Researcher’s Name: Mary Margaret Miller Document Type: Tape Log Event: Interview with Eric Deaton Place: 1412 Madison Ave., Oxford, MS Date: May 23, 2007 Co-Workers present: Kevin Dyess, Thom Copeland

The following is a catalog of a tape-recorded interview with 31 year-old Eric Deaton, at my home at 1412 Madison Avenue, Oxford, Mississippi. The interview mainly concerns Deaton’s experience in the North Mississippi blues music scene. Of particular interest are his stories concerning time spent socializing and performing at Junior Kimbrough’s juke joint in Marshall County, Mississippi.

------

-Eric Deaton (hereafter “ED”) was born May 7, 1976. He is originally from the Raleigh area of North Carolina, a town called Garner. ED moved to MS in 1994 at age 18, and has lived in MS for the most part since that time.

-ED’s mother played piano, but mostly on occasions like Christmas; father was a music fan but not a musician—says more influenced by father’s music collection not mother’s piano playing; liked his father’s Dixieland and bluegrass records

-ED’s maternal grandfather was a self-taught harmonica player who often performed for the family; ED inherited the harmonica, which was an Ecoharp with double reeds, ED says it had an accordion sound with a danceable beat

-ED says father didn’t listen to blues, but that he turned him on to music in general

-got first guitar at 13 after begging for two years for a guitar, started playing classic rock tunes of Lynard Skynard, Led Zepplin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Allman Brothers,etc; says he wanted every instrument to begin with, but begged harder for the guitar--because it seemed like the most fun

-ED started taking lessons from local guitar player Audlee Freed; learned the blues chords and lead guitar techniques from Audlee

-ED says after learning blues chords he began to recognize them in his favorite classic rock tunes, and later learned that those tunes were covers of original blues music and began to seek them out and buy their records; says by age 14 he was only buying blues records

-ED talks about Reader’s Corner, a record shop in Raleigh where he frequented; store also had a large blues collection; first blues album he bought was Muddy Waters’ “Rolling Stone” album

[ELAPSED TIME 5 MIN.]

-read magazine interviews of rock stars like Jimmy Page and started picking up on names like Howlin’ Wolf and Robert Johnson and started to buy their records; and from there he would read liner notes and find out about other blues musicians

-ED says he made mixed tapes of blues music for his guitar teacher and told him that was what he wanted to learn; says Audlee and his co-workers thought it was entertaining that someone as young as ED wanted to learn the tunes of obscure blues musicians

-ED says Audlee went on to play with the Black Crows, also fronted his own band, Cry of Love

-ED says he was into Howlin’ Wolf and Skip James in the early years of his guitar playing

-ED says after listening to the blues for one year he began to hear about the blues musicians still living and playing in Mississippi

“I had probably been into blues for about a good year when I first started hearing about some of the guys that were still alive down here like R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Roosevelt Booba Barnes from Greenville—and I started buying records by those guys and I was really amazed, because up there in Carolina—and this was before R.L. and Junior had really kind of gotten big like they did later on—So, in Carolina I had no idea that there was people in Mississippi still living, playing. I thought it was kind of a past thing, all the records I had been buying, the newest ones were from the 60s, so, and I just thought it was a bygone era, and like all that was left was Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jonny Winter and that sort of thing. So when I found out there was a guy still alive here doing it I was like wow, I think I want to go there and learn from those guys and that was the start—that is what triggered me moving down here from high school.”

[ELAPSED TIME 10 MIN.]

-learned about Booba Barnes in the blues issue of Guitar Player magazine; it was a small article on Barnes and his jukejoint, house band

-references “The Land Where the Blues Began,” Alan Lomax’s documentary film as where he learned about R.L. Burnside, Otha Turner, Napoleon Strickland, fife and drum music, etc

-references Living Blues issue (c. 1991) on the state of Mississippi blues and this is where he leaned about Junior Kimbrough and the living blues scene in North Mississippi

“I discovered there was actually still a living scene in Mississippi. Unfortunately, most of those guys have passed away now, so the scene has changed a lot just in these 15 years or so.”

