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Got the Dog in Me
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Got the Dog in Me
Austin Powell Thu Jul 29, 11:33am
David Kimbrough, Jr.
David Kimbroug...Got the Dog in Me
Austin Powell Thu Jul 29, 11:33am
David Kimbrough, Jr.
David Kimbrough, Jr. cut his Fat Possum debut I Got the Dog in Me under the alias of David Malone to avoid confusion with his father, Junior Kimbrough. Since the passing of the great Mississippi bluesman in 1998, however, Kimbrough has proudly carried on the family legacy, and on Saturday the juke-jointer headlines an 80th birthday tribute at T.C.'s Lounge.
Off the Record: My entry point into your father’s music was through the Black Keys. What did you think of their tribute album?
David Kimbrough: I thought it was great. It brought a lot more attention to my father. I’ve never met the guys, but their work is terrific.
OTR: What is it about your father’s style that so many people seem to connect to?
DK: I think people are drawn to that rhythm my father laid down. It has the same effect on me to this very day, and I came up with the music. It’s something about that groove, the way he prolonged it in such a great, redundant way. Once it gets going, it gets into your soul. It takes you to another level. To me, it’s got that spiritual vibe to it. It’s like you’re in church; it makes you want to shout. It gets into your soul.
OTR: When did you start playing with your father?
DK: I started tuning his guitar in 1983 and I did my first professional show with him in 1986. From that time, I had a taste of the guitar, whatever he did I wanted to do, but I couldn’t grasp it. My mind wasn’t developed enough to understand what he was doing. So I started playing the drums for him.
Later on as the years went by, I was incarcerated. My dad was singing at this place in Hollow Springs for the Deep Blues movie, right about in 1992. They were doing some recording, “All Night Long,” and I’m incarcerated and I’m sitting around playing with the prison band. I hear a song come on the radio, and I tell my partner, “I know I’m not going crazy. That’s my daddy playing that song.” They started to jiving with me. You how it goes… To make a long story short, the song came back on the radio again, and they said "Junior Kimbrough." We all celebrated that little moment. ...
Not even a week later, Robert Palmer and the guy from Fat Possum came down to Parchman.They had gone down to my daddy’s juke joint and he was just sitting there, sobbing a bit, and they asked him what was wrong. He said that he was thinking about his son, and that I had as much talent as he got or more. They said they wanted to get me out to play keyboards. They said they could get me out in two days to a week. It turned out that they wanted me to do my own thing, and not confuse myself with my dad. I went under David Malone.
OTR: What was your time like at Parchman?
DK: I don’t think anybody ever wants to be locked up, but when I got there, I actually got a second shot at life. My being locked up only enhanced how I felt about my career and music. Everything started coming to me right before my eyes. The band director there, bless his soul, he taught me how to care about things, and he told me, “You’ve got time to sit down and right some songs.” I wrote all of these songs while I was there, but I haven’t ever recorded them. I haven’t even touched them. They’re sacred to me. I just record brand new stuff off the top of my head. That stuff’s precious. It gave me a chance to really write about my life.
At some point in time, I know I’m going to record that stuff. Now that I’m sober I can do that. When you’re young, the blood running through your veins you’re thinking crazy things, and doing crazy things, but as you get older though you think more rational. Every night I look at my daddy on my computer. It seems like he’s talking to me through his music. It’s just my own little world with my dad. Now I’m just in the making of doing exactly what I need to be doing, to help complete history.
OTR: Do you feel a responsibility to carry on your father’s legacy?
DK: Don’t nobody know him like I do. He always kept me with him. I know every move he made, his sound and the history. I know the depths of it. In the future, once I get a nice toehold on things, I’m going to present these unheard songs to the public. I want to play it just like he would have.
