To get Shorty, take a long look at a storied career

By Michael Hoinski
SPECIAL TO THE AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Thursday, June 12, 2008

Guitar Shorty has played with the gods: Ray Charles, Bo Diddley, Willie Dixon, B.B. King and T-Bone Walker, to name a few. He can rattle off a good story about them as easily as he can play guitar with his teeth or perform any of the many maneuvers in his repertoire. One of the better stories involves the time he and Sam Cooke got robbed.

"There was a show that we were doing in Daytona Beach at an Elks club," Shorty begins, speaking by way of phone in advance of his Friday gig at the Continental Club. "I'll never forget that one.

"We were up there on stage, playing — and I always had flashy jewelry on and stuff — and people were going crazy, and we made a mistake and got too close to the front of the stage, and the crowd snatched us off the stage ... 'cause they wanted to touch us. When I got through, my chain was gone, the rings off my fingers were gone. Security was trying to get us to the back room. But the crowd wasn't trying to hurt us; they were just excited."

Shorty's shows have always been must-sees, thanks to his theatrical prowess — in '78, the Houston native received a perfect score on "The Gong Show" for segueing from a flip to a headstand while playing "They Call Me Guitar Shorty" — but that hasn't exactly translated into full-on appreciation for his technical skills and booming voice. That changed for Shorty (known to his mom as David Kearney) with the release of his latest effort, "We the People."

The album is proof that 68-year-olds can still bring it. When Shorty's not carrying on about being a "sex fiend" on "What Good Is Life?" or pimping a ride on "Fine Cadillac," he's lamenting the state of affairs in our country. Take the title track: Over delicious wah-wah, blues-rock licks, he busts out lines such as, "Get up in the morning/Go down to the store/Prices getting higher/I can't take it no more."

This underdog mentality also extends to the mismanagement and deception that have hampered Shorty's career like so many other obscure, old-school blues musicians.

"When you're young and you're coming up in the business, you run across a lot of fast-talkers," he says, "and you have a tendency to believe people, and this is what happened to me.

"How I got where I am right now, that's all from me trusting musicians who were older and took me under their wings and helped me. On the money side, I never had anybody to come forward."

At this point, though, it's more about prestige than a payday, which is a shame considering the profound influence Shorty had on one Jimi Hendrix.

"He used to go AWOL to come watch me play," Shorty says of Hendrix during his Army years. "When he found out I was marrying his stepsister, he embraced me and said, 'Bro, welcome to the family.' He said, 'I learned a lot from you.' He said, 'You're the most amazing guitar player I've ever seen in my life.' "

Praise reserved for the gods, indeed.