Blues with down-home flavor

October 17, 2004

BY JEFF JOHNSON Staff Reporter

HELENA, Ark. -- Decades of poverty couldn't crush the spirit of this Mississippi Delta town, so a couple of days of rain certainly wasn't going to put a damper on its biggest event.

The 19th annual King Biscuit Blues Festival entertained thousands of blues lovers from around the world last weekend, offering three days of big-name performers in a picture-perfect setting. The musical highlights were numerous, but the overall ambience left an impression far greater than any of the 75 acts.

Chicagoans whose notion of a blues fest is shaped by the four-day production each spring in Grant Park would find some striking similarities in Helena's three-day shindig.

Both festivals are free, supported by a primary sponsor and many other contributors. Chicago is sponsored by the Best Buy electronics chain, while the Biscuit's chief backer is the Isle of Capri casino in rural Lula, just a stone's throw across the river on the Mississippi side.

And you couldn't have a fest without controversy. The Sonny Boy Blues Society, which programs the fest; the downtown merchants association; the Isle of Capri, and the African-American-dominated city government often disagree on monetary issues. The locals don't see many residual benefits once the temporary souvenir shops and saloons revert to their full-time status as underutilized specialty stores -- or boarded-up storefronts.

Just as Chicago's skyline provides a magnificent backdrop for the fest, the setting for the new Sonny Boy Williamson Main Stage is right out of a Mark Twain novel, complete with a view of the Mississippi from the levee that overlooks the stage. Two sets of abandoned railroad tracks run that through the site seem to lead straight back in time, and have the practical advantage of a level area for festgoers to set up their ubiquitous folding chairs. Helena has its "skyscraper," too -- a five-story bank building.

While first-timers are attracted by a lineup that may be stronger at the top -- although not quite as deep in talent -- as Chicago's, those who return every year find the King Biscuit fest a unique social and cultural experience.

There are constant reminders that you're in the Delta. From the giant bales of cotton that lay among the white fluffy fields awaiting the harvesting machines to the deep-fried alligator that competes with hamburger for fest-issued "blues bucks" at the concession stands, it's an experience that you can't duplicate in Grant Park.

And you can spot the veterans as soon as the rain comes. They quickly reach for their oversized umbrellas, extra-thick ponchos and weatherproof caps and shoes, then wrap their gear in plastic garbage bags for extra protection. Festival officials estimated this year's attendance at 55,000, down from the 100,000 that are expected annually. To these eyes it looked like the crowd was about 20,000 on each of the three days. Saturday, when festgoers were pelted with a nine-hour downpour, probably was the biggest dropoff from previous years.

Blues lovers rocked till almost midnight every night, unlike the early closing time in Grant Park. Why did they stick around in the rain? First, it was a chance to hear two venerable headline artists, Chicago's Queen of the Blues Koko Taylor and Texas swing-blues master Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, both of whom have been in ill health recently. Taylor, the eternal trouper, brought her "A" game even if her backing Blues Machine showed a little rust. Brown, who would look emaciated after eating two Thanksgiving dinners, was sticklike as he remained seated through much of his solid set.

But it was a mutual love fest for performers and audience, and no one felt the warmth more than 91-year-old Pinetop Perkins. The pianist's well-received Friday set with guitarist Bob Margolin and other Muddy Waters alumni kicked off a weekendlong homecoming tribute. He slept Saturday night in the Pinetop Perkins Shack at the Shack-Up Inn in nearby Clarksdale, Miss. The six transplanted sharecroppers' shacks on the site are used as motel rooms on the historic Hopson Plantation, where Perkins and pals performed Sunday.

Octogenarians Robert Jr. Lockwood and Sam Carr also performed during King Biscuit. Not all the performers, though, represented the history of the blues. Jon Cleary, who fronts the Absolute Monster Gentlemen, a Neville Brothers-style N'Awlins blues-funk powerhouse, when he's not playing keyboards for Bonnie Raitt, played perhaps the most crowd-pleasing set of the entire fest Friday night. Louisiana guitarist-harpist Kenny Neal, who followed Cleary, took advantage of a lengthy 100-minute time slot to show off his multiple talents, leading a band that includes two of his brothers. (In fact, almost all the performers were allotted at least an hour onstage, unlike the bang-bang pace of Chicago's fest.)

Chicago's Alligator Records, the nation's largest independent blues label, was well represented with present and past artists, starting with Taylor. Marcia Ball, whose moving rendition of Randy Newman's "Louisiana 1927" sounded prophetic as the rain picked up ("six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline"), led the Alligator contingent on Saturday. Alligator's Holmes Brothers got guest help with their opening gospel songs before the trio made an abrupt religious-to-secular transformation. (Even the first non-gospel tune, "Big Boss Man," had comically religious overtones.) Alligator graduate Corey Harris, whose live shows often feel like classroom demonstrations, kept his musicologist's hat on the hanger for his rocking, all-electric Thursday show.

While the Chicago blues fest seems to shy away from guitar-driven blues-rock acts, King Biscuit is eager to give axmen their due. Thursday was a nonstop evening of guitar stars, with Harris, teenage phenom Daniel "Slick" Ballinger, comebacking New Yorker Bobby Radcliff and headliner Jimmy Thackery & the Drivers. Thackery topped off his dazzling set with a very Hendrix-like "Star-Spangled Banner," which segued into ... nope, not "Purple Haze," but "I'm Gonna Sell the Bitch's Car," a pseudo-country declaration of independence.

Along with the 12-hour shows each day on the mainstage, King Biscuit also presents blues and gospel acts on two remote stages. Even there, Chicagoans Bob Stroger and Phil Guy were star attractions.

Those who ventured across the street from the mainstage into the Delta Cultural Center Museum got a good idea of why Helena hosts the fest. King Biscuit Flour was the longtime sponsor of a seminal blues show on Helena's KFFA-AM, once hosted by Sonny Boy Williamson (the former Rice Miller). Sunshine Sonny Payne has hosted the show for more than half a century, and still broadcasts from the center. His emcee role is one of the enduring treasures of King Biscuit.

With its ramshackle housing, rundown business district and high unemployment, Helena wouldn't be the first place you'd think of for a vacation. Even Williamson joined thousands of his fellow African Americans and followed the Great Migration north to Chicago. (Locals point out that there are more former Helena residents living in Chicago than the remaining population of some 8,800.) But if the migration decision was based strictly on which town had the better blues festival, there would be no clear-cut choice.