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Sad Days, Lonely Nights
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From the Heartless Bastards and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion to Iggy & the Stooges, countless art...From the Heartless Bastards and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion to Iggy & the Stooges, countless artists have channeled the dark hypnotism of late Mississippi bluesman Junior Kimbrough, but only his eldest son, David Kimbrough Jr., embodies his legacy. "I am my father," states Kimbrough, who, after doing hard time in the Mississippi State Penitentiary, released his 1994 debut for Fat Possum, I Got the Dog in Me, under the alias David Malone. "Don't nobody know him like I do. He always kept me with him. I know every move he made, his sound, and the history. I know the depths of it." Who better then to blow out the candles for Kimbrough's 80th birthday celebration at TC's Lounge on Saturday? The bash also features New Mexico's CW Ayon, Black Keys tribute the Black Squeeze performing Chulahoma in its entirety, and Austin's Old Gray Mule, which commemorates the release of its debut, Sound Like Somethin' Fell Off the House. As OGM guitarist and event organizer C.R. Humphrey boasts, "It'll be the closest thing to a North Mississippi juke joint night you'll see in here in Austin." For the complete interview with Kimbrough, see austinchronicle.com/earache.
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Weekend To-Do David Kimbrough Jr.
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Weekend To-Do: David Kimbrough Jr.
Posted by John Tarpley on Fri, Nov 5, 2010 at 6:01 AM
davidki...Weekend To-Do: David Kimbrough Jr.
Posted by John Tarpley on Fri, Nov 5, 2010 at 6:01 AM
davidkimbrough.jpg
DAVID KIMBROUGH JR.
Fri.: 9 p.m., Parrot Beach Cafe. $5.
Sat.: 10 p.m., White Water Tavern.
Who should we talk to about making David Kimbrough Jr. an honorary Little Rockian? For years, he's been no stranger to stages around town. No doubt, he knows his way around Little Rock's barstools. And we can always use someone as flat-out fun to watch as the contagiously exuberant son of Junior Kimbrough, the eternal emperor of the Delta blues. What I'm getting at is this: Have you seen David Jr. yet? If not, it may be time to stop denying yourself the foot-stomping, butt-shaking good time he brings to town every time. This weekend sees a two-night stand in town, playing Parrot Beach Cafe on Friday night, supported by husband and wife duo Jawbone and Jolene, and his regular hang-out, White Water Tavern, at 10 p.m. Saturday, supported by singer/songwriter (and his blues co-conspirator) Stacey Mackey.
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David Kimbrough Jr.
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Biography
David Kimbrough, Jr. is the son of blues guitarist Junior Kimbrough. He first sang with h...Biography
David Kimbrough, Jr. is the son of blues guitarist Junior Kimbrough. He first sang with his father at a fish fry at the age of six, but his parents separated when he was 12, and he went to live with his mother. He released his debut album in the early '90s, but his musical career was interrupted. As his 2006 press biography puts it, "In the past ten-plus years, Kimbrough has spent time trying to navigate through the oppressive system of government and law in the Deep South." This attempted navigation largely took place at the Parchman State Farm Penitentiary. Upon emerging from incarceration on February 19, 2005, Kimbrough recorded his second album, Shell-Shocked, released May 2, 2006, on B.C. Records. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/david-kimbrough-jr#ixzz1ANdQ7XgI
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Shell-Shocked
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Shell-Shocked
by: David Kimbrough Jr.
Album Artwork
David Kimbrough Jr.
Shell-Shocked
(Blues ...Shell-Shocked
by: David Kimbrough Jr.
Album Artwork
David Kimbrough Jr.
Shell-Shocked
(Blues Cool Records)
David Kimbrough, the son of the late and great North Mississippi bluesman Junior Kimbrough, recorded this album called “Shell-Shocked” less than a week after getting out of jail, having spent several years in the joint for drug dealing and whatnot. Well, I guess that gets the question of blues cred is out of the way. Actually, Kimbrough repents for his sins on here, with songs that tell the story of drugs getting him sent up the river, and how not fun that is. “I Don’t Do The Things I Used To Do” is a good example. Still, he recorded this album with his funk intact, and his desire to chase some ass back on line.
The best way I can describe this groove of an album is to compare it to the blues house party music from back in the day. These are the kind of jams that a good house party would have going on the record player, that are both smoking yet mid-tempo enough for folks to pair off and dance to, so you can show your groove off to the babe swaying in front of you who is smiling and looking you in the eye.
