Swamp Blues Vol.3

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Vol. 3

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Produced by Steve Coleridge Co Producer. Mike Shepherd Recorded in Baton Rouge, 15, 17, 18 May 1990 Titles 1,4,11,12 produced by Larry Garner, engineer Randy McAllen, recorded and mixed at the Real to Real Sound Factory Baton Rouge, 1990 Photos and liner notes by Steve Coleridge Mixed by Alex Munkas, Tonart Studio Vienna Layout by Andrea Maria Folterbauer

Louisiana Swamp Blues - Vol. 3

I . Dog House - Larry Garner, voc.+ guitar; Spencer Williams, bass; Terry Bockery, harp; Kenny Burch, piano; Floyd Saizon, drums
2. Nasty Woman - Battlerack Scatter, voc. + lead guitar; Andrea Curbelo, 2 nd guitar; Harmonica Red, harp; AG Hardesty, bass; Pick Delmore, drums; T Bone Singleton, rhythm guitar
3. Sad, Sad Thing - T-Bone Singleton, voc. + guitar; "Lester", bass; Mille Bonereaux; harmonica; percussion: Steve Coleridge
4. Runnin Larry Garner, same personnel as 1, without harp
5. Sky Is Crying - Larry Garner, voc. + guitar; Tim Momon, bass; Andrea Curbelo, guitar; Ronnie Houston, drums; (Elmore James )
6. Leavin' Blues - Battlerack Scatter, voc.; Rudi Richard, lead guitar; A.Curbelo; rhythm guitar; Harmonica Red, harp; AG Hardesty, bass; Pick Delmore; drums
7. Let Me Be Your Man - T Bone Singleton, voc. + guitar; A. Curbelo, guitar; St. Coleridge, bass; Ronnie Houston; drums; Harmonica Red, harmonica; percussion: Wildman Steve
8. Hello, Hello - T Bone Singleton, voc. + guitar; R. Richard, guitar; James Johnson, bass; Harmonica Red, harmonica; P. Delmore, drums; percussion: Steve Wildman, Ronnie Houston
9. Mississippi Things - Battlerack Scatter, voc. + lead guitar; R.Richard, rhythm guitar; AG Hardesty, bass; P.Delmore, drums;
( Battlerack Scatter)
I 0. Tryna Get Along - T Bone Singleton, voc. + guitar; A. Curbelo, rhythm guitar; Harmonica Red, harp; AG Hardesty, bass; P. Delmore, drums; percussion: Harold Washington, Roosevelt Boudreaux-Stevec; (T Bone Singleton )
11. Someone New - Larry Garner, same personnel as 1
12. Nobody I Special - Larry Garner, same personnel as 1

