I know there's no harp here, but I thought that I'd share this performance. I had the honour of sitting in with Fred on a trip to my spiritual home of Memphis back in '08. The thing that I'll remember most is that he was kind enough to give me a shot and graceous enough to give me some space to swing. It's hard to believe that he is 70 in this video. The guy knows how to have fun that's for sure. I recently heard that he was diagnosed with lung cancer last summer and even played at his own benefit gig to raise money for his operation after receiving chemo. For those of you who live in or near Memphis, if you see Fred please pass on my best wishes. Enjoy.
---------- "You will never get every possible thing out of an instrument, but the instrument will get every possible thing out of you" - Ray Charles.
I bought one of Fred's tapes back in 1987. A cassette tape. At that point, Rum Boogie was the only club on Beale. The rest was a big fat blank. A ghost town. I loved what he was doing back then.
Yeah the CD of his that I have has a picture of him as a young man on the cover and there are no recent recordings there. Whenever I hear him play I can hear the B.B. influence, but he has his own great touch. I would have loved to have experienced Beale in its heyday before they tore it down and turned it into a tourist attraction with Hard Rock Cafe and the like. It still has one of the best places to eat though. The Blues City Cafe and their fried catfish dinner. I'm very hungry all of a sudden. ---------- "You will never get every possible thing out of an instrument, but the instrument will get every possible thing out of you" - Ray Charles.
