Photos courtesy of Ray Redding/TexasRedd Photography

Little Joe Washington at KPFT's Anniversary Party, April 2013

Houston is a little less of an action town today after Wednesday's passing of Little Joe Washington, the mighty-mite of the local blues scene. Washington's death is believed to be due to diabetic complications; he was 75.

I could prattle on here with the nuts and bolts of an overview of Joe's life: his birth on Velasco Street in Third Ward, his roots in the local scene here backing up guys like Albert Collins and Joe "Guitar" Hughes back in the day, his crazy days in the bars of El Paso and Juarez with pal Long John Hunter, his salad days in Los Angeles recording for Syd Nathan and Specialty Records, or his long slide into addiction and homelessness.

But screw it, I have better memories than that.

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Photo by Marco Torres

Little Joe Washington made the rounds...he even stopped by our place once in a while.

Whenever someone important like Little Joe Washington dies, an easy way to gauge just how much impact they had on their community is to see what people were saying about them right before they passed. Enter social media.

In Washington's case, it was a site called Funky Blues Radio, an Internet station that uses its Twitter feed as a log to track songs played, and apparently went on a bit of a Little Joe kick Tuesday. After he passed, people far and wide paid their respects -- but not surprisingly, an overwhelming amount of them were musicians.

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Photo by Jason Wolter

Robert Plant at Bayou Music Center, June 2013

Robert Plant: The Voice That Sailed the Zeppelin
By Dave Thompson
Backbeat Books, 280 pp., $27.99.

He's been in a laundry list of bands: The Crawling King Snakes. The Honeydrippers. Strange Sensation. The Band of Joy (twice). The Priory of Brion. And the Sensational Space Shifters. There's also that solo career and collaborations.

But of course, Robert Plant's musical legacy and career is inevitably tied to just one group: Led Zeppelin. Not that he's -- to the chagrin, frustration, and disappointment of millions (including his former bandmates) -- tied to it.

Zeppelin reissues and history-burnishing? Let Jimmy Page handle it. Reunions? A handful of one-off disastrous appearances. A full-on tour after the band's hugely successful they-still-got-it two hour show in 2007? Not a chance.

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Welcome to Ask Willie D, Rocks Off's advice column where the Geto Boys MC answers reader questions about matters, in his own words, "funny, serious or unpredictable." Something on your mind? Ask Willie D!

Photo by Mario Jaramillo

I'M A GUY THINKING ABOUT GETTING MY LIP PIERCED

Dear Willie D:

I have wanted to get my lip pierced for a while. I told my sister and she is against it, but a girlfriend of mine and my best friend said he thinks I should do it. I'm confused as the three people I just named are the closest people in my life, and they haven't given me a clear choice.

Being that I'm a guy, do you think people will look at me weird if I went through with it? I'm 19, if that helps.

Pierced Lip:

Being that I'm a guy, doing something like putting a ring anywhere on my body besides my fingers never even crosses my mind. I don't know about people looking at you weird, but putting a ring in your lip is an excellent way to make men who like men think you're about that life. But hey, when I was in my early twenties I briefly had my hair fried, dyed, and laid to the side like Little Richard, so what do I know?

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Marc Brubaker

Iggy & The Stooges at 2013 Free Press Summer Fest

I'm one of those people who grew up thinking David Bowie was a genius from beyond the realm of human evolution, but the older I get the more I tend to believe that Iggy Pop is the true wizard within the Big Three of Glam. Though he's never going to be accused of having the greatest range in the world, that voice is simply one of a kind and can cut through the air like thunder. There's just something in the way Iggy sings that has such incredible depths and balls to it.

And that's why today we celebrate the times he's lent that incredible set of pipes to other artists.

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Photo by Mark Britain

Probably the editor's favorite picture of Little Joe, taken at House of Blues' Bronze Peacock Room in 2010

Even if it wasn't a surprise, Little Joe Washington's death Wednesday afternoon is a shock. The Houston music community has lost one of its icons, a dynamic performer whose talents far transcended the style of music he happened to play, and whose energy made him a favorite of people generations younger than he was. Everybody who saw him came away a Little Joe fan, even if they only saw him once.

Those who saw Joe play did not soon forget it, even if they happened to stumble into Boondocks by accident some anonymous Tuesday night, or by showing up some Friday expecting to see the later show at the Continental. Half the time they left shaking their heads that sounds that crazy could come out of such a tiny frame -- especially when Joe got going and started playing his guitar behind his back -- wondering what the hell they had just seen.

