PLAIN FOLK by Les Pearson To be a blues icon, you have to be old, durable, and very good. Names like Robert Johnson, Bo Diddley, and B. B. King haunt the blues fan’s reverie like a wailing refrain. But not all icons are ghosts. Sonny Rhodes is a very-much-living blues legend. This 65-year-old “King of the Lap-slide Steel Blues Guitar” was born in central Texas on November 3, 1940. He was orphaned at age seven, but a kind woman mothered him and provided the two most important influences in his life: a Bible and a Victorola phonograph. To this day Sonny reads the Bible and prays every day. And when he sits down to play, he remembers his first encounter with the Victorola. Sonny says he stuck his head deep in the machine’s horn because he wanted to see the people who were playing inside. Assessing his career today, Sonny believes, “I’ve become one of those little Black men I was looking for.” He sees his life in terms of a book from his childhood. “Frisky at the Fair” tells the story of a curly-coated black ram that no one wanted. But some kind soul takes him home, grooms his coat, and brings him back to capture first prize at the county fair. Sonny’s life is such an on-going fable. As a youngster, he remembers helping bands unload instruments for dimes and quarters. When The Texas Playboys came to town, Sonny was fascinated by Leon McCullough’s four-necked steel guitar. (Today it hangs in the Cowboy Hall of Fame. Sonny finally held it in his hands on a recent visit.) When he asked Leon if he could hold the instrument, McCullough’s response was curt. “I don’t think so son. This is a white man’s instrument.” For the past forty years Sonny has worked to prove him wrong. The Texas cotton fields and his own tragedy softened Sonny’s young heart. Today he is convinced that blues singers and songwriters need to be compassionate people. He feels the stuff of blues in every headline about the desperate, homeless, and hungry. Today, Sonny’s life is good. Hard work has “…added longevity to my life because I’m so happy…when I’m making others happy.” He has a loving wife and hosts of grandchildren. They say James Brown is the busiest man in show biz. Frankly, I don’t believe it. I doubt if it is humanly possible for Mr. Brown—or anyone else—to match the 250 to 300 road shows that Sonny Rhodes clocks annually or the more than 378 blues songs Sonny has composed since beginning his love affair with the blues in 1958. The workload and his musical progeny are prodigious! In fact, just before performing at Ralph’s Texas Bar and Steak House on May 19, his wife was negotiating a return date in September. If you missed the first show, don’t miss the second! |