Little Freddie King by Gregg Roth

I have been traveling to New Orleans on a regular basis since my first visit in 1981. It is the northern tip of Caribbean and it is an enchanting magical city. In 1997 I was contacted by Little Freddie King to help him with some dentures, and over the years we helped him much more, especially after Hurricane Katrina.

Aaron, B and I rolled into the Crescent City late on our third night on the road. We met up with Guitar Lightnin Lee, Guitar Slim Jr, Alabama Slim and Little Freddie King (LFK) at Jack Dempsey’s, a Seafood restaurant that I have gone for years. I would often meet up with Fats Domino there, as it was his favorite place. LFK always orders fried catfish and takes a big plate home, bragging that it would feed him for three days.

The next day, after spending the afternoon with Next Generation Artist Leyla McCalla, Aaron set up our Tin Type Dark box in the kitchen of LFK’s shotgun house in the Musicians Village of New Orleans. B and I sat in the front room talking with LFK, Alabama Slim and Lightin’ Lee, and B took video footage of them all.

We settled in for a long evening of taking Tin Type photos and listening to masterful tales from LFK about his life. Around midnight I presented the artists with checks to help them with their day-to-day needs as there is little work in the winter time in NOLA until festival season starts.

Hugs all around, and then we headed back to the hotel, to get some rest for our next day’s drive up to northern MS.

— Tim Duffy

PS – Watch this amazing short documentary on Little Freddie King by Tom Ciaburri!