Blind Mississippi Morris finding receptive audience

" But the feeling we get when we play is amazing. We get real good feelings when we play together. We keep pushing to make things better. When we're out in front of a crowd, and we get going. . . "

By Norm Shaw

Brad Webb probably says it best.

"It's like Morris was born at the wrong time," Webb says of Blind Mississippi Morris Cummings. "But I sure am glad he was born when he was."

Webb is one beneficiary of Cummings' birth - Webb plays guitar in the band that backs Cummings and produced You Know I Like That, the debut record of Blind Mississippi Morris and the Pocket Rockets. The other beneficiaries of Cummings' birth are fans of straight-up Delta blues, because that's Cummings' strength. And he definitely plays to his strengths.

Cummings has been playing the blues "ever since I can remember, since I was a little guy," he says. He learned his first blues in his adopted hometown of Clarksdale, Miss., from cousins Robert and Mary Diggs, leaders of the legendary Mississippi Sheiks. He's also a cousin of the late Willie Dixon.

Born blind 40 years ago in Greenwood, Miss., Cummings was put in an institution when he was 4-years-old. He stayed 10 years, only seeing his family a few times a year. One family member, aunt Mary Tanner, played with the Harps of Melody, a gospel group.

"She was the best harmonica player I ever heard," Cummings says. "I stayed with her when I came to Memphis."

Cummings came to Memphis to stay in the early 1980s. He played on Beale Street . . . literally. He mostly played in W.C. Handy Park or the gazebo in front of Handy's house. It was different Beale Street than it is today.

"The Rum Boogie was the only club open on Beale," Cummings says. "You used to be able to make $100 a night in tips on a good night. But by about 1987, things started getting real rough. They kind of squeezed the people off the street. They wanted people paying to get into the clubs."

Cummings returned to playing in a church. But unlike his aunt Mary, the church wasn't the place for Cummings' harp.

"They didn't want no harmonica in church," he says with a laugh. "I figured, 'That's enough of that.'"

It was then that Cummings hooked up with Webb and the Pocket Rockets. In mid-1994, they began rehearsing and writing at Webb's studio. Soon they had enough originals to start shopping for a label. It didn't take long to find one.

"I called Bubba Sullivan in Helena, and he said he was shopping some stuff to Johnny Phillips (head of Select-O-Hits distributors). This was two days before Christmas," Webb says. "I called Johnny and he asked me how I learned he was starting a label. I sent him a tape, and two weeks later they called. Johnny said it was the best original music turned in. He said Morris was the real deal."

The end result is You Know I Like That, one of the strongest debut releases in recent memory. It is packed full of Cummings' raw vocals and slamming harmonica. Webb adds excellent guitar. The package is rounded out with bass from Dan Cochran and drums from Tony Adams.

Recorded at Crosstown with the help of Rusty McFarland, You Know I Like That is heavy on originals and pure emotion.

"Morris is one of those few new blues artists where audiences react better to the originals than they do to the cover songs," says Dennis Brooks, who is booking the band. "Most bands rely on the older blues songs to get the crowd going, but Morris doesn't have to. His originals are every bit as strong."

Cummings and the band share writing credits on most songs. Webb says it isn't always an easy process.

"We argue like a family," he says. "But the feeling we get when we play is amazing. We get real good feelings when we play together. We keep pushing to make things better. When we're out in front of a crowd, and we get going. . ."

"It's an energy, man," says Cummings.

"But it can be hard," Webb says. "Morris can't see, you know. So he'll be going off on something 'cause it just feels so good."

"Somebody'll have to poke me," Morris says with a laugh. "Then they tell me what's going down. But it's so good."

Webb and Cummings will be the first to tell you that you need to see them live to fully understand. As good as the record is, the band live is even better. And Memphians will get plenty of chances to see Blind Mississippi Morris and the Pocket Rockets in the next few months (see schedule).

"Morris is the best, hottest blues act to come out of Memphis since the 1980s', I think," says Brooks. "I don't think Memphis has turned out anybody like Morris since the 1930s and '40s."

Brooks has already booked the band into some of the bigger fall festivals, including the King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena, Ark. Brooks also is looking to book the band on a European tour if possible.

"I don't want to book them too far in advance, because we think they will just keep getting hotter," Brooks says. "Europe would eat Morris up."

Webb agrees, and he would love the opportunity to go.

"It'd be great if we could all go to Europe. We'd be glad to be over there," the guitarist says. "A friend of mine called. They're getting paid $1,000 for a 45 minute set. You can't get near that here. But Dennis is getting us a lot of work. Memphis has a lot of musicians way under paid. If we can change that, we will."

While the band members wait to hear about summer dates, they are working on new material for its second record.

"We can't say what the second record will sound like yet," says Webb. "We do know it will be on Icehouse Records. We've signed with them for three years."

So expect to hear a lot of Blind Mississippi Morris and the Pocket Rockets in the next few years. But you better catch them soon, because it is going to get harder as they spend more time on the road away from Memphis. And when it all works out and the band is one of the hottest blues acts working, you could be one of those people who says, "Yeah, I remember seeing Morris every Thursday at the Bel Air."