Cultural Diversity in One Act...pg. 6A I L wWa THE ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT SECTION OF THE DAILY NEXUS 2A Thursday, May 14,1992 ore Tom Ball Kenny Sultan Collaboration of Musicians Creates Downhome Blues some reason or another, go through a slow period, and de­ Bv Jeanine Natale cide to give up music altogether,” Ball said. “It’s a loss for the art world that so many good musicians are stuck being y | ^ om Ball and Kenny Sultan have made music — real estate agents. The key is just don’t ever plan to do any­ downhome, old-fashioned, good-time blues, to be thing else.” exact — their lives. Both having taken up guitar Sultan agreed with Ball, recalling how he was consider­ before the age of 12, Ball and Sultan began a rela­ ing a career in environmental science, but wasn’t really tionship with the blues that has taken diem around the happy with it. “Here I was, having played guitar since I was world, and has seen them play with hundreds of fellow mu­ seven, and I really hadn’t even played in front of anyone at sicians ranging from Willie Dixon to Bonnie Raitt. HILLARY KAPLOWITZ/Dúly Nema 19. I was terrified,” he said. Becoming a team in 1979, Sultan and Ball say that UCSB Our men Tom Ball (left) and Kenny Sultan. has been a big part of their lives. Their first “big gigs” were Although he went on to graduate as a music major, he playing on the air at KCSB, and with Randy Newman at Stevie Ray Vaughn. “didn’t really know what (he) was going to do for sure, and Campbell Hall a year later. Both also taught through the “Not only was he a true musician, but he was a hell of a just knocked around for a few years, playing and traveling.” Living Arts Program at different times during the nice guy,” Ball said. “I have a lot of respect for him.” Sultan added that getting paid for local gigs was the first mid-1980s. Sultan is himself an UCSB alum, graduating— “He was a musician’s musician,” Sultan added. “When step in realizing that playing music for a living was the way and teaching blues guitar at one point—through the Black we do shows, and the main act is on, I usually leave and to go. Studies Department take a break. But with Stevie, I would sit 10 feet from the Prom there, the key to getting their names known around stage, and eveiy night, he would just knock ’em dead with Becoming partners with Ball also taught Sultan that be­ town—and elsewhere—was putting out an album of their everything he had.” ing a professional musician is a lot of hard work. “It’s like a songs, 1981’s Confusion. “People might know you locally Although Sultan didn’t make the jump to professional business—you really have to work hard at what you do to and that’s it,” Ball said. “But if you have an album out, and music until he was close to graduating, Ball says he knew keep it going. But if you do, it really pays off.” can get it distributed, people get to know you all over the early on that music was the key to his future. “1 was playing world. It’s like a calling card; it legitimizes your work.” (harmonica) professionally back in high school, and didn’t Tom Ball and Kenny Sultan, who perform every Sun­ Both musicians cite original blues masters such as Light- really have anything else to fell back on,” he explained. day at the Cold Springs Tavern, will be appearing tonight nin’ Hopkins, Reverend Gary Davis and harpist Sonny Despite his parents’ desire to see him “do something” at 8 p.m. in The Pub with Los Guys. Tickets are Teny as major influences, and say it has been a privilege to with his life, Ball says that by not leaving any back doors $3/general admission, $2/students. Also, look for their play with some true blues giants. But they agree that the open, he forced himself to become a great musician. “It’s a new album, tentatively titled Filthy Rich, to be released in most inspirational musician they’ve ever played with was real crime to see a lot of really talented musicians who, for the coming months. I MUSIC REVIEWS Dead: On the Mary Chain Express Honey’s Dead drives like a runaway Santa Fe Express. pin curves. Unstoppable, but never out of Jesus and Mary Chain On their long-awaited fourth album, the control, the band is quite aware of the Warner Records boys from Britain once again prove they danger of being too reckless: “I gotta taste You’re riding in a freight train through are the