The album starts off with “Come Into My World,” a good sign of the soulful songs to come. The instrumentation backing Kimbrough is solid and strictly blues in nature, yet it allows his Curtis Mayfield-influenced soul singing to float on top of it effortlessly. There are nine songs on here, and six of them are over 7-minutes long, including the old school blues shuffle of “Jump To My Rules,” the funky “Will You Be My Wife,” and the nasty groove of the title cut. He also pays tribute to his late father with “I Dreamed Pop Gigged With Us.”
-Derek Halsey
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TC's Lounge Presents David Kimbrough Jr.
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TC's Lounge Presents: David Kimbrough Jr.
By Ccenteno0129 - Monday July 19, 2010 - 8:24 am
427 V...
TC's Lounge Presents: David Kimbrough Jr.
By Ccenteno0129 - Monday July 19, 2010 - 8:24 am
427 Views | 0 Comment | 0 Votes
TC's Lounge
He is the son of the Mississippi bluesman David "Junior" Kimbrough, and his name is David Kimbrough Jr. Kimbrough Jr., created his own music career, but he said in his MySpace account that he honors his roots and will "...continue to keep the family name alive" and to "strive to the fullest to bring our family name and my music worldwide."
And that he is doing. The modern bluesman released an album titled "Shell-Shocked" under the label Lucky 13/BC Records. He is set to show what he got the Live Music Capital of the World as he heads a bill with C.W. Ayon and Old Gray Mule for his father's 80th Birthday celebration.
Old Gray Mule's website announced the event will happen in "true North Mississippi Hill Country Juke House Night in Austin, TX," TC's Lounge on July 31.
You can listen to his music here. Or better yet, go to TC's Lounge as David Kimbrough Jr. fills the air with Delta Blues music.
Don't forget to bring your own bottle and $5 for cover charge.
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Video: David Kimbrough Jr. plays some down home Mississippi Blues
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Video: David Kimbrough Jr. plays some down home Mississippi Blues
July 13, 2009 by MusicThread
...Video: David Kimbrough Jr. plays some down home Mississippi Blues
July 13, 2009 by MusicThread
Filed under Blues, Featured, Hill-Country Blues, Videos
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David Kimbrough Jr. On Demand!
By: Jabari Oliver
Media Provided by: Willie Wilkerson
World renowned award winning Hill-Country Blues artist David Kimbrough Jr. was spotted at a club in Mississippi by MusicThread.net’s journalist Willie Wilkerson. As many know, David Kimbrough Jr. is the son of the late internationally known blues legend Junior Kimbrough. David has emerged as the leading candidate to carry on his namesake’s musical legacy. His unorthodox blues style blends a more soulful element and vocal style with his father’s trademark North Mississippi guitar grooves. In this video which shows remnants of a lively blues juke joint, as seen in classic movies such as “The Color Purple,” David Kimbrough captures the crowd’s attention with his grandiose guitar skills that reaches inside you and grabs your soul.
David Kimbrough Jr. Live at Club Emotion from Jabari Oliver on Vimeo.
To request more footage or full (DVD) footage of this perfomance, send inquiries to info @ musicthread.NET
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David Kimbrough Jr.
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Show Info
The David Kimbrough Band with Special Guest SharBaby to play Wellington’s While Junio...
Show Info
The David Kimbrough Band with Special Guest SharBaby to play Wellington’s While Junior Kimbrough was living, David and his brothers Robert and Kinney operated the juke joint, "Junior's Place," in Chulahoma, Mississippi with their father. David has performed on many of his father's albums, as well as recordings by other artists. As a solo artist, David has released three albums with Fat Possum Records and his newest record, Shell-Shocked with Lucky 13 Records. Today David is emerging as the leading candidate to carry on his fathers’ musical legacy. His unique style fuses a more soulful element and vocal style with Junior Kimbrough's trademark North Mississippi guitar grooves - repetitive and trance inducing and not too far removed from the rhythms the earliest African Americans brought from Africa and passed from generation to generation, the primary source of joy in the cruel lives they endured. Unlike his legendary father, David's music draws from a deep well of influences that includes the contemporary R&B that was accessible via the media from which Junior was isolated in rural Mississippi. Band members are David Kimbrough Jr. - lead guitar & vocals, Kinney Malone Kimbrough - drums, Stacy Nicole Mackey - bass guitar, Jay Thomas - 2nd guitar. Also performing and sitting in with the band on rhythm guitar & vocals will be David’s special guest, Birmingham’s own Queen of the Jukes, SharBaby.
