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James Cotton
@ Biscuits & Blues, July 15 & 16, 1998

James Cotton
Biscuits & Blues, 7/15/98
Photo © 1998 by Tom Asp.
All rights reserved
Depending on which night you caught James Cotton you saw two entirely different shows. I mean TWO ENTIRELY different shows. If you happened to see Cotton when he was at Brew Baker's last November you got a small glimpse of his temper. Well, at the Wednesday show Cotton completely lost his cool. He turned in an erratic and ragged performance in the midst of pouting and throwing several temper tantrums. He indicated he was having problems with the mike or monitor, we never really knew what his problem was because it sounded good to us out in the audience. He was giving the soundman and his mike evil looks even throwing the mike down several times. Finally during the second set he even stormed off the stage in frustration leaving a bewildered Mojo Buford holding the mike, not sure what to do. Finally at Cotton's urging Mojo picked up one of the harps and blew a fine Chicago blues number as he is so capable of doing. Cotton finally came back on stage and finished out the set, quitting well before the scheduled 11 PM ending time.

After seeing his fine performance last year I knew Wednesday nights outing was just an anomaly and I decided to give him a second change on Thursday. Boy am I glad I did because at the second night's show Cotton was "on" and delivered a performance that was pretty close to sublime. The first set started off the same with David Maxwell pounding out some jaw-dropping keyboards followed by Rico McFarland joining him on stage with his excellent guitar stylings. Cotton then took his seat and proceeded to blow the crowd away with his intensity and clear, full blown tonal range harp attack. He didn't miss a beat at the Thursday night show and put on a demonstration that made you wonder how good this guy must have been in his prime.





Cotton & Mojo
Biscuits & Blues, 7/15/98
Photo © 1998 by Tom Asp.
All rights reserved
Mojo Buford then joined the foursome after a few songs and provided the vocals for the remainder of the night. Cotton can barely talk, the result of throat surgery several years ago so he left the singing in Mojo's capable hands. Although I have to laugh as I recall a somewhat shaken Buford on Wednesday night forget the lyrics to some of the songs he was singing. I think during the song "Sweet Home Chicago," Mojo only sang the chorus over and over, no verses. You can't help but love Mojo, he constantly has a natural smile on his face that lights up any room he is in. He also has a new album out this year on Blue Loon Records called "Home Is Where My Harps Is." Yes, that's its real title.

Even though the first night's show was not as sharp as the second it was still a "fun" experience and you could also feel the respect the audience had for Cotton despite his outbursts. After all, we did get to see some pretty funky "dancing" on his part that he normally wouldn't be doing.




Mailbox E-mail Ray Stiles at: mnblues@aol.com

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Copyright © 1998 by Ray M. Stiles
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.