THE SIGNAL from David Katznelson
"Don't nothing make a fail but a try"-Otha Turner
A short but sweet Signal today to celebrate the birthday of fife-master/bluesman Otha Turner. I will never forget hearing the music of his fife and drum corps for the first time…hearing that sound that is the oldest post-colonial practiced one still practiced today. Jim Dickinson was producing the Texas Tornados for me wayyyy back in the Warner Bros. days. And like all fathers, he would send me the art his sons were creating. Cody and Luther were in a pre-North Mississippi All-Star band called DDT. And Luther was spending a large amount of time hanging out at the farm of an old bluesman named Otha Turner, learning the deep deep musical knowledge that only a person with Otha’s experience and history could pass on.
Luther had been recording Otha, his Rising Star Fife and Drum band, and the musings of its members, notably RL Boyce. The tape Jim sent me blew my mind, and I jumped on a plane to Mississippi to meet the crew behind it. Luther and I met at a crossroads outside of Senatobia, right off of the 55. I don’t think either of us had any idea of the lifelong relationship that was formed at that moment as I proceeded to follow him to Gravel Springs Road, deep in the country, where Otha lived. Walking into Otha’s house…he was I think 88…seeing those stunning blue eyes as he raised his head to say hello, getting himself off of his couch to shake my hand…and the conversation that followed (to be told another time): I knew that I was in the presence of someone who had tapped into a life source that most of us dream of finding.
And the rest fell together quickly. Right before Otha turned 90 I released on Birdman Records what was in effect his debut record Everybody Hollerin’ Goat. I started attending his annual picnics and started to get to know his entire family. The record takes you right smack into the middle of a crowded picnic on a balmy North Mississippi night, when the fife and drum band march through the throngs of people eating goat sandwiches and (if you are lucky) drinking ‘shine. That drone of the fife and drum is pretty remarkable to behold.
My label Birdman has not been releasing much since the birth of my kids. However, we are ramping up again, and the first record coming out before the year is done is the the reissue of Everybody Hollerin’ Goat…first time on vinyl…double vinyl…with a final side packed full of unreleased recordings from Otha’s family picnic. I have the test pressings already: they sound great.
Happy Birthday Otha Turner!
Otha Turner and the Rising Star Fife & Drum Band: Ida Reed (1978)
Otha Turner's Rising Star Fife & Drum band (Turner, fife; G.D. Young, bass drum; E.P. Burton, snare; Eddie Ware, snare) playing a picnic at Otha's farm. Shot by Alan Lomax, John Bishop, and Worth Long in Gravel Springs, Mississippi, August 1978.