| MEM SHANNON AND THE MEMBERSHIP - 2010 | |
By
Kim "Two-Dat" Welsh Back on 2/12/11, Little Freddie King aka "Dr.Bonzs" (Guitar/Vocals/Songwriter), "Wacko" Wade Wright (Drummer/Songwriter/Producer/Recording label owner), Anthony "Sheets" Anderson (Bass Guitar), and Bobby "ClamBake" Louis (Harmonica) played to a packed house. They performed several songs including Mean Little Woman and Crack Head Joe off their latest CD entitled "Gotta Walk with Da King" which captures his "juke joint style" on the big festival stage. He will be appearing on April 9th at 4:45 on the Main Stage at the French Quarter Festival, New Orleans best free festival, which was recently extended to four days! Check out their lineup! www.fqfi.org/frenchquarterfest/fqfi_music.html He will also perform that night at the d.b.a. Music Club at 11:00 and at the "Kick Off Party" at the House of Blues on April 6th in the Voodoo Garden. Freddie will also kick his gut bucket all over the Blues Tent at Jazz Fest on May 5th. His next CD, coming out in the Spring is titled "If It Ain't One Thang, it's Another". Born in McComb, Mississippi in 1940, Fread E. Martin a.k.a. Little Freddie King grew up playing alongside his blues guitar-picking father (Jessie James Martin), then rode the rails to New Orleans during the early fifties where he was influenced by South Louisiana blues men such as "Poka- Dot" Slim and "Boogie" Bill Webb. Honing his guitar chops at notorious joints like the Bucket of Blood (which he later immortalized in song), he jammed and gigged with Bo Diddley, Snooks Eaglin, and John Lee Hooker, and also played bass for Freddy King during one of his stints in New Orleans. People began comparing the two musicians' styles, hence Martin's nom-de-plume. While well-vested in a variety of styles, Little Freddie sounds a lot more like his cousin Lightnin' Hopkins - albeit after a three day corn liquor bender! Since the 1960's, he has been quite popular and has played every single Jazz Fest! A Blues Trail Marker was dedicated to him in McComb on 11/6/09. Freddie’s music has been described as 'gut bucket blues' and potent enough to turn George W. Bush into the Godfather of Soul. It's THAT country and THAT ghetto." His 2005 recording with Fat Possum Records entitled 'You Don't Know What I Know' contains his genius "Crackhead Joe." Little Freddie King not only plays down and dirty blues, he lives the blues. He presently resides in the New Orleans Habitat Musicians Village (www.nolamusiciansvillage.org) and has been playing the rural electric blues of his native Mississippi in the lowest bowels of New Orleans now-devastated Ninth Ward for over fifty years. King and his band have a penchant for hard-hitting, minimalist chords and lyrics, delivered by his cracked, heavily lived-in voice. Much of King's material has an old-style R&B feel, but he is at his most charming when he strips it down to just guitar and vocals as depicted on his 2008 MadeWright Records, "Messin Around tha House" CD. His stage gyrations are always appreciated by his audience (especially photographers!) and even the white boys develop chicken legs and dance like no one is watching! See you all at the crossroads! Your junco partner, Kim AKA Fest Junkie
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