“Musically, he was like an old man in a boy’s skin.”
―
Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
In A Boy’s Skin
Tag Archives: blues
Got Those Deep Ellum Blues
If you go down to Deep Elem
Just to have a little fun,
You’d better have your fifteen dollars
When the policeman come.Chorus:
Oh, sweet mama, daddy’s got the Deep Elem Blues;
Oh, sweet mama, daddy’s got the Deep Elem Blues.If you go down to Deep Elem,
Keep your money in your shoes;
The women in Deep Elem
Got those Deep Elem blues.If you go down to Deep Elem,
Take your money in your pants;
The women in Deep Elem
Never give the men a chance.Now I once knew a preacher,
Preached the Bible through and through,
He went down into Deep Elem,
Now his preaching days are through.Now I once had a sweet gal,
Lord, she meant the world to me;
She went down into Deep Elem;
She ain’t what she used to be.Her papa’s a policeman
And her mama walks the street;
Her papa met her mama
When they both were on the beat.—-Deep Elm Blues (Deep Ellum Blues), Traditional
Jerry Lee Lewis sings the “Deep Elm Blues“. This was an unissued take made in the Sun Studios (lyrics and audio from wikisource).
Deep Ellum Poster, by Brad Albright, Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
I saw this poster hanging on telephone poles in Deep Ellum honoring some of that spot’s musical history:
Bessie Smith, Leadbelly, Robert Johnson, and Blind Lemon Jefferson
The poster is by Brad Allbright (website, instagram)
I have a piece of original art by him, bought at the Kettle Art Gallery’s For the Love of Kettle event.
Painting #1 – by Brad Allbright
A Few Squeaks
“I wanted to play saxophone, but all I could get were a few squeaks.”
— Stevie Ray Vaughan
Dots Hop House, Deep Ellum, Dallas, Texas
Texas Flood
Well there’s floodin’ down in Texas
All of the telephone lines are down
Well there’s floodin’ down in Texas
All of the telephone lines are down
And I’ve been tryin’ to call my baby
Lord and I can’t get a single sound
Well dark clouds are rollin’ in
Man I’m standin’ out in the rain
Well dark clouds are rollin’ in
Man I’m standin’ out in the rain
Yeah flood water keep a rollin’
Man it’s about to drive poor me insane
—-Texas Flood, Stevie Ray Vaughn
Trinity River,
Dallas, Texas
Dirty French Fry
Something Like Happiness
“I would like to bring to people something like happiness. I would like to discover a method so that if I want it to rain, it will start right away to rain. If one of my friends is ill, I’d like to play a certain song and he will be cured; when he’d be broke, I’d bring out a different song and immediately he’d receive all the money he needed.”
― John Coltrane
The Gold Magnolias
New Orleans, Louisiana
Saxophone player with The Gold Magnolias at a concert at the Freret Market – New Orleans
Jimmy’s Food Store
A while back, Candy had this wine at an Italian restaurant in Fort Worth. It was Lacryma de Christi del Vesuvio – which translates as “Tear of Christ.” It’s a type of wine produced on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius. We had been looking for the stuff all over the Metroplex and nobody had it. They all said the same thing though, “have you looked at Jimmy’s? If anybody has it, they will.” I looked up Jimmy’s Food Store and found it was on the corner of Fitzhugh and Bryan in East Dallas. Today we had some time and drove down there.
I’m familiar with that area. For years I went through there twice a day on my way to work downtown – either driving or on a bus. It was always a poor area, pretty lively, but not the place you wanted to wander around after dark. Lately, though, a lot of the run down old apartments and crude homes have been torn down and the area is primed for redevelopment and gentrification.
Meat Case - Italian Sausage and more
Do you like Nutella? - here's an eleven pound jar for seventy dollars.
Jimmy’s Food Store is a fantastic place. It’s the motherlode of specialty Italian food and wine. I heard the owner talking – he’s been in the same location for forty-two years. The neighborhood has been through some serious changes over that time, but his store has stayed the same. It was crowded with people buying Italian groceries – about a quarter of them speaking Italian.
The store isn’t very big, but holds a lot of goodness, crammed in as tight as can be. The biggest area is dedicated to wine, a huge selection of Italian wines, arranged by region and type. You can learn a lot about wine simply walking the aisles and reading the little articles they have taped to each variety.
Sure enough, they had a couple Lachryma Christi whites (the one red they carry was sold out). There was a Mastroberardino and a Vini Nobilis. We bought one of each and a couple other bottles of wine. We picked up some pasta (Pastosa – imported from Brooklyn!) some cheese and a couple of sauces to go with the pasta.
A couple of Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio
This is the kind of place you don’t want to go when you are hungry. You will buy too much stuff. In addition to the wine and groceries, back next to the meat counter, is a little place where you can order sandwiches. We bought a Cuban and a Muffaletta, some drinks, and took them out to a little table out by the street. The day had started out crisp, but the Texas sun was warming everything up quickly.
Mufalletta - big enough for about three meals
Cuban Sandwich
Seating out on the street.
It was really nice sitting out there on the street eating sandwiches and enjoying the day. There was even live music – a partly blind man, Vincent Van Buren, playing harmonica and singing the blues (and a lot of old Beatles tunes).
It doesn’t get any better than that.
Video – Partially Blind Man Plays Harmonica at Local Food Store
Antonio Ramblés – Dallas’s Italian grocery
A lot of restaurants use Jimmy’s Sausage – Like Fireside Pies
