Snooks Eaglin ?

He's not Cajun, btw.

For some reason he got tagged as some kind of "folk" artist early on, when in reality he has always played all sorts of songs and is a very sophisticated musician...a walking repository of New Orleans musical history. He recorded several things for Black Top in the '80s and they're good, if a bit toned down for the blooze market, you know, a little tame; he certainly could have benefited from an outsider who wanted to put him into a slightly different context...Snooks Meets Sonny Sharrock? But he's really good; "Teasin' You" on Black Top is a good record to start out with. He does play on the abovementioned Longhair record and he's great as well on the Wild Magnolias album I have (Polydor 1974, one of the best New Orleans funk records ever, in my opinion). My eccentric pal Steve Calt, a blues writer, has always maintained that Snooks cuts any blues guitarist you can name and that Snooks's relative obscurity points out the parochialism and twisted values of the "blues community," and while I don't always agree with Steve, he's got a point here...

Back at the end of April the Pinewood Stomp was held in New Orleans featuring lots of cool obscure New Orleans musicians. There's a Pinewood Stomp website and Jon Pareles reviewed the event in the NY Times. I wish i had gone. I saw Snooks at the New Orleans Jazz & Blues Heritage Fest way back when and he was wonderful.

in my view, the greatest "blues" guitarist alive, and really, he transcends category--one bad-ass rhythm guitarist with a sound all his own.

saw him three or four times in pre-Katrina NOLA, at the Rock 'n' Bowl on Carrollton, with George Porter Jr. some of my most cherished musical memories--he was always amazing.

R.I.P. He was great and unique and the manner of his death as described below is very sad.

http://blog.nola.com/keithspera/2009/02/snooks_eaglin_19372009.html

New Orleans guitarist Snooks Eaglin dies at 72.Posted by Keith Spera, Music writer, The Times-Picayune February 18, 20092:30PM

Snooks Eaglin, the New Orleans rhythm & blues guitarist known for his dexterous finger-picking and boundless repertoire, died Wednesday afternoon.He was 72."He was the most New Orleans of all the New Orleans acts that are still living," said Mid-City Lanes owner John Blancher.Mr. Eaglin apparently checked into a hospital last week with high blood-pressure, then was released. He returned to Ochsner Medical Center on Tuesday, and went into cardiac arrest, Blancher said.

RIP. It's been a bad, bad year so far..

The amount of musician deaths has been staggering.

By STACEY PLAISANCE – 2 hours ago

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — R&B singer and guitarist Snooks Eaglin, a local legend who counted platinum-selling rockers among his fans, died Wednesday. He was 72.

The blind musician died of a heart attack at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans after falling ill and being hospitalized last week, said John Blancher, a close family friend. Eaglin was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year, said Blancher.

Eaglin, known for picking strings with his thumb nail — played and recorded with a host of New Orleans giants, including Professor Longhair, the Wild Magnolias and pianist Allan Toussaint.

Musicians, including Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Robert Plant and Bonnie Raitt, would seek Eaglin out to watch him perform, Blancher said.

But New Orleans musicians knew him best.

Toussaint was 13 when he formed a band with Eaglin called the Flamingos.

"He played with a certain finger style that was highly unusual," said Toussaint, now 71. "He was unlimited on the guitar. Folks would assume, 'I can do this or I can do that,' but Snooks wouldn't. There was nothing he couldn't do. It was extraordinary."

Eaglin was slated to perform this year at New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, where he was a popular yearly draw. Quint Davis, the event's producer, said the musician's death leaves behind a hole that not only cannot be filled in the festival but also in the city's music community.

"His death is like losing a Dizzy Gillespie, a Professor Longhair, a Johnny Adams or a Gatemouth Brown," Davis said. "He's one of those unique giants of New Orleans music."

Blind from the time he was a young child, Eaglin was a self-taught musician who learned to play the guitar by listening to the radio. Playing the guitar with his thumb nail allowed him to play very fast, Davis said.

One of Eaglin's most well-known songs was "Funky Malaguena," a Latin song that he played with an unconventional funk and blues spin, Davis said.

Because he could play with almost anyone, Eaglin is on 50 years worth of New Orleans recordings, from early folk to R&B and jazz, Davis said. "He played a six-string, a 12-string. He could play anything with strings on it."

"A lot of cats tried to copy him, the way he attacked the strings, but they couldn't," said jazz bassist Peter "Chuck" Badie, who played with Eaglin in the 1960s at clubs on Rampart Street, which for decades was the epicenter of the city's bustling black entertainment district.

Eaglin's survivors include his wife of more than 30 years, Dorothea "Dee" Eaglin, and a daughter.

Associated Press Writer Chevel Johnson contributed to this report.

Mr. Eaglin often said his mother took care of him until Dee took over. He died on his mother's birthday. From Keith Spera's longer obit

That's eerie.

I like this story though from Spera's obit--Blancher would often pick up Mr. Eaglin in St. Rose and drive him to and from shows at the Rock 'n Bowl. Along the way Mr. Eaglin regaled him with stories.

Among the most infamous is the time Mr. Eaglin drove the Flamingos home following a Saturday night gig in Donaldsonville. The musicians were so intoxicated that they decided their blind guitarist was the most qualified driver.

Mr. Eaglin claimed he navigated the curves of the road from memory. The crunch of gravel under the tires warned him when the '49 Studebaker strayed onto the shoulder. The story concludes with Mr. Eaglin pulling up to his house early Sunday morning and his mother suggesting the musicians proceed directly to church.
http://blog.nola.com/keithspera/2009/02/snooks_eaglin_19372009.html

"His death is like losing a Dizzy Gillespie, a Professor Longhair, a Johnny Adams or a Gatemouth Brown..."

True dat. In the years since I first started going to Jazzfest, I saw some great performances by artists who are no longer with us -- Danny Barker, Champion Jack Dupree, Ernie K-Doe, Earl King -- but there wasn't much that made me happier than a Snooks Eaglin show.

One of my favorite memories is of him pulling off (from his limitless repertoire) a perfectly Snooks-ified version of "Back That Ass Up."

shit. one of the greats. he didn't look terribly well in the Make It Funky! film from just pre-Katrina. RIP, Fird.