Last night I went to see The Mighty Hannibal at The EARL in Atlanta and he gave a great, albeit short, show. The show was very well-attended, and it was great that the Creative Loafing featured Hannibal and promoted the show. (See this link for a Hannibal bio.) Hannibal was presented a "Mighty Hannibal Day" proclamation from the City of Atlanta (presented by Michael Julian Bond, whose father and Hannibal go waaaaaaay back) and he made some sharp remarks about the war in Iraq. Then he warned us - "when I get back on the stage, put your seat belts on, because I'm fixin' to turn this mother out." And when he returned an hour later, he did, showing that at age 67 he still can do his thing. He performed today's selection as well, so I decided to feature it.
Hannibal had been releasing 45s for a good 14 years for a range of labels (including King, Loma and Venture) and variations on the Hannibal stage name when his first LP, Truth, arrived on the scene in 1973. Truth found Hannibal addressing politics, both of the social and personal kind, with the title track taking on his overcoming a drug problem that had plagued him for some time. It's a great gospel-flavored piece of funk that was a great anchor for the LP.
A further note about last night's show: doing some spinning before the show, between the opening acts and afterwards was "Georgia Soul" guru Brian Poust (who also got to introduce Hannibal) and WFMU's Mr. Fine Wine ("Downtown Soulville"), and in the audience was The Birmingham Sound compiler John Ciba. It was great to meet both of the latter gentlemen!
1 comment:
sigh...Am now very jealous! I read the creative loafing article, and was impressed by Hannibal's willingness to speak out on the things that don't sit right with him.
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