masters of their own creation, for it, and now I gotta leave ... die sun’s a winding Rocky Mountain pass. It’s one characteristically combining driving me­ going down on me,” sings one brother in of those old masterpieces of a train, pow­ lodies with guitar as grungy as the face of the poignant “Save A Prayer for Me,” a erful and strange in the thin-aired wilder­ the guy who shovels the coal into the song about the inevitability of death. The ness. The pistons crank out an eternal steaming engine-room furnace. And of album crashes to a close with the track rhythm as the black beast snakes through course there’s feedback, the sound of “Frequency,” a mangled piece of distor­ hills and valleys. Ta-ka-ta-ka-ta-ka-ta- wailing brakes, unable to stop the driving tion which brings back the haunting lyr­ ka. beat. ics, “I want to die just like Jesus Christ...” Or maybe you’re just listening to the More melodic than the band’s last al­ in a screeching, feedback-filled finale. Jesus and Maty Chain. bum Automatic (1989), tracks like the Whew. Honey’s Dead, the latest effort by the tender “Almost Gold” slow down just influential and eccentric Reid brothers, enough to prevent disaster on those hauv —Bonnie Bills Nice cover? William Clarke’s Blues Intentions Are All Right Serious Intentions perfect blues voice, Clarke’s second Alli­ ing horn section. music. Clarke, who had spent 20 years as William Clarke gator album fits perfectly. If there is a real drawback here, it stems Alligator Records a blue-collar working parent prior to There are no tracks that leap out and from the fact that the majority of the heading out in the music world, tells the Blues are blues. Either they are played grab you, but that is more a testament to songs are told from one perspective. right, or they are played wrong. There is tales of those who are a little less fortu­ the album’s consistency than inferiority. Toward the end of the album, the tracks nate than the listener. Despite the little very little middle ground. The leadoff track, “Pawnshop Bound,” start to sound alike. William Clarke is on the right side. bit of repetitiveness, he makes you glad sets the tone for the album quite well, Nonetheless, Serious Intentions com­ that he quit his day job. Armed with his harmonica and a nearly from the opening guitar riff to the back- municates the meaning behind the —Ross French CONCERT SPIKE & MIKE S ALL NEW FOR 92 SERIES FESTIVAL ANIMATION featuring ASWAD STARTS MAY 15 FOR 2 WEEKS ONLY! LUC K Y D U BE 19 NEW ANIMATED BARRINGTON SHORT FILMS INCLUDING WORLD TOUR ’92 LEVY M A Y 25 5 P M JOHN HOLT Santa P A P A S A N Barbara Bow l SKOOL EMCEE TOMMY COWAM W e e k 1 Fri. Sat. Sun. Mon.-Thurs May 15 May 16 May 17 May 18-21 Academy Award Winner 7:00pm 7:0upm 4:00pm 8:15pm ■Manipulation" by Daniel Greaves THE CULT 9:30pm 9:30pm 8:15pm . ALSO ! & 'Creature Comforts at Home" DRANIARAIVIA MAY 15 8PM eXpa S*K&TwiSte(l ONLY AT MIDNIGHT FRI. ft SAT. YOU MUST BE 17 OR OVER. Lupo the Butcher VICTORIA STREET THEATRE • 33 W. VICTORIA ST. Advance Tickets: sold at Another Book Shop (962-3992), Andromeda Books (967-8980). Morning Glory (968-4665). Some outlets may apply service-charge. LYLE LOVETT MAY 15 8PM / ARLINGTON THEATRE C al (805) 965-1866 for more Information._____________________________ JAMES TAYLOR JUN 28 7PM / SANTA BARBARA BOWL CROSBY, STILLS & MASH AUG 2 7PM / SANTA BARBARA BOWL Tickets available at all '• outlets including the Compact Oise and Tape Store (Goleta), K T Y D ^ Morninglory Music (I.V.) and The Arlington Theatre and Santa Barbara Bowl box offices. To charge by phone call (80S) 583-8700. I t 1>.* / 1 L I review Thursday, May 14,1992 3 A ÄS. Troßrn ‘Boari Brm ts A E x f r m j m * ê LFV/FN * F U N Ç û lof qt/y¿*6V/ii, perieli Saturday May 16,1992 11 am to 7 pm Fire in the Sky Faculty Club Green With T .V . Sky, Swiss-Born * f r e e f r e e f r e e f r e e f r e e The Young Gods Establish No bottles, cans, or alcohol Themselves As a Rock Band UCSB *•' i : l ‘Ihikcry & Caje For the Nineties. BOOKSTORE Interview by Andy Bailey PIZZA lowing into town L’Eau Rouge Album of the sample-oriented. Why did 1 » I Z Z A this week from the Year in its annual wrap-up you use samples for the remote wilds of issue wall-of-guitar sound ex­ Is la V ista Extravaganza 92 Grand Prize Raffle- B Switzerland are The recently released plored on T.