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The North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic by Jay Moore
This week's article is brought to you by my dear friend, Jay Moore, as I am currently driving back to Memphis after a fun weekend playing in Kankakee, Illinois, and in Davenport, Iowa at the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival. I will be reporting on these festivities next Monday here at American Blues News. See you then!
Robert "Nighthawk" Tooms
(Potts Camp, Mississippi) On June 25, my wife and I packed up the truck with coolers, lawn chairs, canopy, and sunscreen to start our introduction to the North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic. We drove over towards Potts Camp, concerned about the show not going on because a light rain that had started, but hoping for some smokin' hot Hill Country Blues, nonetheless. As we rounded a corner in the road we saw a sign that looked at first like an ad for the NMCHP, and didn't slow down (I'll admit, I was looking for the sign for the “Bucksnort” community – oh, yeah, it's real). We realized our mistake, and according to my GPS, we made a “legal u-turn” at the next opportunity, about a mile or so down the road. Upon returning to the road, we were greeted with a very funny sight: “Burma-shave” style “you're almost there; you can smell it in the air; right by the crick; it's the Hill Country Picnic” signs letting us know we were almost there. By the way, that's my paraphrasing – at the time, I was laughing too hard to remember the actual lines.
We arrived at what appeared to be the entrance to a cattle pasture. Surprise – it was! Kenny Brown opens up his “ranch” for the purpose of holding the NMCHP every year, and it's held on about 5 acres of his farmland. As we made our way down the field road, I began to wonder about what the scene was going to be like. By the time we arrived at the “main gate”, my poor ol' white truck was decidedly browner than usual.
We paid for our days' wristbands and for the cooler, then went in and grabbed the first good parking space we could find. We grabbed everything - chairs, coolers, backpack, canopy – and started walking. Friends, heed my advice: DON'T DO THIS! Take your time; make multiple trips. No sense in killin' yourself dead before the show gets crackin'. Even with the rain, it was still in the 90's and with the humidity up around “goldfish pond”, you can't sweat. Drink plenty of liquids! We had just gotten the canopy parts all laid out and were trying to figure out just which ones were parts “2A”, “3A”, etc. when my friend Brian arrived. Shannon McNally took the stage just a few minutes into our efforts, so we had to settle for listening to her belt out some great tunes as we worked. Segue to 45 minutes later, and we were finally perched under our now-assembled canopy, enjoying the last of Blue Mother Tupelo's set. The rain that had plagued the early afternoon finally let up about 6 or so, and then someone turned off what little cool air was blowing through the rain. I now have more sympathy for lobsters. The Boy Scouts had set up a tent next to the merchandising booth, and were serving some wonderfully sweet and cold watermelon and bottled water. We partook of those, which helped cool us down somewhat. The merchandising tent was selling each artist's CDs, t-shirts, and other assorted goodies, which meant that I would be back after just about every set to buy another CD or three. SUPPORT THESE ARTISTS!!!
Robert Belfour
Lightnin' Malcom and Cedric Burnside
R L Burnside, Jr. joins Cedric and Malcolm for a short set
T Model Ford with Bill Abel
T Model's Wife Shakes 'Em On Down
Eric Deaton and the authorBy this time, the crowd was starting to get thicker as people arrived, in ones, twos and groups. Being a truly family friendly affair, many people had their children with them. With acres of relatively flat grass to play on, the frisbees and footballs were a-flyin'. There were two EMTs on standby should anyone need them. Thank you, Lord, that neither day did they ever do more than pitch a football or two. And the smells of catfish and bar-be-que wafting from the vendor's row were enough to set just about any mouth watering.
Robert Kimbrough Sr. Blues ConnectionIt was in this atmosphere that the Robert Kimbrough Sr. Blues Connection took to the stage, and lit the crowd back up.
Hill Country ReviewNext up on the stage was the band, Hill Country Revue. Having seen them in concert before, I was amazed at the raw power that they were able to put out in their music here on a converted flat-bed truck/stage. Night and day. I'm not sure if they held back in the concert hall to keep up with some kind of fire code or something, but at the NMHCP, they took the governers off their amps and let loose. There was some booty-shakin' goin' on now, brother!
Josh RobertsJust as I was taking some of these shots, I felt someone peck on my shoulder. I turned and looked at the woman behind me, and was met with a wicked grin. Then she nodded to my left side. I turned and was looking at someone I'd never have expected to see in my neck of the woods: Josh Roberts, guitarist for The Reba Russell Band and also part of the group Wainwright, Santini and Roberts.
The Burnside ExplorationAfter Hill Country Revue stepped down and the stage was reconfigured, I started seeing a couple of guys setting up saxophones. Saxophones? Here? My answer to who could be so fiendish as to bring culture into this rough-and-tumble setting was quick to arrive: The Burnside Exploration! And this time, we didn't get a “cool down” period of slow music. No, Sir! The Burnside Exploration took the energy that was still zinging off the walls from HCR, re-wrapped it, and pumped it back out to the crowd, fresh, new and exciting. My dismay at the saxes was quickly forgotten.
Alvin Youngblood HartUp till now, we had been in an up-and-down musical vibe, but after these last two acts, the planners of the event decided to keep revving the engine. The Burnside Exploration blasted out many of what could be considered “Hill Country Classics”, plus some of their new materials, which had the crowd at the stage bumpin' and grindin'. When they left the stage, it seemed like an eternity before the next group came on. But, in reality, less than 10 minutes later, we had Alvin Youngblood Hart on-stage, and ripping into the guitar, tearing through hits from his “Motivational Speaker” album and then some of his older works.
Jimbo MathusDay two of our adventure started out blistering hot and muggier than New York in an economic slump. When we arrived on-site, it was already 12:00, and we'd missed the first act, Jay Lang and the Ringers. To make matters worse, we again had to settle for listening to Eric Deaton and his band play as background music for our canopy set-up. One on-looker later mentioned that we looked like we were possessed or something, so fast did we work. I told him it was simple survival; one more minute in that sun and I was going to literally melt.
Eric Deaton
John Wilkins
RLB, Jr. and band take the stage. Literally. And we didn't care!
High winds wreak havoc on tents and chairs
Little Joe Ayers
Kent Burnside
Loose Shoes
The Rising Star Fife And Drum Band
The North Mississippi All-Stars
DuWayne Burnside
Kenny Brown
