New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Thursday nights, in fact every
Thursday night for about a year and a half The Blues for Two Band would play at The Wing Café in
Spring Texas. I had booked Pops and Pee Wee into the place after I had seen them perform numerous times with the Harp Ace himself, Steve Krase, prior to that booking. As sure as my name is John every
Thursday night the Wing Café was packed and why wouldn't it be? For those of you that knew Pops nobody could deliver, "There's A Rat Loose in My House" like Pops Stewart. A quiet man off stage but once he got up on the bandstand look out. His stage persona took over and he performed his beloved blues numbers with feeling and I am not talking about performing them just to do them - the man placed emphasis and added quality to those songs. If you knew him, you know that he had a velvet voice that could reach low registers and when he wanted to howl he could reach way upstairs as well. Pops was a bass player and he teamed with famed keyboard player Pee Wee Stephens years prior to these
Thursday night events. Sometimes on Thursdays late in the afternoon I would be driving up the tollway and right behind me getting off at the same exit would Pee Wee and Pops. I would see them in my rear view mirror and they would point at me through their windshield. Next stop was the Wing Café. Oh I was supposed to go home for dinner but the blues was a calling and well there they were and there I was so the Wing Café it was going to be without dinner. Pops was a humble man, he wreaked of humility, and it wasn't until I really got to know him that he told me about his service in the military and how proud he was to have served our country. He still wore a military ball cap after the years had gone by. He talked to me about Vietnam and then we would talk about another favorite subject, scotch whiskey. I would sit by the jukebox over near the front door and sip mine and as the evening mellowed we would salute each other in agreement of how fine the spirits were in those quart bottles. One
Thursday by chance we were rolling up the tollway again and we made our exit together and I missed dinner again of course. This particular day or should I say night I would share a Johnny Guitar Watson song with the guys, "I want to Ta Ta You Baby". The very next
Thursday they performed the song and it was killer to say the least. Pee Wee's arrangement was fantastic and Pops delivery was spot on. You know with Pops it wasn't about playing originals nor climbing up the charts. No it was something much more resident than that, something much deeper, it was this thing called the blues that was living inside the man. It was the pure enjoyment of sharing the blues and if you are a blues fan you can definitely feel it when a performer is one with the blues. Man, this was traditional blues being performed in the very American sense of the words traditional blues. So I got to meet a world class bluesman, got to know him really well, and this cat was as humble as they come. He was just cool with being in tune with life and doing his thing. All he ever wanted to do was lay down the blues on that bass of his, sing into the microphone, and share. I can still hear him singing, "There's a Rat Loose in My House". They say that we all touch somebody in our lifetime and here's a shining example of a true bluesman touching countless audience members with the real thing. I am not even sure if anyone ever captured Pops on a recording but if they did and you were to hear it I am sure you would definitely embrace it.
Houston is deep in blues culture, very deep. Look at what happened to country music. I don't even recognize it anymore from when I was a kid. I am not saying it's bad I just saying it morphed into a whole new look and feel. However, the blues remains real. Indeed, a smaller pond but if you get it then you are in tune with some other real folks that get it too. Pops was real. My friend Pops Stewart had a golden voice and he was a bluesman's bluesman. He lived his life with what was in his heart and his blood ran true with the blues. I got to see and hear this man on stage over and over again - I am one wealthy person to have received those opportunities. You know it's rather interesting that I was just letting Mark at
Buddy Guy's
Legends know that on Buddy's new CD the one song that will rise up will be "Come Back Muddy". I use the word interesting because I was ready to sit down and pen this piece about the loss of my good friend Pops when NiQ Conforti in Italy spun "Come Back Muddy" on his station and there it was the very reason I told Mark this song would rise up. We can all relate to what
Buddy has released about his good friend Muddy. I remember the times that Pops, Pee Wee, and I shared together and so one more time in blues history a blues song is extremely apropos. I am Irish by heritage and our way is to send somebody off by drinking a flask of whiskey, shot by shot in their name.
Tonight at the celebration of his life I will share my Irish heritage one more time with my good friend Pops Stewart.
