In 2008, Ani DiFranco and a number of traditional folk singers came together to record a benefit album for labor organizer, soldier, hobo, pacifist, storyteller, and singer Bruce “Utah” Phillips.  Phillips, “the Golden Voice of the Great Southwest,” was in poor health and did not live to hear the double CD set, “Singing through the Hard Times: a Tribute to Utah Phillips.” Now in 2009, a number of the musicians who played on that effort will be appearing Friday night at the Washington Ethical Society to salute Phillips via a benefit for Hospitality House, a California homeless shelter that Phillips established. Copies of the CD will also be sold at the show to assist Phillips’ family with remaining expenses.

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Louisiana Creole and Cajun music has long had a home in the D.C. area.  From the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the Twist and Shout club and Wolf Trap’s “Swamp Romp” to Texas Fred Carter’s WPFW Saturday afternoon radio show and dances at Glen Echo Park,  distinctive fiddle and accordion-led bayou sounds have always been on the area’s musical menu.

On October 17 and 18, dance instructors and promoters Michael Hart and Sharon Schiliro presented the 1st annual “Dancing by the Bayou” festival at Glen Echo.  The event hosted a number of Louisiana and D.C. zydeco and Cajun bands for people to dance to throughout that weekend.  The roster included Nathan & the Zydeco Cha-chas, Jesse Lege & Bayou Brew, and Leroy Thomas and the Zydeco Roadrunners among many others.

Hart and Schiliro, who will be presenting a dance at Glen Echo on Sunday, November 8 with the Acadien Cajun Band, talked to me recently via e-mail about their festival and the state of zydeco and Cajun music in the Capital region.  They combined most of their responses.

City Paper: Do you think the recent festival will translate into increased enthusiasm for upcoming events, and/or will it be like that Buffalo Gap event—an annual thing that folks look forward to once a year?

Hart and Schiliro: I do think we may get a lift in attendance at the upcoming November/December dances, but weather, football games, etc. can always cut into the attendance; we shall see!  We do have an outstanding Zydeco band for our Mardi Gras dance in February to be announced shortly!  The Mardi Gras dance, in the last two years, has had great attendance for a week night!

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Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s documentary, Youssou N’Dour: I Bring What I Love , focuses on the release of the Senegalese singer’s controversial 2004 album Egypt, and the performances he did in support of that CD.

Recorded before Sept. 11, 2001, Egypt features and the film depicts N’Dour praising the peaceful and positive values he gets from Sufi Islam and such Senegalese religious figures as Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba. To make the point that music and Islam don’t need to be at odds, he spurns his band’s typical instrumentation in favor of noted Egyptian arranger Fathy Salama’s 14 piece-orchestra.

While N’Dour expected to have to defend the album overseas, the film finds him rejected at home, where some felt Egypt’s mixture of Islam and pop culture was blasphemy.

The film features striking color-filled images of the annual religious pilgrimage Mourides, members of a Senegalese Sufi order, make to the country’s Touba mosque. There’s touching footage of N’Dour bonding with his ninetysomething grandmother, as well as clips of N’Dour onstage and backstage gorgeously wailing his odes of prayer in Wolof, French, and English around the world.

The movie ends on an up note as N’Dour’s first-ever Grammy for the album causes his compatriots to revise their take on Egypt and leads to the album’s re-release.

Youssou N’Dour: I Bring What I Love (2008), 102 min; through Thursday 10-15 at the Avalon Theater, 5612 Connecticut Ave. NW. (202) 966-6000

The promoters of the forthcoming DVD “The Barry Richards TV Collection Volume I”  have rented out an AFI theater for a premiere showing of that production tonight at 9:30 p.m.  

Richards was a DJ in Washington from 1963 to 1975, and he hosted several local TV shows.  According to the supplied bio, Richards, the “boss with the hot sauce,” was the only white DJ playing soul records on WUST in the ’60s and disco on WEAM in the late ’70s.  On his late Friday night TV program “Turn On,” which aired on on UHF Channel 20 from 1970 through 1971, he featured live performances from the likes of Alice Cooper, Humble Pie, and Labelle. 

Far from slick and professional, the TV show clips in the trailer include offbeat  interviews with wild men Little Richard and Ozzy Osbourne, and nicely capture the fashions of the eras via Richards himself  in mod, hippie, and gold-chain wearing disco wear.

The Barry Richards TV Collection shows tonight at 9:30 p.m. at the AFI Silver Theatre, 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, Md., (301) 495-6720.

The Virgin Mobile Fest is not today’s only big event. The Reggae Summerfest is taking place in downtown DC today.  The lineup includes speedy dancehall reggae toasters Beenie Man and Capleton plus more rootsy, slower-tempoed performers such as Marcia Griffiths, Cocoa Tea, the Itals and I-Wayne.

 One of the most interesting acts on the bill is not a reggae artist. Mahmoud Ahmed is an age 60-something singer from Ethiopia, who has gained attention from non-Ethiopians since the 1990s thanks to his cuts on the widely heralded Ethiopiques compilations and director Jim Jarmusch’s usage of fellow Ethiopian Mulatu Astatke’s songs in the 2005 movie Broken Flowers.  Here is some 2006 and 2008 footage of Ahmed that shows he is still vital. 

Reggae Summerfest Sunday August 30 at 12 noon with Beenie Man, Capleton, Marcia Griffiths, Cocoa Tea, I-Wayne, Mahmoud Ahmed from Ethiopia, The Itals, Jovi Rockwell, Fire Star, Kunzo & Tonestar from Nigeria, Lionize, Image Band, The Iternals, S.T.O.R.M., and more at  City Center DC, 900 9th Street NW, Washington DC 
Information Line: 202-725-0331

Earlier this decade, reggae was getting a fair amount of  attention in the US and UK thanks to rap producers, rap/r’n’b stations, and alt-weekly critics giving love to dancehall.  While those audiences may not be paying that much attention now, Jamaican singers and rappers are still keeping as busy as ever.  Tarrus Riley  is in town tonight, Sunday, at the Crossroads, and next Sunday a number of roots and dancehall reggae performers will be in DC at the City Center (the old DC Convention Center parking lot).  Tarrus Riley, the son of vocalist Jimmy Riley, does not chat in a speedy dancehall style, but his beats and r’n’b friendly vocals are worthy of crossover attention (see this video).  He is a soulful crooner who mixes romantic (see this video also) and cultural concerns in his lyrics and yet retains Caribbean street cred.  His voice is impressive enough that it does not matter what he is warbling about, although the non-raunchy phrasing he uses may help him with some.  Regarding tonight’s gig, he once did not come onstage at the Crossroads until nearly 2 a.m., but the club is promising an early show this evening.

Tarrus Riley, sax player/producer Dean Fraser, singer Duane Stephenson at 7 Sunday August 23 at the Crossroads, 4103 Baltimore Ave., Bladensburg, MD (301) 927-1056

On Thursday August 6, longtime D.C. soul singer Eddie Daye passed away at age 78.  Back in 2002, I wrote a feature  piece on him for the Washington City Paper.  I had  heard that he had been ill recently and was in the hospital but  have not yet been able to get any other specifics on the cause of death, or his funeral, that is scheduled for Wednesday.  I had last seen Eddie in the audience at the Bluebird Blues and Soul Festival  at Prince Georges Community College last September.  As I will be out of town for most of the next two weeks beginning tomorrow, I am posting this now.

As detailed in my article, I first saw Eddie, who had been vocalizing in DC since the late 1940s and had his own record label, perform in the 1980s at the now defunct Gold Room  in Northeast DC.  Subsequently I saw Eddie and his late wife, Denise,  perform together numerous times at Gee’s 4400 Club, then located in Brentwood, Md., off of Rhode Island Avenue just near the DC line, and at Chuck & Billy’s Lounge on Georgia Avenue NW.  This dapper gentleman (usually in a suit although not in the photo from an outdoor show above) and his wife were always so friendly to everyone (and they always wanted to make sure that me and my friends, their youngest and uh palest fans, felt comfortable).  In more recent years Eddie’s song “Sexy Senior Citizen (I’m not a dirty old man, I’m just a)” got some airplay on WPFW’s Saturday programming, though some DC residents and a handful of British and European record collectors on Ebay know him best for his vocals with the Four Bars in the ‘50s and ‘60s.  While those online and crate-digging fans may cherish copies of his obscure singles (some of which have been reissued on cd), I will just keep my memories of those fun late nights out seeing him sing bluesy soul and my conversations with him about his musical career and his take on 50 plus years of r’n’b history.  While there were frequently  special guest vocalists joining he and his wife onstage in the ‘80s and ‘90s, this  pleasant guy with the deep voice was always the star of the show. 