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Photo by Marco Torres

Little Joe Washington (center) and his band performing at House of Blues during the 2013 Houston Press Music Awards showcase

UPDATED: According to Jomonica Phoenix's Facebook page, updated about 4:10 p.m., Washington has passed away. Rocks Off will have a longer obituary and information on memorial services as soon as we possibly can.

Original Post:

As of Wednesday afternoon, beloved local musician Little Joe Washington was clinging to life in the ICU of St. Joseph's Hospital. According to Jomonica Phoenix, who helps look after the impish Houston bluesman, Washington's sister told her that the elderly musician was not expected to live through the night.

Washington had been in the hospital since Monday and had been improving, so much so that he had been "raring to play" his regular Tuesday-night gig at Boondocks as recently as 24 hours ago, Phoenix said. He turned 75 this past March, is diabetic and has had a number of health scares in the past few years, including surgery in 2010 for a partially obstructed bowel and another hospitalization for kidney trouble around Labor Day Weekend 2013.

But his health had been improving and he had even been back to playing selected gigs, most often Boondocks and every-other-Friday happy hours at the Continental Club.

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Images courtesy of Houston Cinema Arts Festival

Bjork's Biophilia Live was partially recorded on an iPad.

Music-related films only make up about ten percent of the programming of this year's Houston Cinema Arts Festival, or five out of almost 50 films in all. But those five -- about far-flung subjects ranging from Indonesian street musicians, graffiti-strewn subway trains (set to a killer soundtrack), a Houston Ballet production, everyday citizens starring in impromptu music videos, and the one and only Bjork -- are easily as diversified and eclectic as both the six-year-old HCAF and the city that houses it. (See a full schedule of the fest, which runs tomorrow through Sunday, at this link.)

But besides its diversity, another thing that has become a calling card of the HCAF is its accessibility. Of this year's five music-themed selections, all except one are free to the public (space permitting), and the other -- the Bjork film -- is said to be like no other concert film in history, well worth the price of admission. Many other screenings are also free, while still others will be introduced by special guests like Houston rapper Bun B, who will do the honors for Jalanan (the Indonesian-musician film) tomorrow night at Cafe Brasil. Rocks Off will actually be on hand to introduce Bun and pick his brain about Jalanan afterward, so come up and say hi.

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Photo by Mark Seliger/OnTour PR

The Tedeschi Trucks Band: The per diem costs alone must kill their accountant. From left to right: Mark Rivers, Tyler Greenwell, Kofi Burbridge (sitting), Kebbi Williams, Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, Mike Mattison, Maurice Brown, J.J. Johnson (sitting) and Saunders Sermons. Tim Lefebvre had not joined the group yet.

For many a bluesman, standing at the Crossroads is a mostly apocryphal experience, the stuff of myth and legends. But when Rocks Off reached Derek Trucks at his New York hotel room last month, the myth is quite real.

In a few days, he'll take the stage with the Allman Brothers Band for their annual run of shows at the Beacon Theatre. Except it will be the last-ever live dates with the venerable group for both guitarists Trucks and Warren Haynes, both having previously announced their departure. And - depending on which member speaks to the media on which day - may be the ABB's last live dates ever.

"It's a trip. We started rehearsals last night for the last run, and I can't tell who is processing what in what way yet. I don't know if we'll ever be on the same page about [any future for the group], but for me, this is it. And I know Warren as well," Trucks says.

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Photo courtesy of Nick Greer

If rock stars are upset with streaming-based systems of music delivery, says Houston's Nick Greer, "let them sell one of their houses."

In the September issue of Esquire, Gene Simmons declared that rock and roll was dead, slayed by file sharing and an entitled public ear. Then, in October, Iggy Pop criticized U2 for setting a standard that music should be free, not to mention forcing its latest release onto unsuspecting iPhone owners. And just last week, Taylor Swift removed almost her entire catalog of music from Spotify, only four months after penning an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal in which she stated that "piracy, file-sharing and streaming have shrunk the numbers of paid album sales drastically."

Most end-users would agree that file-sharing is the future, but the transition hasn't been as smooth for the artists who are trying to make a living. During the John Peel lecture at the Radio Festival, even the godfather of punk Iggy Pop admitted that he'd be bartending in between performances if he had to live off the proceeds from his record sales.

Local funk man Nick Greer, however, thinks that it's out with the old and in with the new. The only people he has heard complaining about file-sharing are the artists who had careers before file sharing existed.

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