A few weeks ago Jackson gained it’s first (or should I say, most legal) speak-easy–The Apothecary at Brent’s Drugs. Moonlighting there as a bartender, I’ve had the pleasure of surviving bartender boot-camp with Neal and Kirk, the founders of NOLA’s The Cure, Belloq, and most recently, Cane and Table, and the consultants for The Apothecary. 

Imbibe!

If you want to know the history behind cocktails, or if you just want to drink your way through history, David Wondrich’s book is full of the rich history of spirits. This well-researched book is an easy read, and fascinating. The history of spirits slinks into all facets of life. You can start at the beginning, or you can start with your favorite drink and go from there.

The PDT Cocktail Book

What home would be complete without a good book of drink recipes? The PDT cocktail book is a great addition to your bartop. It’s illustrated, so you don’t have to do that much reading, which will be difficult after a couple of drinks anyway. There are hordes of cocktail recipes, online and in print, but a good cocktail recipe is hard to come by (I know you thought those marshmallow vodka shots were a good idea at the time).

One of my favorites:

Vieux Carre

1 oz Rye Whiskey
1 oz Aged Cognac
1 oz Sweet Vermouth
.25 oz Benedictine
1 dash Angostura Bitters
1 dash Peychaud’s Bitters

Stir with ice and strain over crushed ice or one large ice cube into a chilled rocks glass.

The Drunken Botanist

Arranged by plant, The Drunken Botanist breaks down spirits into their simplest parts–the wild plants that we drink. Curious what sloe gin actually is? Read up on the Sloe Berry (page 281) and then learn how to grow your own. There is even a handy recipe for a Sloe Gin Fizz on the next page. Reading through this book, I was surprised by what trees and flowers made an appearance in some of my favorite spirits–grains of paradise in Bombay Sapphire, angelic makes an appearance in Chartreuse and Strega, aloe vera is a component in Fernet Branca. Amy Stewart does not just stop with the science of plants, she also shares the history of the plant in spirits.

After reading up on your spirits, stop by The Apothecary and I’ll mix you a good drink.

While Othar Turner was born in Rankin County, MS in 1907 he lived the majority of his life in Gravel Springs near to Como and Senatobia.  He grew up going to fife and drum gatherings and by watching other players he soon learned how to build and blow a cane fife of his own.  He often was seen playing drums with Napoleon Strickland’s band and when he was too ill to play Turner started his own band.  Turner upheld the tradition of the fife and drum until his death in 2003.  Sharde Thomas, Othar Turners granddaughter, was 12 years old when he passed away.  She took up the fife blowing in the Rising Star Fife and Drum Corps and continues to do so.

This is what Othar Turner says about how he learned to play music…

I started on a tin tub. Beat it with sticks. Take my hand and beat that drum and take me some sticks and went to doing just what the next fellow doing.  Practiced and practiced till I got my right lick.  Not just pecking on the drum, you got to play tunes on the drum.  That’s right. So I learned ’em.  I started playing on the tin tub when I was fifteen years old, and when I started playing the drum, I was seventeen.

And I learnt myself to blow the fice {fife}.

So I got me a cane and got me a nail.  Just plain cane.  Started to boring my holes; I couldn’t make none out of that.  so I went and got me a thick piece of wire and put in the stove to  burn the holes in there.  My mama then come: “Get out of the way, boy! What you doing?” I said, “I”m trying to make me a fice.”  “Oh, you ain’t going make you no fice. You don’t know how to make a fice.”  I said, ” Mama, I’m going make me a fice. I’m going learn how to blow this cane.” I learnt.

Othar Turner’s Rising Star Fife & Drum band (Turner, fife; G.D. Young, bass drum; E.P. Burton, snare; Eddie Ware, snare) playing a picnic at Othar’s farm. Shot by Alan Lomax, John Bishop, and Worth Long in Gravel Springs, Mississippi, August 1978.

In 1990, LSU published a collection of short stories by Steve Yarbrough entitled Family Men.  Lemuria decided to work on helping Steve find readers.  We had a signing to spread his writing voice and my friendship with Steve began around that time.

It was nine years later when Lemuria had the pleasure of choosing Oxygen Man for First Editions Club. As Steve kept writing and publishing, his style became more natural, clear and succinct, and eventually Steve met an old friend of mine, Gary Fisketjon, who became his editor, opening the door to publishing opportunities.

