Rest and Otis Redding

I met with a few of my sister friends this past Saturday. We started meeting routinely over a year ago just to encourage one another and tend to each other’s joys, dreams, tears, and healings. The spirited conversations and boisterous story-telling triggered songs that would pop into my head. I’d cooked up some of them good cabbages and collard greens with bacon, a huge smoked turkey leg, and some cornbread. I made a “lemon/lime/Malibu/pineapple juice/brown sugar-ade” and the sisters brought chicken, salad, fruit, cookie-brownies and ice cream. Child, let me tell you - we feasted on food and fellowship!

 When the cabbage and cornbread were finally ready (because I’m always still cooking when they arrive), everyone was talking loud and cutting up, so in true form, I blasted the #YouNameIt viral remix done of Shirley Caesar’s classic gospel song “Hold My Mule.”

“I got greens, beans, potatoes, tomatoes...”

Everybody then started pop blocking, dropping and rocking!

“This got to be the way you announce that dinner is ready from NOW ON!!” a sister yelled.  

If you’re reading this, then you’ve probably heard or seen my social media posts about #KBUncomplicated. If you haven’t, head on over to my events page. Over the next few weeks leading up to the event, I will be sharing about how it came to be, what it means to me, and why I am inviting you into my space to hear a little about my life and journey through songs, sights, stories, and snacks. 

 At the #KBUncomplicated photo shoot at Mad World Records Denton, the photographer Onikeh Brown asked me to choose a record cover that best spoke for and to me. My husband and kids tease me all the time because I call like 500 songs my favorite. Reminded of this, I chuckled as I flipped through a few records. I came across this gem with Otis Redding on the cover and my mind immediately went to the historic Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee - my hometown. I remember riding with my dad on the country roads of Mt. Pisgah, Eads, and Collierville in his drop top convertible, chewing Big Red bubble gum, with my extra-long, extra thick wild hair flowing in the breeze. My Daddy’s nickname for me is Big Red aka Big Baby Red. He still calls me that, and I still answer to it.

 My dad is my all-time favorite singer and musician, and he introduced me to all his favorites. Through him I met the soulful sounds of artists like Otis Redding, James Brown, Curtis Mayfield, The Temptations, Sam Cooke, Donny Hathaway, Al Green and the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. He and my mom passed on the gift of music to me. Their life soundtracks spanning genres and generations, we grew up hearing them on the radio, spinning on vinyl, crackling through an 8-track or compact cassette, and then eventually on CDs. I have a library of songs for every memory and for every smell, dream, conversation, labor, meal, trial, celebration, fight, and victory. Yes, I have an ever-flowing medley.

 “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” is more than one of the greatest hits of all time. It speaks for generations of oppressed people who have and still overcome, and how we manage to prosper, even in suffering, sorrow, and pain. This gem is the essence of #KBUncomplicated- that self-care isn’t about having a life of oblivious ease, or shallow superficial comforts; it’s about how we create moments of peace and joy, even when times are hard. It’s about times of God’s glorious and supernatural refreshing while fighting for life, equality, dignity, and justice.

I have witnessed grandparents, greats, and great greats wield it like a flaming sword, willing it in blood to parents, aunties, uncles, cousins, sisters, brothers, and me. This peace and shelter in the midst of the storm is God’s sweet enduring and endearing gift that’s been passed down from generation to generation. 

I left my home in Georgia

Headed for the 'Frisco bay

'Cause I've had nothing to live for

And look like nothin's gonna come my way 

So I'm just gonna sit on the dock of the bay

Watching the tide roll away

Ooo, I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay

Wastin' time

Look like nothing's gonna change

Everything still remains the same

I can't do what ten people tell me to do

So I guess I'll remain the same, yes 

Sittin' here resting my bones

And this loneliness won't leave me alone

It's two thousand miles I roamed

Just to make this dock my home

Now, I'm just gonna sit at the dock of the bay.....

Man, I wish I knew how to whistle, so I could jump in with Otis at the end of the song when he starts up. Yes, indeed - I’m feeling this classic tune in my bones, y’all. This pic, album cover, and song is home and rest.  

Hope y’all can make it out to #KBUncomplicated on Friday, September 6th. Check out the details on the events page and subscribe on the home page to stay current with the happenings. You can also follow my Facebook and Instagram pages.