After all, B.B. has appeared in TV commercials, turns up occasionally on sitcoms, and cuts hit records with rock superstars like Eric Clapton and U2. If you’re ever on The Family Feud and they ask you to "Name a blues player," the number one answer will be B.B. King.
Attend one of his concerts and you’ll see why this is. B.B. is a heck of a performer—he knows how to work a crowd into a blues love-fest and leave everyone smiling and feeling a whole lot better afterwards. Last fall marked the third time I’ve seen B.B. King live; I’m familiar with his showmanship now.
Opening Act
In a sense, B.B. “tricked” me into going because of his awesome opening guest, Shemekia Copeland. I had heard about her from someone at the 2000 Chicago Blues Festival, and she strongly recommended hearing Copeland whenever she the singer was within driving distance.
I had just picked up Copeland's latest CD, Wicked, and was listening to it over the weekend. I knew that I had to get to the concert at the Celebrity Theater.
The Celebrity Theater is a relatively small, circular venue that holds a capacity of 2,700. The stage revolves slowly; there really isn’t a bad seat in the house, and its intimacy makes a great place for blues. You can’t top a real blues bar for that, but this comes close.
Few in the audience knew who Copeland was; they had come for B.B. I was among those primarily inspired because of B.B.’s guest, and had been telling a few people there that they would be in for a real treat.
Shemekia is strong enough to headline a blues concert. Much in the tradition of Big Mama Thornton and Koko Taylor, this 21-year-old from Harlem sings big-time blues! This is no woman you want to mess with either: She’s big enough to knock you out, and she can belt the blues.
That shouldn’t be a total surprise, knowing she has recorded two albums for the Chicago-based Alligator Records. That company simply doesn’t record weak blues artists.
By the second song of her 45-minute set, the crowd knew it was in the presence of a real blues talent, and not your everyday generic blues, but the lowdown, nasty, “don’t want to smell your funky feet" blues.
Singing mostly songs off her latest album, Copeland got the audience grooving and involved, and received three standing ovations.
Copeland knows how to talk with a blues crowd too, and joked a bit with a line that simply states “I got the blues,” showing how it could be an excuse for anything you didn’t want to do.
To the ladies, she directed vividly the idea that if they “didn’t want to give the ‘good stuff,’” all they had to say was “Not tonight; I got the blues!” Later, she got several titters of laughter by exhorting the ladies to move their hips to the music, saying “You don’t have to stand up—just make that chair real happy.”
Perhaps her most poignant moments came when she dedicated “Ghetto Child” to her late father, the legendary blues singer Johnny Copeland.
It’s a much slower song than the others she did, but has some intense feelings of gratitude within it. At one point, Copeland did an entire verse off-mic that we could still hear and feel, before she ended up with a real kick.
Her final song was the opening track off Wicked, a rousing rendition of “It’s 2 a.m.” that asks parents if they know where their child is at that hour, since she hasn’t come home yet. I could have easily listened to Copeland until 2 a.m. myself, but she left the stage around 8:30 to sign autographs during the break.
Intermission
During the break, they auctioned off an electric Gibson guitar worth about $750, with the proceeds going to a Phoenix school that specializes in educating homeless children. A righteous cause indeed, and I even thought beforehand that I might bid a few hundred for starters, before the high rollers from Scottsdale drove the price up. It turned out they priced me out right away; they started at $1,000 and it skyrocketed up to $8,700! Why so much?
Because this guitar would be autographed by B.B. King, and the winning bidder would be able to go backstage for the guitar and get his picture with the King of the Blues. It was way out of my price range; I decided to be content with B.B.’s concert.
The headline act
Now that I’ve seen the identical opening pattern three consecutive times, I’m pretty sure B.B. has been opening concerts this way for many years and will continue to do so.
The show begins with B.B. King’s backup band, which has all the instrumentation for the Memphis sound: trumpets, saxophone, baritone saxophone, drums, keyboard, guitar, and bass.
The band will play two numbers that will feature each member in a solo portion, and both songs will be a fusion of jazz and blues. In this case, I did recognize that the second song was a variation of Albert King’s “I’ll Play the Blues for You,” but the band doesn’t introduce either song.
After these two opening songs, the crowd is getting a tad restless, anticipating the headliner of the evening, and the band delivers.
B.B. strolls out with three handlers, sits down, and they launch into an upbeat version of “Let the Good Times Roll.” This is the first time I’d seen B.B. sit for the entire concert, and early on he explained that he was now 75 years old and his band had told him he “deserved to sit down now.”
We should all have the same joy of life that King has at his age. The man can still flat-out play that guitar and make it sing with his unique vibrato.
He has that characteristic smile, and you can witness his head bobbing along and see him mouth the notes and watch his magical fingers bend the strings of his guitar, Lucille, while she dominates the proceedings.
What a showman B.B. is! I’ve never seen any blues performer who can get a crowd to love him as much. The musicianship is there, but B.B. pulls out all the stops to get you on his side. He continually encourages the crowd to join in with what almost amounts to a singalong for some of the choruses, like he did last night on “Bad Case of Love.”
King also talks in between numbers, gently teasing a few people in the audience to get up and “shake whatever they got.” He began calling up all the young children in the audience as his band backed him up, shaking their hands, and presenting them with a guitar pick he had pulled from his pocket.
To make sure he didn’t appear sexist, he did a special one for the ladies: a familiar, bluesy version of “You Are My Sunshine” that everyone joined in on.
All those things just added to the loving atmosphere; there was nothing B.B. King could do wrong, even if he missed a note or so.
There is one song King is required to do, and has been doing at every concert since the 1950s. They bathed the stage in blue light and B.B. broke out with his signature song: an upbeat version of “The Thrill is Gone.” This got a standing ovation. In fact, everything B.B. did got a standing ovation.
It almost wasn’t necessary for him to conclude by singing “Please Accept My Love,” because the crowd had grown to love him and everything he touched.
King genuinely seemed touched by the ovation, and said he had to leave before wearing out his welcome, because he wanted to come back to Phoenix.
Gradually, he made his way out as his band played—gradually, because he took time to toss dozens of guitar picks to the audience, and kept signing autographs all the way up the ramp.
I recommend attending a B.B. King concert when you have the chance. He attracts some great opening acts, and guarantees a good time, even if you don’t know much about the blues.
Regardless, you’ll leave with a smile; B.B. King’s blues are anything but sad. Consider it a bonus that you will be witnessing a true legend—a master who has influenced the guitar playing of nearly every other modern blues and rock guitarist.
