When blues vocalist Larry “Big Twist” Nolan died of heart failure early in the morning of Wednesday, March 14, the blues world lost one of its most beloved, ebullient spirits. Locally we lost a good deal more; Twist was a uniquely homegrown product of southern Illinois, a source of regional pride for an entire generation of blues fans who either went to school or worked around the Carbondale area in the early and mid-1970s.
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At that time Twist was drumming and singing in a three-piece R & B band. He’d been living in Murphysboro, Illinois, for most of his life, and was just about the only black performer on the downstate roadhouse circuit. Special remembers that Twist sang a wide variety of songs but even then bent everything to his own style: a deep-chested roar in the tradition of Big Joe Turner and the other great blues shouters, laced with a good-humored rapport with the audience that served him well in various flatland venues. As a black man singing the blues for a predominantly country audience, Twist was an anomaly “in more ways than one,” Special recalls.
Hoping against hope, Special and Ogolini timidly suggested to Twist that he might like to jam with Pontiac Jones sometime; they were flabbergasted when he began showing up at various Carbondale clubs and sitting in with them. Apparently Twist was getting restless with the roadhouse circuit, sensing it was something of a dead end. The enthusiasm and lofty ambitions of these young musicians intrigued him, and to everyone’s delight, they found each other musically compatible. Within a year they were Big Twist and the Mellow Fellows.
Despite Twist’s success as a recording artist and performer, there’s insufficient money to pay the funeral expenses. Friends and admirers have organized a benefit concert for this Sunday, March 25, at 7:30 at B.L.U.E.S. Etcetera, 1124 W. Belmont. It will feature the Mellow Fellows, Koko Taylor, Lonnie Brooks, and the Kinsey Report with Big Daddy Kinsey. Tickets are $12; for further information, call 525-8989.
