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RON THOMPSON’S BLUESLETTER
Spring 2005 Edition
Carolyn Phillips, Contributing Editor
www.rtblues.com

Summer is upon us and Ron’s concert schedule is SIZZLING! For a complete list of upcoming gigs, always be sure to check Ron’s online calendar for the most current and up-to-date information http://www.rtblues.com/calendarapr.html
Meanwhile, here are a couple of performances you CAN’T miss!

Legends of Chicago Blues
Headlining the San Francisco Blues Festival
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Great Meadow, Ft. Mason, San Francisco
http://www.sfblues.com/

Ron joins an elite assemblage of musicians headlining the nation’s premiere blues festival. Ron will combine forces with: James Cotton, harp & vocals; Hubert Sumlin, guitar; Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, drums; and Bob Stroger, bass. This is a once in a lifetime line-up with the real legends of rhythm and blues. Be there!

Heartland Music Festival
Saturday, June 11, 2005
A Benefit Concert for Music Programs in Alameda Schools
Outdoors at Rosenblum Cellars
11 AM – 7 PM
Ron performs at 4:00 PM
2900 Main Street, Alameda (next to the Ferry Terminal)
Adults: $25, Minors: $12, Under 12: Free
Beer, wine and food!
http://www.heartlandmusicfestival.org/index.html

Experience Ron & His Resistors at one of the hottest concerts of the summer! The Heartland Music Festival hosts a “day of toe tapping music from the heartland of America.” You will enjoy Ron’s blistering brand of high energy rhythm and blues, as well as a diverse line-up of some of the best musicians on the West Coast. Other bands include: Donner Mountain Bluegrass Band, Polka Cowboys, Alhambra Valley Band, Tom Rigney and Flambeau, Matt Kinman and the Old Time Serenaders, and Houston Jones. All proceeds will benefit music programs in Alameda schools. Great music for a great cause! We’ll see you there!

RON’S GOING SOUTH ON US!

We have good news for our friends in Southern California! Catch Ron Saturday night at Café Boogaloo in Hermosa Beach, or Sunday night at Pappy & Harriets in Pioneertown (see below for website links to these venues). Word is that Ron’s buddy Mick Fleetwood may drop by on Saturday, and surviving Righteous Brother, Bill Medley, will show up on Sunday! We can’t promise, of course, but you never know…

OTHER PERFORMANCES
Additional upcoming gigs include the following. Please check Ron’s online calendar for more details:

PHOTOS

We have recently added a “Fan Scrapbook” photo page to Ron’s website. Check it out! You might just see yourself dancing the night away at a recent RT performance. We are also posting some of the photos fans forward us from time to time. Send them to us at resistortwister@earthlink.net or via snail mail to: Ron Thompson, P.O. Box 364, Hayward, CA, 94543, for a chance to see them up on the website.

ASK RON

Jennifer Lippay, from Sonoma, writes:
I enjoyed your appearance at the 2004 Sonoma Fair Blues Fest and visited your website in order to see a schedule of performances. The website mentioned that you played with Schoolboy Cleve. I remember working with a gentleman many years ago who I thought had used that stage name. I believe he was a janitor for the company I worked with. He was a very kind person and I used to enjoy our daily conversations. I went home and pulled out the old 45 that he had given me. It was recorded with Cherrie Records. I regret to say that I haven’t given him any thought in the last two decades but I wonder if you know something of his life. Is he still around?

Ron: Yes, Schooboy is still around.

I met Cleve through Don Lindenau, a record collector who started his own record label—Blue Connoisseur—just to record Downhome Blues. My very first record was with Schoolboy Cleve in 1972, My Heart is Crying. Cleve would drive over from San Francisco to my mother’s house to rehearse with me. My mom liked him a lot. He played little tapes of him and his brother playing different stuff. We recorded it on Blue Connoisseur Records in San Francisco.

Schoolboy Cleve, whose real name is White, made his own records in the south. He made records in the ‘50s—I don’t know how popular they were, but they were good soundin’ blues records. They weren’t unlike some of the stuff Jerry McCain has done. Jerry is a harmonica player/singer who originally recorded She’s Tough (later recorded by the Thunderbirds) and the all-time harp instrumental classic, Steady.
Cleve also recorded with Lightning Slim (mostly on harmonica) and others on Excello Records in Louisiana, which was a great label in terms of music. Cleve knew how to play a song that Lightnin’ Slim did —I’m Goin’ to Louisiana Way Behind the Sun. J. D. Miller, the owner of Excello, which was a black R&B label, also had Rebel Records and KKK Records. Miller named all his blues singers—Slim Harpo, Lightin’ Slim, Lonesome Sundown, Lazy Lester, and more. Most records were Jimmy Reed-ish sounding. Excello made some of best blues records ever made.

Cleve was the first guy I ever met into CB (Citizen’s Band) radio. He had a Lincoln with a big antenna for his CB. One of the first gigs I ever played with him was at a CB convention in Pleasanton California. When I walked into the room, some old security guard walked up and said, “You boys aren’t gonna make a buncha racket, now, are ya?” Nobody liked us until out of desperation I started playing a couple of Johnny Cash songs—Folsom Prison Blues and Cocaine Blues—the only ones I knew. They loved that. I remember seeing a redneck kinda biker guy—he had on a levi jacket with a sticker that said “F*** You.”

Schoolboy Cleve was a pretty unusual fellow because he thought uniquely. When we played the very first blues festival ever in San Francisco, he did blues but he broke out a new dance called The Bike that he had invented. He performed it right there. He danced along the perimeter of the stage and he looked like someone ridin’ a bike, that’s what he looked like. I just hope he didn’t get a flat. People were pretty oblivious to what he was doing. Cleve is the type of guy that thinks what we now call “outside the box” or “cutting edge” but he was just original. In reality, if the business would have been right, we would have all been thinking about how we all used to do The Bike at high school dances, who knows?
For even more information on Schoolboy Cleve, go to: http://www.schoolboycleve.com

THANKS FROM RON!

People always ask, “Who are the Resistors?” We all know the many talented musician Resistors we see on stage, however, there are many behind the scenes Resistors and Resistorettes who support Ron as well. The generous outpouring of support is always taken to heart. Unfortunately, space does not permit a complete list of Resistors and Resistorettes, but special thanks are extended to: Dr. Pat Hybarger, Randy Godfrey, Carol, Lee Hildebrand, Lenny Smith, Danny and Jenny Poore, Don Wright, Thom Myers, Patrice Webb, Mark Garro, Don & Susan Heflin, and Peter Barnato. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

© Ron Thompson 2005
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