Yellowdog says ... Bill Abel Paul 'Wine' Jones Marty Christian David Lee Durham Jimmy 'Duck' Holmes Willie King T-Model Ford   [Dutch] Albums: "It's Jack Daniel Time. This is for men, not for boys and not for womens. And that's for goddamn sure!"

T-Model Ford: playing the blues 'till you fall apart Blues comes in various sorts: from the smoothly polished middle-of-the-road blues to the raw and dirty, off-the-highway blues that grabs you by the throat. If you're a fan of the first, just skip old T-Model Ford 'cause this bluesman produces the meanest and dirtiest blues you ever heard. Straight from Greenville in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, simply structured and a monotonous rhythm taking unexpected turns every now and then. T-Model Ford's life story highly contributes to his status as a bluesman. Imprisoned for murder, forced to work on the chain gang, notorious whiskey drinker and womanizer, married five times and father of 27 children. T-Model Ford was born on June 24, 1924 in Forest, Mississippi, as James Lewis Carter Ford. His father made him work the land: plowing behind the mule, pickin' cotton and that's why - unlike his brothers and sisters- he didn't go to school a single day in his life. As a youngster he wasn't exactly the nicest of all: "I could really stomp some ass back then, stomp it good. I was a sure-enough-dangerous man". At age 18 he was sentenced to ten years for killing a man. Self-defence, T-Model says. The scars on his ankles will remember him of his work on the chain gang for the rest of his life. Only two years after his conviction T-Model is a free man again and has a job in a sawmill. Later on in life he makes a living as a truckdriver at a lumber company. Not until he was 58 years of age he first picked up a guitar, a present from his then wife. He thought she must have gone mad spending his money on something ridiculous like that. On a rainy day one or two weeks later he plugged in the guitar for the first time. At that time his wife had already left him. The self-proclaimed 'Boss of the blues', 'Ladies Man', 'Tail Dragger' always turns up at the stage with two things: his Peavey-guitar and a half-pint Jack Daniel's. Sitting on a chair he plays his uncommon, raw, rhythmic blues, seemingly tireless. T-Model sings about women, love, betrayal and violence: "damn, I'm gonna put my shoe in your ass". Regularly during his performance he yells "It's Jack Daniel time", washes down a draught of the famous liquor and continues playing. More than once they have to stop him, otherwise he'll be going on for hours on end. Once in a while the whiskey gets the better of him and knocks him down. Spam - legally known as Tommy Lee Miles - has been T-Model's drummer for many years but after a row T-Model put him aside. Nowadays he's often accompanied by a grandson. The reviews on T-Model Ford's music are rather varying. Some critics say he's one of the very last genuine Mississippi blues players passing on a juke joint tradition on the verge of extinction. Others tend to focus more on the technical aspects and some are even straight negative: he's playing out of time and his guitar playing is very limited. Well, it may be clear that his former Fat Possum label mates R.L. Burnside and Jr. Kimbrough are technically better skilled artists. But to many people it's the straight forward and uncompromising rawness and the monotony that make his music irresistible. He couldn't play, but soon he learned, not knowing that one day he would be playing all over the world.   T-Model and Detroit based blues singer Sweet Claudette at the Freedom Creek Festival, Aliceville, Alabama, 2007. In this video T-Model plays and talks about his life during a live-recording in Off Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi: