The View From Nowhere
Two sets by George Bedard & the Kingpins, the new release from horror/metal rappers Harms Way and a week walking among the ghosts of Memphis. Oh yeah - and a quote from Ishmael Reed. Cross cultural mixing to the 10th degree...But after spending a few days in the birthplace of rock and roll, checking out a hot night with Bedard and friends at the Heidelberg and listening to HW's new tape Free Buming Extra Blanc Kutcomers LP, I've had this sudden shot of reality on how music is one big circle, one big universe and that ghosts from the past have a hand in the present.
There was an interview with Ishmael Reed in the local Memphis entertainment weekly: "Reed remembers pausing at the foot of Beale Street on a previous trip to Memphis: 'The Elvis Presley statue was behind me, there was the Lorraine Motel, and I was looking towards Beale Street And I thought This is really America's sacred ground here,'" (Memphis Flyer, Oct 26, 1995).
After hanging out on Beale (the birth street of the blues and rock and roll), driving by the spot where Martin Luther King Jr. was killed and visiting Sun Records (where black music made the evolutionary jump to white America with Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and all the rest of the 1950s Sun roster), I thought just the thing to connect me back to A2 musical reality would be Bedard, who at least has the blues and rockabilly ghosts of Memphis looking over his shoulder.
Saturday night at the Heidelberg - last night of the World Series. It's relaxed, really relaxed, amazingly smoke free and not so crowded. Ann Arbor's best guitarist, George Bedard, has been doing this for a LONG time. With the Vipers, the Silvertones, Tracy Lee and the Leonards and his own various trios (tonight it's the Kingpins), Bedard has been paying respect to the ghosts of soulful American music for a lifetime. It could be the country blues of Robert Johnson, the New Orleans soul of Rockin' Sidney, the Texas shuffle of Freddy King or the Memphis soul of Eddie Floyd on one side or the Sun Records roots of Elvis or Carl Perkins or the way-American kick of 1960s surf guitar classics. Ghosts are always present.
Beautiful ghosts have infused and inspired everything Bedard has done in his musical life. While if you look at a Bedard set list and check out the tunes- California Sun, Blue Moon of Kentucky, Something Else, Oh My Soul, Who Do You Love, Land of A Thousand Dances, et. al. - it sounds like a nice collection from a very hip bar band. And of course, this is true.
Bedard and the Kingpins is a VERY hip bar band. In a place like the Heidelberg on a Saturday night with cheap beer, a crowd who wants to dance and a hard-core group of fans who know this band from a million other nights, this band rocks out like no other in town.
But, the ghost thing again. What raises Bedard and the Kingpins above being just a cool band playing in an above average venue are the ghosts. On the Elvis/Bill Monroe tune Sue Moon of Kentucky the spirit of Sun Records and the sacred blend of white country music and black urban and country blues possesses Bedard and his guitar stylings, pushing him into sounds that rip at your soul. On Robert Johnson's Kind Hearted Woman you can almost hear the Mississippi River in the background and smell the delta dust from decades ago. On the Freddy King tribute you can close your eyes and imagine being in some Texas juke joint in the 1950s with the crowd dancing and drinking the night away.
The roots of American music ARE sacred stuff and we have Elvis to remind us that at times even pop music can inspire, uplift and bring us together across racial borders. Bedard, by following these ghosts, creates a music that is none of the above and all of the above. With his constant sidekicks of Randy Tessier on bass and Richard Dishman on drums, he is an American original who makes great music that few others can.
So, what about the gig? Oh, right. . . One perfect night. The Kingpins were joined by jazz saxophone heno David Swain on a few numbers (their version of Lucille would have made Little Richard smile). The boys played a few cuts from their upcoming second release on Schoolkids' Records (including the old Tracy Lee days classic/Bedard original Do The Dick Around), and Bedard had lightning fingers on most of the instrumentals that at times reminded me of jazz god Charlie Christian.
How does this bring us to Harms Way, an Ann Arbor metal trio with a couple of pissed off rappers? The ghosts here are more like demons and the black roots are twisted, set on fire and blown up with dynamite but...
Harms Way (with rappers LS.G.H. Clan) are rooted in the black street rap of the 1990s, the speed/death metal drones of the 1980s and the anarchy burn-it-all-down aura of the late, post-Martin Luther King Jr. era of the late 1960s.
The band is white, of course. And let's not forget they're from the Paris of the Midwest (even if it is Felch Street), Ann Arbor. But the spirit of slavery revolts, the anger, the hate, the overtones of fire and death and anarchy are all out in full force. The Harms Way list of demands includes blowing away anyone who pisses them off, messes with their woman or steals their dope. Dope, Rock and Rock, and Fucking in the Streets may have come from John Sinclair and the MC5 circa 1968, but Harms Way have listened to the sacred recordings, inhaled the sacraments and are ready to change the future.
The ghosts at work here aren't the same as with George Bedard. This time its the ghost of Malcolm X, the ghost of guitarist Fred Smith, and the ghost of anyone gunned down in a crack house, tt's all sacred stuff, but sacred in the same way Christ went through his 40 days of trial in the wilderness. It's only by living through the hell, the pain, and the angst that we can cross over to the other side.
Again, what about the music? Harms Way is one of the most intense, dangerous bands in the city if not the country. It's cut-out-your-heart horror with a wall of discords and lots of feedback, all anchored down with a rapper beat tt's hate and fear and confusion. And wonderful music to boot.
George Bedard has made it to the other side with the saintly way he rings out music on the guitar. Harms Way is a reminder that you first must pass through hell to get to heaven. Both outfits and the music they produce are coming, as Ishmael Reed pointed out, from sacred ground. To worship in your own way, George Bedard and the Kingpins will be at the Blind Pig on November 25th and Harms Way will be at the same venue November 18th.
See you in church. Love offerings, cds, tapes and sacred texts can be sent to: The View From Nowhere, AGENDA, 220 S. Main Street, Ann Arbor, Ml 48104, or e-mail to: ALANNARBOR@AOL.COM.