R.L. Boyce var kanske inte så känd utanför Mississippi, men något av en fixfigur inom den lokala bluesen. Vartefter legenderna i North Mississippi hill country (Holly Springs, Senatobia etc) fallit ifrån kom Boyce att kliva fram som en slags fadersgestalt. Mot slutet av sitt liv kom han att allt mer spela på festivaler i Mississippi, övriga USA och Europa. Boyce avled av lungcancer den 9 november 2023.
Robert L. Boyce föddes 15/8 1955 i Como, MS, vilken plats han var bosatt hela sitt liv. En uncle var Othar Turner, så Robert föddes rakt in i den lokala fife and drum-musiken, och blev snart trumslagare i The Rising Stars Fife and Drum Band, det ledande bandet inom denna speciella musik. Boyce anslöt sig till Rising Stars 15 år gammal och stannade till Turners bortgång 2003. Othar Turners barnbarn Sharde Thomas har sedan fört bandet namn vidare, medan R.L. startade ett band med mer konventionell sättning. North Hill-ikonen Luther Dickinson hade på 1980-talet tjatat på Boyce att han skulle lära sig spela gitarr. Resultatet: han ackompanjerar sig i en stil som härrör från vänner som Jessie Mae Hemphill och Junior Kimbrough. ”There´s a lot of good blues players out there. But see, I play the old way and nobody today can play my style, just me.” Parallellt med fife & drum ackompanjerade han bl a Hemphill som trumslagare och medverkar på hennes ”Feelin´ Good” 1990. Första egna albumet kom 2013. Nästa album, ”Roll And Tumble”, nominerades till en Grammy Award i ”Best Traditional Blues Album” 2018. 2022 nominerades ”Boogie w. RL Boyce Live” till en ”Blues Music Award”. Boyce höll årligen en tredagars musikfest i Como. I september 2023 erhöll Boyce ett ”National Endowment for the Arts som en 2023 National Heritage Fellow”, USA:s högsta ära inom traditionell musik och konst. Boyce är även aktuell med inledande låten, ”Coal Black Mattie”, på en nyligen utgiven samling producerad av Dan Auerbach, ”Tell Everybody! (21st Century Juke Joint Blues from Easy Eye Sound)”.
Text och inledningsbild: Tommy Löfgren
(Inledningsbild: R.L. Boyce spelar gitarr vid Juke Joint Fest, Clarksdale, 2012)
Engelsk text: Roger Stolle
North Mississippi Hill Country passing of blues great and friend to all… RL BOYCE… RIP.
Such sad news earlier in November from Como, Mississippi. RL BOYCE, REST IN PEACE. Deepest sympathies go out to his loving family and his thousands of friends and fans around the world.
RL greeted everyone with a smile. Always. He could play the heck out of some blues and turned every room into an instant blues party.
We were very fortunate to have RL play here in Clarksdale dozens of times at places like Red’s, Bad Apple and Ground Zero as well as festivals like Juke Joint Festival, Deep Blues Fest and Sunflower. (We also had a beautiful trip to Florida Gulf Coast University back in 2022 with Little Willie Farmer, Lady Trucker and Sean ”Bad” Apple.)
Around 2006, musician Steve ”Lightnin'” Malcolm invited Jeff Konkel and me to drop by one of RL Boyce’s legendary yard parties in Como on a Sunday afternoon. It was truly an unforgettable experience.
A later yard party we attended included a blazing tire fire (that also incorporated sofa cushions from the living room), cowboys riding horses bareback through the yard, a crazy moonshine run and someone ultimately yelling out the front door, ”Don’t eat the meat! It’s got worms in it!” By that point, of course, we had absolutely eaten the meat. Never a dull moment. And a good time had by all.
The photo shown here is a personal favorite, shot by Lou Bopp at yet another legendary yard party. RL could make anybody look good with his smile hanging in the air! RL and his family were always so welcoming to friends—both new and old.
What follows are transcribed excerpts from an interview I did with RL for Blues Revue Magazine, circa 2008:
”I don’t read no music. I play by these ears. I got me a tub one day. I said, ’I’m going to do this [play drums].’ So I went ahead and tried. I been out there a long time. I was born in Panola County, Mississippi, right down the hill from L.P.’s. That was a juke joint back then, but they cut it out now.
”Back then was good times. I’m talking about sure enough good times, and that’s for damn sure. Now they hard. Music was every day back then. Wasn’t just weekends. I got a hold of mine from a guy called Fred McDowell, and Son Thomas, Big Jack, Lightnin’ Hopkins. I said, ’I’m going to be like those boys one day’ — old Burnside, Junior Kimbrough. RL Burnside was my first cousin. I played with all those dudes. I said, ’One day I’m going to be like y’all.’ So here I am.
