UnBeliveable!!!

[601blues]

well yesterday saturday, Charlie O da houserocker had invited me to go do a Blues fest with him, so off we went on a 3hr drive to Blackcreek mississippi! Beautiful place!
But let me say this, Mississippi is still way back in history in a lot of places, it changes from town to town, But the Black and white issues are still alive and well in a lot of areas in mississippi, this was one of those!!
upon arriving we found we were the only White Boys around, no problem, for us that is!! but we were treated very badly, Charlie is very upbeat and positive and I had to point some of this out to Charlie, at first he didn't believe me BUT soon he caught on!!
They had a very impressive stage set up, speaker towers and about 20k watts of power very loud, as we found out everytime we put on hands on a guitar, Issac Hays was cranked to full volume,To stop us from playin and for about 3hrs they kept it cranked and would not let us play, and nobody said a word too us, It was so loud that when we were packin Our gear to leave, we were about 200 yards from the stage, and could not hear each other talk!!!!!NO JOKE!! After packing and gettin in our cars, to leave the music was shut down just that fast!! to let us know they were runnin us off!!
And we did not hear 1 blues tune while we were there! All R&B, However we got an afternoon of good laughs, I enjoyed just hangin out with Charlie O,
However Out adventure was not over!! Drivin out I was following Charlie, thru a hill area, and all of a sudden what I thought was a deer came rollin down the side of a 40-60 ft hill hit the ditch and landed in the road way, in the oppsite lane, I thought Charlie was gonna hit it!!! But it was not a deer!! It was a REDNECK!!! We stopped I asked the Guy was he OK?? he said HELL Yeah!! cars were commin at him, I told him to get outta the road, But he was just crawlin around pickin up some pennies that must have fell outta his pockets after slammin into the pavement!!!!!!!! STRANGE SATURDAY!!!

[mnozzolio]

Had they hired you and Charlie to play or give you a scheduled time? Why would they hire you only to snub you?

[601blues]

I don't think they hired us, Charlies employer was a sponsor of the Fest, and it was supposed to be understood, that we were to play some before the main event, so we had from 3pm to around 5pm, But we were shut down, Anyway Iam sure that the sponsorship will not be available next year, It was a strange day indeed!

[mnozzolio]

Definitely sounds strange, though it seems like you guys handled it properly -- don't make a big deal of it and just go about your business.

[601blues]

yup!! nuttin I could do in a couple min. thats has been done the last 100 yrs!! no big deal!! Iam just sad that the issues still linger, I grew up in New Orleans, and we didn't really have any Black white issues, in the music communitiy, and it may be hard for a lot of us to understand what I just reported, however it is true, and there is still strong seperation in Ms. in churches etc.
And as I have said before, I have had run ins with Musicians here about me being white and playin Blues!! The Black Bluesmen Keep it to themselves, and really don't feel White and Blues fit together.
Its not as Blatant in the city, however you get out in the country side and its alive and well!!

[bigdaddy]

I've experienced that racisim in Memphis and North Carolina. It is ugly and it runs deep, right to the marrow of their bones. White hates black and black hates white and they don't even know each other. I couldn't understand it either. I have had black friends thru my years who thought I didn't understand. Once I told them things only growing up dirt poor would a person know they would laugh and agree, poor is poor in any color.
I'm glad you never got hurt, that does happen also.

[601blues]

yes that thought did cross my mind thats why I kinda insisted we fold our tents!
One night not to long ago, in Hattiesburg Ms. my band was hired to do a show at a Juke/Soul food place, By a Black owner, no problem, however shortly after startin the show the place was packed, and right in the middle of a tune, One Guy actually jumped up and demanded us to stop and get out ,He said we were in a black place and they didn't wanna listen to white BS, he was drunk and tried to grab my guitar outta my hands!! kinda freaked me out, But he was escorted out by others BUt the night was ruined, I just could not get my MOJO back after that!

[maxx england]

The outside world only sees Americans, you see each other as separate peoples sharing the same land. And at the end of it all, wherever or whoever you are, you're just another human being just trying to make a living and get through life without too much pain.

I don't know what the answer to your problems is, the US is too big for a foreign invader to make you all pull together and realise the common ground you have instead of focussing on the genetically trivial difference in skin colour and the history tied in with it.

All we can do is tell you to stay safe and try not to let it get you down.