-ED ays early 1990s was when Fat Possum Records (blues label in North Mississippi) first got started and he bought several of their albums

-ED talks about his father bringing him down on summer trips to Mississippi when he was in high school to Junior’s juke joint and to the Clarksdale blues festival; he began making connections and playing with several blues musicians then, so when he moved to Mississippi in 1994, he already had a good idea of the scene and knew some of the key players

“When I moved here in ’94 I just started going out to Junior’s every weekend. I went to Northwest Community College in Senatobia, which was just my excuse to be here. My folks wanted me to be in school and I wanted to go play in juke joints, so we struck a deal. I was like, okay, I’ll go to school in Mississippi.”

-ED says Northwest was the closest school to Junior’s juke joint so that is how he chose what school to attend; stayed on campus in Senatobia

-ED says in the beginning he didn’t know the blues musicians that well, but they were aware that he was moving to North Mississippi to play the music

[ELAPSED TIME 15 MIN.]

-ED says the blues community he entered is mostly that of Junior Kimbrough, R.L. Burnside and their extensive family; all live in the same area and grew up together

-First gig was playing guitar in David Kimbrough’s band; one of his first experiences in playing with a band (before he played mostly alone) Band Members were Gary Burnside, Kent Kimbrough, David Kimbrough and ED— band name changed often, but at one time was called David Malone and the Sugar Bears

-ED recalls that the community was accepting and somewhat excited about the idea that someone from so far away was into their music; says in the early 1990s they were just gaining popularity and attention in the blues world (notes before John Spenser and Iggy Pop started to recognize North Mississippi Blues)

-ED says he had to learn how to deal with social dynamics of the scene, gives example of folks wanting to borrow money constantly

-talks about how David and Kent Kimbrough often change their name back and forth from Kimbrough to Malone; talks about Junior having 36 children, but never married— says David and Kent can name them all in less than one minute

-ED says David Kimbrough is a prolific songwriter who is influenced by not only his father’s music (Junior Kimbrough) but also Prince and James Brown

[ELAPSED TIME 20 MIN.] -tells a long story about David Kimbrough’s music writing and rehearsal process

-ED says he learned a lot of lessons of playing in bands in North Mississipip; learned how to count of a song with the blues musicians of North Mississippi; learned how to watch the cues of the lead man

-Talks about the dynamics of playing in a band and how to watch interpret one another

-Defines “Hill Country Blues” (notes David Evans article in most recent issue of Living Blues magazine—spring 2007) says Evans coined the term about North Mississippi musicians, but that some Delta blues musicians also carry the style which is heavy on the rhythm, lots of stomp rhythms, with a trance inducing effect (not much 4-5 chord changes, not much shuffle changes)

-ED expounds upon how the music is connected to west African roots music, lots of droning, modal sounds; says Junior’s sound was very unique and connected to west African sound

-Talks about his side project band, Afrissippi, in which he works with Senegalese front man, Guelel Kumba. Says he heard Guelel sing a song which sounded very familiar—it was a 1000 year old Fulani song called “Du Ma Di” ED says while the lyrics were different the melody was almost exactly the same as Junior’s song “Keep You Hands Off That Girl” Says at this point he recognized the connection and north Mississippi’s rootedness in west African music (also notes—somewhat jokingly-- that Junior may have had a psychic connection to his ancestor’s music) Today the two men sing both the lyrics of “Du Ma Di” and “Keep Your Hands Off That Girl”

[ELAPSED TIME 25 MIN.]

-ED tells story about taking Guelel to perform for R.L. Burnside; R.L.’s health was fading and he was not performing—ED says he thinks R.L. enjoyed the music

-ED recalls trying to get the Sunday juke joint scene revived at Club 9000 in Marshall County, on County Road 310 with Gary and Cedric Burnside

-ED talks about Kent Kimbrough’s talent and interest in west African music

-Expounds upon the combination of west African music and north Mississippi blues in the band Afrissippi; tells about the sound and the experience of playing with that band

-After six months in Mississippi, Gary Burnside didn’t show up for a gig, and ED got to fill the space in Junior Kimbrough’s band; tells a long story about it was negotiated that ED would be able to play, tells about a quick meeting in the bathroom with Junior Kimbrough where they discussed what they’d play; says Junior wouldn’t play at all if he didn’t think the sound would be right, be his own; ED played bass

[ELAPSED TIME 30 MIN.]