Ticket Price: $10
Door Time:8:30pm
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Weekend To-Do David Kimbrough Jr.
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Saturday To-Do: David Kimbrough Jr.
Posted by John on Fri, Apr 30, 2010 at 2:01 PM
unknown.jpg
... Saturday To-Do: David Kimbrough Jr.
Posted by John on Fri, Apr 30, 2010 at 2:01 PM
unknown.jpg
DAVID KIMBROUGH JR.
9 p.m., White Water Tavern. $10.
You know, I'd suspect that, by definition, it's impossible to be born into the blues. You've got to earn honest calluses on your fingertips, not to mention tap into some down deep mysticism or soulfulness, to really play the blues. Even if you're the only one of 28 children who chose to carry on the namesake of the venerable blues emperor for infinity and some, Junior Kimbrough. No sir, there's no room for nepotism on a juke joint stage and David Kimbrough Jr. certainly wasn't ushered onto the placards with a silver guitar in his hand. He began his career at 6, singing alongside his father at the local fish fry. He served time in Parchman Farm, the Mississippi state prison with a gory history of racism. Now he runs a juke joint outside of Holly Springs, carrying on the custom of his father's famous stomp shack, Junior's, and playing weekend gigs all around the South. Is it history repeating itself or a family tradition? Y'know, it doesn't really matter when he's taking his father's tribal repetition and salty licks and kneading it in with his generation's take on soul music. Mockingbird, self-described “fine purveyors of hillbilly psychedelia,” open alongside long-established local singer-songwriter Stacey Mackey. Before Kimbrough starts his blues set, all three acts will share the stage and perform a handful of what Mockingbird calls “genre bending” original songs.
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Loose Blues News
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The Heineken Soul `n’ Blues Festival takes over Harbourfront Centre July 18-20 with the usual array ...The Heineken Soul `n’ Blues Festival takes over Harbourfront Centre July 18-20 with the usual array of new faces and established international artists. On Fri.: Alvin Youngblood Hart, Colin Linden, Colin James, Morgan Davis and Little Mack Simmons with Fathead. Sat.: Guy Davis, Fruteland Jackson, Doug Cox & Ken Hamm, Kevin Duke, Curley Bridges, Lester Quitzau, Carlos del Junco, David Kimbrough, Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne with Mark “Bird” Stafford and James Peterson. Sun.: Les Sampou, Gayle Ackroyd, Corey Harris, Andrea Karam & The Fun Guys, Hans Theesink & Blue Groove with Terry Evans and DeeDee Slye & The Crawdads. The winner of the Toronto Blues Society’s new talent search will also appear and there will be films, workshops and more. The complete schedule will be printed here in the July issue of the newsletter.
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John Sinclair, T-Model Ford, and David Kimbrough tonight at Two Stick in Oxford
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Greenville bluesman T-Model Ford began playing regularly at Oxford’s Two Stick Sushi Bar recently, a...Greenville bluesman T-Model Ford began playing regularly at Oxford’s Two Stick Sushi Bar recently, and tonight he’ll be joined by blues poet John Sinclair and David Kimbrough, the son of Junior Kimbrough. The event will pay tribute to the recently deceased Big Jack Johnson. John currently lives in Amsterdam, but every year shortly after Mardi Gras he stays here for a week or two or three. David recently moved from Holly Springs to the Fayetteville, Arkansas area, but seems to get back to the area pretty regularly.
The show at Two Stick last night was a great one. T-Model and David Kimbrough both played two sets, and John joined David’s band on their first set. At the end of the evening David brought up T-Model to join his band — T-Model isn’t generally an artist you see collaborating with other artists, but it worked out really well. David’s band included his younger brother Robert on bass, his longtime drummer Artemis Leseur, and the guitarist in his Fayetteville band, Jay Thomas. They’d just done three dates backing John Sinclair.
