THE PLIGHT OF STUBBY KNUCKLES

 

 

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.