This is an opportunity of a lifetime for any musician especially a self made musician playing harmonica, guitar and singing simultaneously. Bobbie has been booked in many different venues with know musicians such as, Keb Mo, Guitar Shorty, Marvin Sease, Blues Boy Willie, Honey Boy,  Pine Top Perkins,Willie Clayton,Whitey Johnson, Louisiana Redd and numerous other musicians throughout his fifty plus years as a striving Blues Artist striving to keep the Old School Blues alive. In fact while visiting the Blues Society’s monthly jams in Austin, Texas at Antwone’s Bobbie and Pine Top Perkins were the only two artist asked to render two extra numbers, this was one of the highlights of his career in music, meeting the great Pine Top Perkins. The schedule is posted at http://bobbiemercyoliver.com

1 tsp vanilla flavor

1 tsp butter flavor

1/4 cup crisco oil

1 stick of butter, softened at room temperature

1 8oz pack of cream cheese, room temperature

1 cup sifted all purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

granulated 1/2 cup milk, your choice excluding buttermilk or condensed can milk

Mix cake mix, flour, sugar.

Cook at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until when you stick a tooth pick in the center it comes out clean,  it’s done then.

Melts in your mouth, you don’t have to chew it if you don’t want to!!

Unfortunately I did not get to see their act because another dear friend carried us over to another venue for part of their Jam Session. We did return to Juanita’s in time to hear our favorite female blues lady, Essie The Blues Lady and Ruckus (her guitar) perform and our adopted daughter, Ramona Smith, all in all we had a fabulous time at Juanita’s. I have reviewed Jawbone and Jolene’s music and fell in love with that delta sound, I highly recommend this duo.

BO: Please tell us how you two met and how you got into the blues scene.

J&J: In 2003, we met through a mutual friend. Less than a year later, we married. Unbeknownst to Jawbone, Jolene had musical roots going back some 40 years. While he was between bands, Jolene carried a .22 rifle into a pawnshop and returned home with a Fender Concord guitar. She then asked Jawbone to teach her about the Blues. A few years later, they were ready to hit the stage. And they did just that in joints around Little Rock not to mention El Dorado and Jonesboro.
These days they can be found at the local farmers market in Little Rock busking for tips and spreading joy. All ages are attracted to our gritty honest real blues. We’ve seen little kids to octogenarians jazzing and jiving to our groove.

Between Jolene’s sweet and solid contra-soprano vocals and Jawbone’s whiskey voice, the bases are loaded. Jolene lays down a rhythmic groove for Jawbone’s harps to soar above.

BO: I am sure the readers are interested in how you two met and what influenced you to form a duo.

J&J: Jb-  For me (Jawbone), seeing someone close to me come awake with a guitar and a good voice, and take hold of that, and work at it, and bloom like a blossom, there’s nothing like that.  The day she brought her first guitar home she asked me to teach her about Blues music and I said, hey, I’m just a harp guy!  And she said, Just get me going in the right direction.  I’ll be your guitar gal!

BO: Will you tell us about some of the favorite places you have entertained?

J&J: We started out in a dive down in the Levy area of North Little Rock.  The owner was saying they’d lost their Tuesday evening happy hour act and I heard Jolene saying, “We’ll do it!”  And that was our first gig, a tip jar deal from like 6 to 8 p.m. at a dive down there on MacArthur Drive.  We also took an invite to go down to El Dorado and play at a jam there, and Jo totally won the crowd over down there one night.  We took on another happy hour thing at another place on MacArthur and also began playing on the street in downtown Little Rock.   The places were not as important as what Jolene began to realize, and that was that she had something to give to people, with her guitar and her voice.  She began getting on stage at open mic nights here and there and we also began busking and booking clubs in earnest.

We also hit the jams at a few places around town and have had some great times locally.  But once we “discovered” Clarksdale Mississippi, we had arrived in Blues Town!  One of our first trips over there we stopped for lunch at a joint that was in the old train depot, and the owner of the club ended up booking us.  An energy so strong you could feel it in there.  After all, this was the train depot in Clarksdale, at the crossroads of 49 and 61.  EVERYbody who was anybody had walked across that floor on their way to Memphis, Chicago, Detroit.  Muddy, Wolf, SBI and II, the Walters, Memphis Minnie, all the guys and gals who had laid the foundation of early blues so we could have something real to play.  And there we were on that stage, at sort of a personal crossroads, we could pack up and go home or we could take the roof off the place.

