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i M M T N w n r MtaAUNc a m m n u i
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Grassroot News. N. H i — A legend walked in our midst, whose mojo left
this Portland audience spellbound. You can’ t think o f blues without the
name o f a real blues brother, Muddy Waters, crossing your mind.
Muddy’s music is categorically referred to as the blues. I call it testifying.
The rhythm and rhyme originated in being poor and Black in a land that’s
white, and a few, rich. Mississippi nurtured Muddy Waters and it ’ s where
the descendants o f A frican slaves had their identities squelched, children
sold, women raped and their manhood castrated. Born McKinley Morgan-
held, he derived his stage name from his grandmother who watched him
play in the mud at a plantation near Clarksdale, Mississippi. "Mississippi
had its own style ot blues. We had the delta sound and then there was the
Texas blues with Blind Lemon Jefferson and the people brought that New
Orleans blues out o f Louisiana.
“ In 19-and-40, early wartime, the people started moving around. They
took some people to the Army and the people from the deep South moved
north, to Chicago. Jazz was real hot and I helped put that Mississippi
Sound in it.”
Chicago, at the ch itlin circuit or fish-fry, is where Muddy had his first
two generations o f gigs. "Y o u play five or six shows a night for ten or
twelve dollars, that’s the Chitlin Circuit.”
The Legend
Master of the "Jat-Aga Blues," LOU RAWLS, appears In concert
at 8 pm. Saturday. Sept. 19 in the Auditorium. Tickets for the North
west Releasing event are on sale at the Ticket Place in the down
town Frederick & Nelson and usual suburban outlets.
RAWLS
Raised in a Chicago ghetto, Lou Rawls managed to stay dear o f the kind
o f trouble that often marred or destroyed the lives o f kids he grew up with
on the streets o f the W indy City. His grandmother saw to that, imbuing him
with a strong sense o f God, home and family. He refers to her as "the fist
o f re trib u tio n ," providing moral as well as spiritual guidance during his
formative years.
Singers like Billy Eckstein, A rthur Prysock and Joe Williams inspired
him with their elegant earthiness, their ability to lift the spirits o f their audi
ence. Lou sensed that music, especially the popular kind, would become an
integral part o f his life.
After graduating from high school, Rawls joined a traveling gospel group
called The Pilgrim Travelers. This early experience as a gospel singer laid
the foundation for Lou’ s smooth performing style and ability to relate to
audiences in a down-home way.
In 1958, Lou Rawls was almost fatally injured in a car accident on a road
outside Memphis, Arkansas. The crash left his riding companion, the late
singer Sam Cooke, unharmed, but killed a third occupant and put Rawls
into a coma for 5 days. “ They actually pronounced me dead in the ambu
lance on the way to the hospital,” Lou recalls. “ I had a loss o f memory for
about three months, and it was a year before I fully recovered.”
Rawls’ big break came in late 1959, when Dick Clark was producing a
show at the Hollywood Bowl. “ One o f the acts they booked dropped out at
the last minute, so they got me. Every other act on stage that night lip-
synched their records... I was the only one who sang live.” The following
day’s reviews were favorable to Lou because o f that lone live performance.
As a result, Capitol signed him to a recording contract and he started mak
ing the rounds o f Los Angeles jazz clubs, piano bars, and coffee houses.
However, it wasn’t until he cut his first live album in 1965, Lou Rawls
Live, that he attained national recognition. His career took o ff like a shot,
fans and music critics alike comparing him with the musical heroes o f his
youth.
Nothing lasts forever in the music business, especially when personal
problems get in the way. Between 1970 and 1973, domestic problems arising
from Lou’s divorce spilled over into his professional life. (He had married
in 1963.) He began to seem aloof and uncaring to a once adoring public.
" I just turned everything o ff,” he says. “ I didn’ t want to go anywhere,
or bother with anybody. I ’d lost touch with John Q. P u b lic .. . . ” It took
him a few years to get his personal act together, ("ta k in g myself to the
woodshed,” as he puts it), eventually regaining his sense o f direction and
his contact with “ the man in the street.”
