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Jimbo's "Buddy Guy" Diary:
Day 1This morning, Spam told me he's seen haints. He's a drummer from Indianola, Mississippi. He is 52. His parents are both dead, buried at Riverside. His brother is dead, too. Two brothers live in Saginaw, Michigan. One drives a street bus, one works at a car plant. He lives with his sister Katharine. Before Spam's daddy died, he told Spam "Take me out". So Spam put him in the car and drove him around. Shortly after that, his daddy died. Then his daddy came to him as a haint. Spam jumped up and ran. Then a woman told him, "Go back and lay down". So he did. Then he wasn't scared when his mother came back, and some other haints. Spam is going to take the money he makes from drumming on this Buddy Guy record and buy a motor for his 85 Buick. It is blue and has one bad tire but four matching rims. Spam is staying in the room next to mine at the boarding house. We go to the studio at noon and stay 'til around midnight. When we aren't in there, I pace around the room or talk with Spam. His real name is Tommy Myrick. Day 2Spam kicked the pedal plum through his kick drum last night. We played T-Model Ford's "Look What All You Got" for six hours straight. That's when the pedal went on through. This afternoon, we made a record "She Got the Devil in Her" and another "Worried Life". Mr. Guy is one of the nicest fellows you could meet, so I wasn't scared. He is telling some good old time stories about recording behind Sonny Boy Williams at Chess in the 60's. The man was giving Sonny Boy a hard time about something or other and Sonny Boy told them "You motherf%*&er's sent for me! I didn't ask you if I could come up here!"
Day 3I walked down to William Faulkner's grave in my flip flops this morning. The air was wet and heating up quick. I had a good time under that big tree, looking down at the grave in that quiet cemetery. It's too hot to drink coffee, and I need a shave. Day 5You can't buy beer on Sunday, period, in Lafayette county. This is the county where I was born in 1967. It's Sunday evening and they let us off early. Around dark they drove to a little catfish house around Taylor, Miss. You can't buy beer but the people thought ahead and bought some on Saturday. So they let you BYOB at this little catfish house. Taylor, Miss is a little crossroads out in the country. It was pretty crowded in there. The ceilings were high with some ceiling fans and the room was narrow and long and made out of wood. I think it had been an old general store in times past. They had fried hush puppies, catfish, and slaw. All of it was real good. Then, the man was playing guitar over in the corner and passing around a little tip jar. The owner of the joint kept asking him to play some Jimmy Rogers songs. Jimmie Rogers is the "original crazy Mississippi white boy". The guitar man didn't know any so I got up and played some. Then the man asked did I want a drink. So he made me some drinks and we sat in there 'til around 3:00am taking requests. A kid came out of the kitchen and asked me to play "Turkey Buzzard in a Porkpie Hat", which I did. Then he started sitting in on a plastic bucket. Another man was there on harmonica and guitar. At the end of the night they gave me five dollars and a watermelon and a man drove me back to the hotel. Day 7Today is Monday and I'm still a little woozy from last night. We're cutting "Who's Been Fooling You" and "Where You Been?". Spam and I are having lots of fun but he is going home on Wednesday. The producer is happy with the way things are going and so am I. Buddy Guy is awesome, but I sure will miss Spam. Day 8Spam went home today. They have brought in the second drummer, Sam Carr, from down around Lula. Amos brought him up and took Spam home. I hope he gets that new motor for his Buick. As Spam said, "We done cut a whole heap of records.". He also told me "I was on your ass like leaping Dan." I wonder who leaping Dan is. Today we ate the watermelon that they gave me the other night. It sure is hot (the temperature, not the watermelon). Mr. Guy said that I play good and he is enjoying himself making this down home blues record. We are recording Fat Possum Music. Every morning I eat at Smitty's. Then at dinner break I get chicken and dumplings, black-eyed peas, turnip greens, and cornbread. At the end of the night I eat leftovers from that. Mississippi has the best food in the world to me. The bass player's name is Davey Ferregi. He is really nice and a great bass player. I met him a long time ago (back in the 80's) and he was wearing a dress. He doesn't wear dresses anymore. I sure miss Katharine and my daughter Peeps, though. Day 9Sam Carr was born in 1925 in Crystal Springs, Arkansas. He has lived in Mississippi most all his life. He has been a tractor driver, junk man, musician, and a commercial fisherman on the bayous and tributaries of the big river. He fishes with nets. He has 15 cars and most all of them run if you put a battery in them. His father was the legendary slide guitar man Robert Nighthawk. I think he said his real name was McCullough. Sam Carr sure is a sharp dresser and a fine gentleman to boot. We played and talked all day today and he told me a lotsa great things about how to live long, happily, and graciously. He has played on CD with Jelly Roll Kings, Paul "Wine" Jones, T-Model Ford and many others in jukes and festivals all over the country. He plays the King Biscuit Festival this year (first week of October in Helena, Arkansas). Day 10We walk to the studio at one o'clock. We rehearse 'til about 6. We break an hour for dinner and I come back. Buddy Guy is here. He is staying in a rental house not far from the studio. He is a most beautiful singer and guitar man. He says that when Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf and all them would stand around and talk, it was like music. He says they would make up songs in the studio to play on their records. He was there. The studio is in Oxford, Mississippi and is called Sweet Tea. The producer is Dennis Herring, like the fish. He grew up not far from me around Tupelo, Mississippi and has lived in Los Angeles for a long time as a professional musician and studio man. He is 42 years old. Day 11It ends up the man I played with last Sunday at the Taylor catfish house is Cary Hudson. He plays with Blue Mountain. He sings with a lovely woman Laurie Stirrat. They are great singers and musicianeers. I have been playing with them after-hours. We played in a club and we played in a basement for a party. Then last night we played down a street on the sidewalk. We sat on trashcans and people danced in the street 'til 6:00 am. There were houses all around and no one called the cops. The people kept appearing out of the darkness and were sitting all on the porch and in the yard and were dancing on the sidewalks. One man thumped the ground. Some boys from the group "Circuit Riders" played bass and guitar and we passed around the mandolin. It was turning light when I said "well boys, I got to go" and I walked the few blocks to the hotel and went to bed. God bless Oxford. Day 13Well the record is finished and I'm packed up to go. I sure would like to thank Sweet Tea, Ronzo for the bike, Cary, Laurie, and the Circuit Riders for all the picking and singing, Amos and Andria, Voyager's Rest, Taylor catfish house, Smitty's, Ajax Diner, and all the beautiful denizens of Oxfordtown. |