Jerry Ricks, Heartwood
by El Dormido (dormido@hotmail.com)

The second Kansas City Blues Society free to members show headlining 
Philadelphia Jerry Ricks packed BB's Lawnside Bar-B-Que on a chilly Friday 
night at the end of January.

Everyone was there, no room to turn around, unless you're a tiny and 
insistent package like Connie Crash, KKFI blues DJ, who seems to be welcome 
everywhere.

Trashmouth Baker expostulated on music theory in the corner by the juke box. 
The Blues Princess stood composed among the shifting crowd. Blues Society 
Broad of Directors filtered through the audience, with President Stand Koron 
attending to details here and there. Jay Allen, Cindy Terwilliger, Ladonna 
Jones, et al, also filtered in and out of the audience.

Jim O’Neal, with his children Louis and Della O'Neal, watched the 
proceedings at the side of the performance space. Guitarist Mike Elrod hung 
out by the door with Jim Wright who handled the admissions.

Star of the show Philadelphia Jerry Ricks comes out of the blues music 
revival of the 60's, playing ‘folk festivals’ in and around Philadelphia. 
He played second guitar to the blues masters at those shows, year after 
year, soaking up the sense and sensibility of the acoustic, African-American 
traditions. He was side by side with legends like Mississippi John Hurt, 
Lightnin' Hopkins, Son House, Mance Lipscomb, Sleepy John Estes, Skip James, 
Furry Lewis, Bukka White and Brownie McGhee, among many others.

Jerry didn't just learn how to play guitar and sing. Those old guys 
schooled him in the substance of life from which the music comes. Without 
actually being planted in red dirt and clay, he drew into himself the 
essence of each performer and came to embody the living traditions of the 
music, which are not just the words, chords and fingerings. There is the 
life vibrating to the reality of born black in a racist South, an ambiguous 
north, a murderous west. Life echoing with the anger and pain, and carrying 
the sub rosa manifestoes and propaganda embodied in the love songs, the loss 
songs, the joy songs of the blues.

He has said, about his music, “A lot of people play this music, and what 
they’ll do is a cover. I don’t do a cover, I do a dedication. I’m not 
preserving a tradition, because you can’t preserve a tradition you come 
from. Blues is not a tradition, it’s just part of black culture. In my 
head, I’m not preserving anything. I’m alive.

Jerry's repertoire ranges from the songs of the rural life through the urban 
rough and tumble, but he brings it all through the medium of acoustic guitar 
and voice. He does Howlin' Wolf's "Sitting on Top of the World" from the 
delta slide tradition, recasts John Hurt, adapts Robert Johnson. Each song 
performed is presented in his way, not as a slavish copy of the originals, 
not museum pieces on display. Rather, he has digested the styles of the 
acoustic guitar blues masters and brings forth an authentic rendering of the 
music rooted in his guitar playing, the interplay between the low bass lines 
and the high melodic strings, upon which the familiar lyrics gain further 
resonance.

It is a mature handling of the guitar, no need to hurry but only deliberate 
enough. He uses stillness in a moment to create space for the next phrase. 
A hint of boogie here, a compelling bass line there, the guy plays guitar 
like breathing.

His vocals are smooth and gentle, no need for strain, rasp or harsh edge. 
They evoke stark pain, loneliness and loss one moment, then paint a picture 
of sexual bravado in the next, all without distorting the original lyric or 
the sense behind the words. That voice is a subliminal messenger, 
insinuating subversive packages of emotional truth in an artistic conveyance 
of life lived.

He's like heartwood to the blues and the blues experience, not a 
recollection of the past but a demonstration of what’s present now.

With the passing of Provine Hatch, we lose not just a musician but a reality 
of the American experience ingrained in that man. With Philadelphia Jerry 
Ricks we get that substance translated for the new millennium.

Kudos to the Blues Society and the leadership of the Board of Directors for 
expanding the reach of activities, by extending such a welcome opportunity 
to members. It's not just an excuse for a night on the town! It's a chance 
to drink from the same font from which the clean, clear baptismal waters of 
the blues originally came, which Philadelphia Jerry Ricks demonstrates is 
still a living and vital experience.