PAPA MALI
''THUNDER CHICKEN''
JANUARY 1 2000
64:35
1. All Right You Got It /0:12
2. Bon Ton Roulet /4:56
3. A Man of Many Words /4:10
4. Walk on Guilded Splinters /9:50
5. I'm the One /7:22
6. La Bebida Por Su Vida /0:15
7. Keep Happy /4:42
8. Fleabite Junior the Third /0:14
9. If I Ever Get Right /5:03
10. Fire Water /6:52
11. Cottonfields and Bayous /5:04
12. Skeleton Bug /5:02
13. South Austin Lullaby /7:18
14. Rational Mind /3:35
Sarah Brown /Bass, Guest Artist, Vocals
George Carver /Bass Harmonica, Vocals
Paul "Buddha" Mills /Percussion, Vocals
Tomás Ramírez /Saxophone
Barry "Frosty" Smith /Drums
Malcolm "Papa Mali" Welbourne /Guitar
REVIEW
by Thom Jurek
According to legend, Thunder Chicken is the moniker for a kind of fortified wine that helped Malcolm "Papa Mali" Welbourne) evolve, from his early years as a crazy music-freak kid with a six-string slung over his shoulder to the swamp-funk-hoodoo-slide-guitar-choogler he's become. Along with his smoking band, the Instagators, he concocts a back-alley brand of Louisiana parade sass that meets bluesy Austin, TX grit in a gumbo of the deeply greasy variety; it becomes something joyfully lusty and intoxicating in its own right. As a singer, Mali's dirty-ass slide axe struts in front of him and he's a deep-voiced soulful growler. But it's drummer Barry Frosty Smith who whips the band into the tight, cracking, oily funk machine that can slay you on record as well as in a live setting. And that's what Thunder Chicken is, a beautifully dose of voodoo blues, and raucous pumped up Southern funk and roll. Produced by the Dan Prothero, the true king of raw, Thunder Chicken is one of the few truly wild and unruly records to come from the rock & roll tradition in the 21st century. Mali and Smith are assisted by bassist Courtney Audain who also plays udu and bones, otherworldly vocalist Bevis Griffin, Claude McCan on various in-the-pocket keyboards, percussionist Paul "Buddha" Mills, and sax ace Tomás Ramírez. The program includes a hefty dose of Louisiana swamp and party music. There's a joint-poppin' nasty read of Clifton Chenier's "Bon Ton Roulet," and a completely reinvented predatory version of Buddy Guy's swaggering "Man of Many Words," with a killer meat-and-potatoes sax line by Ramírez and one of the filthiest basslines in recorded music history. In addition, Mali's cover of the Wild Magnolias' "Fire Water" takes the chant at the heart of the original and turns it into some kind of way-past-midnight hallucinatory processional. The hinge of this set, though, is the nearly ten-minute read of Dr. John's classic "Walk on Gilded Splinters." The tune is a tranced-out, stoned, lonesome unholy blues with a Fender Rhodes and Mali's droning electric guitar punctuated ominously by the whip-crack snare of Smith. His vocal and Griffin's spooky wail in the background take the listener on a labyrinthine journey into the heart of darkness. Smith and Welbourne's "Keep Happy" is a cut-time guttural funk blues with lots of slide-guitar power chords, whomping snare, and maniacal distortion -- it feels like Buddy Guy fronting the Rolling Stones on "Midnight Rambler." The rest of the Welbourne originals stick close to the vein, the vein that is murky and unruly, full of surprises and killer riffs and hooks that could seduce a virtual street-full of revelers. "Cottonfields and Bayous" makes a case for this band being a thoroughly modern construct. the Instagators may deeply honor their musical heritage, but they're far from stuck in it. This feedback and slow strolling, freak-out hymn to the backwaters could only have been made in the 21st century with its hypnotic, twisted basslines that bust like a geyser from the speakers and reverb-drenched guitars behind the whispering keys and backbeat-driven drums. Originally issued on Prothero's Fog City and re-released by Jim Markel's Swampland, this record is timeless, sexy, and dangerous in its roots-man groove..
BIOGRAPHY
by Richard Skelly
Guitarist, singer, songwriter, and producer Papa Mali certainly puts his own distinctive spin on American vernacular music and it shows in his live performances and on several of his excellent solo albums. Far from a straight-ahead bluesman, Mali plays an enticing blend of blues, funk, swamp music, and soul, not unlike several other musicians who call New Orleans home. Mali lives in Austin, not New Orleans, but he was raised in Shreveport, LA and made frequent visits to family there throughout his youth.
Like so many others of his generation, Mali was most strongly influenced not by the Beatles, but by the bluesier, rootsier sounds of the Rolling Stones, and it was from there he worked backward to discover the songwriters from so many tunes the Stones covered. He began playing guitar at age four and was learning his favorite blues and rock tunes by the time he was 11. As a 12-year-old he saw the Meters perform at a Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans, and as a young teenager, the late blues-rock guitarist John Campbell took him under his wing and he learned a great deal from him; Campbell later moved to New York and cut some soul-stirring, powerful albums for PolyGram. In his late teens, Mali left home and traveled around the South, playing in juke joints and on the street for change and backing up touring blues and soul singers. In 1977 he took a trip to Jamaica and became fascinated with reggae music; he later teamed up with Michael Johnson to form the Killer Bees in 1980. the Killer Bees were one of a few American reggae-rock bands to play at Reggae Sunsplash in Montego Bay, Jamaica in 1988, and while on tour with Jamaican reggae musicians in the States, he received his nickname, Papa Mali. After the Killer Bees broke up, he pursued a musical career on his own, playing an amalgamation of blues, swamp rock, reggae, and New Orleans funk.
Papa Mali's albums include his debut, Thunder Chicken, and followed up with 2007's Do Your Thing. His second solo album included contributions from New Orleans musicians Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, sousaphone player Kirk Joseph, and legendary blind piano master Henry Butler.
In 2009, he formed a band, 7 Walkers with Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann, Meters bassist George Porter, Jr., and multi-instrumentalist Matt Hubbard. Their 7 Walkers self-titled debut was released in November, 2010 and features a duet with Willie Nelson. In more recent years, Papa Mali has gotten behind the console as a record producer. He produced the 7 Walkers' debut recording and also produced fellow Texas singer/songwriter and roots musician Ruthie Foster's The Truth According to Ruthie Foster for Blue Corn Music, a small, Houston-based label. Mali has also worked as a producer for other Austin-based musicians, including vocalist Lavelle White and guitar slinger and vocalist Omar "Kent" Dykes.
''THUNDER CHICKEN''
JANUARY 1 2000
64:35
1. All Right You Got It /0:12
2. Bon Ton Roulet /4:56
3. A Man of Many Words /4:10
4. Walk on Guilded Splinters /9:50
5. I'm the One /7:22
6. La Bebida Por Su Vida /0:15
7. Keep Happy /4:42
8. Fleabite Junior the Third /0:14
9. If I Ever Get Right /5:03
10. Fire Water /6:52
11. Cottonfields and Bayous /5:04
12. Skeleton Bug /5:02
13. South Austin Lullaby /7:18
14. Rational Mind /3:35
Sarah Brown /Bass, Guest Artist, Vocals
George Carver /Bass Harmonica, Vocals
Paul "Buddha" Mills /Percussion, Vocals
Tomás Ramírez /Saxophone
Barry "Frosty" Smith /Drums
Malcolm "Papa Mali" Welbourne /Guitar
REVIEW
by Thom Jurek
According to legend, Thunder Chicken is the moniker for a kind of fortified wine that helped Malcolm "Papa Mali" Welbourne) evolve, from his early years as a crazy music-freak kid with a six-string slung over his shoulder to the swamp-funk-hoodoo-slide-guitar-choogler he's become. Along with his smoking band, the Instagators, he concocts a back-alley brand of Louisiana parade sass that meets bluesy Austin, TX grit in a gumbo of the deeply greasy variety; it becomes something joyfully lusty and intoxicating in its own right. As a singer, Mali's dirty-ass slide axe struts in front of him and he's a deep-voiced soulful growler. But it's drummer Barry Frosty Smith who whips the band into the tight, cracking, oily funk machine that can slay you on record as well as in a live setting. And that's what Thunder Chicken is, a beautifully dose of voodoo blues, and raucous pumped up Southern funk and roll. Produced by the Dan Prothero, the true king of raw, Thunder Chicken is one of the few truly wild and unruly records to come from the rock & roll tradition in the 21st century. Mali and Smith are assisted by bassist Courtney Audain who also plays udu and bones, otherworldly vocalist Bevis Griffin, Claude McCan on various in-the-pocket keyboards, percussionist Paul "Buddha" Mills, and sax ace Tomás Ramírez. The program includes a hefty dose of Louisiana swamp and party music. There's a joint-poppin' nasty read of Clifton Chenier's "Bon Ton Roulet," and a completely reinvented predatory version of Buddy Guy's swaggering "Man of Many Words," with a killer meat-and-potatoes sax line by Ramírez and