As I was about to begin this post about Swamp Cabbage‘s return to WNC (they play White Horse Black Mountain on Thursday, April 25), I received a press release that folk icon Richie Havens had passed away. This is significant because 1) It’s Richie Havens and 2) Swamp Cabbage front man (and former Asheville resident) Walter Parks toured with Havens as his guitarist for years.
In an interview with Xpress last fall, Parks reminisced, “Probably the most beautiful thing about Richie, outside of his magnificent voice, is that after his show he would make himself available to any fan who wanted to say hello to him.”
Havens, who famously opened Woodstock in ‘69, will be missed. But in a way it’s nice to know that Parks, an accomplished folk-blues musician, is not only still going strong, but will be back in the area this week.
Roots-rock trio Swamp Cabbage (with drummer Jagoda and bassist Jim Devito) released their EP, Drum Roll Please, last fall. From the Xpress story: The six-song collection is a bit of a departure for this band, known for its original material: Drum is all covers, all culled from ‘70s-era rock. Songs from The Who, The Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, Average White Band, Edgar Winter and Isaac Hayes made the cut. From the latter comes the theme song from “Shaft”; this is the one song on Drum with full lyrics. Here, Parks makes use of his soulful, bass-heavy baritone, posing the age-old question, “Who’s the cat that won’t cop out / when there’s danger all about?”
Swamp Cabbage will be at White Horse Black Mountain on Thursday, April 25. 7:30 p.m., $12.
Watch a video interview with Parks here:
