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This article by Reid Pierce Armstrong appeared in the Rappahannock Record on October 28, 2004.
BIOPIC ON STOVALL PUTS BLUES EXPERT EVANS IN SPOTLIGHT
It might not be as high-profile as the coming Memphis movie on Johnny Cash, but Maryland-based journalist Ray Bolger will be in town shooting footage for a documentary he's making on famed New Orleans blues musician Jewell 'Babe' Stovall.
The curious can show up between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Center for Southern Folklore's Folklore Store, 123 S. Main, where Bolger will film Grammy-winning blues scholar David Evans with onetime Stovall apprentice Steve Keith in a Delta blues salute to the late Mississippi-born guitarist and singer.
This piece appeared in the Memphis publication Commercial Appeal on June 11, 2004
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Annapolis by Steve KeithBay People: Steve Keith
By Arlene Berlin
Mark your calendars for October 2001. That's when the multi-talented composer, singer, musician, Steve Keith, will return to the Sean Donlon restaurant on West Street in Annapolis. He'll be sailing back after completing a journey started many years ago when he left his home on New Castle Island, off the coast of New Hampshire.
While his odyssey has been a somewhat solitary one, he has not traveled alone. Spirits and Leprechauns of myth and lore have guided him with mystical compasses and showered him with musical gifts.
He is a man of incredible natural musical talent. Without any formal training, he is able to compose music, sing, play the violin (he calls it the fiddle), the guitar and the harmonica. Just how does he do it?
"It’s a mystery to me," says Steve. ”I have no idea. It's as if the music goes directly from feeling, to sound without processing through the brain."
"When I compose, it happens in 15 minutes. If I work on it, it doesn't come out."
Steve's ability to tune into natural forces was nurtured by the environment of his youth. Growing up in relative isolation on New Castle Island, he prowled around boat yards and docks, listened to old salts' tales, and tuned into the sounds of the sea. His parents taught him to maneuver the old converted lobster boat they used for family outings, and his best friend's family introduced him to the world of sail.
Memories of standing watch on a 36-foot ketch out at sea remain vivid in his mind. "Something in me just snapped one night and I knew this is what I must do with my life." But he put his sailing dreams on hold. Graduating from Exeter, he went to Tulane University in New Orleans, and began a voyage into the world of jazz.
A self-taught banjo player with a little high school band experience, Steve began frequenting the French Quarter. He made friends with many musicians including Jerry Jeff Walker, a composer and performer, and Babe Stoval, a black Blues player who was rumored to have been the real "Mr. Bo Jangles".
"Babe was 64 years old. I was only 19, but for some reason he took me under his wing, and I found myself playing banjo in the French Quarter at the Steven Seas, the Intellect, and the Cosmos." Seven years later Steve decided to move on. "Moving on" became the pattern of his life. He went to San Francisco, worked as a maintenance man in the State Park, during the day and did gigs at Fisherman’s Wharf at night.
Then somebody swiped his banjo and changed his life.
"That night someone stole my banjo I dreamt I could play the fiddle," says Steve. So he picked one up for $22 bucks and taught himself how to play. Then he "poked around on a guitar," started singing, and headed off to Santa Fe, New Mexico, hooked up with some name bands like Mason Williams, Junior Brown, Jerry Jeff Walker, and David Bromberg, and started touring the west.
Fifteen years went by and Steve had another dream.
"A fat Irish witch told me to go to Ireland. She said there was more there for me than I could imagine." So off he went. He spent six weeks in Ireland and five months in London. "I should have stayed in Ireland. All I did in London was go to the Irish pubs." There he became friends with Martin O’ Connor, an accordion player, Frank Blaney, a banjo player, Jimmy Powers, an old fiddler, and many others who introduced him to the Celtic world of music. When he came back to New Mexico, Steve bought a Catalina 27, sailed it on a lake, and the old dream returned. He knew he had to get back to salt water so he trailered the Catalina to the Gulf, sold it, and headed up to Charleston to search for a boat.
There he found Rocimante, the Hans Christen 38 he lives on today. After buying Rocimante he discovered that the original owners came from the same place he did, New Castle Island. It was a sign it was time to go back. But not right away. Four years in Pensacola, some blue water cruising, time in the Keys, Palm Beach, South Carolina, and Deltaville came first. Like a fisherman, he kept searching for favorite spots, places he would want to return to, and wherever he went, he kept meeting cruisers who told him he just had to go to Annapolis. It was one of the greatest spots. So he decided to check it out.
Sailing into Annapolis on a Wednesday night in July, Steve was overwhelmed by the sight. "The sun was going down and the Bay was filled with hundreds of sailboats. I felt like I was coming home. I thought— these are my people, Easterners, sailors, just like me." And he dropped anchor, adopted the city as his special home and wrote a song about it.
This article by Arlene Berlin is from the May, 2001 issue of SpinSheet Magazine
For Booking and Info Contact:
Don Quixote Productions
6034 Windmill Point Road
White Stone, VA 22578
Phone: 443.831.3776
Email:
stevekeithrocks@gmail.com