Metro Pulse/Music/Eye on the Scene

Knoxville’s Harlem

As much as Knoxvillians hate to give Nashville credit for anything, especially in the music realm, there’s one area where we’ll have to cede to the capital: the R&B and soul scene of the ’50s and ’60s.

A great compilation has just been released by the Country Music Hall of Fame and Lost Highway records called Night Train To Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues, 1945-1970. It covers the country music mecca’s forgotten soul scene.

Interestingly enough, native Knoxvillian Ron Wynn wrote the liner notes. Wynn writes that for black kids growing up in Knoxville, Nashville was “Harlem, Chicago, Fifty-second Street, Central Avenue, and Beale Street combined.”

“The sounds of bluegrass and country dominated the Knoxville airwaves; for many years there was absolutely no local source for soul, blues, or black gospel except community churches, honky-tonks, and dirt-floor clubs,” he writes. “When as teens we wanted to hear some down-home soul, earthy blues, or cheatin’-in-the-next-room sagas, our source other than house parties was the transistor radio and late night follies on WLAC out of Nashville.

“Nashville at that time was our shrine for black music and culture. We regularly heard stories about Jefferson Street and how Aretha Franklin and B.B. King were appearing in Nashville and turning out such clubs as the Del Morocco and New Era. When Chess Records recorded Etta James Rocks the House at the New Era in 1963, it stunned a lot of people in other parts of the nation, but some folks walking around Knoxville were such regulars at the Nashville club that they swore Etta had sounded much better on other nights.”

The Nashville scene lost significance by 1970. The two-disc compilation contains some great tracks by Christine Kittrell, the Marigolds, Esquerita, Little Richard, Ruth Brown, Etta James, Joe Tex, the Avons, Bobby Hebb, Robert Knights, and Knoxville native Clifford Curry.

A great big whiskey to ya, anyway

Last Friday, Eric Lee packed up his blue van and moved to Chicago, to be with his girlfriend and try his luck somewhere else. He was a veteran of many of the more inventive Knoxville bands, including Knoxville, Idle Hands, Loud Beef Ltd., and Dark Logik. Others remember him as a bartender at the old Snakesnatch Lodge. In recent years he hadn’t played out as much, but he did front an unnamed group playing experimental instrumental music.

He was known for his sarcasm and dark moods, and a mischievous smirk that made you wonder whether he was laughing at you or just uncomfortable. And sometimes he could be a jerk. But he saves his worst scorn for himself, and he has a good heart. He was also damn smart and had good conversation to offer, if you could get him to talk.

I saw him the night before he left at a friend’s birthday celebration. He gave me his usual smirk when I told him he’d be missed. “No I won’t,” he responded. “Well, I’ll miss you,” I said. “Thanks,” he answered, pausing for a moment before adding, “That’s really all I’ve got to offer right now.”

I will miss him. And I wish him well.

Monkey for hire

When musicians draw up contract riders, in addition to the food and drink requirements, they typically throw in an off-the-wall request, to make sure the booking agents are paying attention. In Hank III’s case, the contract called for...a monkey.

Metro Pulse happens to have in its employment one simian by the name of JoJo the Webmonkey. OK, it’s Ian Blackburn, who has an obsession with monkeys and owns a monkey suit.

Lenore Kinder and Mark Arnold, promoters for the Hank III show, thought it would be amusing if this monkey turned up at Blue Cats. “Ian is the only monkey I know or can afford, so I asked him if he would come down and monkey around for a bit,” Kinder says.

The trip down to Blue Cats in the ape suit drew a number of stares, says Blackburn, who sometimes forgot he was wearing it. Hank III did indeed seem amused. “Looks more like a gorilla than a monkey, but fuckin’ A,” the monkey reports Williams saying.

The exchange must have put Williams in a good mood, because the show apparently rocked. And Blackburn, by his own estimation, got drunk as a monkey.

Go.

Thursday: Josh Marcum Trio at Downtown Grill & Brewery.

Friday: Go see what the kids do for fun at one of Knoxville’s only all-ages clubs, when Atropos plays at Old City Java. Then head over to the Pilot Light to hear Knoxville’s best pop rock band, Westside Daredevils.

Saturday: Chick Graning and Rus Harper will share their twisted poetry and music at the Urban Bar. If you can’t take the entertainment, sit out on the club’s amazing patio.

Sunday: Catch the KSO at the Bijou.

Monday: The sugar coated pill is getting bitterer still/ You think your country needs you but you know it never will/ So pack up your troubles in a stolen handbag/ Don’t dilly dally boys rally round the flag/ Gives us your daily bread in individual slices/ And something in the daily rag to cancel any crisis

Tuesday: Plan your summer vacation.

Wednesday: Fall in love.

—Joe Tarr