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Ruff Stuff Part 1 of 2

Deborah Jeter

This week's article is not a typical one, due to the fact that this is primarily an interview with Tary Owens, owner of Catfish Records and blues historian. However, throughout the interview, there will be links to various sites when Tary speaks of something or someone that has a web site. Most of these sites will deal with entertainers, and not education per se, but like I have said in the past, a good teacher knows how to make a lesson out of just about anything. ;-)

D.J.: When did you find that you loved the blues? How did it begin for you?

T.O.: I was 11 or 12 listening to the radio, in Southern Illinois. One night, back in 1954 of 55, I heard Chuck Berry. He "electrified" me! It (the music) was the epitome of cool. I remember that it was a hot roddin' car song. Before that, I had listened mostly to pop music since I was three or four years old. Web Pierce sang honky tonk, "There stands the glass that will eat all my pain . . ." I sang that song in school assemblies. I held my nose trying to get the twang, just right. I also listened to Elvis, when he was on Sun Records, and Hugh Vincent and the Blue Caps. Later on, I moved to Beaumont where there were a lot more blacks, but, we were still segregated. There was a lot more black music on the radio, though. I was a big fan of the Coasters. I already played the trumpet but I wanted to learn how to play the saxophone. However, the band director at school wouldn't let me take home the sax, so I quit the band. So much for the days of my legitimate schooling in regard to learning to play an instrument. From then on, I just used my ears to learn songs.

D.J.: Can you give me a brief, but descriptive account of your "brush" with the immortal Janis Joplin?

T.O.: I went to highschool with Janis. We shared the fact that we loved black music. We had some mutual friends and I knew she was different from everyone because of the way she died her hair red, like the hispanic gals were doing back then. By the time we were seniors in high school, we were "wannabe" beatniks. We were introduced to jazz around that time. There was the East Coast sound that was more beebop and then the West Coast jazz sound, that was more cool. Third stream jazz was very classically influenced. We listened to early Bobby Blue Bland records. Jerry La Crois had a lot of influence on Janis. We were into rhythm and blues and jazz both. Jerry (La Crois) began playing with Edgar Winter.