”I was born in 1955. When I was coming up, it was the cotton fields. Back then people were picking cotton and corn, sorghum molasses. Right down by my house. So hot, boy, I get out there, aw, man, stripping them stalks. [Sings] ’Lord, don’t let the sun shine in the morning. If you just let it rain one more time, I’ll be alright in the morning. Don’t you dare let the sun shine one more time.’ [Laughs.] Oh yeah, sing to make the time pass. [Sings] ’Lord, if you can let me make it one more time till the sun goes down Friday, I’m going to juke with you in the morning, oh, just let me lay down so I can get that [woman] one more time.’ You don’t know nothing about that. [Sings] ’I just ain’t no good if I can’t get that [woman] one more time.’ We played hard back then. Times was rough.
”There was 13 of us. I tell kids now, back when I come up, I had to tote water and stove wood. Kids now don’t want to even carry the garbage out. I used to tote water in two five-gallon buckets. Way out there, boy. I went to Vaseline School. That’s that school where you slip in and slip out. [Laughs.] But sure enough, when I went to school, I wanted to beat drums so bad. I was going to Como, right there at the railroad tracks where I lived then. Man, I’d get there in the morning, and I’d get off the bus, go around the corner, and get me a drink of whiskey. I’d stay there till two o’clock in the evening, come back, get on the bus, and go home. Mosquitos used to tear you up back then, making that moonshine. [Laughs.] You’d stay there all night long, boy, seeing that stuff running.”
”My guitar style? I just pick it up and chop in there. You know what? I don’t try to play like you, and you can’t play like me. Don’t be like nobody else. Be your own self. That’s what I try and do. I want to be like Rural [RL Burnside], but I can’t do it. See, if you had my hand, you wouldn’t be sitting right there, would you? [Laughs.]
”Back when I learned, it was gospel. It was the Jubilee Hummingbirds. I don’t know if you ever known of them or not. Then after that, I played Fred McDowell, ’Shake ’em On Down.’ Then I jumped from there back on Burnside, put them ’Jumpers On the Line.’ ’You Got Me Way Down Here.’ Fred McDowell raised me. Right there on Honeydew Corner. Man, when I was a little boy, Fred would come around there every Friday and Saturday night with that hair slicked on his head. My mom and daddy would say, ’You kids get right back over that hill.’ I’d say, ’No, Mama, I want to stay here and see Fred.’ Fred would stay there and play from seven that evening till seven that morning. Him and Rural. I sat there and watched. Nobody learn me how to play nothing. Nobody. I don’t read no kind of music. Yeah, R.L., Fred, and Otha. Napoleon Strickland. All us were right there.
”The [Otha Turner family] picnics have been going as long as I know. Ever since I been in the world. Back in the day, it was different than things is now. ’Cause back then, when I was playing drums, you usually had to put it by the fire and let that head warm up. And boy, you could hear that thing from here to Mars. But now, if it get cooled down, it’ll go down. You put it by that fire and let it warm up. [Imitates drum sound.] ’Uh oh, they’re playing over there at Otha’s.’ Back then, when I was playing with Otha, man, I used to lay on my back with one stick in my mouth and one in my hand, and heat that bass [drum] up. But, see, the older you get … I got shot back in ’85. It’s a long story. But my back made it so I couldn’t play like I used to. Couldn’t nobody beat me playing that bass [drum] back then.
”Otha is dead and gone. That’s one man who used to depend on me. He used to tell me, ’We got to leave. Let’s go.’ He couldn’t read. But me and him stuck together. The two that could really play that fife was Napoleon and Otha. Others was playing stuff back then, but it wasn’t no fife. See, Napoleon could beat Otha, but Otha always thought he could beat Napoleon.
”Jessie Mae Hemphill was the first lady I played with. I used to be her drummer. ’Standing in My Back Door Crying.’ Yeah, Jessie Mae and me did that song together. Whew, man, that was a mean woman! You got to come right with her. If it ain’t right, she don’t want it. Now, Junior Kimbrough’s [juke joint] … Oh, man. I just about stayed there. Paid rent there. Water bill, gas bill, all that! [Laughs.] You’d go out there to Junior’s place back then. The door was open for everybody. Didn’t make no difference who you was or where you come from. If Rural didn’t play, I played. If I didn’t play, Junior played. Anybody. It just keep right on jumping. You knew you had to go to work on Monday morning, but you’d be right there. Headache hanging over. Like I said, good time.”
#rlboycerip #thanksforthememories
