The House Rockers

“Ain’t No Party Like a House Rocker Party, ‘Cause a House Rocker Party Don’t Stop.”
Seen above at the Subway Lounge reunion, The House Rockers received national recognition for their contributions to The Blues during a ceremony honoring their work. During the event, the State of Mississippi erected a historical marker, which is part of the Mississippi Blues Trail.
Featured in the documentary Last of the Mississippi Jukes, the House Rockers’ brand of blues carries infectious can’t-sit-still grooves, screaming guitars and scorching horns. Known for their upbeat party blues, the House Rockers formed more than 17 years ago and for 15 of those years was the mainstay band of the legendary Subway Lounge in Jackson , Mississippi .
The dark and smoky basement once occupied by such accompanying greats as Bobby Rush, Fingers Taylor, Patrice Moncell, Jackie Bell, Taj Majhal, Chris Thomas King and Lavon Lindsey, has given way to time, but the House Rockers (in keeping true to their catch phrase) never missed a beat. Jay Schimmel, owner of Jackson ’s Schimmels Fine Dining, had frequented the Subway and when the building fell, extended an offer for a regular weekend gig at his upscale restaurant. While the environment has changed a bit, the House Rockers still draw a wide variety of ages and backgrounds. Their combination provides the perfect hot bed for the amazing powerhouse vocals of Abdula Rasheed, Jimmy King and Dennis Fountain, who never fail to fill the floor before them with dancers who can’t resist their style of jump blues.
Director's Notes from "Last of the Mississippi Jukes" ...
"Although it’s difficult to put our feelings that night into words, I believe it’s safe to say that Terry, Michael and I were simply transported by the rough ambience of the dank, smoky, poorly lit basement room in which we found ourselves, by the harmonious interplay of black and white Mississippians in a black-owned venue on the black side of town, and especially by the extraordinary caliber of local musicians who sang and played their hearts out from midnight until shortly before dawn. As for myself, I decided right then and there that any film I made about Mississippi jukes would have to include Jimmy and Helen King’s Subway Lounge because, for reasons I could not fully comprehend, I truly felt that I was home. It was as if all of the music I had listened to since my mid-teens, and all of the issues I had cared about for just as long, were suddenly present in their purest forms. And yes, there was something in that welcoming smile of Helen by the front door, and of Jimmy behind the bar, that said to me, “Your musical family has been waiting here to receive you. You need never more feel ‘like a motherless child.’”
"Song number five in the film, “Stormy Monday,” is performed by singer Patrice Moncell, accompanied by Subway mainstays the House Rockers. Because Patrice now spends an increasing amount of time on tour, she’s no longer able to appear at the Subway every single weekend. But any time that “Mississippi’s own queen of the blues” (to quote emcee and tenor sax player London Moffitt III) comes strutting through the front door of the lounge, her well-rounded figure squeezed into a colorful evening dress, the late-night crowd parts for her as they would for few others, and the ensuing performance never disappoints. Music journalists are sometimes too quick to call a dynamic vocalist a “force of nature.” But Patrice Moncell is capable of so much passion, so much dexterity, so much range, and so much sheer volume that she can flatten a roomful of listeners as readily as a late summer hurricane can flatten a Delta housing project. So, in her case at least, the term truly fits. But in this song, she also receives solid support from soloists Mark Whittington on guitar and James Evans on alto sax.
"Song number eight is Patrice Moncell’s unforgettably sexy cover of Clarence Carter’s “Strokin’,” one of the chitlin’ circuit’s biggest hits of recent years. In her own signature version of the tune, Patrice provides laugh-inducing details of a recent sexual conquest overtop of a funky soul groove laid down by Vasti Jackson with the House Rockers. The weapons in Patrice’s raunchy arsenal include fried chicken, collard greens, corn bread, peach cobbler, a fifth of gin, and “whipped cream in the freezer” (“I’ll tell ya’ll about that one later on!”). This is nearly 10 full minutes of pure, unadulterated, musical seduction, leavened by a dollop of frustration with a thickheaded member of the opposite sex. As Patrice quotes her mama as warning, “If that man look too good, it might be somethin’ wrong with him.”
"The film’s climactic number is Abdul Rasheed’s cover of the Bobby “Blue” Bland hit “Members Only” which, in the context of this project, invites everyone everywhere to visit the Subway Lounge. With his beaming face scanning the crowd, and his shaved head nearly scraping the ceiling, Abdul (a retired postal worker and the third of three singers paid to perform at the Subway each week) croons his lyrical “welcome” over the House Rockers’ gently cascading beat: “Members only...it’s a private party. Don’t need no money...to qualify. Don’t bring your checkbook; bring your broken heart. ‘Cause it’s members only...tonight.” Refining that message still further, he sings, “Say you’ve lost your woman; say you’ve lost your man. You’ve got a lot of problems...in your life. We’re throwing a party...for the sad and lonely. And it’s members only...tonight.”
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