And that night I believe we each channeled some of that history and energy from that place and all those blues icons into our instruments and voices, and we just flat got it done.  Sometimes you just become a sort of conduit through which the real deal blues flows.  This was one of those times.  To say that we played with total abandon comes sort of close, but maybe you had to be there to really get the idea.  The owner was all smiles afterward and paid us double what he’d promised and asked us back.

BO: We want to know if you all have day jobs or do you play music as a career?

J&J: Jb- we have day jobs.  Or we’d be starving!  It’s hard out there.  Wages for musicians have actually dropped since I started playing in public in the 90’s.

BO: Tell us if you have entertained on Blues or music festivals.

J&J: Jb- We got to open for a car show/bbq contest in a small city an hour and change from here.  Did the Blues for Peace concert in Jonesboro with Hairy Larry and a crowd of bands.  We play at events in Clarksdale at a joint or two.  Recently we got to open for some really good friends from Hot Springs at their cd release party in North Little Rock.

BO: How many CD’S do you have if any? If so are your lyrics original or do you do cover tunes?

J&J: Jb- we have one cd, and are working toward the second.  The first was a mix of covers and originals.  This next one will be largely or all original.  We both write songs and then we work them out in the living room and play them live.  The synergy that happens is really awesome.

BO: How many years have you been singing and picking? How long do you intend to be entertainers?

J&J: Jb- I’ve been playing music as an avocation for nearly 20 years now.  Jo is much newer at it but seems like an old hand fitting into a well broke in glove.  She’s a natural!  She has a unique feel for the groove and it’s an understatement to say that she’s been a perfect partner for me.  She has dug in and worked on nearly everything I’ve asked her to and made it work time and again.   Our plan is to play as long as the Lord lets us, and play every place we can until we get noticed or kicked out!  In fact we hope to just hit the road in a few years when we’re both retired, and tour all over, see the country, visit a lot of friends, and play across the nation.

BO: Did you all come from families with music backgrounds? Did you teach yourselves to play instruments of music?

J&J: Jb-  There was some music in my family but it was pretty much dormant.  My gramps played harp to me as a small child and that’s where it began for me, though it took years to show any results!  When I was a teenager my Mom handed me a box and told me to pick something out as a legacy from my long-passed father.  There was a Marine Band harp in there, key of C, which my Mom’s dad had given my Dad at about the time I was born.  This was what I chose as my legacy.  I had a cousin or two who dabbled in music but it’s not prominent in my family.  I still debate with myself whether I have any real talent, or if I’m just stubborn.  Having begun to try and play harp at age 17 or so, I was in my late 40’s before I really began to get the idea and expand my playing to emulate my harp heroes- guys like George “Harmonica” Smith, Jimmy Reed, James Cotton, and so many others.

For Jo, there was a family guitar and a couple members dabbled in popular-at-the-time songs.  When she was about 10 years old, she adopted that guitar for a summer and taught herself how to play out of a Joan Baez songbook and some piano chord books.  Then she took a few decades off, until the passion was awakened after she and I became a couple.  She is very partial to the styles of Memphis Minnie and we cover a few of that great lady’s songs. Jo always sang ever since she can remember. Sang some in a church choir and doing household chores on a daily basis.

BO: Will you share with us some of the artist you like and what you like about them?

J&J: Jb- Muddy and all his crews, Wolf, Jimmy Reed, Little Walter, Joe Turner, Tbone Walker, Memphis Minnie, Etta James.  There are so many!  What I love about blues in general and those mentioned above in specific is, you hear them and you are moved.  You feel them.  They all played the music with an earnest dedication that we do our best to emulate because we feel it too.

BO: Have you won any awards? If so name a few for us.

J&J: Jb- none as yet!!  Jolene:  Now, that ain’t right!

I thank you for allowing me to enter your lives with so many questions and I sincerely wish you guys the best of everything in all your endeavor, keep making music.