one of the filthiest basslines in recorded music history. In addition, Mali's cover of the Wild Magnolias' "Fire Water" takes the chant at the heart of the original and turns it into some kind of way-past-midnight hallucinatory processional. The hinge of this set, though, is the nearly ten-minute read of Dr. John's classic "Walk on Gilded Splinters." The tune is a tranced-out, stoned, lonesome unholy blues with a Fender Rhodes and Mali's droning electric guitar punctuated ominously by the whip-crack snare of Smith. His vocal and Griffin's spooky wail in the background take the listener on a labyrinthine journey into the heart of darkness. Smith and Welbourne's "Keep Happy" is a cut-time guttural funk blues with lots of slide-guitar power chords, whomping snare, and maniacal distortion -- it feels like Buddy Guy fronting the Rolling Stones on "Midnight Rambler." The rest of the Welbourne originals stick close to the vein, the vein that is murky and unruly, full of surprises and killer riffs and hooks that could seduce a virtual street-full of revelers. "Cottonfields and Bayous" makes a case for this band being a thoroughly modern construct. the Instagators may deeply honor their musical heritage, but they're far from stuck in it. This feedback and slow strolling, freak-out hymn to the backwaters could only have been made in the 21st century with its hypnotic, twisted basslines that bust like a geyser from the speakers and reverb-drenched guitars behind the whispering keys and backbeat-driven drums. Originally issued on Prothero's Fog City and re-released by Jim Markel's Swampland, this record is timeless, sexy, and dangerous in its roots-man groove..
BIOGRAPHY
by Richard Skelly
Guitarist, singer, songwriter, and producer Papa Mali certainly puts his own distinctive spin on American vernacular music and it shows in his live performances and on several of his excellent solo albums. Far from a straight-ahead bluesman, Mali plays an enticing blend of blues, funk, swamp music, and soul, not unlike several other musicians who call New Orleans home. Mali lives in Austin, not New Orleans, but he was raised in Shreveport, LA and made frequent visits to family there throughout his youth.
Like so many others of his generation, Mali was most strongly influenced not by the Beatles, but by the bluesier, rootsier sounds of the Rolling Stones, and it was from there he worked backward to discover the songwriters from so many tunes the Stones covered. He began playing guitar at age four and was learning his favorite blues and rock tunes by the time he was 11. As a 12-year-old he saw the Meters perform at a Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans, and as a young teenager, the late blues-rock guitarist John Campbell took him under his wing and he learned a great deal from him; Campbell later moved to New York and cut some soul-stirring, powerful albums for PolyGram. In his late teens, Mali left home and traveled around the South, playing in juke joints and on the street for change and backing up touring blues and soul singers. In 1977 he took a trip to Jamaica and became fascinated with reggae music; he later teamed up with Michael Johnson to form the Killer Bees in 1980. the Killer Bees were one of a few American reggae-rock bands to play at Reggae Sunsplash in Montego Bay, Jamaica in 1988, and while on tour with Jamaican reggae musicians in the States, he received his nickname, Papa Mali. After the Killer Bees broke up, he pursued a musical career on his own, playing an amalgamation of blues, swamp rock, reggae, and New Orleans funk.
Papa Mali's albums include his debut, Thunder Chicken, and followed up with 2007's Do Your Thing. His second solo album included contributions from New Orleans musicians Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, sousaphone player Kirk Joseph, and legendary blind piano master Henry Butler.
In 2009, he formed a band, 7 Walkers with Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann, Meters bassist George Porter, Jr., and multi-instrumentalist Matt Hubbard. Their 7 Walkers self-titled debut was released in November, 2010 and features a duet with Willie Nelson. In more recent years, Papa Mali has gotten behind the console as a record producer. He produced the 7 Walkers' debut recording and also produced fellow Texas singer/songwriter and roots musician Ruthie Foster's The Truth According to Ruthie Foster for Blue Corn Music, a small, Houston-based label. Mali has also worked as a producer for other Austin-based musicians, including vocalist Lavelle White and guitar slinger and vocalist Omar "Kent" Dykes.
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