[Harp-L] RIP: Neal Pattman: 1926-2005

[Headly Westerfield <headlyw@xxxxxxxxx>]

Neal Pattman: 1926-2005

Athens loses a music icon

By Don Nelson; don.nelson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[Photographs to accompany the article can be found at 
http://onlineathens.com/stories/050705/new_20050507054.shtml -- 
Unfortunately, one must register.]

Athens bluesman Neal Pattman, whose one-armed harmonica playing and soulful 
vocals earned him legendary status in Northeast Georgia, died Thursday of 
cancer at age 79.

For the past seven decades, Pattman offered his heart-felt music inside 
businesses, at churches, on nightclub stages and for music festivals. He 
entertained countless audiences throughout Athens and the region, making 
him a music icon among fans and musicians alike. His fame extended 
internationally as he played in Australia, Iceland and Switzerland. 
Pattman's music was also recorded on several tapes and compact discs, 
including the 1999 Prison Blues (that featured Pattman, Cootie Stark, Taj 
Mahal, Jimmy Rip, Timothy Duffy, Mudcat and Lee Konitz) and It Seemed Like 
a Dream recorded live in Australia in 2001 with Peter Gelling.

His Northeast Georgia performances included annual appearances at events 
like AthFest, the Northeast Georgia Folk Festival and the Hot Corner 
Celebration and Soul Food Feast. Pattman could just as easily be found 
giving an impromptu show from his parked car surrounded by a small group of 
individuals as he could stamping and singing on a stage fronted by hundreds 
of spectators.

"He was a legend here in Athens, Georgia," said Homer Wilson, who grew up 
listening to Pattman in Wilson's father's barber shop and at his family's 
church, Waggoners Grove Baptist in Colbert. Wilson's father, M.C. Wilson, 
owns downtown businesses Wilson's Soul Food and Wilson Styling Shop on Hull 
Street, at the intersection known as Hot Corner and the historical hub of 
black-owned business in downtown Athens.

Wilson, organizer of the annual Hot Corner Celebration, which will take 
place this weekend, said Pattman will be recognized in a special memorial 
roll call of people who contributed to the festival and who died during the 
past year.

"He was a great man and we're going to miss his music," Wilson said. "That 
harmonica was just something; I loved his blues music and (him) blowing 
that harmonica, tapping his feet and singing."

Guitarist David Herndon, manager of Musician's Exchange, had known Pattman 
for at least two decades and played alongside the blues performer many 
times, publicly and in private sessions.

"He was phenomenal ..." Herndon said. "He did things the way he was taught, 
which is different from a lot of blues players who play in more common 
styling."

Pattman was taught by his father, James Pattman, to play as a solo artist, 
so when he performed, he often varied from traditional blues chord 
progressions, Herndon explained.


"You just had to follow him," Herndon quipped.

Pattman's stage presence endeared him to crowds and built his popularity 
and iconic standing, Herndon said.

"That was his personality and charm on stage, and his harmonica style was 
just really cool to listen to," Herndon stated. "He had a great, rich voice 
and a great harmonica style."

It had been about a year since Herndon played with Pattman in a public 
venue, but Herndon said the private sessions he and Pattman participated in 
over the years were particularly rewarding.

"I used to go over to this little apartment he had, and we would sit around 
and play. It was a lot of fun," Herndon recalled. "The music would take us 
wherever he wanted to go."

Another longtime Athens guitarist, Davis Causey, said he never had the 
pleasure of playing with Pattman but did perform at the Georgia Theatre on 
occasions when Pattman also played.

"He was a natural at it; there was no affectation," Causey said.

Probably the last Athens public performance Pattman made was at AthFest 
last June, said Troy Aubrey, a partner in Athensmusic.net and a chairman of 
AthFest. Like Herndon, Aubrey emphasized Pattman's uniqueness.

"He was a genuine blues artist," Aubrey said. "We really only had one 
true-blue artist like that from our little town, and it's very sad we've 
lost such a great person."

Aubrey said he tried to book Pattman for AthFest every year, and in 2004, 
because Pattman's health was failing, organizers scheduled him for the main 
stage with a band backing him up. Pattman had to be helped on the stage, 
Aubrey said, but following his performance an adoring crowd pressed him for 
signatures.

"Afterwards he signed autographs, and had this big smile on his face," 
Aubrey said.

Pattman's health had been declining since last year, according to Pattman's 
younger brother, M.C. Pattman. The musician had been at Grandview Care 
Center, a nursing home where he was recovering from hip replacement 
surgery, when he was diagnosed with recurring bone cancer.

Born Jan. 10, 1926, to James and Lula Pattman, Neal Pattman grew up with 
music, as taught by their father, who was a Madison County farmer, M.C. 
Pattman said Friday. One of 13 children, Neal Pattman took up the harmonica 
when he was 7.


That same year, Pattman said, Neal and some of his siblings were playing 
with the family's mule and wagon when his arm got caught and hurt in the 
wagon wheel. Afraid of getting in trouble, Neal didn't tell his parents 
about the accident. The injury eventually caused blood poisoning in Neal's 
arm, which had to be removed, but the loss of an arm didn't take his spirit 
or passion for music, his brother said. Neal gave his first public 
performance when he reached his teens, M.C. recalled, and for nearly 70 
years he played whenever and wherever he could.

"He never let his handicap get him down," Homer Wilson said.

When his music career subsided somewhat, Pattman took a job with the 
University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education, where he worked for 
several years, his brother said.

M.C. Pattman remarked that he enjoyed a strong friendship and a lot of 
laughter with his musician brother, with whom he would often travel to 
performances.

"I'll miss being around him and talking with him about the old times and 
good times," Pattman said.

In his brother's music, people heard a rare voice evoking the past, Pattman 
said.

"They would always feel overjoyed about music they couldn't hear from 
anywhere else, making them think of the old times with the harmonica," he said.

Friends of the Pattmans are invited to visitation Tuesday evening at M.C. 
Pattman's home, 355 Fowler Drive in Athens.

Funeral services for Neal Pattman are being overseen by Mack and Payne 
Funeral Home and will be held at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Fairplay Baptist 
Church, 1375 Fairplay Church Road, in Neese.

Anyone wishing to help the Pattman family with funeral costs can contact 
the funeral home at (709) 543-8213.


|o|   Headly Westerfield
|o|
|o|  Saving the world....
|o|  ....one g-mail at a time
|o|______________________________________________