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Mississippi Heat – Delta Bound
with special guests
Carl Weathersby, Deitra Farr, Billy Flynn, & Chubby Carrier

Delmark DE 823 (2012)

Delta Bound celebrates Mississippi Heat’s 20th year of creating wonderful blues music and their 10th recording! Fourteen original songs, twelve by leader and harmonica player Pierre Lacocque, and two written and/or arranged by lead vocalist Inetta Visor. While the record is a solid electric blues album, you will also find acoustic blues, a catchy New Orleans tune as well as a stunning version of “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” written by Nina Simone and made famous by The Animals in 1965. Special guests include Heat alumnus and original member, singer Deitra Farr who delivers on three awesome songs, zydeco giant Chubby Carrier, guitarists Billy Flynn and Carl Weathersby.

This CD, Delta Bound, is both a showcase for fresh material, mostly written by leader Pierre Lacocque, and an affectionate look back – Deitra Farr has returned to sing a few songs; guitarist Billy Flynn, another early member, is also on hand to contribute his deft meld of rootsy integrity and forward-looking flash. And as usual, the special guests – including zydeco great Chubby Carrier and fretboard mainstay Carl Weathersby – ignite almost as many sparks as the core unit itself. Complete notes by David Whiteis enclosed.

1. Granny Mae 4:02
2. Look-A-Here, Baby 4:08
3. New Orleans Man 5:53
4. My Mother's Plea 5:30
5. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood 4:09
6. Padlock Blues 3:08
7. What's Happening To Me? 4:09
8. The Blues Matrix 4:27
9. Goin' To St. Louis 4:06
10. Trouble In His Trail 4:36
11. Mr. Mistreater 3:43
12. Lemon Twist 4:23
13. Sweet Ol' Blues 3:58
14. Easy To Please 4:58

Pierre Lacocque, harmonica
Inetta Visor, vocals
Giles Corey, guitar
Chris "Hambone" Cameron, keyboards
Joseph Veloz, bass
Kenny Smith, drums

with special guests
Chubby Carrier, accordian (3)
(courtesy of Swampadelic Records)
Carl Weathersby, guitar (5,8,11)
Billy Flynn, guitar (4,7,10,13)
Deitra Farr, vocals (2,7,13)

Additional Musicians:
Chris “Hambone” Cameron plays piano, Wurlitzer, clavinet and B-3 organ except for
Johnny Iguana, piano, B-3 organ (2, 10, 12, 13)
Kenny Smith, drums except for Andrew Thomas (3, 8, 14)
Giles Corey, guitar, all tracks except (2, 3, 7, 10, 13) solo (8, 12)
Billy Satterfield, guitar (1, 2, 4, 14)
Danny Draher, guitar (2)
Keith Blair, guitar (3)
Kenneth Hall, vibraphone (9)

All song written by Pierre Lacocque, Ransart Music, BMI;
except
"Easy To Please" (Music: P. Lacocque, Ransart Music, BMI & C. Cameron, Chi-Bone Music, ASCAP; Lyrics: P. Lacocque, Ransart Music, BMI);

"The Blues Matrix" (I. Visor & D.D. Shonie; The Spiritworks & DeeDee Shonie Music, BMI. Arrangements by I. Visor & D. Morgan);

Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood (Bennie Benjamin, Gloria Caldwell and Sol Marcus; EMI Music Publishing, BMI; Warner/Chappell Music, INC. Arrangements, K. Thompson)

This album is dedicated to our beloved parents, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, Claire Tournay Lacocque, and William “Billy” Null (Billy Satterfield’s Father). May God hold you tenderly in His arms.

