A lot of folks say a lot of things sometimes and knowing what to take as fact and what as fiction can be hard to tell. Some folk even go so far as to show evidence in the form of pictures to back up what they're saying. Take for example the issue about who listens to The Blues. If you were to judge by what some people say, and the pictures they show you, you'd think it was only white people who were listening to The Blues.
Black people don't listen to the Blues; they listen to Rap and Hip-Hop is the authoritative word from those "who know". Look at the crowds at House Of Blues and other places like that – how many Black people do you usually see in the audience? None – well there you go - Black people don't listen to the Blues.
Of course there's no way that the possibility exists that Black people just don't go to the House Of Blues, I mean who wouldn't want to go hang out in a House Of Blues? Nope it must be that Black people don't listen to Blues anymore.
Well somebody needs to tell the people of Chicago that, because they don't seem to be paying any attention to the voice of authority. All you have to do is watch the Delmark Records release of Trail Dragger's DVD My Head Is Bald recorded live at Vern's Friendly Lounge on the West Side and you'll see how out of touch Chicagoans are. The audience is at least three quarters Black and none of them seem to be to upset about finding themselves there.
I've seen the inside of a lot of bars that look like Vern's but I've never been in one where the band setting up in the corner has Lurrie Bell on lead guitar and Billy Branch with a tool belt full of harmonicas. There's also a young white cat (Kevin Shanahan) with really long hair fooling around with an old open body Gibson, and the rhythm section of drums (Kenny Smith) and bass (Bob Stroger) looks to be the same one I had seen playing on another live DVD from Delmark.
The people are all ages, and they are all here for the regular Sunday five pm show put on by Tail Dragger. Now that's not his real name of course, supposedly Howlin' Wolf hung it on him when he used to sit in with him in the sixties. He was born James Yancy Jones in Altheimer, Arkansas in 1940.
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