Diggin’: Ironing Board Sam – Good Neighbors
inTheir Musicon April 7, 2017
In 2013, when Music Maker hired two interns from France, I offered to help find them housing. An area supporter had an apartment complex where Ironing Board Sam had already been living and the apartment right next to Sam had opened up. So began a beautiful intergenerational relationship that has continued to this day. The French Guys as we called them would help Sam grocery shop and do home maintenance and musician’s themselves, became Sam’s backing band. Sam lovingly called them collectively “the sticks”.
Sticks refers to an instance in one of Sam’s previous lives where he claims he invented rhythm with two sticks and a hollow tree trunk. He would say his sticks came back to find him. They have since taken the stage together here in the States and over in France. Before the guys had to return to France to finish their schooling, we knew we wanted to get them in the studio to capture the energy they shared.
The result, Ironing Board Sam and the Sticks was released in Summer, 2014. 13 tracks of blues jam, almost entirely improvised in the studio. Sam’s tribute to his sticks, his neighbors, is one of the deepest of many deep cuts on this album. Its manages to be matter of fact and sentimental all at once. Only an artist like Sam could pull such a thing off.
–Aaron, Program Manager
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This is how music and hope for humanity stays alive. Thank you