1976 marked the next turning point in Rawls’ career. Having recovered
from his personal and professional wounds, he signed with Philadelphia In
ternational Records, and became the televesion spokesman for Budweiser
beer. His first record fo r Philadelphia International was " Y o u ’ ll Never
Find.’ It sold well; the public was getting in tune with the Lou Rawls style
once more.
So far in his astonishingly successful recording career, Lou Rawls has ac
counted for millions upon millions o f record sales, including platinum and
gold. In addition, he has been seven times nominated and four times named
winner o f the coveted Grammy Award, as well as being the recipient o f two
American Music Awards.
Special Guest Ster«KIP ADDOTTA|
In C o n c e rt • A u d ito riu m
This S a tu rd a y . S e p t. 19 - 8 pm
by Lanita Duke
Grass root News Service
Tickets: 412.50. 410,00. 48.00
T ic k e t* oub|*ct to agency handling fee
t> The word I coined earlier to describe what blues are was testifying.
,Y?U I C tell,ng what’ s on your mind, your part o f the story and someone
else s. Some o f the songs 1 have made I didn’ t pay no attention to, but they
hit a lot o f people. I sing about women and hard times. And whatever I sing
there s always someone out there who’ s living that life. I f I ain’ t talking
about myself I ’ m talking about someone else.”
The blues provided rock and roll with some creative stimuli that pushed it
towards the prominent place that rock and roll is held in by the music indus
try. “ It all came from the old mother’ s dust, the blues. They know it, I
know it, whether or not you young kids know it or not. A lot o f the big rock
stars like Johnny Winters. Chuck Berry and the Rolling Stones will say that
they got it from Muddy. This Black boy that died, Jimi Hendrix, told them
where he got it from .”
TICKETS ON SALE NOW AT: rrad*nek •
•on downtown all 0 1 Joo« S l.M n . « Sona tlloyd
Conto* and Salami, Cinte Audnoitum. Intornatlonol Import«
iVoncouMH Hocoxt Qaidon Itobanom lin n Bonlon Com
munii« C o llo *. (Albany). Aa, f «Ida iMcMinnwllol Oat
Corion'« Aocoid A T i p . , fTho O .ll.a l
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In to d a y - O u t to m o rro w
Deniece Williams seems to have Walter Jackson under her ipelll
W alter stopped by backstage after Deniece’s electrifying perfor
mance at the Savoy in the Big Apple recently. And word hae It that
Ms. Williams has bean bringing the house down In each of the 17
cities she toured.
Storefront Theater
6 S W T h ird A v e n u e
Auditions for:
MUDDY WATERS
This musical foundation that Muddy laid helped make millionaires out o f
many rock and ro ll recording artists. How does he feel about that fact?
“ You don’t have a million people who buy blues. There’s a certain lim it to
my type o f blues. I f I sell 75.000 or 100,000 copies then I have a good al
bum out. But if a rock group do that, it ’ s a flop. They have to stay up with
the 250,000 and half-a-million number. You don't have a lot o f people for
my type o f blues as you do rock or disco.
“ But look at this. I've seen a lot o f rock and disco groups go down the
tube and I ’ m still sitting here selling that 50,000.” In M uddy’ s music he
sings, “ The Blues had a baby and they named it Rock and Roll.”
M uddy Waters’ m ojo is his talent o f a heart-and-soul blues man. He
doesn’ t have any o f the pretentiousness that emanated from the Saturday
Night Live drop-outs. Unlike many o f the other Mississipians who contrib
uted to the blues scene, Muddy has always received some type o f recogni
tion. From I960, until the present, Muddy has been the Grammy Award
nomination for many years and won in 1975 for the Best Ethnic or Tradi
tional Recording for his London Revisited.
A t his concert M uddy put his mojo on the audience. Afterw ard they
clapped, stomped and went basically on a Muddy Water frenzy. He inserted
a little bit o f soul in its purest form, in a city that’ s operating from soul de
ficiency.
Sunday/Monday, Sept. 13, 14, 7:00 pm
248-0199
P o rtlan d , O regon 97227
282 8361
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M A G IC IA N Anthony Gilmore stars in "Theater in the Round,’ ’ , 7:30
pm, Sept. 19th, the Salvation Army Center at North Moore Ave. and Kil
lingsworth St. Refreshments will be served. Children o f all nges are invited
for a night o f magic.