Records or
James "Son" Thomas; Rust Col
lege: 150 E. Rust Ave.; Holly
Springs, MS 38635. Albums are
S«S, plus $2 for shipping.
Albums also can be purchased
from Thomas at his live perfor
mances, for $11 each.
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Elaine Byrd Is A Custom Lady In Her Creations
Continued fix>m Rage IB
struct figurines is just one part
of the picture. Ms. Byrd is mas
terful with making cushions
and draperies. Her ideas come
from her natural curiosity. She
finds herself asking the ques
tion of herself, "What if?" Then
when the notion hits her, she's
off on a creative binge to satisfy
her personal challenges.
She sees herself helping a few
special people. "1 am looking for
a few good customers," says
Byrd, "if a one-of-a-kind item is
on the agenda then I can handle
that very well ." Byrd plans to of
fer a complete line of services to
her clients. Byrd says," Every
thing to do with home furnish
ings will be on the agenda. We're
talking every thing that comes
under home decorating and fur
nishing." Byrd's special skill
seems to be the use of an air
brush to create the smooth fin
ishes of her work with wood.
■When asked how she came to be
so inclined, Byrd smswers sim
ply that,"It was just a matter of
being curious about how this
was done. I really wanted to
know if I could do this."
Byrd went further than most
men would go to test herself. Al
though she has never had any
training in brick masonry, she
has achieved a working knowl
edge of this craft as well. Her
first work in this medium was a
job she did fpr her mother. Byrd
took out a brick wall to install a
window.
This woman likes to work
hard, and obviously hard work
agrees with her. B}ud also does
airbrush paintings. With so
much to aspire to Byrd has plen
ty to be preoccupied with.
With an avid interest in her
endeavors she continues to
make the unusual her play
things.
Well, the proof is in the pud
ding. A look at the accompany
ing photographes gives only a
partial idea of her ability. She
Ms. Byrd shows off her bark scale alligator with a smaller version riding on the topside.
Pliolo/TONY WHITE
works out of her home, which
she shares with her twelve-year
old daughter, Klsha.
Some would call her work a
;raft,others would term it simp
ly whimsy, but Elaine Byrd sees
in her efforts the furnishings of
the iuture.
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