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!!!
By 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.
It was in this atmosphere that the Robert Kimbrough Sr. Blues Connection took to the stage, and lit the crowd back up.
Next 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!
Just 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.
After 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.
Up 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.
The night was marching quickly on to the witching hour as the final act of the night set up. Jimbo Mathus and his band set up the stage, and then knocked down the crowd with a variety of songs, some quirky and fun, and many that were just bluesy electric tunes. I swear, at one time when I looked at Jimbo, I thought I was watching a young Roger Daltrey, straight down to the antics he was performing on-stage.
Day 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.
It was at this point in the day that things got a little bit dicey. The weather, which had blissfully cooled during the last hour, now started shifting winds. The partly-cloudy and sunny day we'd started with had turned dark and overcast. Then the lightning started dancing all around us. The winds whipped up, and tents went a-flyin'. We grabbed ours and held on for dear life for about 30 minutes, as we watched some folks head for their cars, some for the tree line, and others, apparently as dumb as we were, hunker down to wait out Mother Nature's wrath. But wait it out we did, and after a little clean-up and de-tarping, the stage was back ready for entertainers.
Artists that are Friends of American Blues News
- Alastair Greene
- Ana Popovic
- Brandon Santini & Delta Highway
- David Bromberg
- Ernie Hawkins
- Foghat
- Jimmy Thackery and the Drivers
- John Pizzarelli
- Jorma Kaukonen
- Lennie Jones - Folkart Blues
- Leon Russell
- Mark May Band
- Marshall Lawrence-Doctor of the Blues
- Mystic Knights
- North Mississippi All-stars
- Reba Russell
- Stacy Brooks
- Tangiers Blues Band
- Tim Woods
- Victor Wainwright
- Will Jacobs & Dirty Deal
More Artist Friends....
Blues Festival and Blues Page Friends
Blues Society Friends
American Blues News Staff
Mon: Memphis Correspondent - Robert "Nighthawk" Tooms
Nighthawk is our resident globetrotter and man behind the scenes, as he tours with the Reba Russell Band.
Tues: New York Correspondent - J. Blake
Blake is the American Blues News review and interview guru. You may catch him out and about in NY playing the blues.
Wed: National Correspondent - Monica Yasher
Monica is our executive director and artist interview specialist. You can catch Monica singing the blues around Pittsburgh or working on some country music songs in Nashville.
Thurs: Washington, DC Correspondent - Virginiabluesman
Geraldo offers inteviews and reviews. You may have seen him at an Ana Popovic concert or conversed with him on her websites, as he offers administrative support with her music.
Fri: Northeast Photographer - Nelson Onofre
Nelson offers a Friday column of blues photography and pictorial support for the interviews covered by the team.
Jim Stick in Colorado
Jim will be focusing on the Blues Festivals in the beautiful state of Colorado, and the artists that live and visit there.
Maureen Elizabeth, our resident art correspondent, will be focusing on blues art as she explores the creation of CD covers, or speaking with artists who also have a love of creating pictorial art in addition to their music! She may also feature some of her good friends in the Pittsburgh area. In her love of art, you may find Maureen's photography accompanying writer's articles on our pages. Maureen is also our marketing director.
Pittsburgh correspondent and photographer, CR Bennett, will share the Pittsburgh scene with all of you. You may also see CR's pictures accompanying other writer's articles.
We head to the big state of Texas! Abby Owen, our Texas correspondent.
Another big area to cover, the West Coast with Casey Reagan, Casey will feature many artists and events on this ocean's shores.
Lastly, we have our roving blues entertainment writer,
Chef Jimi.
And of course, we will surprise you sometimes!