John Orr: Long live the King

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John Orr: Long live the King
August 23, 2010
By John Orr
Mercy News.com

The old man came out through the big doors behind the band, with his stage manager and a saxophone player accompanying him. He's had Type II diabetes for more than 20 years, is overweight and none too steady on his feet, just weeks away from his 85th birthday.

The full-house crowd at the Mountain Winery had been applauding since the doors opened. They were on their feet, too, applauding the most-loved live entertainer in blues.

When he got to the front of the stage, B.B. King stood before his fans and acknowledged the cheers, then started throwing his "BB KING" guitar picks and lapel pins out to the audience, and bending over to shake some hands and sign a few autographs.

The Winery stage is right there, feet from the audience, so it's easy to do that sort of thing.

All the while, the eight-piece band was playing, not too loud, except for horn player and band leader James Bolden, who stood ready to steady his long-time boss with his left hand, while his right hand held Lucille, King's signature Gibson ES-355 guitar; and sax player Melvin Jackson, who is about one-third King's size, also ready to help.

Finally, King sat down. He hasn't stood much at his concerts for years. He actually had a "Farewell Tour" in 2006, but apparently that tour is ongoing -- he has at least another 33 concerts scheduled this year, through November. He's still doing something like 250 concerts a year.

From his chair, King just kept
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talking with the crowd, for a long time. He introduced a few people, including guitarist and pianist Stanley Jordan, who was at stage left, and King's dentist's wife, who was about four rows back in the audience.

Once upon a time, King would get into the music earlier in his shows. And all the time, there would be an amazing connection between him and his audience. Really, at his prime, he was a grand man of the stage, and his heart connected directly to the hearts of how many thousands of people there were in the audience.

It was a little off-putting to see him stretch out the meet-and-greet so long on Saturday at the Mountain Winery, but if anybody's paid his dues and gets to deal with his audience as he sees fit, it's B.B. King.

Sitting next to me in the audience was my 8-year-old boy, Riley, who was named after B.B. King, whose real name is Riley.

I was thrilled to finally give my boy a chance to see the great man for whom he is named.

The last time I interviewed King in 2003, I asked if there were other Riley Kings among his descendants.

"Several of them,'' King replied. "My son is Riley Junior. His son is Riley the third, his son's son is another Riley."

He himself doesn't care for the name Riley.

"My dad said he named me after a good man, Jim O'Riley. I asked him why he didn't name me 'O'Riley,' and he said I didn't look Irish enough.

"When he was happy with me he called me 'Jack.' He never told me he loved me, never did. But that was his way of telling me he loved me, when he called me Jack."

Once the music started, my son Riley, who hears me tell him I love him several times a day, danced around in his seat for a while, when the music was interesting enough to catch an 8-year-old's sense of rhythm.

When King went into a very slow swing version of "Key to the Highway," by Big Bill Broonzy and Chas Segar, Riley folded up in his seat.

"I'm turning into an ice cube, Dad," he said.

It was cold.

Up on the stage, his namesake had a little heater pointed toward him.

In the audience, Riley's jacket wasn't enough, even with my own jacket on his legs. We had to leave early, but at least honor was satisfied -- I finally got my boy to see the man for whom he is named.

On our way out, I heard King and his great band swing into "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" by blind Lemon Jefferson. It's my favorite tune from his latest album, "One Kind Favor," which is one of his best in a long series of great albums.

"There's just one kind of favor I'll ask of you

"You can see that my grave is kept clean."

The great Buddy Guy opened the evening with a good long set that included some tunes from his 2008 album, "Skin Deep" and plenty of other material from his outstanding career.

Guy, at 74, still has his famous energy on stage and even did a long turn through the audience, sitting down next to people while continuing to play, and even singing from somewhere way back among a standing, adoring crowd.

The title song from the "Skin Deep" album he performed using an electric sitar, which was distinctly strange, and didn't make the most of Guy's astounding ability as a guitarist; in fact, he played at least one phrase off-key.

For the most part, Guy brought the blues.

Like King, Guy is one of the leading innovators of electric blues music. He closed his set by running through a bunch of different guitarist's styles. He paid tribute to Albert King, B.B. King, John Lee Hooker and Stevie Ray Vaughn. He made fun of Eric Clapton, which got a good laugh.