Last February’s frigid weather didn’t deter Jimmy Dawkins from driving all the way to Atlanta to cut his latest album, “Blues and Pain,” for Ichiban Records’ Wild Dog Blues subsidiary.
“Just my drummer, Ray Scott, went along,” says the Chicago guitarist. “We threw the amp and the guitar in the trunk of the car and went on down.”
The pair encountered snow and ice aplenty on their perilous journey. “Roads were closed down, and you had to go this way so far, then you had to detour another 100 miles around another way,” says Dawkins.
Once he arrived, Dawkins found the Ichiban house band to his liking during the two days it took to cut the intense album.
“We kind of had rough edges that first day,” he says. “The next day, we just smoothed it out a little more and just went ahead with it. I think the road pressure of me having to drive straight through so many miles out of the way, with the snow and the frustration-I really did have blues and pain.”
The new album is Dawkins’ second solid disc of the decade. The local Earwig label issued his “Kant Sheck Dees Bluze” in 1991, its oddly spelled title raising a few eyebrows.
“I just didn’t want it the normal way,” he says. “It’s just my way of doing it. I have fun. I look serious to most people, but I’ve got my smiling side.”
Born in Tchula, Miss., Dawkins rode a Greyhound bus north to Chicago in 1955-with dire warnings from his pals regarding the Windy City’s inclement climate ringing in his ears.
“If you got up here and you didn’t have on long drawers, you’d freeze to death,” Dawkins was told. Alas, he arrived on a sweltering July day.
“I was burning up in those long drawers,” he says. “I had an overcoat on my arm and blankets. You’d think we were going to the North Pole!”
Encouraged initially by harpist Billy Boy Arnold, Dawkins eventually found his niche on the thriving West Side scene. Proud of his heritage, Dawkins is quick to point out who defined the area’s uncompromising approach.
“Magic Sam and myself and Luther Allison,” he says, “we’re more the raw, three-piece West Side sound.”
Magic Sam introduced Dawkins to Delmark Records boss Bob Koester-a fortuitous meeting that occurred in part because Dawkins couldn’t quite cop the slinky guitar intro to Wilson Pickett’s “Funky Broadway.”
“Sam said, `Yeah, I’ll show you. Just come on over and bring me a six-pack,’ because he always wanted some beer.
“So he showed me a few notes. Then we got in my old raggedy car and went down to 7 West Grand (then the site of the Jazz Record Mart).
“Bob just took me in the back and started typing up a contract. And I signed it. I didn’t know what it was, and didn’t care. I was just happy to do it.”
“Fast Fingers,” Dawkins’ 1969 Delmark debut album, earned worldwide acclaim. But he’d prefer to downplay that cocky rapid-fire handle.
“I always hated that name,” he says. “I thought that Jimmy Dawkins was enough.”
And it is.
Blues notes
The powerhouse guitar attack of another West Side great is vividly showcased throughout Vestapol Productions’ new hour-long video “Freddie King-The!!!!Beat.”
Fourteen stunning performances from 1966 by the guitarist have been assembled from the archives of “The!!!!Beat,” a syndicated TV series taped in Dallas (complete with gaudily attired go-go dancers hopping around the colorful set) and hosted by genial deejay Bill “Hoss” Allen.
Backed by fellow Texas guitar legend Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and his house band, the massively constructed King roars “Have You Ever Loved a Woman” and “I’m Tore Down” and reprises his signature instrumental “Hide Away.” Rounding out the video are three high-energy numbers from a 1973 King concert in Sweden.
Now, if some enterprising video company would release all 26 half-hour episodes of “The!!!!Beat” verbatim (other guests included Otis Redding, Lou Rawls, Sam & Dave, Little Milton, Etta James and Percy Sledge), the impact of this pioneering program could at last be fully appreciated.
