The Blues Foundation e-mail Updater.
Keepin' the Blues alive through the Net.
What would you do if you threw a party and the Rolling Stones showed up?
That's exactly what happened last night in Memphis.
The Blues Foundation put together a party for the Rolling Stones road
crew to welcome the group to Memphis and to give them something to do
other than hang in their hotels rooms on their travel day. Memphis'
premier rib joint, the Rendezvous, served as host for the event,
providing great food for the 50+ people from the Stones organization,
and the fabulous The Daddy Mack Blues Band of Memphis played some real
down-home Blues for the largely British crowd. The event had extremely
tight security, and only Stones staff and Blues Foundation staff (with a
handful of guests) were in attendance.
Lots of crew and tour management showed up early on, as well as
keyboardist Chuck Leavell and bassist Darryl Jones, to grab a bite and
hear some Blues with their buddies. Things really got exciting when Mick
Jagger showed up with two of his daughters for dinner, followed shortly
by Ron Wood and Keith Richards and their friends. Jonny Lang also
joined the party with a group of friends. It happened to be the
birthday of tour manager Lil Gary, and The Blues Foundation presented
her with a cake in the shape of a guitar with "Time Is On Your Side" in
frosting.
The highlight of the evening came when Keith Richards took over on
guitar and Ron Wood took over on bass for the Daddy Mack Blues Band.
With regular Daddy Mack-ers Mack Orr on lead and vocals and "Rollo" on
drums, the Stones musicians laid down some incredible raw Memphis Blues,
to the amazement not only of the Blues Foundation staff, but also the
entire entourage. According to the Stones people, it is extremely rare
that any of the "Big 4" ever show up for such an event, and to have them
sit in with the band just "never happens." Judging from the grins on
the faces of Ron and Keith, they got a big kick out of laying back and
jamming some Blues.
While Keith and Ron were jamming at the Rendezvous, Jonny Lang, who had
departed earlier, was tearing up the stage four blocks away at B. B.
King's Blues Club on Beale Street. (When Jonny found out later about
the jam at the Rendezvous, he said, "Don't tell me any more. I might
regret it for the rest of my life.") BY all accounts Jonny, who teamed
up with Memphis guitarist Little Jimmy King, set the joint on fire at
BB's.
Thousands of folks will throng the Memphis Pyramid to hear Jonny and the
Stones tonight, but for a lucky few, the real musical treat happened at
a rib joint and on Beale Street the night before the main event. The
Blues Foundation was thrilled to host such a great group of folks, and
we are deeply indebted to our friends Jim and Art Jaworowicz and Nick
Vergos of the Rendezvous, without whom this gig would never have
happened.