Battlerack Scatter:
One of the more interesting ramifications of the Slim Harpo Raful Neal section of the Baton Rouge blues family tree is the Rockolas connection. This involves a series of bands, the longest living being the Rockolas themselves, who have sired Oscar ' Harpo " Davis and the Bluesboys. At present the only Swamp blues band still playing they are as yet unrecorded but are due in the studio on June 17th - Oscar Davis' story is a tale in itself, however Oscar began playing with Cleveland Jefferson and Battlerack Scatter, unquestionably the most enigmatic figure on the Baton Rouge Blues Scene. Battlerack ( who changed his name by deed poll) has written more songs than most people have heard, in fact he has drawers and cupboards full of manuscripts, of all types of music, however he is a bluesman at heart and as this series of articles is about Baton Rouge blues then I will attempt to concentrate on than aspect. Before starting the interview I should mention for the benefit of any musician reading this that he uses a tuning I have never come across before, in fact I'd be very interested to find out exactly if anyone else has. I asked him to explain it but as we had no guitar present the nearest he could come to that was describing it a Fm chord with 3 fingers ( i.e. tuning Fm not barred and remove the fingers on the top 2 strings and tune them till it sounds o.k. ) i.e. it's not an open tuning ). Battlerack always wears shades and a wide trimmed hat with slits cut into the brim of which he has a collection of " more then 50 ". When did you first start playing music ?-since I was 8. What sort of music was that ? Well - I really didn't have a particular music I played most of it. The guitar was your firs instrument ? Yeah it was. Did anyone else in your family play music? Yeah - well Lloyd Price for one. You're related to LIM Price ? He's my cousin - on my mothers side. Where's Lloyd Price from ? Kenner. And where are your family from ? O.k. my family Homerton, Louisiana, that's between Baton Rouge and New Roads. Did your father play guitar ? No he didn't - I had 1 brothers and 4 sisters and none of them played music, I'm the only one. How did you learn ? A lot of people ask me that. When I was eight I found myself messing with the guitar you know, my mother had brought me a guitar, one with the cat gutt, and from that I sort of took to it. Can you remember the 1st song you learned ? No, not really, that was too far back. Why didn't you record anything? Well, I guess when you're young and wild you don't really do too much thinking about that sort of thing. But Geese played on records he'd recorded with Slim Harpo. Did that give you any ideas about recording as well ? Later it did- I never had the people who was interested, the ones that were with me more or less they didn't care about that. I always treated music like a doctor treat a patient. You know I was always deep into music - I'm so particular about music, music is my life. So some of the people you played with weren't serious enough? A lot of them, from what I could understand weren't serious - Louisiana got good musicians but a lot of their work go nowhere except in Louisiana and I'm one that whatever it takes to get there I'd go ahead - I would leave today, next ten minutes. What inspired your first song ? Well I'm the type of person that just lay down and write a song. I can look at you right now and start dealing with a song about you. So you think in terms of sonad ? Yeah. Which bands did you first play in ? ( See Tree ) The Renegades, the Outlaws; Oscar was in the Renegades with Arthur Marten, we called him Small baby, on bass, abound 67 1 think. Later we had a band called the Pythons, it's one of my cousins on called Lester Lewis and a Brass section but we didn't play original material. After that I had the H.C. band - which was more jazz and easy listening because we would play a club called the Tetra chord in Mississippi. How did you develop the guitar turning you use ? I don't know, about maybe 8 years ago I stared. I was just playing, and I'm always open to new ideas - I was just seeing how many different ways I could tune and I run across this way of tuning. They told me Albert Collins uses this way of tuning as well ( not so in fact, Albert Collins uses an open Dm capoed ). So what music do you listen to now ? I don't listen to music now, I don't want to get no ideas of nobody else's music - I more or less continues playing if I'm gonna play anybody else's music, well, I know a lot of stuff it's taken me a long ways and I'm going to use that for the time being along with my own originals. What Blues guitarists did you use to listen to ? BB King, and I like the way he play his box, you know, its nothing ) ... its original - I've heard that people say I resemble his sound in some cases but I would like to think that we're both original ( you know ). Any other blues Guitarists besides BB King ? I would not want to say no, but there aren't other blues players I 'd want to sit down and really listen to. You seem to have kept a low profile in this town ? Well I have played a couple of Jam Sessions I played the Thirsty Tiger one night. Vibes and Visions ? I never heard of that one. What were your favorite songs as a child ? I always liked people like Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and people like that. That type of music I love music really it ( ... ). So when did you first play Blues ? Playing the blues along with other music you know. Did you ever see Lightnin Slim or any of the JD Miller blues act play live in Baton Rouge ? I never had the pleasure of seeing Lightning Slim. Slim Harpo ? Yeah I knew Slim - I saw him play. Where was that ? That was at the Streamline. Then I had a friend of mine used to play with him, a bass player - we used to call him Geese. That would be Geese August from Urbanville ? Yeah, and we had band together. We all started out around much the same time him, and Oscar - ( Oscar Davis) we were brought up together - me and Oscar used to play together - When we were playing back then Oscar was playing drums. So Geese was playing with you and Oscar. Was he playing bass ? Yeah. And when did you last see Geese ? It's been a long time. Did you know Lazy Lester ? I heard of Lazy Lester, but I never had the pleasure of running into him or Lonesome Sundown. When did you first write songs ? I started writing when I was about 14. Larry Garner and Raful Neal" play there with a lot of good musicians - do you know them ? I know Larry - and I know Raful - we live on the same street - we're coming from the same playground - I knew Raful when I was about 14 years old. My father in law and Raful used to play music together - my father in law, they used to call him T- Bird was a tenor player, his right name was Dean Jackson. When was that ? I guess I was to young to remember. Did you meet Lloyd Price ? I used to go around Lloyd's house when I was 8 or 9 years old I used to go to Kenner with my grandmother. Why didn't you play the blues festival ? 1 don't know there was so much talk about it and so many rumors that I didn't want to play it. What sort of rumors ? Well about the money and the changes you had to go through to get on that I didn't really want to play it - I don't like to be hassled. Would you do it again, next year ? If I get booked, I might think about it.

