Hoodoo Highway

George's Majestic & Michael Burks

I was in Fayetteville, AR last night and today for the 6th annual Hispanic Women's Organization of Arkansas Conference. I was a panelist this morning and we had an info booth at the event.

Two of my coworkers were with me, Virginia (my best friend) and Matilda. Matilda was forced to listen to war stories from Virginia and I, since we have worked together for 25 years.

We were driving down Dixon Street to see if anything hit our fancy for dinner, etc. and I spotted a sign at George's Majestic Lounge, Arkansas' oldest bar (1927). The sign said FHH Michael Burks. Michael Burks is an awesome blues guitarist and Alligator records number one seller.

I was not sure what FHH was but decided that Michael had to be playing there Friday night since he was home in Little Rock the night before and I missed his show because I came in late from Memphis. I had Virginia park the car and I ran into George's to see if Michael was indeed playing. He was and he was on from 6:00pm until 8:30pm. I spoke to him briefly and told him we would be back to catch the show. I was pleasantly surprised to see my buddy EdMo was his bass player. Ed replaced John Davies, who came off the road and joined Big John Miller's band.

We decided to grab a bite to eat at a Thai Restaurant right up the street (since we had a great parking spot at George's) and come back for the show. It hit me then that FHH meant Friday Happy Hour...duh!!

We came back and the place was packed!! We paid our cover and stopped at the front bar to get a beer and a shot of tequila. We did our shot and made our way to the back. Standing room only. We stood with a whole bunch of other folks and listened to some fine music. The crowd was stoked and the dance floor was packed. We noticed that the room was full of an older crowd, allright!!! George's Geriatric Majestic Lounge. We decided that the 6 - 8:30 appealed to everyone because they could get their groove on and still be home and in bed by 10!! PLUS, they could clear off Dickson before the UofA students hit it later in the evening. I spied a man sitting at a table with 3 empty seats. Hmm, Matilda, Virginia and I - that makes 3. I turned to Virginia and Matilda and told them to give me 5 minutes and I would have us a seat. Within 5 minutes the guy waved us over to sit with him; a nice retired educator named Joe. He very graciously shared his table with us and we got to take a load off. To thank him, we bought his next drink and we did one more shot. (Patron, thank you). We had a blast watching everyone dancing and enjoying themselves and the show was HOT! We had nicknames for some folks I confess; comb-over, brown skirt, and others we probably should not repeat. It was a funky and interesting crowd. There was an older gentleman who had a long beard and long hair. He was down front in one area and he was barefoot, except that he had duct tape across his instep and some sort of powder on the floor. He had a circle shuffle dance he did for 2 1/2 hours in his area. Joe told us it was "Mr. Odom" and that he always came with duct tape and powder. He powders the floor and puts the tape on his feet and dances all night. Cool.

Afterwards, the place cleared out pronto and I took Virginia and Matilda to meet Michael, etc. We discussed the upcoming Biscuit (yes, I know the name has changed but when you have been going as long as we have, you just refuse to call it anything else!) and the cook out/party that will go on all weekend. Michael says he has purchased some new smokers and plans on cooking all weekend. We arrive on Thursday and leave on Sunday. Everyone is starting to get excited about it. Our buddy Bill will come in from Texas, bringing bad, bad Chad with him this year. Craig & Trish has their reservations, Brian will be camping out with us, I am sure Matt will be there and, of course, the various in and out day folks we see over the weekend. Mel & Todd may even come, they talked about it awhile back. Woo hoo!! My favorite guilty pleasure at the Biscuit is Chuck's BBQ bologna. MMMMmmm good! Dripping with that wonderful sauce, a BBQ bologna sandwich is a must and the only time of the year I ever have one. Chuck's is out of Memphis, by the way.

Michael and band were headed on to another gig but it was great to catch them, especially since I missed them the night before. I text'd JD & Brian that I was doing shots @ George's, listening to Michael Burks and got replies back. They had both called me the night before to go to see Michael at Sticky Fingerz but I was too late getting back into town and too tired.

We had a blast and even made it the the conference this morning. The conference was really neat and we met lots of interesting folks. We left around 2 to head back home. We made one stop, Hog Haus, to get a couple of growlers of some of their micro brew. I thought we got Fat Boy Blue but when I got home, I realized they gave me Woodstock Wheat. Dang it, dang it, dang it. I even got Paul a growler because he loves Fat Boy Blue so I will have to disappoint him now and give him Woodstock Wheat. Grrr.

Oh well, I will give Woodstock Wheat a try - it may be really good, too!

posted by Deb @ 9:26 PM