Rollin' and Tumblin’, the great blues standard, was first recorded by Hambone Willie Newbern in 1929. It has been adapted by many of the greats of the blues world, from Muddy Waters to Dylan. I like it for the title of this blog and future podcasts, hopefully, because Hambone is dear to my heart, and Willie is short for William. My father, my son, my grandson and I share the name. Also, it describes my last year in music.
Delta Traces was released in October 2024, with a blast off from the Arkansas Democrat/Gazette’s Philip Martin. Philip is a fellow songwriter, so I appreciate his kind words. Also, the Pine Bluff Commercial’s freelance writer, Richard Ledbetter, dissected most of the songs. Richard knows of the world I write about. I love telling the story of my songs! As we enter mid-April, Delta Traces remains number one on the Roots Contemporary Folk chart. Four months is a long time to be number one in anything, and it is hard to believe that it is being played on a radio somewhere every day. I will forever be grateful to Bobby Rush, lending his name to some of my songs. It gave me a pathway that had most of the gates unlocked.
Probably the two most surreal moments of this experience both came in my truck. While riding back from Kansas with a friend, we got a call saying, turn your radio on XM BB Kings’s Bluesville radio right now. There was Old Hambone moving those feet and slapping them hands. The next time was riding to Fayetteville to go to a basketball game and hearing the radio DJ Early Times introduce Billy Jeter from Wabbaseka, Arkansas, on the same channel. I think he stole the introduction from Thomas Jacques on the King Biscuit hour at the Delta Cultural Center in Helena, Arkansas.
January and February found me following my bird dogs in Texas, where playing live usually meant a fire pit behind a gate on a ranch in South Texas. I think we played in two public venues in Little Rock this spring. When I don’t have live performances to prepare for, I write songs. Some good hopefully - some I throw away the next day. I have found that I can’t write and perform in the same time frame. I have about twelve new ones but probably seven that will see the light of day sooner or later. We played three at the Oyster Bar in March and I liked the sound, but what I start with is rarely what I end up with.
I have the very good fortune to surround myself with really talented people. Kat Daniels Consulting from Benton, Arkansas, has done a great job getting my house in order. I learn something from Kat every time we visit. Twin Vision Music from Brooklyn, New York, has put my music in more peoples' ears around the world than I could ever have imagined. The musicians I play live with and record with make my thoughts come to life. It is a rotating cast that I can’t do without.
As I go forward into 2025, I am trying to decipher a path that works for everyone I am involved with. I want to make sure that everyone is included, musicians and listeners alike. It is a brave new world in booking shows. My music is the most popular it has ever been. While I am still trying to capitalize on the success of Hysteria and Delta Traces, I just have not hit the sweet spot yet. In my writing, I strive for my songs to not be boring or repetitive. I don’t care to be thought of as this being a retirement hobby or a novelty act. I am serious about my writing, and I hope it shows. As events will invariably get booked in the future, I will update my website and post on my social pages.
Taking my injured Boykin Spaniel to have surgery in Memphis recently rekindled my long-time affair with this cradle of roots music. In high school and home from college, we always had to decide whether to go to Memphis or Little Rock on the weekends. Midsouth Coliseum was where I saw some of the greatest concerts of my young life. Beale Street was a different adventure altogether! Two of the three famous studios where blues and rock ’n’ roll were born are still going strong. I went by both Stax Museum (where soul music was born), Sun Studio (rockabilly, Elvis, Johnny, and Carl), and Ardent Studio, where some of the greatest music ever recorded in America has been made. The musical heritage of Memphis burns deep in my music soul. I think of Mick singing about “a gin-soaked barroom queen” and Tina Turner rolling on the river in Sam Phillips studio. Al Green was driving over the river to Royal Recording Studio and recording Let’s Stay Together. Alex Chilton was looking for the letter, a ticket for an airplane and not a fast train. And finally, WC Handy was enlightened after hearing a delta bottleneck slide. I want to be part of this somehow, so I look forward to what happens down the road.
Two albums that are getting the most time on my turntable this spring are the newest release from the enigmatic Jeffrey Foucault, The Universal Fire. The Solo Modelo cut is as good as it gets. Also, Taj Mahal’s soundtrack to the movie Sounder captures the delta where I grew up as good as any Robbie/Levon song ever could. My favorite Artist/band right now is Little Feat because, you know, Dixie Chicken!
I am including the lyrics of a new song that I wrote about a really interesting man I met near the Rio Grande Valley. Put a little malagueña melody in your mind and go hang with the King of Duvall County and me.
~ Billy
King of Duvall County
Sitting on the veranda
Serape keeps the cold away
Mesquite burning in the fire pit
on a gray January day
Señorita coming up from the valley
bringing fruit and other sweet things
They plan to dance the night away
See what the morning brings
The king of Duval County
likes to drive the pretty girls wild
takes a sip of Mezcal
sings them a South Austin lullaby
Eight-foot fence post-to-post
hog wire bottom to top
Can't get in can't get out
Rene's Colt makes 'em stop
Coyote just a howling
La Migra is cutting locks
Rene just stares at the fire pit
wishes both just would knock
The king of Duval County
likes to drive the pretty girls wild
takes a sip of Mezcal
sings them a south Austin lullaby
It is a never-ending
between days and nights
Rene just keeps on dancing
In his Duval County paradise
The king of Duval County
likes to drive the pretty girls wild
takes a sip of Mezcal
sings them a South Austin lullaby
Thinking about those Austin days
can't drink mezcal no more
but he still loves his ladies
King of the Duvall County dance floor