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David Kimbrough: Born to Play the Blues
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I can hear the muffled thumping of a bass line coming from inside the house. I knock on the door, bu...I can hear the muffled thumping of a bass line coming from inside the house. I knock on the door, but no one answers.
A cat sidles up to my ankle and begins meowing. I kneel down to pet the animal, and as I run my fingertips through her short black fur, I notice she has only three legs.
I stand and knock again.
The cat meows, louder.
The lace curtain draws back, then the doorknob rattles. A tall thin man introduces himself as David Kimbrough’s manager.
The cat leaps over the threshold and disappears. I follow suit.
Inside David Kimbrough’s home, there is a familiar sense of the Deep South. In the living room, David sits on a bed that serves as a sofa. An acoustic guitar lies in his lap. In a green bassinet, next to the bed, lies a baby boy. A man with long blonde hair sits across from David, a bass slung around his neck.
Courtesy Photo: The Kimbrough family continues a egacy of Blues. Junior Kimbrough (top), David Kimbrough, Jr. (left) and David Kimbrough IV, nicknamed, "Bug" (right).
I am introduced to bass player Bruce Bennett and 2-month-old David Kimbrough IV, nicknamed “Bug.” Bug’s father appears relaxed, wearing a ski hat and a sleeveless shirt that reveals tattoos — Emmanuel and June June on either arm, the names of his other two sons. He also has a tattoo on his chest in honor of his eight daughters.
That day, Jan. 3, is David’s birthday.
“I have two birthdays,” he says. “Half my body was here at 11:59, and they couldn’t get the rest out until the next morning.” David says the hospital staff was unsure how to record it, so two dates are listed on his birth certificate. Born to blues legend Junior Kimbrough, David’s life has revolved around music.
At the age of 4, David would pull out his father’s guitar, which was often hidden out of reach in the rafters of their home in Holly Springs, Miss.
“I wanted to play the real guitar,” David explains. “I was bangin’ on it and breakin’ strings, but I never got a whoopin’.”
David says his father behaved the same way as a child, stealing his own father’s guitar, just to get a chance to pluck the strings.
“They called him ‘The Kang,’” says David, referring to his grandfather, the first David Kimbrough. “He was the one who was down in the Delta, with the Howlin’ Wolves and the Muddy Waters.”
The Kang was a legend in his own right. David tells the story: “My grandfather played the box guitar, but they wouldn’t let him play. He climbed up a tree and began to play, and when they found him, all the animals and rabbits were gathered around that tree.”
I ask if he thinks it’s true, and he says he believes it to be a semi-truth. “I think that it was true that he was up in that tree.”
The support and influence of his family encouraged David to begin performing at an early age. At 6 years old, David was singing on stage with local musicians. “People would stuff my pockets with money. My daddy let me keep two dollars, but that was a lot back then.”
At age 10, David began studying the guitar seriously, and at age 12, in the face of his parents’ divorce, he ran away from home, and landed in Albany, Ga. He joined a gospel group and a funk band, and found influence in Johnnie Taylor and the gospel group, The Soul Stirrers.
In Albany, David realized his capacity for music but it was in Chicago that he found a band.
“I walked by a house, and a sound was comin’ out of the basement,” recounts David. “And it was just so brilliant to me, that I just sat down to listen.”
Eventually, says David, one of the musicians saw him through the basement window.
“I can sing,” David told the man.
“You can sang?” replied the musician, mocking David’s Mississippi accent.
After a short “You-can’t”/“I-can” debate, the band invited David inside, whom they saw as a young country boy. “They said, ‘Let’s bring him down here and let him make a fool of himself,” recounts David. “When it was all over, the joke was on them because I hit the note dead on the money.”
The band came to be known as The Precise Band, gaining some notoriety in Aurora, Ill. It eventually disbanded due to tensions between band members.
Today, David is preparing for the International Blues Competition, which will be held in Memphis in early February. He and his band are practicing hard and often, nailing down the new material David has written since the birth of his son.
