Wes Race - Cryptic Whalin

WES RACE : CRYPTIC WHALIN`

Poet and self confessed "Blues Spectatin` Fool", Wes Race came out of the Wichita Vortex in the 1950`s, with an ear for the boogie woogie honky tonk and an astute and hip poet angle on his memories and realities. He released an album Cryptic Whalin` in 2008 which I came across via Outlaw Poet Charley Plymell. On Track 2 of the Cryptic Whalin` CD, the grinding piano fueled Chicago blues track Ludella Small Blues, Wes talks about "back in the late 60`s I started lookin` at hippie chicks and questioned how well oiled their lifestyle choices were.....I mention Charley Plymell in this track too. He remembers......" Charley remembers those times of going across the tracks to catch the blues on their natural turf, as Wes likes to call it;

"I describe myself as Outlaw poet not Beat. Wes is an outlaw, too. Wes came out of the real vortex dives with the music I remember of race music,rhythm and blues honky tonk that identifies the middle of the country"
Charley Plymell July `09

To talk about this amazing album it is essential we jam a while on the man Wes Race awhile. Wes moved from Wichita to Chicago in 1970, and had "the pleasure of seein` Howlin Wolf about 30 times, mostly on Chicago`s West Side at 318 Dukes on either Roosvelt or Madison. I became good friends with Hound Dog Taylor and got him on Alligator Records". Wes remembers "that Jimmy Reed was still around and Muddy too. Actually by 1970 (Muddy) was starting to play mainly white gigs. `Wolf though played and hung out in those hole in the wall ghetto clubs `till he died. When I`d moved back to Kansas in `75 I caught Jay McShann a couple of times and started seeing a lot of Western Swing shows; Leon McAuliffe, Hank Thompson and Ernest Tubb". Wesley also exudes a real dedication and fervour about the blues, especially the Chicago Bluesman he saw live; "I don't know about you but besides lovin' The Beats I love the Blues too. Muddy, Wolf, Homesick, Hound Dog, Big Moose, Fast Fingers and Sunnyland: I caught & hear'em all on Natural Turf. I lived in Chicago from '70-75 and lived in Bridgeport Mayor Daley's neighborhood. That was the south side and enabled me easy access to Clubs like Theresa's, Rose & Kelly's, Florences, The Checkerboard and the 1125 Club where gents like Magic Slim, Hound Dog Taylor, Junior Wells, J. B. Hutto and Buddy Guy were playin'. I used to hang out on the West Side & saw Howlin' Wolf about 30 times. Yeah, Wolf played those ghetto clubs race til he died. One night at Ma Bea's at a John Littlejohn gig Howlin' Wolf and his wife showed up and I tried to sneak a peek at'em anytime I could. Jimmy Dawkins used to play a lot too. He invited me to his 'All For Business' Delmark session and I about Flipped my Lid when my wife & I showed up and saw that some of the gents backing Jimmy up were Otis Rush and Sonny Thompson". He offered a loan of $1000 to Bruce Iglauer to start up the awesome blues label, Alligator Records, after Delmark Record`s Bob Koester "didnt have eyes for it at the time". Bruce took him up and when his grandmother passed away, he came into a little inheritance and wanted to do Alligator Records himself. Wes recalls; "I didn't argue cause I got to go to the Record Sessions and wrote the liners for the first Lp plus get co-producer credits".

That album was Hound Dog Taylor & The HouseRockers. Bruce Iglauer`s Alligator Records marked this epochal recording in their history as "Recorded live in the studio in just two nights during the spring of 1971, the album captured the band at the height of its powers. Hound Dog and his band simply plugged in and played the same beat-up guitars through the same raggedy amps they used at Florence’s Lounge on Chicago’s South Side, where Hound Dog Taylor & the HouseRockers would jam all day long". Wes remembers that "to be honest though you sure didn't 'produce Hound Dog'. My role was to keep reminding him of some of his original tunes particularly his wild rockin' instrumentals". Wesley Race had been steeped in the blues for most of his life, and wrote down words to document some of these raw and landmark moments. He talks about the 80`s being important for him in his jagged spectacle of livin` the blues on the sleeve notes for Cryptic Whalin`; "Everything started fallin` into place in `81 when I started late shiftin` on a Wichita, Kansas psyche ward. I got more than a few life lessons, visions and poetic mode strides for my efforts. `Bout that time some Lonestar blues rockers and revelers started rollin` through town and right quick I tightened up with the Juke Jumpers from Fort Worth and the Leroi Brothers from Austin, TX. Eventually I started making myself known in various after hours Fort Worth hipster houses which were jumpin` like mad off the Richter scale - Babs Gonzales "Cool Whalin`" always seemed to hang me up the most". Wes started up Race Records and released an awesome album by long time friend Robin Sylar in 2000 called Bust Out.Following on his story, he recalls "by 2000 I was livin` on Fort Worth`s west side and had me a Stop 6 Texas baby and was windin` down some with in my Mcvoutaroonie bop-a-fried stance........"

