BrothaRic Patton

Man, let me tell y'all somethin'.

I've been crossin' this old bridge from Mississippi over into Helena, Arkansas, for a good long while now.

And I don't care how many times I cross that son of a gun, there's somethin' about lookin' out over that big ol' muddy Mississippi River that just gets down in my soul.

Now, if you're headin' into Helena, take a good look off to your right.

You see that stretch of land sittin' down there along the river?

Well, hell, that ain't just any ol' piece of ground.

That's King…

I see something in the music business today that amazes the hell out of me.

An artist will have 50,000 followers on Instagram.

Another 5,000 subscribers on YouTube.

Videos getting thousands of views. Comments full of fire emojis and people saying, “You killed that!”

Looking at all that shit, you'd swear you're dealing with a superstar.

Then Saturday night comes.

There's a club ten minutes from their house. Tickets are twenty dollars.

And they can't get 50 damn people in the building.

Something ain't adding up.

…

I’ve been fooling around with something new.

And like most things around Fat Mule, I ain’t exactly sure where it’s gonna lead yet.

This right here is my first 360° photo from Fat Mule Studio.

Big thanks to Jocko for donating the 360 camera and giving us a chance to experiment with something I’ve been thinking about for a while.

See, the blues was never meant to just be heard.

You ought to be able to stand in it.

Feel the room. See the guitars leaning against the wall. Look behind you. Look above you. Catch all…

Funny how the blues will introduce you to somebody.

I met Jerry Dugger on TikTok.

At first, he was just this interesting dude who’d come into my broadcasts at night. He’d hang around, listen, talk a little, and every now and then leave a comment on one of my videos.

Then I found out Jerry was a musician.

A blues musician out of New York, at that.

Now think about that. Here I am down in Alabama playing THE BLUES, and somewhere up in New York this cat is hearing what I’m doing and digging it. Then I started…

Years ago, I walked into a Guitar Center like I’d walked into plenty of places before.

I left a few business cards.

Played a few guitars.

Didn't think much about it.

A little while after I left, my phone rang.

It was somebody from the store.

He said, “Was that you playing guitar in here a few minutes ago?”

I told him it was.

He said he'd heard me playing and thought I was pretty good. Then he told me they were looking for guitar instructors and asked if I'd be interested in teaching.

Well, hell.

That sounded pretty…

October 8th is getting closer, and that means one thing around here.

King Biscuit time.

Once again, I’ve got the honor of hosting the Front Porch Blues Bash at the King Biscuit Blues Festival.

And when I say honor, I mean it.

The Front Porch Blues Bash is basically one big blues open mic. You never quite know who’s going to walk up there. Somebody might be carrying a guitar. Somebody might have a harmonica stuffed in their pocket. Somebody might just have a song they've been waiting all year to sing.

That's part…

I never wanted to be no rock star.

Never had them dreams.

I’ve been playing guitar a long damn time, but fame was never what pulled me toward the instrument. I never pictured my name up there in lights. Never dreamed about being the next B.B. King. Hell, we already had a B.B. King. The world didn’t need me trying to be another one.

I just wanted to play.

My mama bought me my first guitar when I was little. I had to be a baby. Maybe five, six, seven years old. Somewhere around there.

I’ve had guitars around me…

Maybe it’s this damn heat that made me remember this story.

I was young.  Young enough to have more nerve than sense.

We lived out in the country, and there was this girl who rode my school bus. She and her brother lived way back off the road. I mean WAY back.

Every morning the school bus would pull up and damn near have to wait on them to come walking out of that field toward the road.

I knew where she lived.

And one hot summer day, for reasons that made perfect sense to a young fool, I decided I was gonna ride…

I was sitting there the other day beside a dumpster parked in front of my dad and Mama’s old house.

That dumpster will preach to you if you sit beside it long enough.

Because sooner or later, somebody’s gonna clean out your house.

And mine.

That’s a hell of a thing to think about.

Every day, somewhere, somebody is standing in an old house opening drawers, pulling boxes down from closets, digging through cabinets, and trying to decide what stays and what goes.

Keep.

Give away.

Throw it in the dumpster.

And somewhere…

I was still in high school the first time I ever played a real nightclub.

And it wasn't just any nightclub.

It was the Ebony Club.

The Ebony Club was right up the road from where I lived in Triana, Alabama, and back then, that place was a big damn deal.

We were just kids. Had ourselves a high school band and thought we were something. Hell, maybe we were.

Music was different back then. We were heading into the disco era. Everybody was dancing. Bumping. Bump contests. Bands playing. Folks dressing up to go out on…