This will get your butt movin'.
"RL
Boyce was born on August 15, 1955, in Como, Mississippi, where he still
resides. It is a community with enduring blues, fife-and-drum, and
gospel traditions. Boyce picked up music as a teenager, starting out
singing in the church choir and playing percussion in fife-and-drum
bands. Regarding his evolution on the drums, he says, “I learned from a
foot tub. Back then we didn’t have a bathtub – a foot tub is what you
bathed in, what you had your water in.” His earliest issued recording
[“Late at Midnight, Just a Little Before Day,” on Traveling Through the
Jungle: Negro Fife and Drum Band Music from the Deep South] was made on
his 15th birthday, accompanying his uncle Otha Turner. Boyce later
adjusted that percussion style to a blues context on a more expanded
drum kit, as heard on Jessie Mae Hemphill’s classic Feelin’ Good album.
His singular, bursting-at-the-seams drumming on the first side of that
record is a benchmark of loose-limbed groove.
Perhaps it isn’t
surprising that such a vibrant musician would want to branch out from
solely being a sideman to establish himself as a solo artist and leader
of his own groups. Inspired by his neighbors Mississippi Fred McDowell
and RL Burnside, he took up the guitar: “Oh man, I loved it. I always
wanted to do what they did, so I got along with it.” He was coached by a
couple local musicians including Joe Townsend (whose sole 45 for
Designer Records is spellbinding, live-in-the-church gospel blues [It is
unclear who plays guitar on Townsend’s 45. Bengt Olsson’s research
states it was Johnnie Mays, while Boyce has consistently asserted that
it sounds like Townsend accompanied himself. Of course, it is also
possible that both guitarists shared a similar approach.]) and over time
he developed an individual style that draws upon songs from the local
repertoire and interprets them with considerable enthusiasm and
spontaneity.
RL comes from a
stream of the folk tradition that is less concerned with “getting it
right” than getting it going, and with developing a distinct, individual
sound. While regionally popular tunes and lyrics often serve as the
bedrock of Boyce’s material, he takes them to places that no one else
would, often peppering them with lyrics he makes up on the spot, as well
as shout outs to his collaborators, his longtime companion Sheila Birge
and their daughter Shanquisha, and anyone else who might happen to be
in the vicinity. At other times, his songs are fully improvised. As
Boyce puts it, “Most of it, when somethin’ hits my mind, I just start.
You know, like if I’m around you and I think about you a lot, I could
sit at home in the yard, if you hit my mind, I play one right there,
right then. I’m playin’ this for Adam, a friend of mine in New York.
It’d hit me like that and I’d just go right on. I don’t do no rehearsin’
with nobody. I don’t do nothin’ like that. Whatever hits me, I jump in
on it.” If he is in one of these more talkative moods, his stream of
consciousness delivery is reminiscent of Lightnin’ Hopkins, John Lee
Hooker, and even the jokester side of Furry Lewis. When he really gets
going, there is a deeply infectious sense of release, and of letting
loose. At such times, laughter comes easy and often from RL and those
around him.
Although Boyce
occasionally takes gigs in faraway locales, most of the time he seems
content to play at clubs and parties closer to home, often in his own
front yard. His music developed within this informal environment where
he plays largely for friends and family, which is perhaps one reason why
his songs have such an open-ended, spontaneous, freewheeling quality.
His performances are very social and he welcomes an unpredictable,
interactive relationship with his fellow performers as well as the
audience. Other musicians may be invited to join in, but they shouldn’t
expect much guidance. An inquiry regarding what key Boyce is playing in
will likely elicit an instruction along the lines of “follow me.” This
is not always a straightforward task. They need to be ready to respond
to sudden shifts, make adjustments on the fly, or play for hours while
making subtle variations on a few grooves." excerpted from review of his first record - Adam Lore, author
