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Star News - November 6, 2002 | |
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| Common Sense: Blues alive in Port City and talented 18-year-old | ||||||||
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I spent part of my vacation sitting in the Rusty Nail Saloon listening to members of the Blues Society of the Lower Cape Fear talk about how to mike Daniel “Slick” Ballinger’s foot. Putting a microphone next to his foot was important because of the way he plays the blues. I was familiar with the issue because I’d seen another young white blues singer, John Hammond Jr., about 30 years ago. He played intricate acoustic blues guitar and beat time with his foot while he sang Louise. |
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The stomping foot is integral to the song and even appeared on the record. Once they got Mr. Ballinger’s foot miked, he blew the crowd away, winning the Cape Fear Blues Challenge and earning a trip to Memphis to play in a national blues competition. I was one of the judges. Mr. Ballinger edged out Mudbone, a talented Burlington quartet. After he won, his mom, a pretty woman wearing tight blue jeans and a “Beer Me” T-shirt, hugged just about everyone in the bar. “He’s been in two other competitions, but they wouldn’t let him win because he was so young,” said Darlene Cramer. She said he was making up some of the lyrics on the spot. She and Mr. Ballinger live in Clayton, near Raleigh. He just turned 18 and has been playing about four years. He plays traditional country blues, finger-picking and using a metal slide. He cites Mississippi Fred McDowell as an influence. Ms. Cramer showed me a big write-up about Mr. Ballinger that appeared Oct. 19 in the Memphis Commercial Appeal. He spent last summer living in Mississippi with Otha Turner, a 94-year-old bluesman. He worked on the farm by day and played blues at night in juke joints and at house parties. Mr. Turner is enthusiastic about Mr. Ballinger. “Fred McDowell is about as good as I’ve ever heard, and I know he can play. And Lightnin’ Hopkins is another one. And them’s the only two that got something on Slick, I see,” he told the Memphis newspaper. Mr. Ballinger had the crowd roaring in that smoky, low-ceilinged room Saturday night in Wilmington. Mike Covington, Mudbone’s charismatic singer-harmonica player, stood in front, leaning forward and beaming encouragement to the young man. Slick broke a guitar string on the second song, but it didn’t appear to slow him down as his fingers crawled like spiders up and down the fretboard. I talked with Mr. Ballinger about Mississippi and about his playing style (“I only use the picks when my fingers are hurting”), but he’s a shy young man. His mom was the quote machine. “He’s a young man, but he’s an old soul,” she said, playing a compact disk of his music on a car stereo in the parking lot. “He’s about to get his Eagle Scout badge,” she confided to me. “He doesn’t like to tell people that because it’s not very bluesy.” His grades are only so-so, she said, but she’s made graduating from high school and becoming an Eagle, the highest Boy Scout rank, conditions for letting him play blues at night. After the competition, the Blues Society had a jam session, where people sign up to play with other musicians. I played my guitar and, against the advice of my wife, actually sang a song. The Blues Society has held the jams for years at various locations around town, but it seems to have found a home in the Rusty Nail, a bar since Henry Beatty started selling beer at his appliance store in 1957. It’s nice to see that the blues are alive in Wilmington. And it’s great to see an amazing young North Carolinian earn a shot at national recognition. “Common Sense” appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Contact Si Cantwell at 343-2364 or si.cantwell@wilmingtonstar.com. |
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