_ARTS
Page 8 Friday, May 23, 1986
Lonnie Brooks:

The Michigan Daily

simmering blues
By .Marc S. Taras tly roll over for our hero. He stuck
around, settled down with Lonnie
B RRRRR! Wooooofff! Ever feel Brooks. Listened. Countless
like pole shift is taking place in pugnacious bars. Numerous
your own backyard? If you are anonymous sessions andstudios.
sharing my slow, cold-month of May- Major label. Capitol Records
blue condition you will want to stroll it releases the appropriately titled
and roll it down to Rick's where Broke and Hungry in 1969 as the Age
tonight and tomorrow night one of the of Aquarius folds before hundreds of
modern giants ,of the Blues will be thousands of disbelievers at Wood-
holding forth. Lonnie Brooks. stock. Lots of work in Chi-town for
Eeeyooow! A veritable professor of Brooks but no much chance to play his
bluesological guitaristics. A master of own self -- short of chancing
gravel growling vocalese. A cool blue hungration.
cat. A favorite stretch of soulful high- Europe. Ah! Europe! You receive
way. Owner of a DDS for tooth- our tired, our hungry, our artists of
pickin'. Lonnie Brooks! highest charm with open arms and
After years on the road, Brooks chequebooks! Our lacys, dexters, and
finally started to get his just desserts grifs. Brooks is invited to tour and
critically and a semblance of the record in France. Then it's back to his
commercial success he is certainly sweet home of the wind all fired up
due in the late '70s. Nominated. and righteous, where he puts together
Recognized. Graciously receiving and a choicey band. Grrrrr!
travelling on down the pavements. His first Alligator (read alley
Lonnie Brooks. Speak zydeco kids? guitar) LP, Bayou Lightning, earns
Brooks was cajun before cajun was him the coveted "Grand Prix du
cool, as you and I were ignorantly un- Disques." Meets Roy Clark C&W
concerned. pickin' wizard at 1980 Montreux Fest
Born in Louisiana, 1933. Dubuisson. in Switzerland. Seen on Hee haw back
The name of his home town even home in the states. Is that a kick in
simmers! Hot to ears' touch! Don't sit the ass! Back to Europe in '81 for his
down! Brooks tag-teamed all points own German TV special (our
South with Clifton Chenier in the '50s. homeless, most deserving) and yet
All manner of cheap dives and college again in '83.'84. A pattern emerges.
crowd pleasin' as "Guitar Jr." and a A forthcoming album rumored to be
massive regional hit record, Family the most parched of all. Desert-hot
Rules. bayou urbanity. And still playing the
Fine American sentiments. North to club circuit! Is it inanity or a
Chicago. The urban blues capital had blessing? A little of both for those who
another "Guitar Jr." and didn't exac- know.

Lonnie Brooks, guitar virtuoso of the Blues, performs at Rick's American Cafe Friday and
Saturday nights.

i i i i i i r i i i i i i i i i i i

1
1315 S -U~-~'7146
University 76-4-0
Fri.-Sat. t1a n .am *aSu.a 1a . -!! pu..

BUY ONE SNACK ie19 Unusual slice o ife
SUB AND GET ONE By Noelle Brower the surface," she admits that ther
an underlying degree of "nastin
I oNN ARBOR really is a great to it as well.
city for theatre. In any given Harvey Zook's Campfire B
season a theatre goer can receive a comes next in the evening's line
balanced diet of the classics, the ex- The scenario: Two campers go
1315S.UNIVERSITY MD perimental and most anything else the woods to "get away from
ho l ; aira afnr n wnld" nl o fin dtha wnld f

re is
ess"
oys
up.
into
the

expires June 10, 1986
1.*50 OFF
any footlong sandwich with
double meat with purchase of drink

1315S. UNIVERSITY

MD

expires June 10,1sae
ONE DOLLARI
OFFI
ANY FOTLONC SANDWICHI
with purchase of any drink1
1315 S. UNIVERSITY MD

tnat tails in between. Pertormance
Network's Works in Progress is just
one example of the variety available
in Tree Town.
WiP works as an ensemble with
members doubling up as actors,
writers, directors, and anything else
that is necessary. Every two to three
months the group solicits scripts and
enters into a workshop where the
chosen scripts are blocked-out, re-
written, and readied for public per-
formance. Monday night's perfor-
mance of three plays is the outcome
of a workshop that began in
February.
Biddy Can't Sleep, a piece by WiP
organizer Linda Kendall, will open
the evening's show. Kendall first in-
troduced the character of Biddy at the
Network during a WiP reading in
January. Her current presentation is
the continuation of "the travels of
Biddy," a street person. Though Ken-
dall says that her story is "funny on

wor ony toT ina te woria of the
forest more menacing when two men
of the woods intrude upon them.
Hiroshima, Part I. concludes the
evening with a sort of "visual collage"
of four separate parts that express the
despair found on the streets, accor-
ding to author Libby Howes. Howes
was originally a member of the ex-
perimental theatre group, the
Wooster Group, in New York City
where she was "struck by the
desolation of street life." Howes has
also worked as a volunteer at local
shelters for the homeless. Hiroshima
Part I. evolved out of a monologue
Howes wrote down verbatum from a
street person in New York. She then
supplemented the monologue with
her own words and ideas.
All three pieces will be performed
this Monday evening at Performance
Network, 408 W. Washington. Per-
formances begin at 8 p.m.