Word: longhair
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...Style. "A lot of the music I play is music the Mardi Gras Indians do. The guys that did this thing-Professor Longhair, Smiley Lewis, Guitar Slim-died off. There was nobody to keep it alive except the few guys who worked with them. Me, James Booker, Huey Piano Smith, Fats Domino, Allen Toussaint. I guess I would call my own style barrelhouse with blues and jazz mixtures. Rock 'n' roll...
...room called the Pepper Pot, sittin' on a log, smokin' a joint or somethin', just relaxing. I was a little kid coming to bother him, and he just took time to tell me things about music. I didn't even know it was Professor Longhair...
DIED. Henry Roeland Byrd, 61, legendary blues pianist also known as "Professor Longhair," whose recordings of the '40s and early '50s laid the groundwork for rock 'n' roll; of a heart attack; in New Orleans. Born in Bogalusa, La., Byrd taught himself to play the piano, imitating such barrelhouse blues players as Kid Stormy Weather. His Mardi Gras in New Orleans and Big Chief combined elements of blues, New Orleans marching music and Caribbean rhythms. Though he never matched the success of Fats Domino and others who popularized the Byrd piano style, recognition finally came...
Nelson turned out to be the natural bridge between country music's beer-drinker followers and its longhair fans. As a singer, he is a careful stylist who knows about the niceties of phrasing and admires Frank Sinatra. When Willie sings his songs of troubled romance or lonely Bloody Mary mornings, his voice has none of the beery sentimentality found in many honky-tonk laments. "What we do is fairly simple," he says with genuine modesty. "If people like it, they really like it and they'll come back again...
Even if you're not one for longhair entertainment, the area still may have something to offer you. The Popular Artist Series at Tanglewood is presenting Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie, Gordon Lightfoot, James Taylor in the next few weeks. Ticket prices are steep--$5.50-$7.50--but what isn't? Allow yourself a little time to wander around nearby Stock-bridge and Lennox, quaint little villages where you can spend a fortune. Some basic familiarity with these places is de rigeur for anyone who wishes to hold his/her head high in Harvard Yard...