"Entertaining" may not be the first word associated with the blues. But you couldn't find a more entertaining blues show than long-timer Bobby Rush and youngblood Jontavious Willis this weekend at the Dakota in Minneapolis.
In his late 80s, Rush is the last active bluesman of his generation, along with 85-year-old Buddy Guy. "But Buddy didn't have 397 records," Rush pointed out Friday night at the Dakota, claiming he has released that many.
While Guy is a skillful showman, Rush is a masterful entertainer, part comic, part storyteller and part musician. He came out talking on Friday — for a good eight minutes before he played a note. Rush likes to share his life story, which is featured in the compelling new autobiography "I Ain't Studdin' Ya," which he sold and signed after the concert.
Rush began the show by opening a birthday card from a fan named Sue. "You got my birthday wrong," he said. "You say I'm 88. I'm 87.
"I like her already.
"I'm Bobby Rush. I'm better known as Sue's boyfriend."
He's playful in his patter and in his songs. During his nearly 90 minutes onstage, the two-time Grammy winner served up many a sexually suggestive blues number that, just when it was about to become X-rated, he abruptly halted the song. The King of the Chitlin' Circuit would not let his blues become blue, not on this night anyway in the spiffy Dakota. However, inquiring clubgoers want to know how "I Got 3 Problems" (the wife, the mistress and the girlfriend) was resolved.
Accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and later harmonica, Rush offered his biggest hit, 1971's "Chicken Heads," in a medley with "Bow-Legged Woman, Knock-Kneed Man." In the middle of his set, he delivered some full songs, including the plaintive plea "Howlin' Wolf" and the classic "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" featuring some soulful guitar picking.
An enthralling conversationalist with a quick and easy sense of humor, the longtime Mississippi resident did a little preaching about the importance of working "together so we can overcome anything, everything."
The colorful Blues Hall of Famer, dressed in a sparkling dark blue dinner jacket and Carolina blue slacks, apologized for talking so much. He promised to play more music and talk less on Saturday.
"I got 328 more songs to do," he said with a wink in his voice.
No one was complaining because the performance felt like a thoroughly entertaining history lesson about the last bluesman gigging and his music.
Opening the concert was prodigiously talented Georgia country-bluesman Jontavious Willis. Probably one of the most personable and enthusiastic blues opening acts you'll witness, Willis, 25, showed respect ("What'd I Say"), humor ("Long Winded Woman"), mad skills on acoustic guitar (bending those blues notes) and harmonica (creating a race between two trains), and a wonderful voice that was, at turns, as rich as molasses and as sweet as honey.
Rush and Willis will perform at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Dakota in downtown Minneapolis.
An NPR editor who wrote a critical essay on the company has resigned after being suspended
