January 08, 2010

Check out 'Bongo Joe'

From the Tallahassee Democrat:

About three-quarters of the way through listening to Disc 1 of the two CD's that arrived with the latest Oxford American Southern music issue, I heard a song that sounded awfully familiar — like a piece of Milk Dud-coated popcorn lodged in the crevices of my hindbrain.

The caterwauling, gonzo vocalist whacking out an irregular rhythm on what sounds like Charles Chips tubs brought on a severe sonic flashback. I was transported to an enclosed garage thick with cigarette smoke and rum fumes, where a man with a disarranged, curly coiffure was "entertaining" guests with his best impression of a braying jackass.

"Is that … is that Hinson?" I whispered, swept back to one of many semi-remembered nights spent at parties where my homeboy and colleague Mark Hinson was closing out the festivities with his patented Tom-Waits-by-way-of-Marianna impersonation.

When I checked the CD sleeve, I found that the song in question was called "I Wish I Could Sing," and the performer was one George "Bongo Joe" Coleman. I found out later that I wasn't the only one to mistake ol' Bongo Joe for Hinson, and that Hinson himself was mightily taken with the tune, tormenting his wife, Amy, and any friends who sat still long enough, by playing it over and over and over. …

Now, I'm the kind of discriminating music connoisseur who likes to read liner notes, and the Oxford American is the kind of magazine that delivers beyond my wildest dreams. The whole dang music issue is one big, fat parade of liner notes — more like essays, really — written by some of the hippest, finest writers in the land. Bongo Joe rated two essays, one by Texas writer Joe Nick Patoski and another by short-story writer and "canjo" player Matthew Pitt.

Perhaps this is the proper time to say that I love the Oxford American music issue and think it contains just about the best music writing on the market today. I love the Oxford American in general, but the annual music compendium just makes me giddy with joy.

It's always chock full of nuggets and nuts, and this year is no exception. On Disc 1, you get a rambling, funny intro by Lucinda Williams, Bukka White performing his signature, self-titled tune, Andre Williams cranking out "Cadillac Jack," sassy "ten-legged teenage pop phenomenon" The Feminine Complex, some seriously righteous Gil Scott Heron and Brian Jackson (with lead essay by our own D.K. "Diane" Roberts), the aforementioned Bongo Joe and a breathtakingly lovely version of "Papa Was a Rodeo" by Kelly Hogan (Neko Case's favorite American singer, gal pal and backup vocalist) and the Pine Valley Cosmonauts (essay by FSU's Mark Winegardner, a frequent contributor to OA).

Oh, such riches! And that doesn't even begin to address Disc 2, which is a compilation of "Arkansas Masters" such as Sister Ernestine Washington, Little Beaver, Sleepy LaBeef, Billy Lee Riley & The Little Green Men and Wayne Jackson.

You would think that in these trying times for print media, the OA would skimp a little. You know, cut back on content, scale down the mag, fill its pages with fewer writers. But no — it is still delivering big, fat issues that take days to consume (I have stretched out my savoring of this particular music issue over a month, and I'm still not through with it).

You can find this fine quarterly publication on the news stand, but it's worth it to just go on, take the plunge and subscribe to "The Southern Magazine of Good Writing." Visit the Web site at www.oxfordamerican.org, cruise around, make yourself at home.

Don't mind that racket in the background — it's just Bongo Joe. Or is that Hinson?