European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 7, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                By Don Tate staff writers something s happening Down there. Whal in is Ain t exactly Cleat till you get yourself on up closer. And it in you catch the smell of the River. It s All mixed up with Barbecue smoke. And then comes this sound la Lilly at first. Sort of a Low moan sigh Wail full of passion and Tam no you know like somebody who got done wrong. So you Edge yourself on up closer. And there s this great Bunch of people kind of Shull Ling around and snapping their lingers. And thai sound glowing louder swelling and throbbing up right out of a True blues Singer s threat. The first time i Mot the Trues mama they come walking through the Wood. They slopped at my House first mama and done me All the harm they could you Wanna dig the True blues the deep Down Delta blues not Nunna this fancy dressed new Uptown stuff Well sidle on Down to the end of Cherry Street in Helena. Ark. There s a Slage set up in front of the old red Brick Railroad station hard by the Leveo of the mighty Mississippi River that looks thought was looking ready to run dry this year of the great heal and drought. No big sweat they be had heal and drought Belore. Thai s just part of the blues. In the land of Collon and soybeans that spreads out As Flat As an undertaker s smile in the Sleazy Fields on both sides of the River into Arkansas and Mississippi they know the blues so Well they even started in blues country up and Down Back and Lorth across attic fiver. Economically depressed economic of chemists Call in. Plain Dang poor Plain folks Call it. In and around some of those falling Down Little Southern towns with the practically abandoned Lai Troad stations. Where everything was and still is blamed on the heat that s hot As the hinges of hell where the preacher brings his own cooler of Beer to the local picnic ill be the first to join you.,. " where houses stuck out in those Fields were and still ate All ramshackle and leaning As though hit by big dark winds and the Yards instead of Lowers grow Junky cars and pickups like steel sores. Blues counlry., Vou might see 10 Black looks Silling on the saggy porch of a haunted looking old piece of Shack on a summer evening just staring out and fanning themselves looking like they expected ghosts to Diop in and waiting Lor the rain to come. So come on Down old Cherry Street. Land of True piano Man banging the piano. Yeah answers the Harmonica Man. Of  located on the Mississippi below Memphis. Helena an old River Poil town old scam boat and civil War town has blues jams during the summer. This weekend they re holding a huge blues Blowout Wilh 35.000 sex peeled to attend looks from Alt Over the u s. And 15 of icing countries. The Call it the King biscuit blues festival after the most famous and longest running since 1941 blues radio show anywhere broadcast right out of Helena. For two Days and nights there s contests in everything from Barbecue cooking to Moon Pio eating on old Cherry Street but it s not Moon pies Hal the mob comes Lamming in ice Nal dances on the Civco overlooking the River. It s sounds from such As the Jelly Roll Kings the almost famous blues club band and blues crazed bands from All Over the land. There a Man downstairs might to your Man i Don t know ii you raise your window Darlin i can ease Oul slow ii t get away this time i won t be caught hero no to hear the music that swelled out of the deep sad South sorrowful close to the Earlh rhythms irom slave worked Fields. Work gang music working Sun to Sun. Field hollers. Hard living and Loving sounds Ful of Drinkin and women and Midnight mischief. Sing it Lowdown and slow says the Gravelly voiced old piano Man. Sing it Bluesy come on  urges the Harmonica player give me the Leel. Man. Make me fee them blues please come to me baby an explain yourself Loma because land you Are Man and wife trying to Start a family i m just Beggin you. Baby Cut that Oil the wat live got to treat me belter either Gonna be your funeral or my trial yeah in the old Days they played in anywhere. In the Fields and stores and Gas stations in the Juke joints and Oul on the Back roads standing in the backs of trucks with big umbrellas Over them to beat off the Clerce Sun. There Sang the sounds of Muddy Waters and by King and Howlin Wolf and right out of Helena the one and Only Sonny boy Williamson ii. Right Oul of Helena. The Way my baby love it s a solid sin she can love to heal the sick Sho can love to raise the dead you might think i Jokin you boiler believe what t said these Days they to still singing the blues. In Chicago and Houston in California and Carolina. But it s still Down where it got invented on the Banks of the Mississippi with the Catfish frying and the people crowding up All around that you hear it like ii Ain l been heard much elsewhere sing the True blues says the old so Many of the great ones come from these parts. Like piano and guitar player Penelop Perkins irom just across the nver who Fayod Wilh Muddy water for 10 years. In his leaner years he played in Hola in Walls on the Arkansas Side Lor $3 a night and All the rot gut he could drink. Ii he missed the late ferry boat he says he had to sit the rest of the night on the River Bank getting eat up by mosquitoes and singin his own blues. One night a Slick Man Cut up pin top with a knife so bad the doctor said they were going to have to amputate one of his arms. Please Don t do in begged a Friend of Pine lop s. Whoever heard of a one armed guitar player the Dik a True blues Man said he would do his Best to fix in so the Arm could hang in there and he did. And it Hung in there. And Pine lop now older than sin is still strumming and banging away with Bolh arms at the King biscuit blues festival. In 1938 As Many whiles As Blacks Are coming to and playing Tho blues says Helena s Bubba Sullivan one of the festival s coordinators. The festival is in its third year now and in the Best thing to bring Blacks and Whites together that s Ever happened around Here. Course some looks Aren t too thrilled about Hal. You know just Don t want in to  which makes other looks sing the Irue blues. Yeah Friday. October 7, 1988 the stars and stripes Page 13