“I’m still waiting for when I have to grow up and get a real job,” laughs blues guitar-great Anson Funderburgh. Calling from a tour stop in California, Funderburgh is reflecting on an inspiring career milestone: his decade-long partnership with singer and harmonica man Sam Myers, commemorated in their new Black Top CD That’s What They Want. Funderburgh may joke about his vocational choice, but since forming the first incarnation of his band Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets nineteen years ago, he’s become one of the master craftsmen in contemporary blues. When he brought his impeccably tasteful guitar licks — inspired by his Lone Star roots and Texas icons T-Bone Walker, Freddie King and Albert Collins — to Jackson, Mississippi in the early 80s, he met Myers, a Delta legend who’d worked with Elmore James and wrote the classic blues composition “Sleeping In the Ground.”
“We’d play at a little place called George St. Grocery,” Funderburgh remembers. “I met Sam there one night; we used to do his songs “My Love is Here to Stay” and “Sleeping in the Ground.” He came and sat in with us, and we just became really good friends, he and I and the whole band. Every time the Rockets would go to Jackson, which was usually every couple of months, we’d go out and eat, we’d hang out, listen to Sam tell stories, we’d go to movies, we’d watch him play after hours when we’d finish at George St. We were just really friends.”
Original Rockets singer Darryl Nulisch left the band in 1986, and Funderburgh called Myers and asked him if he wanted to move to Dallas and join the Rockets. Myers’ acceptance of the offer started a unique partnership, and the duo has forged a lean and distinctive musical voice: Myers’ deep and rich Southern voice is the perfect foil for Funderburgh’s tightly-wound six-string solos. One of the band’s hallmarks is their egoless sense of economy. On their recordings and in live performances, there is no grandstanding, and Funderburgh and Myers can find the core a song and wrap it up neatly in three to four minutes.
“Maybe it’s just because of where I grew up,” muses Funderburgh. “I’ve always been a big country fan, and I’ve always been a big blues fan. Also we used to play, back in the late 60s and early 70s, and there used to be a dance that supposedly originated around Denton, Texas called the north Texas Push. Out on the east coast, the Carolinas and stuff, there’s a dance called the shag. The Push looks very much like the shag, only it’s danced more within a slot, there’s more back and forth. Not only did you have to write good songs, you had to be very tempo and groove conscious, because these people loved to dance to R&B and blues. Maybe some of that comes from playing music for those guys.”
One of the most refreshing qualities shared by Funderburgh and Myers is their sense of humor. That’s What They Want features tongue-in-cheek tracks like Eddie Bo‘s “Oh-Oh,” Delbert McClinton‘s “Monkey Around,” and the original “I’ve Been Dogged By Women.” They take their music, not themselves, seriously. “I’m not one to critique my own work very well, but in almost every aspect [That’s What They Want] meets up to my expectations of what I wanted to do, which was play, have fun, and capture the spirit of the music,” says Funderburgh. “We’ve always tried to do that, and I think of guys like Sonny Boy [Williamson]; what a sense of humor. Howlin’ Wolf too — just an amazing sense of humor and storytelling. Someone else who has that ability is Earl King; he’s the most unbelievable songwriter I believe I’ve ever known.”
Funderburgh and Myers will play Tipitina’s on December 11 to celebrate the release of their new CD. Their local appearances are always a treat, especially given Funderburgh’s appreciation for New Orleans. ” Texas has always been close, and I grew up listening to Jimmy Reed and Slim Harpo and Fats Domino, and Eddie Bo, and that swamp rock from Crowley and [producer] Jay Miller. I just loved all that old Excello stuff, like Lazy Lester and Lightnin’ Slim. I love the state and I love the music; there’s just something about being in New Orleans and Louisiana; it’s a good feeling.”
The blues community lost one of its greatest supporters and historians with the Nov. 20 death of 52-year old journalist, musician and record producer Robert Palmer. Palmer died while awaiting a liver transplant. Besides his acclaimed work for The New York Times and Rolling Stone, Palmer is the author of Deep Blues, the single most eloquent book on the genre. His loss resonates deeply in New Orleans, where he was a resident for the last four years of his life. The Robert Palmer Fund for Artist’s Aid is being established, to assist individuals in the arts without medical insurance.
Any of Palmer’s books — including Rock and Roll: An Unruly History — or the CD’s he produced for the Fat Possum label (including Jr. Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside), would make excellent holiday gifts for blues lovers. If you’re still strapped for ideas, the following items are great stocking-stuffers. (To help get in the spirit, check out the ever-swingin’ Roomful of Blues‘ Roomful of Christmas on Bullseye Blues.)
For the one you really, really love, show your appreciation with Rhino Record’s five-CD set Ray Charles: Genius and Soul, The 50th Anniversary Collection. This beautiful compilation touches on every phase of Brother Ray’s illustrious career, culled from his early singles on Downbeat and Swingtime, his seminal Atlantic work, country hits on ABC, and his recent Columbia and Warner Brothers efforts.
Noteworthy recent releases sure to please blues palates include: Lowell Fulson: The Complete Chess Recordings; virtuoso pianist David Maxwell‘s Maximum Blues Piano (Tone-Cool); Delmark Record’s Blues Piano Orgy, featuring tracks from Roosevelt Sykes, Sunnyland Slim and Little Brother Montgomery; B.B. King‘s Deuces Wild (MCA), featuring duets with diverse heavyweights such as Van Morrison, Tracy Chapman, Eric Clapton, Willie Nelson and Bonnie Raitt; Big Bad Smitty‘s raucous Cold Blood (HMG Records); and Carey Bell‘s new Alligator CD Good Luck Man.
For your literary loves, Heart & Soul: A Celebration of Black Music Style in America 1930-1975 will earn a permanent spot on their coffee table. Authors Bob Merlis and Davin Seay note, “Think of this book as a visual adjunct to the very best of soul, R&B, blues, and jazz, the music that defines us a nation and as a people,” and they’re right on the money. Heart & Soul… is a collectors’ dream, filled with glorious full-color reproductions of vintage playbills, 45’s, album covers, and publicity photos, with brief but thoughtful annotations.
Here’s wishing you a joyful and safe holiday season, and all the best in 1998.