When David’s wife Stacy comes home, the musicians retreat to the back, where a keyboard is set up in the bedroom. When David sings, the muddiness of his accent disperses, leaving behind a clear, capable voice. He sings, at times, with his head tilted back and his eyes closed. He bends over, keeping time with his sneaker-clad foot.
In this Fayetteville bedroom, Delta Blues flows heavy, but it is layered with R&B, soul and funk.
One of David’s new songs, “Hard Times,” carries soulful R&B vocals. The tempo is more structured, and the notes are more polished and precise than the typical blues song. It seems that this is David’s own genre, a result of Johnnie Taylor, Sam Cooke and his father.
David’s father influenced a great number of musicians, including the Black Keys who recently released their ninth album. In an interview with online magazine “Pop Matters,” Dan Auerbach, vocalist and guitarist of The Black Keys, describes his fascination with Junior Kimbrough and his music.
“(Junior) was a huge influence on me and the way I play guitar, especially when I first started,” Auerbach says emphatically. “I first heard ‘All Night Long’ (Kimbrough’s debut album, recorded when he was 62 years old), possibly as a freshman in college… . It didn’t strike me as something I liked at first. … After I put it down for a while, all of a sudden I kinda got hooked on it … . Eventually, I was driving down to Mississippi to see the guy play.”
Auerbach never saw Kimbrough perform, but he still cultivated a distinct insight into the man’s music. “It’s not as obvious … It’s not blues music,” Auerbach says, “I definitely don’t like to call it that. He didn’t sound like anyone else. It was just this weird kind of soul music that was Junior Kimbrough.”
According to David, it was “Chulahoma,” the tribute album to Junior Kimbrough’s music, that launched The Black Keys into superstardom, and even if the album didn’t gain the notoriety of subsequent albums, the band certainly found inspiration in Junior Kimbrough, and even operated for a few years under the same record label (Fat Possum) as Junior.
Among David’s circle of friends and family, the blues is referred to as a musical language.
“Music is the ultimate form of communication,” says Bennett, the bassist. “It appeals to the biggest cross-section of people and musicians. Everything is based on the blues: rockabilly, rock and roll, country, rhythm and blues … The blues is like a universal language.”
David’s wife Stacy Mackey — also a musician and singer/songwriter — played in the band until the last stages of her pregnancy. Before meeting David, she had never heard of the blues or the Kimbrough legacy.
Staff Photo by Blair Jackson: Bruce Bennett on bass.
“It was like hearing a new language,” she said. “He was showing me one of his dad’s songs, and it was blowing my mind because he was making a whole lot of sound without a whole lot of effort.” The technique Stacy refers to is the method of playing chords and strumming a bass line simultaneously — a signature of David’s father.
Junior operated a juke joint, Junior’s Place, that attracted international artists such as Iggy Pop and U2. In 2000, two years after Junior’s death, the juke joint burned to the ground. Joseph Emel is a documentarian with the Little Rock company Filmore South, LLC. He is passionate about documenting the people and places that are continuing the blues tradition in the South. He has been filming David for two years, ensuring that the stories of Junior’s music and his family won’t be lost forever — whether in a fire or in a hospital bed.
The documentary aims to capture the beginnings of the blues and artists in Arkansas and Mississippi. During his filming, Emel has witnessed the increasingly rare dynamic of the juke joint. “It’s one of the most beautiful historical references, held in a neighborhood building or a warehouse. It can be very small, but the biggest thing about a juke joint is that it’s built for a musician, to carry the music,” he says. “It’s one of the things you need to see before you leave this planet.”
Unlike most modern music venues, the juke joint is designed to be family friendly. No alcohol or smoking is allowed inside the building. It is this family-oriented dynamic that allowed David to perform at such a young age with the support of his family and community.
Emel says that for many blues musicians, giving back to the community is part of the gig, but in the end some die alone in a hospital or live their last days in poverty, unable to pay their bills. Junior Kimbrough died of a stroke in 1998, surrounded by his family and friends. Written on his tombstone is, “The beginning and end of all music,” a quote from fellow bluesman Charlie Feathers.
