Music Spotlight: Blackberry Possum
In the 1600s, immigrants from Ireland, Scotland and England brought with them the basic styles of music that are thought to be the roots of bluegrass music. As settlers began to move away from the coast and into the mountains of the Carolinas, Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia, they wrote songs about everyday life in the remote regions they called home. It wasn’t until the early 1900s, with the invention of radio, that this music made it out of the hills and into the homes of mainstream America.
In the late 1930s, Bill Monroe, a native of Kentucky, the Blue Grass State, formed a band called Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. It was this group of musicians that started a new form of traditional country music, to which we refer today as bluegrass. Bluegrass music has come a long way since the days of Bill Monroe’s group. Bluegrass bands today reflect influences from a variety of sources, including southern gospel, contemporary country and rock ‘n roll. Some of these more modern bluegrass bands form what some call progressive bluegrass, or jamgrass. Jamgrass bands fuse progressive bluegrass music with the stylings of jam bands, such as Widespread Panic, Phish, The Grateful Dead and The Allman Brothers, an evolution that no doubt has Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass, smiling and tapping his toes from his heavenly seat in rock ‘n roll heaven.
Columbus is fortunate to have an incredibly talented group of musicians who have formed the jamgrass band Blackberry Possum. Seeing Blackberry Possum perform live is a mind-blowing experience. When you think of bluegrass, songs come to mind like “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” or “Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms,” but when Blackberry Possum hits the stage, they blow you away with their renditions of Pink Flyod’s “Wish You Were Here,” Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit,” and The J Geil’s Band’s “Love Stinks.”
This band puts out a contagious energy. Noone stays in their seat for long. It’s a foot-stomping, hand-clapping, dancing-in-the-aisles kind of show, led by a headbanging Wildman Steve on a West Virginia drumset. For those of you who are not familiar with a West Virginia drumset, think back to what was available to those early bluegrass pioneers. That’s right, Wildman Steve plays the washboard. And they don’t him Wildman for nothing. He is an entertainer, to say the least, and the sounds he hammers and scrapes out of that washboard are unbelievable.
This six-piece band plays without any other percussion. Ton Burgess on bass and Wildman Steve on washboard glue the act together as the rhythm section. Brian Fowler plays mandolin, Tony Brook is on guitar, Jimbo Leach plays fiddle and John Boyd handles banjo, guitar and steel guitar. All members of the band sing and provide harmony, except for Brian, who doesn’t want to show the other guys up. With half the band hailing from Columbus and the other half from Auburn, you can catch them playing shows all over the Chattahoochee Valley.
Blackberry Possum recorded a live album at The Loft on Broadway in Columbus last year, which you can purchase at wildmansteve.com. While you’re there, check out the really cool radio station Wildman Steve hosts. Also, check out the band on Facebook or on their YouTube channel.
Your next chance to catch them live is July 8 at The Buckwild Saloon in Smiths Station, Al. They will also be with Amy Black on July 13 at Sundilia Acoustic Concert at Pebble Hill in Auburn, Al., and again Aug. 5 at Eighth & Rail in Opelika, Al.
For bookings, visit wildmansteve.com or call (334) 524-0495. Treat yourself to a band as unorthodox and authentic as Black Berry Possum and make plans to see them at their upcoming shows. It’ll be like nothing you’ve heard before.