J-Week: Cat Head's Roger Stolle

I will be honest. I wasn't too thrilled about journalism week this semester, but I understand that we've had some spectacular speakers visit our campus because of the debate. With that said, I was hesitant about seeing Roger Stolle from Cat Head in Clarksdale, Miss. However, it was an awesome 50 minutes.

Since I'm from the Gulf Coast and most of my family are from Louisiana, I've never been familiar with Mississippi's Delta region until I started school at Ole Miss in 2005. After listening to Stolle's presentation, it has given me the initiative to dig deeper into Mississippi's history of the blues.

"You gotta try," Stolle said. "I'm still young enough to try different things if this doesn't work out."

I have to say, I really like Stolle's style. I'm a firm believer in giving everything a try just once. You will never know until you try.

Getting back on track, Paste magazine dubbed Cat Head one of the 17 coolest record stores in America.

"You have to have a mission," Stolle said. "Everything I do is a to promote from within."That's Stolle's motto and Cat Head's mission: "Promote from Within."

What touched me the most was watching the minute-long clips of Stolle's documentaries on "antique" blues artists. I say antique because these artists are a dying breed. I know this is a cliche, but they don't make them like they used too, and it's so true.

Stolle told us about 76-year-old Big George Brock who he met at a juke joing in St. Louis, Missouri. Brock grew up as a sharecropper and in 1952, he knocked out a soon-to-be famous boxer.The documentary "Hard Times," chronicles Big George Brock's life. Stolle showed us one clip where Brock was talking about a club he used to own and his personal tragedies that caused him to close the doors.Club Caravan, circa 1960, was the place to be in Clarksdale. In the clip, Brock remembers the first time he met Albert King, a blues guitarist. He said King walked into the bar and Brock asked King who he worked for. King said nobody. Long story short, Brock plays the blues because of the grief and anguish he bears. His wife was shot and killed from a gun wound to the temple and since then, he has closed the club.Brock has two CDs and one documentary DVD. He was nominated for five Blues Music Awards, recipient of the Living Blues Critics Award and has visited festivals in England, Italy, Switzerland, and France.His documentary aired on Mississippi Public Broadcasting and Brock's recorded with Steven Seagal, Jimbo Mathus, Watermelon Slim, and Hubert Sumulin.

The second part of the presentation focused on Pat Thomas, a native of Leland, Miss. Now I don't know Mr. Thomas from Adam or Eve, but from the clip he looks like a character that I would love to chat with. He seems eccentric and quirky, but all in all a good guy. Stolle credited Thomas for his store's name, Cat Head. During the clip, Thomas said one day he decided to draw cats and make cat heads out of clay, so he did.

The third artist the film "M for Mississippi," focused on was a blues artist in Taylor, Miss., L.C. Ulmer. Ulmer said he quit playing the guitar for a long time, but once he begins to play, he can't stop. "I can play it all day and all night," Ulmer said. "Life is what you make of it. If you want to make it bad, you can make it bad," he said."If you want to make it good, you can make it good."

I thought it was a superb presentation. Although it may sound corny, I almost choked up. When you look at these guys, you can see all their pain they've endured and that's what makes their music. Their music is an interpretation of their life, their hardships and their struggles. I know for a fact that when I drive home next time, I will definitely make a visit at Cat Head