* The photo is by Ron Weinstock of the In a Blue Mood blog (many of his photos are on Flickr).

In January Richie Unterberger  was at the Library of Congress discussing his book The Unreleased Beatles: Music and Film.  Now he is back, tonight, Monday August 3rd at the Library to talk about his new detail-packed, 368 page book, White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day by Day (I have not seen it yet).  According to his own website, Unterberger drew “on about 100 interviews [he conducted] and exhaustive research through documents and recordings rarely or never accessed…”  Unterberger is promising on his website that he will feature rare audiovisual material from throughout the Velvet Underground’s career at the Library of Congress presentation. 

Monday August 3rd at 7 P.M–writer Richie Unterberger at the Library of Congress, James Madison Bldg., Pickford Theater, 101 Independence Ave. SE. Call 202-707-7833 for details.  The Pickford has only 60 seats.

The Myspace site for the Surf Club (aka the Surf Club Live and previously Chick Hall’s Surf Club) now plays Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are a Changin,” but perhaps it would make more sense to play something in Spanish.  Concerned about small turnouts for the blues-rock, country, and other roots styles he has been getting, owner James Byrum has decided to reach out to the current local demographic and will now be featuring a dj spinning ranchera, bachata and other Spanish language sounds.  Byrum informed folks on a local listserv that “the summer is always a tough draw and now is a good time to experiment with bringing a more consistent source of revenue to the club. There may still be shows in the future. But I am taking the summer to try new things.” 

At least  the club still exists.  In 2007, it appeared that the rectangular cinder block and brick roadhouse would be sold and knocked down.  This honky-tonk bastion has been located at 4711 Kenilworth Avenue in Hyattsville since 1975, and previously was on Bladensburg Road in Colmar Manor from 1955 to 1975.  But Byrum acquired the place and has been booking local Americana acts and zydeco dances.  While the latter draw a dedicated 40-something and up crowd, they do not drink much.  Meanwhile, the audiences have not grown for DC roots-rock, alt-country, blues, and blues-rock bands.  Compounding things, the club is not located near a Metro station, has been unable to get much media or internet attention for the groups booked, and its older hard drinking blue-collar regulars have moved away.  On July 4th Byrum experimented with a teen reggaeton event featuring Spanish language acts from NY, Boston, and DC, but he says he has no plans to start booking more well-known Latin acts.  He is staying local for now.

I saw Original P with openers Ken Staton and his James Brown Revue for free at Fort Dupont Park in Anacostia Saturday night July 18.  I was not intending to write it up, but it was such an exciting and interesting event that I gotta share.  Yes, it was just an oldies tribute show, but it was one with the headliners doing an impressive job of delivering the best of the P-Funk catalogue for the 4,000 or so folks in attendance, many of whom happily sang along.  Opener Ken Staton and his James Brown revue are a local act that did well-sung and played but otherwise unsensational takes on  James Brown hits.  “Original P” (photo is from a Baltimore 2007 show) is a large band that includes two founding singers from George Clinton’s 1955 formed Parliaments, Grady Thomas and Fuzzy Haskins, who stayed with George through the 1970s and beginning of the ‘80s glory days of Parliament and Funkadelic.  Likely, for financial reasons, they split off from George around 1998 with two other original Parliament vocalists, Calvin Simon and Ray Davis.  Since then, Simon left the group to become a gospel solo artist and Ray Davis died.  Their group does not include well-known George Clinton associates Bootsy Collins or Bernie Worrell. 

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