In 2004, MPB’s Writers Series featured some of the great short story writers of our time: Alistair MacCleod, Mary Ward Brown and from Indianola, Mississippi, Steve Yarbrough.  The program became a landmark of this project.  All three writers read, talked and visited while sharing admiration for each other.

It’s now August 2013 and Lemuria has again chosen Steve’s new novel, The Realm of Last Chances, for this month’s First Edition Club.  I applaud Steve and his accomplishment.  Realm is subtle and bold.  Steve weaves relationships and character with a quiet tone around a thought provoking plot.  I believe Realm is Steve’s most ambitious and successful novel, however, I shy away from talking to much about my thoughts as to not interject too much influence.  The Realm of Last Chances is a personal experience for the reader to enjoy and decipher.

The Realm of Last Chances: A Novel by Steve Yarbrough, Alfred A. Knopf, August 2013.

Steve will be signing on Thursday, August 8 at 5:00.

A reading will follow at 5:30.

While Fred McDowell was born in Tennessee, he lived most of his life in Como, Mississippi.  He is considered one of the ‘elder statesmen’ of the Hill Country and during the 60’s was the most well known outside of the area.  He began playing guitar at a young age for picnics and house parties and in 1959 Alan Lomax recorded him.  While he did play an electric guitar, McDowell always insisted that “I do not play no rock n’ roll.”  He passed away in 1972 just a few years after meeting George Mitchell.

When George Mitchell decided to make the trip to MS he called some friends for some leads to go about finding these “unknown” blues musicians.  He was given Fred McDowell’s name and told that he lived somewhere around Como.  He and his wife, Cathy, headed south hit I-55 and took Exit 52 and pulled into a Stuckeys to get some gas. George decides to ask the attendant if he knows McDowell and he says yes….

Do you know where I can find him? I ask.

You’re looking at him.

I’m taken aback. The first man we meet in Mississippi is Fred McDowell?! Damn! And he works in a service station?!

Mitchell tells McDowell what they are doing in MS, that they want to interview and record some unkown blues musicians from the area and Fred says that shouldn’t be a problem.  He then invites them to his house where he promises to have some folks for them to meet.  The rest as they say is history.

Mississippi Fred McDowell—Going Down to the River

The Mitchells were cleaning out the house because after 35 years they were moving.  We all know what one can accumulate during that amount of time. George was surprised when came across a folder of negatives:

What’s this?  R.L. Burnside on a tractor with a bunch of his kids? right after I met him? I don’t even remember taking that. And this?! Rosa Lee Hill and Jessie Mae Hemphill dancing? Where are they anyway? At Fred McDowell’s? And there’s Fred, leaning over Othar Turner, who’s playing the guitar, showing his some chords or something.  I don’t remember that.   And here are so many shots I took at what is now called the North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic-the first time it was ever photographed by a white person.  I didn’t know I took so many!

Mitchell hadn’t even looked at these negatives in 40 years since he chose photographs for his book Blow My Blues Away and for album covers. In 1967 George and Cathy Mitchell spent the summer in Mississippi and 13 days of the trip were spent in the hill country with some of the finest musicians from the area. Mitchell was welcomed into the homes of many of the musicians and was able to spend time with them and as well as their family and friends.  He went to dinner in their homes, rent parties, and fife and drum picnics with the musicians posing for portraits and telling him stories. This book, Mississippi Hill Country Blues 1967, documents this time.

I really, really, like this book.  My husband and I love music, especially Hill Country Blues.  In fact, when we married in June of 2009, part of our honeymoon was spent at the North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic in Potts Camp, MS.   The festival line up always includes the descendants, friends, and disciples of most of the elder statesmen of MS Hill Country Blues.  R.L. Burnside’s, Junior Kimbrough’s, and Othar Turner’s families are always well represented.  It is really one of the most fun weekends of the summer in Mississippi.

Above right: Sharde Thomas, granddaughter of Othar Turner, at the 2013 Picnic.

George Mitchell will be at Lemuria on Wednesday, August 21 at 5:00 to sign and he will tell us a little something around 5:30.  We can sit around with some cold beers and talk the blues!

Here is the late great R. L. Burnside performing Poor Black Mattie in 1984.