Back Alley Blues Concert Article by Terry Mullins of Avenue magazine.

 

On paper, it looks like a matchup that just should not work.

An 83-year-old delta blues legend, one who has played with Sam Carr, Sonny Boy Williamson and Robert Nighthawk, surrounded by a backing band that is roughly half his age and well-versed in the heavy sounds of the White Stripes, Led Zeppelin and Fugazi.

How in the world could a pairing like that ever work?

In spectacular fashion, as a matter of fact.

The allegiance between Pine Bluff blues icon Cedell Davis and Brethren, a locked-and-loaded four-piece band from Hot Springs is truly something to behold.

And luckily for music fans in this area, that combination is set to headline the annual Back Alley Blues Concert Oct. 31 at the Opera House in West Plains.

With Father Time thinning out the really authentic delta blues players on a seemingly monthly basis, Davis is among the few living musicians that were a part of the vibrant scene back when Helena and Clarksdale rivaled Chicago as the blues epicenter of the universe.

Among Davis’ contemporaries that are now longer around are a Who’s-Who of Fat Possum recording artists, including Paul “Wine” Jones, Charles Caldwell, Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside.

And the fact that those ranks are ever-dwindling was not lost on Brethren guitarist/vocalist Greg “Big Papa” Binns a few years back.

“I started looking up Cedell right after coming back from R.L.’s funeral,” said Binns. “I just thought all these older blues legends are just disappearing. It’s heartbreaking. And I had always liked Cedell and wanted to track him down while he was still around.”

Davis, confined to a wheelchair for most of the last four decades after a bout with polo as a youngster and then an accident in a tavern in 1957 left him with a pair of badly-broken legs, was still around and living in a nursing home in Pine Bluff when Binns tracked him down.

“After I found out where he was, I started visiting him for about four years or so in the nursing home. When I would go back to Warren (Binn’s hometown), I go through Pine Bluff, so I’d stop and see him,” he said.

Though a stroke had robbed Davis of the ability to play guitar, (one of the most unique players in the history of the blues, Davis played guitar left-handed, using a butter knife for a slide. This combination had to be heard or seen to be believed) Binns felt that Davis still had plenty to offer.

“It’s really just in the last year or so that he’s made quite a recovery and is able to sing again,” he said. “He’ll never be able to play guitar again, but his voice is really getting strong.”

That point was reinforced through a series of jam sessions between Davis and Brethren, leading to public appearances at the Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale this past April and a headlining slot at the Deep Blues Festival in Minneapolis this summer.

While Davis certainly brings undeniable cache to the party, Brethren (Binns and his drummer/guitarist son Zakk, along with bassist Tim Green and harmonica player John “Harpo” Stephens) are a powerful force all on their own.

Forming a shade over three years ago, the Hot Springs-based band has a full-length CD under their belt (see review) and have logged numerous road miles, weaving a modern rock sound into a traditional blues framework.

Thick, meaty guitar riffs laid out by the Binns’ are sliced and diced by howling harp work from Stephens, all the while Green holds the groove firmly in place for Brethren. It has all the spirit of early Led Zeppelin while also giving a nod to the rollin’-and-tumblin’ North Mississippi Hill Country sounds popularized by the late, great R.L. Burnside and his cohorts.

All totaled, this formula for Brethren has achieved favorable results over the past few years.

“When you play at a blues festival, you have the guys that play all the traditional stuff, and that’s fine and good,” Binns said. “But once you’ve heard that for four or five hours, you’re ready to hear something different. So we come out with our bombastic racket and it seems to strike a chord.”

Brethren competed in the last two International Blues Challenges in Memphis and has been a part of numerous festivals, including the Arkansas Blues & Heritage Festival in Helena.

To show just how versatile Brethren are, in addition to sharing stages with blues legends like Davis, Pinetop Perkins and Bob Margolin, they have also been on the bill with bands acts like the Charlie Daniels Band, Foghat and Blue Oyster Cult.

And, just as any number of their traveling musician fore-fathers did, Brethren were forced to endure a severe case of the blues on their recently-completed summer tour.

“We were playing in Carbondale, Il., at this really cool club and when we got back to the hotel, our bass player fell and cracked his head on the wall,” said Binns. “We had shows scheduled at Buddy Guy’s Legends Club in Chicago and at the Deep Blues Festival, but we thought, ‘there goes those shows – he had to have broken something.’ But he refused to see a doctor and we played those shows, but he was in obvious pain. So we drove about 1,500 miles or more back to Hot Springs after wrapping the tour up and he goes and gets X-Rays and he’d been playing with a fractured neck!”

That is the real blues, folks.

And according to Binns, while playing with the legendary Cedell Davis is a blast, it also is not as easy as it might appear.

“You really can’t deny his songs. In my opinion they’re some of the best blues songs out there,” he said. “And his songs are not easy to play. They sound kind of simple, but if we don’t make the change where Cedell makes the change, we’re all off. We follow him, he doesn’t follow us. It keeps you on your toes.”

And that promises to keep the crowd at the Opera House on their feet Halloween night.

For more information on the Back Alley Blues Concert, call 417-256-1025 or 417-256-2322.

Written by Terry Mullins for Avenue magazine.