Othar Turner's Picnic - Gravel Springs, MS
_"By listening to the earliest field types of vocal and fife and drum music, and checking out certain elements of African music, we can unearth the roots of the blues, a richly varied,
extremely subtle and complex music that forms the foundation for most contemporary pop." - Mike McConigal
At 92 years old Gravel Springs MS resident Othar Turner is a living legend of old time blues and fife and drum music. With his family by his side accompaning him on drums, pounding out complex patterns, Othar plays in a distinct and erie musical style, steeped in the blues with high, shrilling squeaks and chirps.
We heard he was throwing one of his famous barbeques and drove out to his place, deep in the hills of Mississippi as fast as we could. By the time we got there the whole family was setting up tables, cooking up goat meat and stringing up the lights from tree to tree. The following interview was conducted on Othar's front porch during the party.
Old Time Morals
Well, the roads I've traveled you can't travel no more. My mama told me to do everybody right, and do it yourself and you successful. I started out doing this when I was a kid. These kids now, out late at night, I didn't do that.
My mama said 'Now son, you can go out and play but when that sun get red down yonder, be inside the house.
Now when a guy ready to court your daughter he say 'Miss, may I court your daughter' and he rest his hat down on the bed. And she say 'Now by 9:30 you have that girl back' and you said 'yes ma'am and you did that.'
See they don't do that now. Now they come along, blow the horn, cut the car around and you don't see the daughter till the next morning, sometimes by half day. It changed. See, it ain't the world, it's the people that done change. It's rock and rough now.
Musical Beginnings
I been blowin' harp since I was 15. My mama gve me a snare drum, that was a Christmas present. I played it so much I busted it. She bought me another and I busted that one too. Then I got me a 50 gallon lard can, that still sittin' out there yonder (Othar pointed out to his front yard). I got me some sticks and I playing on that. My mama said 'put that thing down, I'm tired of hearing it' so I said 'yes ma'am and I put it down.
This old man, they call him Arnie Williams, he's dead and layin' in his grave. He made a cane, a fife. One day I come up to him and said:
Othar: What you blowin?
Arnie: That's a fife son
Othar: How'd you make that thing? Would you make me one?
Arnie: If you be smart I'll make you one. If you ain't gonna do nothin' with it don't even make a fail or try.
Othar: I'm gonna try.
Arnie: If you gonna try, then you gonna blow it.
So he made me one and I blow it, every night. I sit here in the yard and blow it until I learned it. That was it.
On Making A Cane Fife
'This here grow right up on the ditch bank, just like a switch out there. It's tall, nothin' but a fishin' pole is all it is. You cut it off and strip the leaves off it just like a corn stalk. Now you got a cane.'
'Now it got to be long, 'bout 2 foot. You can't make it short. You got to place the holes way out the end, so you got room to move back and forth. Just rest your fingers and make your marks.'
'Then you burn out one end, then the other, ream it straight through. Burn out your finger marks and then you try it. You can't look at me and try, you got to take it on your own and learn, see?
At 92 years old Gravel Springs MS resident Othar Turner is a living legend of old time blues and fife and drum music. With his family by his side accompaning him on drums, pounding out complex patterns, Othar plays in a distinct and erie musical style, steeped in the blues with high, shrilling squeaks and chirps.
We heard he was throwing one of his famous barbeques and drove out to his place, deep in the hills of Mississippi as fast as we could. By the time we got there the whole family was setting up tables, cooking up goat meat and stringing up the lights from tree to tree. The following interview was conducted on Othar's front porch during the party.
Old Time Morals
Well, the roads I've traveled you can't travel no more. My mama told me to do everybody right, and do it yourself and you successful. I started out doing this when I was a kid. These kids now, out late at night, I didn't do that.
My mama said 'Now son, you can go out and play but when that sun get red down yonder, be inside the house.
Now when a guy ready to court your daughter he say 'Miss, may I court your daughter' and he rest his hat down on the bed. And she say 'Now by 9:30 you have that girl back' and you said 'yes ma'am and you did that.'
See they don't do that now. Now they come along, blow the horn, cut the car around and you don't see the daughter till the next morning, sometimes by half day. It changed. See, it ain't the world, it's the people that done change. It's rock and rough now.
Musical Beginnings
I been blowin' harp since I was 15. My mama gve me a snare drum, that was a Christmas present. I played it so much I busted it. She bought me another and I busted that one too. Then I got me a 50 gallon lard can, that still sittin' out there yonder (Othar pointed out to his front yard). I got me some sticks and I playing on that. My mama said 'put that thing down, I'm tired of hearing it' so I said 'yes ma'am and I put it down.
This old man, they call him Arnie Williams, he's dead and layin' in his grave. He made a cane, a fife. One day I come up to him and said:
Othar: What you blowin?
Arnie: That's a fife son
Othar: How'd you make that thing? Would you make me one?
Arnie: If you be smart I'll make you one. If you ain't gonna do nothin' with it don't even make a fail or try.
Othar: I'm gonna try.
Arnie: If you gonna try, then you gonna blow it.
So he made me one and I blow it, every night. I sit here in the yard and blow it until I learned it. That was it.
On Making A Cane Fife
'This here grow right up on the ditch bank, just like a switch out there. It's tall, nothin' but a fishin' pole is all it is. You cut it off and strip the leaves off it just like a corn stalk. Now you got a cane.'
'Now it got to be long, 'bout 2 foot. You can't make it short. You got to place the holes way out the end, so you got room to move back and forth. Just rest your fingers and make your marks.'
'Then you burn out one end, then the other, ream it straight through. Burn out your finger marks and then you try it. You can't look at me and try, you got to take it on your own and learn, see?