I don’t know why, but tonight I started thinking about Arkansas. I don’t think about Arkansas that much, but when I do, I remember my two heroes from Newport, Arkansas: Sonny Burgess and Billy Lee Riley. Both of them recorded for Sun Records in the 1950s, and kept giving magnificent shows—I mean, “blow the roof off the joint”-type shows—until the day they died (Billy passed in 2009, Sonny in 2017). I was grateful to work with both of them dozens of times. Nothing made me happier than to play guitar on “Flying Saucers Rock ’n’ Roll” or “Red Hot” with Billy Lee Riley, or “We Wanna Boogie” or “Ain’t Got a Thing” with Sonny Burgess. Both of them have been gone quite a while now. I sure wish I could go jump in a time machine and play a gig with them tonight.
I’ll repeat my favorite Sonny Burgess quote. While introducing one of his Sun recordings, he told the audience: “This record sold like hotcakes. TOO BAD IT DIDN’T SELL LIKE RECORDS!”
My favorite moment with Billy Lee Riley happened at one of the early Ponderosa Stomp festivals, I think in 2004. I was on stage with him, and my band was backing him up. Finally, Dr. Ike, the promoter of the festival, came up to the stage and said, “We’ve got three guys that played with Slim Harpo in the audience, they want to get up and jam with Billy Lee.” Within the matter of sixty seconds, I was on stage playing “Baby Scratch My Back” with Billy Lee Riley on harp (he was a GREAT harmonica player), Rudy Richard on guitar, King Lloyd on bass, and Warren Storm on drums—all of whom had either played with or recorded with Slim Harpo back in the days when giants roamed the Earth. It was amazing. That clip is on YouTube, by the way.
Those Arkansas guys like Sonny Burgess and Billy Lee Riley were all characters, man. We had some really fun times together, and it’s sad to think there won’t be any more shows to look forward to. I miss them dearly.
See more photos at Deke’s original Facebook post!