Thanks to Chris “Hambone” Cameron and to Giles Corey who worked with me to tie up my musical ideas. Your inputs are invaluable to me. Thanks also to John O’Connor and to my daughter Natalie for helping me refine my lyrics. My gratitude also goes to my GRAMMY AWARD winning co-producer Michael Freeman for his creative ideas and support throughout the project. Delta Bound is our 5th project together and second for Delmark Records. A heartfelt thanks to my wife, children, siblings, in-laws, nieces and nephews, as well as to my parents for your unwavering belief in me. Thanks also to our dedicated booking agents, website master, and friends: Jay Reil, Bernard Villeneuve, Eric Hofmeister, Kattie Mae, Norm & Kyra, Christine T, Myriam & Philippe, Evelyne D., Monique Z., R. Kansky, Betty Lou, and Gary O. at Sonny Jr. Enterprises. Finally, my gratitude goes to Delmark Records for welcoming this 20th anniversary project!
- PIERRE

Pierre plays Hohner harmonicas and uses Sonny Jr.’s Super Cruncher amplifiers.

Lyrics and other Mississippi Heat product available at mississippiheat.net


Album Production & Supervision: Robert G. Koester
Produced by Pierre Lacocque and Michael Freeman
Recorded at Riverside Studio, Chicago on March 13 & 14, 2012
Recorded and mixed by Michael Freeman
Chubby Carrier's tracks were recorded and engineered by Chris Bell at Blade Studios, Shreveport, LA on June 20th, 2012
Cover photo by Diane Richter
Back photo by Bert Reinders
Inside photo by Christopher Jacobs
Design: David Forte

CP 2012 Delmark Records
Send for free catalog of jazz and blues:
Delmark Records, 1 800 684 3480 4121 N. Rockwell,
Chicago, IL 60618 www.delmark.com

The late guitarist Honeyboy Edwards wrote in his autobiography, The World Don’t Owe Me Nothing, that the blues is "something that leads you," a restlessness born of both discontent and hope. The archetypical blues traveler seeks sanctuary as well as freedom, a safe haven "further on down the line." Pierre Lacocque, founder of Mississippi Heat, still remembers the day when this realization came alive for him.

"I was born in Israel," he recalls. "We are a Christian family, but extremely attracted to Jewish thinking and theology; my father [Andre Lacocque] is a world renowned Old Testament scholar . . . Being in a Jewish school [in Brussels, where Pierre and his family moved when he was about six years old] always made me feel different. My brother, sister, and I were the only non-Jews, ever, in the history of that school, to attend. And Belgium is a Catholic country, and we are Protestant, so that was also a kind of different feel. So I was always searching for roots – ‘Where do I belong? Who am I?"

In 1969, Pierre’s father took a faculty position at the Chicago Theological Seminary, and the family moved to America. Adrift in yet another new country, Pierre found himself one evening strolling aimlessly around the campus of the University of Chicago, where the Seminary is located. "It was toward the end of the summer, as I recall . . . I had no idea – here I am from Belgium, I don’t speak English, and I was just walking along, a little bored; then I heard a sound coming from a few blocks away. I said, ‘Man! What the heck is that?’ So I kept walking towards it, with my heart beating and everything – "Damn! I got to go to this! I got to go to this!!"

The "sound" that drew him was the harmonica of blues legend Big Walter Horton, who was playing a concert at Ida Noyes Hall on campus. Entering the hall, Pierre encountered nothing less than a revelation. "I did not know that blues existed as a music form," he insists, "until I came to Chicago. I never had heard it before in my life until 1969. Big Walter – of course I didn’t know who he was at the time, a harmonica player, with an amplifier on a chair, and then the bass, guitar, and drums. Like a lightning bolt, it just converted my life; it just changed my life’s meaning. I never knew this existed – that sound, that tone. I just said, ‘This is what I want to do!’

"It was on a Saturday. I went to a store Sunday, it was closed, I went back again Monday, to get my first harmonica. I felt that I had [found] an area where I could express myself and feel understood – belonging. It was very close to a spiritual, even a religious, experience for me."

