I was surprised and pleased to learn that there were people actually reading this blog about Hatteras and so I’ve decided to try and resuscitate it with information about what’s happening here on the island.
At Barefoot Station Ruth Wyand is playing on Thursday nights at 8pm. It’s a show she started doing last year in which she traces the musical traditions of American music starting with John Phillip Sousa and going through the present day.
Ruth is a master musician. Back when The Pickled Steamer was in the Food Lion shopping center we were asked by the owner to come swell the ranks because she was afraid no one would show and she had hired Ruth to play. As we entered the 22 seat restaurant Ruth was set up on one wall guitar in hand she said, “I’m going to play a little Robert Johnson for you.”
“Whoa.” I touched my wife. You don’t say something like that unless you are really really good. This is the equivalent of pianist saying, “I’ll play a Chopin etude,” perhaps, the most difficult pieces of music to play on the piano. This is the class of music Robert Johnson played on the guitar in juke joints in Mississippi in the 1930’s. He had a style where he played the bass on the upper strings with his thumb and the rhythm and lead on the lower strings with his other fingers simultaneously. He was recorded for three days in a hotel room, 28 songs survive, and they are the foundation of blues and rock and roll. The movie Crossroads was formulated around his life because it was said he met the devil at the crossroads and made a deal.
This year’s concert started with John Phillip Sousa’s “Hard Times Come No More” (Besides his marches Sousa was known for his songs such as Camptown Races and Oh Susanna.) As Ruth started to play I found myself transformed. I closed my eyes and let her playing and her voice wash over me. It’s not often that you get to be in the presence of greatness but there are singular moments when you feel it. I was in such a moment.
With each song she changes the slide behind her. Each slide shows pictures of the person who’s song she is performing. I watched and listened as she did W. C. Handy, “father of the blues”; Bill Monroe, “father of bluegrass”, Patsy Cline, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Jimmie Rodgers, Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash and many more.
This year she performed Jimi Hendrix’s Little Wing. For guitar virtuosity Little Wing is right up there with Robert Johnson’s work and to watch Ruth’s hand fearless glide up and down the neck of her guitar and to see the fingers hit those strings seemingly effortlessly is a sight to behold. This meant we didn’t get to hear her acoustic version of The Wind Cries Mary something the Jimi Hendrix’s foundation wanted a copy of because they only had two other people who had ever done an acoustic version.
Ruth’s show has changed from last year. She has cut out some things and added new ones. Gone is Sister Rosetta Tharpe a woman I had never heard of until Ruth had her song in her show last year. Her intro to her was great, “You’ve probably never heard her name but you’ve probably heard this” and Ruth played a standard classic rock and roll riff that any lead guitar in a rock band knows. Ruth didn’t do an Elvis gospel song this year. Did you know he was a big gospel singer? I didn’t, not til last year.
Gone too are the people from North Carolina who are famous pickers: James Taylor, the woman who wrote Night Train, and several others I can’t recall their names. But Ruth has been touring with her show internationally and she’s no doubt adapted her show for a larger audience. I think I need to go back a few more times just to be in the presence of great music masterfully played.
Barefoot Station is located in the same building as Village Grocery at the first light on Hatteras Island in Avon, North Carolina on state route NC12.
Ruth Wyand plays every Thursday night at 8pm til Labor Day. Tickets are $12.00.