Bobbie Mercy Oliver

I recall my mother being so excited and proud of me, her brian child. I always made the honor rolls throughout elementary school. In fact if I did not earn an A, I became an unhappy camper. I alwasy made excellent grades in math providing there wasn’t any reading problems to be solved, they required a lot of thinking or as daddy would sasy, lots of ciphering, thinking math problems always made me confused and angry because I could not figure them out no matter how long I tried and the more I tried the more aggravated I became. I never had problems with addition, subtraction, division, multiplication or fractions problems, just those reading and comprehension questions.

My aunt helped me with the reading problems I had to solve becaause she had more education than the rest of her siblings, if I’m not mistaken, she had an eight grade education. I really love my aunt because she was so patient and kind with me. She would always tell me before she went to her home, “You sleeep on it and you’ll know it in the morning.” I would lie in bed trying to remember what she had explained to me and the confusion would set in again. I remember praying, “Dear God,” Please let me remember how to solve and explain these problems in the morning if I awaken.” For a long time I felt God did not hear me because when I awoke the next morning my mind was totally blank, nil, zero, nothing there but confusion. No matter how hard I tried the answers continued to be elusive, gone to Timbutu.

If there is such a thing as luck, it truly was on my side because the teachers never called on me to read and explain those God awful reading and comprehension questions. Nearing the end of elementary school I became really frightened about going to H.B. Pemberton high school. It was the beginning and the end for me because I would never become a teacher, doctor, lawyer or journalist becaiuse of my disability with retaining any knowledge of Algebra, Geometry, Biology or Chemistry, all of which I would have to master. I went to high school until my junior year afer failing Algerbra the first year and barely passing it when I had to re-take it the next year, I turned my books in and quit school breaking my mother nd father’s hearts because I could not graduate and could not attend college because I knew I would be wasting my time and money because I could not retain any math beyond basic mathmatics.
It was many years later I went to night classes and aced everything and managed to pass the math portion of the test and earned my GED certificate thanks to Mr. J. Wilborn.

This inability to retain math of higher degree’s has had me baffled for all of my life. I hope one day science or doctors can explain my inability to retain math because I am not the only person with this disability, perhaps in some lesser degree this is a form of Dyslexia. I do not have the answer or the remedy. As I sit here writing this short but true story, I am reminded of the song by the Temptations, “The Way You Do The Things you Do”, you can do anything you desire to do, the way you do the things you do with the Creator’s aid. I can read, I can write, I know basic math, please somebody, anybody, tell me,” What Was I Supposed To Be?

Greetings and well wishes for the end of the year and the beginning of a brand new year, 2010.  This month I am featuring a very special talented person, none other than, Ramona from the great city of Little Rock, Arkansas via Pasadena, California. This young lady needs no special  introduction, her works speak for themselves. With no further ado, I give you, Ramona… !!!!!

BO: I gather you began your music career in church, Judging by the tone of your music it relates to me an early start rooted in Gospel music. I also noticed you have the ability or I should say God given talent to sing almost any genre’. I can hear Gospel , Soul, Jazz and blues whenever you begin to belt one of the songs on your repertoire. 

R:    You must have an excellent ear for music to be able to tell I was reared deep into Gospel music at an early age. It’s true, the Creator gave me special talents to make up for my short comings. I have favorites among Gospel recording artist, Jazz musicians and blues. I can even belt out some Country. I refuse to call any names because I learned a long time ago, if you call names and omit someone, you’re in big trouble.

BO: Tell me how it felt rearing your family and traveling all over the world taking the music to every nook and cranny.

R. The hardest part was not being able to take part in seeing to it that they ( my kids) were bought up properly, unfortunately my responsibility was left upon the shoulders of my dear mother. I could not have made music my career if it wasn’t for the Creator and dear mother, whom I lost a year or so ago. Rest in Peace, mother. Many thanks to mother for nourishing my children while I was down the road of uncertainty.

BO: Please tell us what got you motivated to go for the music career.

R. I entered a talent show in a club in Los Angeles when I was 19 years young. I won the contest much to my surprise and $ 300.00. It was rocking after that win, but it has not been easy.

