GARY CLARK,JR.

The Hook Up
One bluesman had never flown overseas. Another doesn’t
like European food. And the third…well…he’d rather drink than
eat. Armed with this knowledge, my buddy Jeff Konkel of Broke &
Hungry Records and I crossed our fingers, said a prayer, and proceeded
to book a We Juke Up In Here Mississippi-to-Switzerland
blues caravan in August 2012.
To be fair, we had a fine conspiratorial team in the Rootsway
Roots & Blues Association of Parma, Italy. They helped us get the
hook up with the Geneva Arts Festival. And what a hook up it was.
Each August, the festival builds a huge, semi-permanent
amphitheater for one month of major concert and film events. It
was an enormous stage, complete with a drive-in size screen
behind it. The seating was stadium style, and the backstage green
rooms consisted of a series of attached trailers. Built for rock
stars, we filled the venue with three of the most real-deal Delta
bluesmen we know: Terry “Harmonica” Bean, Jimmy “Duck”
Holmes, and Louis “Gearshifter” Youngblood.
The night before our We Juke Up In Here: Mississippi’s Juke
Joint Culture At The Crossroads screening and concert debut,
reggae-rap star Shaggy packed the house. When our two nights
28 BLUES REVUE
YOUNGBLOOD
HOLMES, BEAN, AND YOUNGBLOOD
were done, Kool & the Gang took to the stage. (The Gang
checked out our second night, incidentally, though they seemed
more bewildered by it than anything.)
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s back up.
THERE ARE ABSOLUTELY NO GUARANTEES
While the plane tickets may have been purchased, when you are
dealing with Delta-crazy blues characters in Mississippi, I’m here
HOLMES
HOLMES
to tell you that there are absolutely no guarantees of anyone with
a guitar or harmonica gettin’ on no airplane.
For one thing, Holmes had only ever flown once before (to
NYC – and not a good flight!) and had turned down many previous
offers to fly across the big pond. And then there’s the fact that of the
seven of us going (Jeff, me, three musicians and our two cameramen
– Damien Blaylock and Lou Bopp), none of us even live in the
same town. You may think you know “iffy”? Well, we know iffy.
Somewhat surprisingly – though not without many phone calls
and a seriously sleepless night – everyone made it to the Memphis
airport. Everyone even remembered passports. The flight over was
actually pretty good. Harmonica hit on the stewardesses, Duck
slept, and Gearshifter drank. However, upon our arrival we learned
that some of our luggage had gone left when we went right.
PHOTOGRAPHY © LOU BOPP