I Feel a Lot More Like I Do Now

Sleepy LaBeef has died.  I caught at least five performances by the towering musical encyclopedia in the 1980s.  It’s really not much of an achievement.  LaBeef seemed to roll through town every few months, and I was neck-deep in roots music in that bygone era.  LaBeef was on the same touring circuit as Luther Allison, Marcia Ball, Lonnie Brooks, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Joe “King” Carrasco, Otis Clay, Eddie Clearwater, Albert Collins, Johnny Copeland, Joe Ely, John Lee Hooker, the Morells, Queen Ida, Hound Dog Taylor, Koko Taylor, Barrence Whitfield and Webb Wilder.  I attended plenty of shows by each of those acts as a young man.  My allegiance to conventional bar bands seems entirely peculiar now.  Hooker aside, I don’t think I listened to a single song by anyone on that list in 2019. As LaBeef sang, I feel a lot more like I do now than I ever did before.


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I write concert previews for The Kansas City Star every week.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)