CRYPTIC WHALIN` in Wes`s Words

Shot Time - While hangin` out in Ft. Worth TX I noticed a 100lb bleached blonde motorin` around the room and one night saw her down 12 doubles without breakin` stride; Nazi speed perhaps.....

Ludella Small Blues - back in the late 60`s I started lookin` at hippie chicks and questioned how well oiled their lifestyle choices were.....I mention Charley Plymell in this track too. He remembers.......

Rag Mop Reality - The old Johnnie Lee Wills tune has cropped up variuos times in my life.

Bright Boy`s Boogie - While hangin` out in Stop Six, a part of Ft. Worth which is predominantly black I noticed how the locals referred to light skinned blacks as being Bright. I used to tan up in the summer and called myself the Tan Man. Now I`m the Bright Boy.

Madame Fu-Fu`s Dream Book - I used to go to Poetry readings and saw how some of the budding poets were reading out of Jack Kerouac`s On The Road. How lame is that? One night I grabbed a Dream book and started Boptalkin` in my McVoutaroonie Bop A Fried way.

T-99 - I used to kick it with my little sidekick Fast Black and rather than say that`s how we roll, I`d Boptalk "Lets T99 awhile". Interestingly enough Jimmy t99 Nelson wrote his T99Blues keying off Highway I99 whaich was FT. Worth`s famed Jacksboro Highway.

Cryptic Cocktail Mix - While jawing about Clarkside Miss Blues Museum, I was eavesdroppin` a Lady who opined "Cryptic Cocktail Museum, whats that?" So I wrote a poem about my current digs.

Dreamin` at the Dig Palace - A detox dream I had in 1985 while visiting Fort Worth.

Voodoo-ola - About a borderline personality disorder red eyeballed crazy gal and my dustup doings in `88

Baptized in Bop - an opus to Beboppers everywhere.

2008`s Cryptic Whalin` album on Cool Groove Records stands out in a bop-a-rolla 3D blues experience style, based on the Chicago blues groove, his words are in the long haul tradition of story telling landscapes, heady with his bop-a-fried slang. The spoken word poetry spray and pepper the blue riffs and notes of Wes`s backing band, The Sumterraneans and all over the ass of these superbly played songs, with great delivery and timing. The art of telling your story, your news, your deep excitement and tragic loss is in keeping with an unending aural tradition that goes way way back in time, as is the use of the primordial house shaking blues.

Long may Wes keep up his zapster words, euphoric one liners, jaggedy two liners and outlaw stories of his life, his observations and the times he has lived through. He still writes poetry........"Here's one of my newest. I'm trying to get a group Hip Card Punched to cut it. I'm aiming for a black market on this 'un.So anyhow I finally finished my new opus Erma Faye's Mainline about a friend of mine. It's kind of a composite of 'Jesus On The Mainline, Jimmy Reed's 'Down In Mississippi' and Little Milton's Annie Mae's Cafe".

ERMA FAYE'S MAINLINE (excerpt)

When Erma Faye's On The Mainline
She's Doin' Just What She Does
And Brother You Better Not Cut Her Buzz

Most Days You'll Find Erma Faye
Down At The Domino Den
Go 'Head With Your White Boy Five
She's Comin' Back With A Black Girl Ten

Erma Faye Likes To Move Around
In Her White On White Cadillac
Sometimes She'll Cruise A Casino
And Hit 21 On Blackjack

On Sundays You'll Find Erma Faye
Over At Her Guiding Light
With A Tambourine In Her Right Hand
Shoutin' To Glory With All Her Might

At Night You'll Find Mis Faye In Her Bedroom
Some Nights You Might Hear A Groan
You Can Bet Your Bottom Dollar
That Erma Faye's Not Aloone

When Erma Faye's On The Mainline
She's Doin' Just What She Does
And I Warning All You Strange Kin People
You Better Not Cut Her Buzz

"By the way I've noticed that the domino players here in Ft. Worth constantly refer to white boy fives and black girl tens. The way Erma Faye and her cohorts explain it is a white boy is satisfied with getting five points but a black girl needs at least ten points to get her groove on"

Say no more Wes.............

Wes and I exchanged life stories in emails during July 09

Thanks to the Outlaw Wes Race and Charley Plymell.

Paul H...

back