Copyright © 2016
Almost Slim, Jr.
Few bluesmen can hang their hats on the peg of Stubby
Knuckles, whose life defies all logic. His life is littered with a multiverse
of dead-end career paths. Even his deep persona of blues piano player and
singer shows signs of tatter and disarray. Still, Stubby Knuckles plods on,
pounding and shouting out his own Chicago/New Orleans-tinged brand of the blues,
peppered with old ‘60s tunes. He’s appearing the Saturday-after-Thanksgiving at
the Cambridge art, music and wine emporium known as LivAgain. The music gets
going at 8 PM.
Stubby has lately been posturing in the guise of author
Wyman Wicket, shamelessly hawking his metapolitical thought-bomb sci-fi
thriller, entitled 23 Skiddoo: Way Back
Beyond Across the Stars. But sales went flat long ago. That’s the blues.
Now he is lamely scouring the streets looking for a new publisher for his
latest: Plight of the Cultural Mutant.
But Stubby’s most recent incarnation is not confined to
failure in the star-studded literati realm. He has also been a psychonautical
inner space explorer down among the ayahuasceros
of Peru. However, his subversive talents and skills are not just limited to
psychedelic excursions. No indeed. He has worn many hats and walked in many
worlds: that of the law, military officer, English professor, and –surprise! —the
Knuckleman is even a PhD in
Humanities. These thwarted life callings are not your typical bona fides of a bluesman, at least not
your run-of-the-mill bluesman. That’s what makes Stubby Knuckles such a special
treat. And if you’re lucky, he may just regale you with one of his poems (e.g.,
I’ll Never Own a Leaf Blower; or Last Night Out with the ‘69 Coupe deVille).
Stubby is accompanied solely by drummer, Fast Fingers Freddy–an
intuitive, RingoStarr-like extraordinaire. FFF knows all of his songs because
he grew up listening, often involuntarily, to all of Stub’s tunes. They’re
brothers. They used to have a stand-up bass player but ditched him because
Stubby’s left hand is busy enough in the lower register–and besides, a bass
player just cut into their already marginal profits.
When Stubby's in town and on the 88s, you'll be in good
hands. He always guarantees two fistfuls of the blues. Be sure not to miss this
rarified-retread-of-a-Renaissance-(blues)man live on stage, 11/26 at
Cambridge’s LivAgain.
