In an era when suburban teen prodigies and middle-aged white dudes with greasy ponytails dominate the blues scene, we are extremely giddy to welcome Delta blues bad-ass T-Model Ford to the juke-joint-sized Dave's Aqua Lounge for what is - to the best of our knowledge - the awesomely grizzled singer, songwriter and electric guitarist's Tampa Bay debut.
Ford, age 84 if you believe Wikipedia, plays triumphantly nasty boogie music à la his late Fat Possum labelmate R.L Burnside and fellow Mississippian John Lee Hooker. It's raw shit delivered with appropriate 'tude by a man who has truly lived the gangsta lifestyle (albeit a rural one). "I've been shot and I've been cut," Ford growls on the song "Nobody Gets Me Down." That's from Ford's wonderfully unpolished and riveting 1997 Fat Possum debut, Pee Wee Get My Gun, which has recently been reissued.
T-Model Ford w/Nervous Turkey, 9:30 p.m. Fri., Dec. 12, Dave's Aqua Lounge, St. Petersburg, $10.
