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 FAT POSSUM'S MATTHEW JOHNSON February / March 2000 By Carter Grice & Natasha Nargis
How is it down in Mississippi today? Everything is as usual. So it's kind of slow, like it's been for the last 37 and a half years, or more. Something like that, yeah. Tell us about the Fat Possum label. How did it start? It started pretty much the day of the Desert Storm War, actually. That's the only way I can remember it in chronological order. I was at the University of Mississippi working for a magazine at the time.... Blues was sort of at the pinnacle. Stevie Ray Vaughn, I think, sort of brought it back into vogue. It's almost like a lot of people sort of imitating hair bands jumped into blues, thinking it was a way to make a lot of money. Anyway, all these records were submitted from Sweden, or even a lot of them from New Jersey, which were just as bad. All these local guys were being overlooked- that's why we started the label. So you were seeing these local guys while you were going to the University of Mississippi. Right. I remember the first festival I went to in Mississippi. It was this big festival, and there were all these guys, like Junior [Kimbrough] and R.L. [Burnside], who were playing right down the road in these little dumps. They were being totally overlooked in this sort of blues revival. What was Robert Palmer's involvement in the label early on? I notice that he wrote a lot of the liner notes on the early releases. He produced the first couple records, probably what you could easily argue were the best records on the label. He was sort of the guiding force and embodied the spirit of it for a while. I hope he would agree with that. I think he would. Tremendous critic, he was. Right. He felt that the blues guys had a lot more in common with punk rock than they did with anyone else. Is that how you guys got hooked up with Epitaph, the punk label that distributes Fat Possum releases? They were the only ones who would offer us a deal. They were our first choice and our last choice. It was weird. I really wasn't that familiar with them. Andy Kaulkin at Epitaph is a huge blues freak. He'd been following our label a little bit, and after we were free, thank god, from Capricorn, they were the only ones who were even interested [laughs]. How many releases do you guys have out right now? About 26 or 27. I think that sounds right. A couple of those are compilations. Which are your favorites? I like the R.L. Burnside, Come On In, a lot, I really do. I like the Asie Payton record. I kind of get sick of them after they've been out for a while. By the time they come out I never want to hear them again. I still like the Asie, and I like the new Junior Kimbrough record. What was the catalyst behind exploring this remix territory on albums like Come On In? To me it was almost like we had no choice but to. That is sort of what's going on today. The blues is going to wind up like jazz, something that's played by a couple of purists in several bars in New York. There's some of everything that isn't purist, but I do know what you're talking about. Right. But, I mean in general, it's sort of been doomed. It's not alive today because of that. I think blues is in the same sort of peril, or the same situation, of people playing it for the nostalgia of it. It's not really alive and sort of evolving. It has to change, just like anything. Nothing's forever— we're all taught that in grade school. I just don't see how people can go on imitating the Chicago style. You have someone on stage imitating someone else. It's sort of like a dog chasing its tail. It's so boring. So [Fat Possum doesn't] have any of the guitar virtuosos, nor do we have any of the sort of young prodigies. I can't wait to see a three year old play the guitar. Are there young people who you think might carry on the tradition? No. I think it's sort of the end. I know in the early nineties the blues was not something a lot of black kids were proud of, in the South at least. I think this is true everywhere. They saw it as a reminder of another time. What kind of a man was Junior Kimbrough? He was one of my favorites, for many reasons. He was one of the people I first started working with. I was really lucky, between Junior Kimbrough, R.L. Burnside, and Robert Palmer. It was really exciting. Junior was very confident, kind of shy almost. He knew exactly what he wanted, and what was going on—by far our most original artist. His music seems to have no precedent as far as I can tell. He sounds like nobody else, and nobody sounds like him. Exactly. He's sort of in a league of his own. R.L.'s always been, as Palmer said, a cosmic joker. Junior's always been more the dedicated musician. Everything he did was really deliberate. Somebody told me that his funeral was mobbed by about 500 people or so. It was pretty crazy. It was odd, because the night before he died I was actually up at his place visiting him, and he looked better than he had in years. He had a huge service; it was packed. It was in the Rusk College Auditorium, not in a chapel. How's Mr. Burnside doing after his heart trouble? He's doing well. The day after he was released from the hospital he went straight to the casino. It was pretty funny. He called on a cell phone and I asked what he was doing. He said he was going over there to push his luck. Tell us about the first time you went to Junior's juke joint. It used to be in a different place. There was this old log cabin, out in the middle of nowhere. I think the roof was leaking. It was a mess. That's the first time I'd ever been there. I was actually looking for R.L. I remember when he showed up, I think every single warning light on his car's dashboard was on. It took me forever to find the place—but Junior was always sort of there, friendly, and in control of the situation. Any news on upcoming Fat Possum releases? Jesus, this is where I kind of wind up always getting too ambitious and not being able to back it up with records. There is a record coming out in January. It's by a guy who goes by the name Super Chickan. Then we're sort of preparing for a little Fat Possum documentary. We figured if there are, like, 17 biographies now of Elton John, we're at least worthy of some small little documentary that would run on some midnight cable station- just try to get the word out on the records that we've already put out and get these guys touring. There'll be another T-Model record, and hopefully another Elmo Williams and Hezekiah Early. And another R.L record. Sort of figuring out which direction to take it. If you have any suggestions, mail them in. I have one. That Deep Blues soundtrack, the film nobody can find anymore, it's got some really vital Kimbrough and R.L.? Um hmm. Why is it in limbo? Is it possible for you guys to get the rights to that and put it out? We've spent many, many hours discussing this. I think it's part of Atlantic or Warner Brothers. I guess there's not enough money in it for them to really focus on it; but I think it's one of those things that they won't just turn over either. It makes no sense. It's kind of not for sale; it's not up for grabs either. It's just archived away, the major record deal that no one seems to ever be able to unravel or understand. |
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