The CD Release Party for Jimmy "Duck" Holmes'
Back to Bentonia was held at the Blue Front Cafe a couple of weeks ago. Thought I'd write a bit about it while the thoughts are still fresh - albeit slightly blurry - in my mind.
Anyone who's ever had the privilege of visiting the Blue Front will know what a great little country juke it is. Here's how writer Andria Lisle described it in the
Memphis Flyer a few years ago:
"The setup is simple: a low-ceilinged, musty place with a wooden bar anchored on one side of the room. Chitlin'-circuit favorites Mel Waiters and Bobby Rush blare from the jukebox in the back, prompting couples to begin a slow grind on the makeshift dance floor. When he's in the mood, Holmes unplugs the jukebox and picks up his battered guitar, and the blues is still alright."
Jimmy had gone to great lengths to get the Blue Front ready. He repainted the juke's sign, mopped the floors and even fixed the toilet.
The crowd was great. Nearly the entire town of Bentonia turned out to support their friend and neighbor. Other visitors came from nearby Jackson and Yazoo City. Some came from as far afield as Canada and France.
The juke was too hot and too cramped to hold the crowd, so Jimmy moved all of his gear out onto the front porch. Plastic chairs were tossed out onto the dusty gravel parking lot and a good crowd converged there. A lot of the locals simply pulled their old cars up to the front of the Blue Front, rolled down their windows and enjoyed the show from the comfort of their jalopies.
Jimmy had some of his lady friends cook up a heap of food for the crowd - three different kinds of roasted chicken, macaroni salad and chitlins. Boiled crawfish could be bought from a tent set up next door.
Rich Baines, one of the two Canadians who ventured down to Bentonia for the party, loaned Jimmy his 1937 National steel guitar. Harp legend (and former musical partner to Jack Owens) turned up to play as did Lightnin' Malcolm on drums and guitar.
The three jammed together for several hours, running through songs from the CD and others that Jimmy learned through the years from Owens and other Bentonia guitarists, such as Cornelius Bright, Tommy Lee West and Jacob Stuckey.
Suffice it to say, it was a great evening with incredible music and a great crowd. I spoke with Jimmy the other day, and he said the town still hasn't stopped talking about it. At one point in the evening, an older local man said, "this is what Bentonia was like 40 years ago." That's big talk when you consider that Skip James, Jack Owens and others still walked the earth then, wandering to and from the half-dozen Bentonia jukes still in operation at the time.