T-Bone Singleton:
Baton Rouge is not a city whose identity is immediately apparent. I've been living here for six months and I still haven't got a handle on it, however certain areas do have a particular character of their own, be it picturesque or not. It would require a stronger dose of romantic self delusion than I'm capable of mastering to find the concrete apartment blocks that form the own, be it picturesque or not. It would require a stronger dose of romantic self delusion than I'm capable of project of North Street where T-Bone lives to be anything other than depressing " functional " should be a complimentary term when used to describe architecture, a building that depends on air conditioning to be habitable, a building designed by an architect " whose criteria appear to be identical whether the site be in Chicago or Calcutta, can never be considered anything but a waste of money whose end product will be to cheapen and uglify the lives of its future residents. T-Bone Singleton, occupation: bluesman, is one of those unlucky residents and he would prefer to be living in the country, he assured me. We drove down North Street to Cleveland Jeffersons, a blues bar that has jam sessions a week, not notably well attended, but interesting, as many musicians find themselves playing unfamiliar instruments, some local guitarists turn to be surprisingly good drummers. T- Bone had been broke for the last few months, and to a European mean Broke; Not having a car in a on Rouge is a unimaginable disadvantage , as there is no public transport except unfrequent expensive buses that stop their services when most musicians are still in bed, and its difficult to Ca" a guitar and an amp on a bicycle, consequently he devoted this period to writing a series of brooding introspective blues, appropriate to a winter that broke all records for its successive spells of freezing cold and constant rain. Two standouts are " Tryna get along " and " Living with the blues " both featured on this tape. He has a good sense of irony however and played " Tryna get along " at a friends wedding reception " Slick on one side, Jody on the other, they're keepin score of all the women that they're loving, sooner or later they 'II be knocking on the door to borrow a bowl of sugar ". T-Bone has played in a mynad of Baton Rouge blues bands as shown on the family tree, the longest stints being with Bobby Powell and the Condors. Bobby later did an Al Green and is resident music director of the Gloryland Baptist church. T-Bone decided to form his own band earlier this year and they've been regularly opening for Clarence Edwards. T-Bone punctuates his sentences with a beam and a chuckle usually crowing some comment that would lead the listener to think he was a fatalistic skeptic, however he is in fact quite the reverse. One of the reasons why he never has any money in that he is giving it away to people he considers less fortunate than himself. Last week he saw a guitar a woman was selling for $ 10 and he gave her $ 15 " because it was a good guitar, man later he had no money for gas and had to walk to Cleves to borrow 2 dollars.( ... )
The only way a bluesman or any other type of musician can hope to make money is to get signed by a large label one of the labels that sell 94 % of what goes out of record stores, and some of this do have blues departments such as hightone etc. " I want to get on the road, I'll go anywhere now man, but soon I'll be too old for that ". T-Bone you're one of the youngest bluesmen goin' ", I assured him. The next day I went up to see him perform at his regular Friday gig in St. Francisville, in a large rundown lounge at the end of a road that winds through woods and across creeks and bayous; once again the owner had not kept his promise about publicizing the event and there were few people there. T-Bone's finances forced him to give a larger share the man who t rented him the PA than he was receiving himself. I sat down n h. darkened room and wondered if this was going to be a success. " Play the blues ", a exclaimed again and again from out of the darkness, he did, and by fourth number almost the entire club was dancing - Bone gritty optimism somehow cut through the gloom and transformed what had seemed a depressing empty ban into a fiesta.
Larry Garner:
It's a sweltering August night at Larry Garner and T-Bone gig at the Art Bar, some 100 yards from the Mississippi levee in Baton Rouge. A packed house waits to see the contemporary blues men who write their own material but with entirely different yet strangely compatible styles. Both have a knack of getting across a universal truth from original perspectives. Larry Garner was born in 1952 in New Orleans but was raised in the country some twenty miles north of Baton Rouge. Exposed to the blues at an early age, he had an uncle who used to play, " a lot of Jimmy Reed stuff ". He could pick up a Tennessee Blues station, WLAC, that played a lot of down Horne stuff such as Lightning Slim and Lonesome Sundown. Down the gravel road from his family's house was the Holmes Place, a jook joint which is still open today and where local bluesman such as Silas Hogan and Clarence Edwards would play until the early hours. At twelve years of age he was playing music in church and at sixteen joined a blues band playing at The Black Cat lounge in Tunica, a club that's also still active. Larry was not alone in playing blues on Fridays and Saturdays and the " Devil's Music " on Sundays - but despite that dichotomy which caused only anguish to such bluesmen as Lonsesome Sundown and Son House, he was never in doubt that, as he put it, ' When Adam and Eve got kicked out of the Garden Eden, don't you think they might of had a case of the blues ? " In fact Larry still drops by his neighborhood Pentecostal church and ." hits some of the lick that I picked up from BB, Albert, Silas and Kelly. I was hitting all those licks in church and they was jumping to the music. " I first saw Larry play at a jam session he and his band used to run, across the river, every Sunday and I was astonished at the eclectism of his original material and the tight but spontaneous feel. He delivered a ten minute version of Clarence Carter's ' Love Her With A Feeling " with a hilariously detailed monologue on the art of seduction which remains sadly unrecorded, but never fails to raise the temperature of any audience. He also performed a version of " Doghouse Blues " which opens this CD and is one of the wittiest blues ever committed to vinyl, or whatever they are made of, and if you are reading this in a record store listen to it right now ! " Someone New " is a bouncy shuffle on a theme everyone, except members of the priesthood, can admit relating to, an old theme concisely expressed. " Running " has some elegant bass work from Spencer Williams and good lowdown harp from Terry Dockery - a theme of a man looking back on a misspent youth and knowing something of Larry's, I won't argue with him. On the self effacing little ballad Nobody Special " the harp injects a Stevie Wonder/ jazzy feel over lyrics that make the listener realize he may not be such hot shit after all, but then, no one else is either. " The Sky Is Crying ', the only cover he does here, has a few changes to make it his own.
Larry's blues have a more intellectual feel to them than what is traditionally expected, but times have changed in the last twenty years and is there a law which says a bluesman can't have his own computer and fax machine ? Liner notes by Stephen Coleridge 6 August 1991 with acknowledgements to Alison Pringle of Exeter University, U.K. for use of her Larry Garner interview.