cool vintage retro awesome hip audio equipment for sale

Fall Cleaning over here. Check Craigslist for a 1969 Retro 8-Track playing Hi-Fi with FREE 8-track. We also have two excellent Vintage Kenwood speakers with FREE speaker wire.

Here is a little something to whet your appetite:

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where the burnsides at?

From Senatobia, take highway 4 east to gravel springs road, go south to O B McClinton road and take a left. Within a mile, you will see the cars lining up on the street and neighbors renting out their driveways and yards for $3-5 per parking spot. The marching band, consisting of up to two snare drums and three bass drums led by a fife, marks the Turner family homestead. Two dollars gets you a long night of food and music. This is the Otha Turner Memorial picnic, started by the late Otha Turner in the 1950’s as a labor day goat barbecue, it is now an open barbecue and blues party.

Some little girls were dancing around as we arrived:

We walked around the house to the back yard, which had been transformed into the perfect venue for a blues show. An open shed had a menu posted which revealed that a barbecue goat sandwich could be had for only $3.50, pork was $3 and pickled eggs only fifty cents. The goat sandwich was excellent: thick white bread, plenty of sauce, and delicious meat. A trailer directly behind the house held the huge barbecue smoker where freshly cooked meat was being kept warm. As people came in, the chef at the barbecue snuck out some tender ribs and offered them to whoever was standing around.

This is who you sneak ribs from:

A tractor trailer was set up with a stage in the back of the yard, blocking view of the horse pen. One of the Turner women shouted out for the Burnsides, who seemed to be running a bit late. A young man who was enjoying the festivities thoroughly took it upon himself to climb on stage and assure the crowd that the music would start soon “Its definitely gonna jump off soon, and because you had to wait, we gonna make it real good.” He made a number of these announcements in only a few minutes before a blues guitarist came sat down on stage, flanked by Dexter and Garry Burnside, who supplied the drum and bass guitar for the performance.

The picnic drew one of the most diverse crowds I have seen at a musical event in Mississippi. Some elderly ladies and gentlemen from the Turner family sat on a bench near the food shed. Country neighbors were joined by young people of all description from the city. Red-necked men stood next to borderline hipsters. People from Memphis, Jackson and Compton swayed to the music alongside everyone else.

It got packed later in the night, but there were plenty of people gathering at the shack early on.

In between each artist, the marching band would strike up. The fife sometimes just seemed erratic, but made for an entertaining set. The people behind the instruments was always changing, sometimes a drum would be played by someone from the crowd. The snare drummers held their drums sideways and played casually, while the bass drums would dance around, putting on a show. Throughout the whole night, the drumline was excellent. When they started playing, the crowd would rush from the stage to surround them tightly. People closest would always dance while everyone else angled for a better view. The band often got so caught up in playing that they could not hear the calls for them to get back to the stage to kick off another set – they had to be physically pulled and pushed at least once to get them to the front.

Throughout the evening, a number of artists came to the stage, always supported by some member(s) of the prodigious Burnside clan. Otha’s sixteen year old granddaughter Sharde came on stage late in the night for a few songs, including an amazing fife rendition of ‘Ride Sally Ride.” Sharde was an excellent fife player, and it was announced (i think) that she has a CD on the way. R.L. Burnside Jr. turned up on stage to play “just one song.” It turned out that he had another song he wanted to play, before he played one last song. That last song was followed by several other last songs before one of the Turner women tried to kick him off stage. He played one more song after that. His trademark seemed to be just that – one more song.

It is really impossible to do justice to the experience in a blog post. The only lighting was a partially clouded moon and a single street light in the middle of the yard. 200 speed film and a no-flash philosophy don’t turn out good pictures in these conditions. The displayed pictures were taken on E’s digital. It was a wonderful experience, capped off with camping below the Sardis Dam.

For a video of Sharde, Otha and the Rising Star Drum Band in the Turner’s back yard, check this video. This is what happens as people arrive, but they dont park in the back yard anymore.

For a full recorded song: