August IO. 2011
^ortlanh (Observer
Page II
Mississippi
Alberta
North Portland
Vancouver
East County
Beaverton
Making People
^Boogie
Old-time musician returns to Oregon
by M indy C< x > per
T he P ortland O bserver
Old time blues musician L.C. Ulmer
returned to Oregon for the first time
since 1955 to perform at the 12th annual
Pickathon Festival at the Pendarvis
Farm in Happy Valley east of Portland.
Ulmer instantly captivated the crowd
at his performance on Saturday, where
young and old fans watched in excite­
ment as the dancing 82-year-old played
his guitar, doctored with duct-tape,
behind his head.
Bom and raised in southern Missis­
sippi, Ulmer, who will celebrate his 83rd
birthday this month, is known through­
out the world as a man who can make
people boogie.
“I’ve been playing music for 72-
years,” he said.
Performing the blues, however, was
not what brought the multi-talented
musician to Oregon for the first time.
"I was cuttin’ logs and sawin’ down
timber,” he said, about a life he had in
Oregon more almost 60 years ago. “A
whole lot done changed.”
Back stage at the festival, Ulmer did
anything but blend in. Sitting with his
guitar case and his beige luggage bag
filled with several harmonicas and a
kazoo, his face alone told a story.
“This is a glorious time to meet folks,”
he said.
As a 20-something white female, I
asked him how his life, as an African
American musician, has changed over
the years.
He smiled, as though I asked the
funniest question in the world and
then shook his head. “This is going
to make you m ad,” he said. “Back in
that time I couldn’t talk to you. I
could work for you, but 1 w ouldn’t
talk to you.”
But as time moved on through into
the 1960s, Ulmer said that’s when
things changed. “Dr. Martin Luther
King fixed that.”
Ulmer, a true story teller, reflected
back to the day his brother James gave
him his first harmonica when he was
six-years-old. Since then, he said he
always knew he would be a musician.
Music, Ulmer said, helped him ex­
press himself throughout his life.
“I can play all day, by myself,” he
said. “I play 12 pieces.”
Remembering his latest performance
with a grin, his eyes smiled as he said,
“I did a whole lot of tricks today. I blew
a hillbilly song, and then 1 turned around
and played the blues.”
Although Ulmer said his favorite
part about the festival was “all the
pretty women,” there was no doubting
photo by M indy C oopf . r /T he P ortland O bserve ]
his words when he said, over and again, At 82-years-old, blues vocalist and guitarist L. C. Ulmer made it from his home state o f
“Music is my date.”
M ississippi to delight crowds at the annual Pickathon Festival in Happy Valley east o f Portland.
Guns Down, Mikes Up for West Coast Rappers
Concert to unite hip-hop community
C ari H achmann
T he P ortland O bserver
by
Many music-listeners are well
aware of the irony surrounding
Portland’s hip hop scene.
It seems like local talents from all
genres are generating quality music
from every other garage or base­
ment studio in town, but the only
songs heard on the radio are mind-
n u m b in g ly m ain stream tunes
washed out with the same synthe­
sized, robotic undertones.
Though a few independent radio
stations are making the effort to
play local and diverse music, thanks
to hip-hop veterans like Cool Nutz
and Mic Crenshaw, most stations
have not.
If the lyrics involve the harsh
reality of a minority of the popula­
tion, say gangs, -g ettin g shot, go­
ing to jail, or being killed— it us
unlikely to be aired on the radio.
Since the mid-1990s, Portland rap­
pers have been speaking to the sto­
ries of the street that their peers can
relate to, but the music is very much
“underground.”
Eager to hear the kind of rap he
embraced as youngster in Oakland,
Calif., where the bay area’s hip-hop ‘Spice 1 ’
emerged amid the influential rheto
ric of the Black Power movement
respected local promoter Octavius
Miller brings some of West Coast’s
favorite rappers of this underground
hip-hop back to Portland.
Hosted by Spice 1, Kokane, and
the mouth piece Tay-Capone, the
4th annual West Coast Hip Hop
Awards: United in the City returns
to Portland’s Roseland Theater on
Friday, Aug. 19, from 7 p.m. until
midnight, with special tributes to
Nate Dogg and M-bone.
Other performers include Andre
Nickatina, C-Bo, Celly Cel, Domino,
‘Kokane '
continued
on page 19