|
|
|
Home
Blues Fest
Sponsors
Articles
Blues Beat
Muddy's Party
More Muddy
Press Release
Storytelling Map
Police Radio
|
Muddy's Party
2004
Cannonball's Corner
by Don Testa
This story never seems to get old, every year it has a new twist or a new adventure, and this year was no exception. For you older members who know the roots of this story, please bear with me a moment. For you new members (and I know there must be a lot of you, the way our membership is growing), here is a little background on "Muddy Water's Annual Birthday Party". Muddy Waters was born on April 4, and every year on this day there is a birthday party given in his honor in Key Largo, Florida. The party is put on by Toby Rotella, the former owner of the Imperial Garage and our Society's Southernmost member. Muddy Waters and Toby became friends when Muddy played the Garage in the early 80's, just before he died. I go down there every year to help with the party, soak up the sun, and ride my motorcycle. It was snowing in Buffalo when I loaded the bike up on my trailer and headed on down the road. Once you get below Pittsburgh and into West Virginia, the weather starts to warm up. I used to drive straight through, but old father time say I can't do that anymore; so I take my time. Ghandi was right when he said: "There is more to life than increasing its speed". I stopped in Atlanta to visit Tony and Mark, some old biker friends again, sure beats paying for a motel. Tony's girl friend, Tammy, sure is a good cook. I told him to hang onto that one! After a few days in Atlanta, I figured I'd better leave, so I headed on down the road. I off loaded the bike in Bradenton, Florida, and visited my sister there. Carol and Sam took me out for dinner one night at this great Italian Restaurant. I introduced them to this Italian beer called "Moretti"; like my son always tells me, "life is too short to drink cheap beer." The next day I loaded the bike up and headed further south to Claremont and visited my niece and nephew, Crissy and Vince. Vince play guitar, and he already has his two sons, Vinny and Michael (5 & 7) playing drums and piano! The next day, after a dynamite lasagna dinner made by Cris, I headed on down the road to Key Largo. It's hard to describe what it's like to be riding a motorcycle in 80 degree weather in March when you're from Buffalo! Toby was working, but the door was open, like it always is, and I kicked back and had a couple of cold ones while I stretched out in the sun, listening to Muddy Waters on his stereo.
I was about a week early for the party, so I helped him a little with some projects he was involved in, upgrading his trailer and cleaning out his back yard to make way for a storage shed. Boy, he sure does have a lot of stuff! Donnie Walsh (Downchild Blues Band) came over one day with some smoked fish; he winters a few miles up the road in Tavernier. I talked him into taking me ocean fishing the next day. What an experience that was. The upside was we caught three dolphins (not the big ones); the downside was, I got very nervous when I couldn't see land anymore. Not to worry, Donnie was in control. When we got back, he cleaned the fish, much to the delight of a bunch of pelicans, and I took some fillets back to Toby's for dinner. The next day Toby and I went to Key West to see what we could see. We went almost to lands end and got lucky and found a parking meter. After pumping three hours' worth of quarters into the thing, we went over to Sloppy Joe's bar; Ernest Hemingway's old hang out. Toby says, "Hey, I got Gabriel Butterfield's phone number, (Paul Butterfield's son, who lives in Key West), let's call him up and invite him to Muddy's party." We went out on the street, found a phone, and called. Of course, we got the answering machine, but Toby left a message about the party. After we got back, it was time to go shopping for the party and clean the records and champagne glasses. Muddy drank nothing but French champagne, so that is the beverage served at his party (as you can imagine, that stuff ain't cheap). Chicken wings and Italian sausage are the main staples in the food category, and, of course, many people bring a dish of whatever is their specialty. Erin, Donnie Walsh's charming girl friend, brings 8 sweet potato pies; another Muddy favorite. On the morning of the party, we started bringing stuff over to the Tiki at the dock by Mangrove Marina. The owners of the Marina have this Tiki there for dock users, and they let us use it for the party.
Chicken Wing Louie got his old job back from Larry, who did the wings last year. Larry was a no show at this one. I had cooked up the sausage that morning, 20 lbs. of well done to burnt sausages, that just crunched as you bit into them, awesome... they didn't last long. The sound guy, Tom, showed up early this year, with all his high tech sound gear, Muddy's records never sounded so good! Toby has the most extensive collection of Muddy Waters albums I have ever seen; all in mint condition! As the sun was going down and the party was starting to liven up, I walked over to the big ice cooler, where Toby was pouring the champagne to get about my tenth refill, and Toby tells me that Gabriel Butterfield and his girlfriend, Salli, showed up, and he motioned to where they were. I went over and introduced myself and asked if I could take their picture. Gabriel was looking at the original, mint condition, album Fathers and Sons, featuring Muddy Waters, Michael Bloomfield, and his father, Paul Butterfield, recorded in 1969. He handed me a re-mastered, re-issued CD of this same album that just came out. What an amazing coincidence; the old and the new of the same music! Gabriel plays drums and fronts his own band, called "The Butterfield Band". Salli Squitieri and Gabriel, along with Dan Akroyd and his wife, Donna, are quite active in fund raising for musicians who have fallen on hard times. For further information go to www.fracturedatlas.org.
About 10 o'clock we ran out of champagne (as usual). Somebody passed the hat, and Toby shot over to Piggly Wiggly. Soon, everything was right with the world again. Many of the people who live on boats tied up to the dock came over to see what all the fuss was about, and they wound up staying and having a good time. Some of them said they never knew what blues music was... but they know now.
Blues Beat Summer 2004
|
|