Message Board Archive: Thread Number 124

Another CD purchase falls under only the penumbra of the
"country blues" moniker. The title is "Everybody
Hollerin' Goat" by Othar Turner and the Rising Star
Fife and Drum Band. OK, so it's not a blues singer
accompanying him/her self on guitar but in an age of
glossy afro-pop passing as world music and
singer-songwriters posing as bluesmen, this guy is a
godsend!
It's a family affair, for the most part. Othar,
himself, is 90 years old, sings and plays the fife to
the drumming of his grandsons. Sometimes his
granddaughter (Sharde - 8 years old) blows the fife.
It's a tradition older than Mississippi, older than
America... jeez, it hearkens back to the good ol' days
when there was only one land mass, and even then people
probably thought it was old.
Help. I can't get it out of my CD player. On second
thought... hands off. :)
Here's a quote from the liner notes by Robert Gordon,
reproduced without consent of course, under the fair
use yadda yadda yadda:
"Time passes, blurs. The fife hypnotizes, how old is
the sound of a stick beating a rock, how old the
movements that give us life, how old the bones of
Indians that make up the dust that gets in the goat
sandwich that is served in Othar's backyard and was
served at the African funeral a continent away, trance
music, serpentine serpentine, the cave, the leaves on
the trees, the moon overhead, Othar, Othar, Othar, Gabe
in heaven."
I'm just enough of a musical terrorist to want to force
anyone who thinks that Kenny G plays something
approximating music into a chair, tie them down and
force them to listen to this CD until they holler:
GOAT!!!!
Everybody Hollerin' Goat - Othar Turner and the Rising
Star Fife and Drum Band
Birdman Records BMR 018
track list:
Shimmy She Wobble
Bounceball
Short'nin'/Henduck
Too Slow
Shimmy She Wobble
Station Blues
Shake 'Em
My Babe
Boogie
How Many Mo' Years??
Roll And Tumble
2-Steppin' Place
Granny, Do Your Dog Bite?
Shimmy She Wobble
Glory, Glory, Hallelujah!
Damn, I love this record.
On a side note, I noticed in rec.music.bluenote.blues
that David Honeyboy Edwards will be performing soon at
a house concert in Philadelphia. Here are the
perticklers:
David Honeyboy Edwards, Delta Bluesman
Sunday, Nov. 15, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
351 Pelham Road, Philadelphia 19119
For tickets and information: (215) 849-5465
And on those days when you feel like you're the only
person on the planet who listens to stuff that hasn't
been dreamed up by the boys over in marketing,
remember the words of Othar Turner:
"Heap sees, but mighty few know."
Frank
Check out the new home page - it's ugly but it's mine...
http://home.earthlink.net/~zeppa/index.htm
Hear Dock Boggs and Charlie Poole!

Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 09:28:38 -0500 (EST)
From: rob@hutten.org (Rob Hutten)
Subject: More: Fifes
Message Number: 124.1

I've been looking for this disc, but I haven't found it yet here in
Halifax, Nova Scotia. I'll have to order it, methinks... thanks for the
review!

I have one of Othar's fifes - it's one of my favourite possessions. It's
a bizarre instrument, the only four-holed fife I've ever seen. It's also
the hardest to play of the dozen or more flutes and pipes in my
collection.

I wish I lived closer to Mississippi - I'd just love to attend one of
Turner's picnics...

-Rob

Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 10:44:23 -0500 (EST)
From: zeppa@earthlink.net (Frank Basile)
Subject: Agree: Re: Fifes
Message Number: 124.1.1

>I wish I lived closer to Mississippi - I'd just love to
>attend one of Turner's picnics...
You and me both... Just thinking about those goat sammies makes me nuts!
Frank