-ED became the house bass player of the juke joint because Gary stayed away for some time; at this point ED began to apprentice under Junior Kimbrough; talks about the situation and how/when he got to play

-ED speaks about the difference between learning guitar from Audlee and from Junior; Audlee being more technical and Junior being more spontaneous, self-taught; with little music literacy; expounds upon the nature of performing with blues musicians and the difference between practicing and performing

-ED talks a bit about his frame of mind and the environment- lots of weed and corn whiskey; tells about the scene at Junior’s juke joint—mostly older black folks, some young white kids from Memphis and Oxford, mostly local blacks that had listened to them play for years

-ED speaks about the trance inducing state of Junior and R.L.’s music and how people would dance for hours; music started about 9 p.m. and would sometimes last until 2 a.m. with a very interactive crowd which new each other and all the songs

[Elapsed time 40 minutes]

-ED says all the locals thought he was 13 or 14 because he has a young-looking face, he was actually 18; says he was known by many locals as “white boy” and that everyone was kind and good to him; they all thought it was funny that he ventured to the juke joint alone and from so far away

-describes about a room behind the drum set which was set off by two curtains; in this room the whiskey and weed would come out; lots of musicians and other folks would hang out in that space and then get out on stage and play for hours—says that is where (he guesses) the famed Junior Kimbrough song “All Night Long” came from

[END OF SIDE ONE, INTERVIEW CONTINUED ON SIDE 2]

-ED says he played in the juke joint scene from August of 1994 until August of 1996, when he moved to Oxford and started playing in and enjoying Oxford music scene; Says the mid-1990s Oxford music scene was incredible noting bands like Preservation Jazz Band, Blue Mountain, Kudzu Kings, Enigma Jazz Project, blues musician Terry Bean

-ED played with Bob Parker and the band Good Luck and Trouble; at this time ED began playing a more traditional blues format; playing more guitar and less bass (lots of bass playing with Junior’s band)

-ED talks about moving to Jackson and playing with harmonica player David Richie; both began backing up Big Bad Smitty, a Jackson-based bluesman and double amputee; guys were the band and caretakers; Smitty cooked for the guys

“It was a good arrangement. There was one time when Smitty was like, ‘Man,’—I don’t know what prompted him to say it, but he was like, ‘I always wanted to get me a band of some young white guys playing.’ And I was like, ‘Man, I always wanted an old black guy to cook for me, so we’ve got a good arrangement. [laughs].”

-ED moved back to Oxford after a brief stint back in Carolina

-For the past four years has played with Burnside Exploration, Jimbo Mathus’ Knockdown South, Afrissippi, also playing with Shannon McNally, a New Orleans based singer/songwriter

[ELAPSED TIME 5 MIN.]

-debut solo album “Gonna Be Trouble Here” 2006; album name taken from CD’s title track about a flood—the song was written and debuted just months before Hurricane Katrina; album produced by Jimbo Mathus who encouraged him to included all original work on the album

-ED says he’s been writing music as long as he’s played guitar; lots of the songs have been thrown away or never performed

-ED talks about how he didn’t want to sing blues for a long time because he never liked how white voices sound singing black music; says you can’t get away mimicking on an instrument, but you can never get away with it in voice; eventually realized he’d have to sing in order to do his own projects and front his own bands

-Solo gigs have mostly been around the Oxford Square and some in the Mississippi Delta; also performs a handful of original music when performing with Jimbo Mathus and Afrissippi

-lives South of Oxford, in the country around Water Valley and Bruce

-doesn’t tour as much as he did when he played with Jimbo Mathus, right now it is mostly weekend work

[ELAPSED TIME 10 MINUTES]

-mentions that he’s played several international festivals with Afrissippi, and that a European tour is tentative for summer 2007

-ED says he is currently listening to a lot of world music, including African music, Indian music and owns a sitar which he plays at home for enjoyment; listens to lots of blues and funkadelic, reggae, etc.

-ED expounds upon how he is tied into Oxford now because of the music scene and friends he’s made; able to work as a professional musician in Oxford -comments briefly on the development and changes in the Oxford community

-Defines “cotton patch trance blues”—said Junior always called his music cotton patch blues, and that it came from the fact that most blues musicians spent time working in cotton patch; trance blues refers to the rhythmic, droning quality of North Mississippi sound and west African sound; gives several examples.

[ELAPSED TIME 16 MIN.]

[END OF INTERVIEW]