Contents
Feature
3 Sickstring Outlaws
Jams
10 “Jamaversary” at
The House of Blues
11 Boogie Jam
13 Local Jams
Stories
7 Black Market III Live CD
9 Spring Harp Fest
14 Devon Allman
15 Boogie Collage
by Nick Abadilla
Cover photo by
Nick Abadilla Photography
The Team
Publisher
Eli J. Medellin
Editor
Jason Thompson
Design / Technology
Jennifer Medellin
Photography
Nick Abadilla
Stephanie Pillar
Eli J. Medellin
Marketing
Mark Eppler
Lette
r fro
m the
Editor
T
he murder was simple enough. Two men in a bar in a Midwest town in 1895
get into a scuffle. Some argue it was over a gambling debt. Other argue it was
about a Stetson hat. Ultimately, Lee Shelton, a pimp and carriage driver, shot
his associate Billy Lyons. Billy died of injuries. Lee, also known as Stag Lee, Stagger Lee,
and Stack Lee, was charged, tried, and convicted of the murder. Thousands of murders
each year and yet, this one particular murder serves, to this day, as the spring for literally
thousands of songs all centered around Stagger Lee.
No one knows at this point who wrote the original. We do know it was published
in 1911. Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians cut it first in 1923. Since then, more than 2,300
artists have cut the song, putting their own unique stamp on it. Ma Rainey did in
1925, Mississippi John Hurt laid it down in 1928. It was become something of a secret
handshake among musicians since that early folk and Delta blues time.
One of the great joys of folk music is that musicians can stamp it with their own seal
regardless of genre. Bluesmen have done it, smoky-voiced jazz singers have done. Punk
rockers, Dixie-fried country pickers, rhythm and blues masters, soul stirrers, bar bands,
and pop balladeers have lent their talents to the murder ballad. The Clash did it and they
turned it into a protest cry for working-class men. They called it “Wrong ‘Em Boyo” and
included it on their masterpiece album “London Calling.” R&B superstar Lloyd Price hit
number one with it in 1957. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds recorded an absolutely filthy,
X-rated version of the song on his fittingly titled album “Murder Ballads.”
The point of all this is to say, folk music, by definition is the music of and from the
people. It’s a prism, and if one were to look through that prism one could see an entire
way of life, a mindset, of an entire piece of a population. Every society, indeed every
culture, has their own folk music. This is as it should be. By peeking through those prisms
we can better understand the thoughts of an Irish farmhand, or an English sea captain, or
even an American criminal. These folk tales often become legends of the finest order.
Next time you’re plugged in and listening, take a look at the liner notes. If you read
closely you may find songs not attributed in anyone. They call these songs traditional,
and I promise there’s a story behind it. In the pages of this very magazine, we’ll be telling
you the story of the musicians in San Diego. We’ll be telling their stories and the story of
music in San Diego. We’ll try not to be so traditional about it.
Jason Thompson
Editor
Staff
Sheri Salomone
Videography
Brad Anderson
Special Thanks
The Moneymen
Boogie Magazine 2