BO: Will you please tell the fans where we had our chance meeting?

R. I’ll be happy to tell the story of how we met. It was in 2006 in Helena, Arkansas at the King Biscuit Blues Battle ,* this was the name before it changed to Arkansas Heritage.

Bobbie and his band, Jam City Revue were competing against me and my band plus a whole bunch of bands from here there and every where. I do mean every where, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mexico and California to name a few. Okay, I met Bobbie’s wife, Eva in the Rest room after we had picked our numbers to be in the contest. She and I hit it off real well and began a friendship that has weathered a few years. We don’t see each other often but we keep in touch by telephone. Needless to say, my band did not win and Bobbie’s band did not win. It’s so hard fighting legions of road blocks made by man.

BO: Yes, I know just what you mean, I made one more trip in 2007 and decided I had enough.

R: I did not bother going back after the first fiasco. I must say better things happened after that, the next year, I opened for B. B. King in Little Rock, Arkansas at the Amphitheater. I invited my good friends, Bobbie & Eva with passes to the show. I even gave a shout out during the show to my friends. They have been a life line for me as far as friends go, they’re more like family. I have opened for Al Jureau and some other great musicians.

BO: How did you get to become a part of the Johnny Otis Band in California?

R: I had been booked at a club and his booking agents noticed me and gave me an audition date and two weeks later I accepted an eight year contract. We opened for B. B. King, Otis Clay, Buddy Guy, Grover Washington Jr. and numerous bands.

BO: I read somewhere where you had roles in musical productions, tell us about some of them.

R: I moved to Covina and was cast in “Dream girls” at the Covina Valley Playhouse, now known as the Covina Center for the Performing Arts.

BO: I am ready to hear that you have produced your own CD.

R: Hey man, that is at the top of my priority list, in the mean time you can hear me singing on “Good Loving Blues” with the Johnny Otis album sold at any popular music store.

BO: Thanks, my friend for allowing me into your zone.

R. You’re quite welcome, I hope the fans enjoy this as much as I enjoyed the interview.

www.jamwave.com/ramona

Next month the editor will continue the story, What Was I Supposed to Be.

BM: What if any music instruments do you play if any?
JB: I play Rhythm Guitar,Blues Harmonica, Latin Percussion, Keyboards, Lead Vocals, I write original music all the time.

BM: Were you educated in a college of music?
JB: I am a self taught musician playing by ear.

BM: Jay, are you signed with a major recording label?
JB: I’m an Independent Artist and have recorded on major labels as well…ABC Dunhill and Bearsville Studios (Warner Brothers).

BM: Jay will you share with us some of your fondest memories?
JB: Fondest memories…..Wow…..wow….far to many… and they are still happening…I’m so Blessed…. My favorites I guess were all the concerts I’ve done over the years with AIM THE AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT…The Concerts for Wounded Knee and The longest Walk…also THE NO NUKES CONCERTS….

BM: Tell us in your own way how that Blues Festival went over.
BJ: I feel all of us learned respect for each other’s talents and we want to take the show on the road. Our connection (you and I) are very important to me and I’d like to do some shows with you.

Reading was always my hobby and next to it was Crossword Puzzles, I still work them to this day. Oprah, lookout, I started my own book club 59 years ago and I still read a lot to this date. One could say it really began while in elementary school because we had to bring all of our books home to study our home work, don’t forget it was customary for children to study, get home work done, after we had eaten. Then we could go outside and play until dark, Mother’s stayed home during that era and cooked a meal three times a day, it may not have been what we desired but we were not hungry. I always finished my home work first because I read fast and comprehended what I had read. My mother thought I was goofing off and I ahd to prove to her satisfaction I was actually getting my home work done.
I would go to the library at school most times each day to take a book home. I was reading and returning them so fast our librarian, Mrs. Pittman thought I was not reading the books so speedily, she had read most of the books and knew them by heart. She began to quiz me bout he contents of the books and since I was able to tell her what I read she was convinced and allowed me to read the books designated for seniors. I must confess, I never was interested in Shakespeare and when the class was assigned to read it I was bored to death but it helped me to pass my reading comprehension test.