Although he eventually met some of Chicago’s most esteemed harp men, Pierre never took lessons. (He also never summoned the courage to approach Big Walter and thank him for changing his life – "I regret that," he now says.) He learned from records and instruction books, practicing with near-obsessive intensity six or seven hours a day. In 1970, he moved to Montreal to pursue his education; when he wasn’t studying, he continued to hone his chops. He eventually hooked up with a local band called Oven and got a further taste of the blues life when he and his bandmates were burned by a shyster promoter. He returned to Chicago in 1976, but rather than leaping back into the city’s blues scene, he took time off to earn a doctorate in psychology and embark on a career as a clinician and researcher. By the late ‘80s, though, he was again feeling restless, and he decided it was time to take the plunge into music once more.

Now a proficient harpist, Pierre worked with various blues aggregations around town. But he craved the opportunity to express himself more fully. "I felt the cry in blues," he explains, "but also the truth about the music. The music reveals the whole existential gamut, from sad to happy – it’s about life, to me. My brother, Michel, knew how much music meant to me; I would tell him, ‘You know, I’d like to do my own material. I’m tired of being a sideman; I want to be creative with my own songs.’ [Guitarist] Jon McDonald, who was a friend of mine, invited me to one of his gigs; it just happened that [bassist] Bob Stroger and [drummer/vocalist] Robert Covington were part of his band. We had such a great time that Michel said, ‘Let’s form a band! I’ll be your manager."

The result was Mississippi Heat. "Jon McDonald was the first guitarist, and Bob Stroger, and Covington was on drums in the beginning. Then Bob Carter took over [on drums] because Covington wanted to be a front man. ‘The Golden Voice,’ man! He had such an impressive stage presence, and his voice, it was just amazing." That voice (as well as Covington’s drumming) was featured on the band’s debut CD, 1992's Straight From My Heart. But Covington was suffering from health problems and finding it difficult to travel. On Stroger’s recommendation, Pierre recruited vocalist Deitra Farr. With Deitra at the helm, a reconstituted Mississippi Heat recorded Learned The Hard Way in 1994 and Thunder In My Heart the following year.

By that time, Mississippi Heat’s ‘traditional blues with a unique sound,’ as their slogan puts it, had been codified, and it’s remained intact ever since. Through myriad personnel changes, which have included stints by some of Chicago’s most esteemed musicians and vocalists (Katherine Davis, who appears on 1999's Handyman, took over after Deitra struck out on her own in the mid-’90s; the incendiary Inetta Visor stepped in in 2001 and has held the mic ever since), Pierre’s beloved dream band has become both a Chicago mainstay and an international ambassador of the living blues tradition.

This CD, Delta Bound, is both a showcase for fresh material and an affectionate look back – Deitra has returned to sing a few songs; guitarist Billy Flynn, another early member, is also on hand to contribute his deft meld of rootsy integrity and forward-looking flash. And as usual, the special guests – including Zydeco great Chubby carrier, keyboardist Chris "Hambone" Cameron, and fretboard mainstay Carl Weathersby – ignite almost as many sparks as the core unit itself.

Through it all, the group’s shared passion for blues expression, in all its soul-baring honesty, is palpable. "Sweet Ol’ Blues, I’m so glad you’re my friend," sings Inetta, in what could stand as both Pierre’s and the entire band’s theme song. "You are my trusted companion, now – yes, my pal, forever on end."

-David Whiteis



Other Delmark Albums of Interest:
Mississippi Heat, Let's Live It Up (807) with John Primer, Carl Weathersby
Hattiesburg Blues (795), with Lurrie Bell, Carl Weathersby
One Eye Open, Live at Rosa's Lounge (783, DVD 1783) with Lurrie Bell
Linsey Alexander, Been There Done That (822)
Quintus McCormick, Still Called The Blues (821)
Rockin' Johnny Band, Grim Reaper (820)
Eddie C. Campbell, Spider Eating Preacher (819)
Studebaker John, Old School Rockin' (818)
Toronzo Cannon, Leaving Mood (817)
Sharon Lewis & Texas Fire, The Real Deal (816)
Demetria Taylor, Bad Girl (814) with Big Time Sarah, Billy Branch, Eddie Shaw