With a reported 36 children, Junior Kimbrough’s lineage is far from over. David plans on teaching his youngest son to play the blues. “You’re going to be a bluesman,” he tells Bug, holding him overhead.
In its essence, blues is resilient, even without financial incentives or a family tradition.
“It can be beaten, beaten, beaten down and can keep the life in it. I’m gonna get it out there. I may be suffering, but I’m getting it out to you, and I’m loving it,” is how documentarian Emel describes the genre.
It’s Friday night, and the band is scheduled to perform a show at Legacy Blues. The entire crew is practicing in the bedroom.
Carol Reed, a used car dealer by day and blues pianist by night, has been playing for more than 20 years. When I asked him what the contest in Memphis could mean for David and the band, he mentions the Jaguar parked outside. If they win the International Blues Competition, he will give the car to David. It currently belongs to Carol’s wife, Loretta, who is stirring a pot of beans and rice in the kitchen.
David Gray Kimbrough, David’s nephew, is only 20. He is a professional drummer in Chicago and will be playing with the band through the competition in February. After dinner, he eats the last chunk of red velvet cake, and as he scrapes his fork against the plate, he flashes a grin and says, “My nickname when I was a kid was Fat Fat.” Presently Fat Fat is a handsome, fit young man, and the nickname is ironic yet endearing when claimed after a piece of cake.
Though David is the frontman of the group, behind the scenes, he tends to slip into the background. He makes sure each of his band members is interviewed; he’s quick to let someone else speak. His humility isn’t out of bashfulness, which I discover when I ask him about his stint in prison.
Carol, David and I are in the living room, watching the Cotton Bowl, when I mention the subject of David’s prison sentences.
“I wrote all my early music in the prison band,” he says and describes his first seven years in prison as easy time that was spent touring with the professional prison band, during which he played with B.B. King and Shirley Brown. He was released early when prominent music writer Robert Palmer and Junior Kimbrough intervened.
“My father’s album had just gotten four stars in The Rolling Stone. He went in there and told the warden somethin’, and the warden said, ‘You’ll be out in a week.’”
David’s second prison term began when he tested positive for crack cocaine — a violation of his parole.
“The second time was just depressing because I knew I didn’t have any business back in there, but if I hadn’t been locked up, I’d be dead now. I’ve been off drugs for over 10 years now.”
David’s candid, honest nature appealed to the filmmakers who are currently working to document his life. Emel first heard David at a lecture at the Clinton Library, when the bluesman paired up with poet-activist John Sinclair. “He was so honest about the time he spent in prison. He is someone who has experienced raw, real-life experiences. He’s done a lot of growing, and he’s never been at a stronger point … ” says Emel, leaning over the porch railing outside David’s front door. I take notes by moonlight because the porch light is broken.
During the show at Legacy Blues, the cameras are set up for the documentary, the lights are ready, and the stage is set. David wears a suit, with a gold waistcoat, and a fedora. He plays some of his old material, the classic blues; and what is really outstanding about the performance is David’s interaction with the crowd. He asks a friend to join him onstage. She invites another woman, and together they sing B.B. King’s “Rock Me Baby.”
Later, a man named Todd kneels in front of the stage and asks David if he can sing with the band. Graciously, David complies and what evolves is a jam session featuring a solo from each musician. At the end of the evening, David invites Emily Cole and her band onstage to sing “Stormy Monday Blues” and then an encore performance of “Mustang Sally.”
The support that David shows not only to his fellow artists (aspiring and professional alike) is a testament it seems to the values he learned as a child, standing onstage at a juke joint in the Mississippi Delta, having his pockets stuffed with dollars. A leader, a frontman and a friend, this bluesman is sharing his legacy not only with his family, but with all those who fall under his wing.
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David Kimbrough Jr.
[+ Show ]
The talented David Kimbrough Jr. performs live at Marshall's Disco, just outside of Holly Springs. A...The talented David Kimbrough Jr. performs live at Marshall's Disco, just outside of Holly Springs. At the end of the clip Ozy talks with Willie Wilkinson, manager/protector of David and long time friend of David's father, blues great Junior Kimbrough. Willie has been documenting the North Mississippi blues scene for many years.
supersonic
