the hum / By Bob Doran

Zapped

The wild East Humboldt hill country is also the current home Corby Yates, the former blues guitar prodigy (now grown up) who learned his chops by practicing to slowed down versions of songs by Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn.  He’ll be part of the celebration of Jimi’s birthday on Friday, Nov. 27, at the Arcata Theatre Lounge, sitting in with Jimi Jeff and the Gypsy Band, led by one of the more convincing Jimies you’ll ever see.

Over at Humboldt Brews Friday night, Jeff DeMark tells tales of Wax Johnson and others with music by The Human Cannonballs. Who’s Wax? “Wax Johnson is my Racine alter-ego,” said DeMark, referring to his Wisconsin hometown. “I’ve used it as a pen name for years because Johnson Wax is based in Racine. Other stories I’ll be doing are about my mother [and her red dress], one about a trip to Guatemala… another about Fred Flintstone. They all have music under them - it’s a chance to take the stories and give them an underpinning, a soundtrack.” Storytime is early, 8-ish, then The Cannonballs - guitarist Damon Brooks from Donna Landry’s band, Rick DeVol on bass and Jeff’s bro, Paul DeMark, on drums - go electric playing roots music from all over the map.

If you were a rough and tough dancehall singer from Kingston born with the wimpy moniker, Rodney Basil Price, you’d probably think about changing your name. Thus we have Bounty Killer, a badass dude with a rep. For what? Well, he’s known as a killer deejay (as in rapper) and for his collab with No Doubt in 2001. He’s also known for his arrest record: a domestic violence beef in 2006, two arrests at JA’s Reggae Sumfest, one over a fight and in 2008 for slackness: excess profanity on stage. He’s also been the victim (if that’s the right word) of the anti-gay-bashing blacklist. Outrage!, the British org, tried (and failed) to convince Scotland Yard to arrest him for inciting violence and harassment against the gay community through his lyrics. No arrest, but two of his shows over there were cancelled. Bounty Killer will be here Saturday night for a show at the Arcata Theatre Lounge with Lucazade (from JA), Beatnok (a selecta from the Bay Area), and Humboldt’s own Akaboom.

A pair of Humboldt alumni, Melissa Ruth and Johnny Leal are back in Arcata for a show Saturday at Mosgo’s, offering what Melissa calls, “homegrown folk-sass.” She was part of the local coffeehouse folk scene while working on the music degree at HSU; Johnny was a founding member of blues crew Big Earl and the Cryin’ Shame. They’re taking a break from jobs as music teachers up in Eugene to bring some bluesy folk songs back home for y’all.

And speaking of homecomings, poet Nicholas Karavatos, an HSU alum, left town in 1993 after (among other things) serving as host of KHSU’s poetry show, Mad River Anthology. He moved overseas in 2000 and is currently teaching creative writing on the Persian Gulf at University of Sharjah in United Arab Emirates. He’ll be here Wednesday, Dec. 2, to celebrate the release of his brand new collection of poems, No Asylum, with an Intermedia Spoken Word Performance at the Arcata Theatre Lounge. He explains the intermedia part as a “spontaneous collaboration” with a group of musicians including guitarists Jeff Kelley and Art Brown, drummer Mark Weston, and bassist extraordinaire Shao Way Wu.

“I’ve performed with all of the guys over the years in different ways, different configurations,” said Karavatos, calling from Sharjah. “I played in bands with Jeff Kelley. Back in the early ‘90s we had this band called Primordial Stew. We didn’t play out that much, but we jammed a lot. And in the ‘80s we were both in the Dreadful Grapes.” A Dead tribute band? “Not exactly, we used Dead and Dylan songs in the way that a jazz band would use a fake book, improvising off well-known tunes to do our own crazy mayhem music.”

He’s sent the musicians his poems touching on life over there, life over here and life in general, but they won’t get together until next week when he flies in. He’s not worried. “These guys are great musicians and even if I suck, they’ll be great. So I’m comforted knowing it can’t possibly suck. It could be great - and I hope it is - but at least I know it won’t be bad, which is saying a lot.” And that’s at least one thing to be thankful for.

Personally, I’m thankful for the life I live and for you, the readers, who’ve helped me make it this far. Thanks for sticking with me.

1 2 SHARE