St. Joseph News-Press, Mo., Alonzo Weston column

March 26--To play the blues well, some say you have to know pain on a first-name basis. It's even better if you call it kin. Knowing pain that way gets the blues in your blood. In spite of the pain, or working alongside it, the blues drive whoever possesses them to tell their story.

Misery loves company. The blues love an audience.

Blues guitarist B.B. King once said, "The blues is pain, but it's a pain that brings joy."

Rock bassist and vocalist Bugsy Maugh and guitarist Jerry Forney brought joy to a crowded room at Magoon's on Saturday evening. Forney showed up with a few other local musicians to play for Bugsy's CD release party.

Forney's house caught fire the night before. Since then, home for him has been the couch of friends.

Forney entertained the crowd with that pain Saturday night. It fueled his licks. It bent the notes for him.

Still, what makes a man come out and play the blues less than a day after his house caught fire?

"Well, because it was Bugsy and I didn't want to sit around and think about it anymore. I figured it'd do me good to get out and go, so I did," Forney said.

Some of Bugsy's pain comes from being diagnosed with lung cancer about 15 years ago. The disease left him with two half-lungs and eight ribs.

Cancer didn't even try to take his spirit. It knew there would be a hell of a fight if it tried to rip the blues out.

After the cancer came, every performance was always Bugsy's last. I heard it so much I lost count.

Bugsy's wife, Carolyn, said each performance wore him out. It usually takes him two or three days to recover.

I won't hear from Bugsy for months. Then, out of the blue, that raspy, wheezing-for-air voice will be on the other line: "I'm playing again." "It's my last time." "For real this time." "I can't do it anymore."

I heard that about a year ago.

There Bugsy was Saturday night, with oxygen tubes coming out of his nose, wailing the blues away. His fingers ever nimble on rhythm guitar. His mind still sharp enough to school a bass player on the chord changes.

Sometimes the oxygen tubes slipped out of Bugsy's nose while he sang. A bandmate positioned them back in.

Asking Bugsy why is like asking him why he likes to eat, walk or breathe. The blues are just as essential to his being.

He'll just laugh or mumble an answer.

Forney, too, took his pain in stride. What causes the blues is part of life. Go with it, roll with it. Make music about it.

A fire can take away a lot of things. And it did.

"I got my guitars out of there. I got the stuff that mattered to me," he said.

That house was built in 1872. It's a historic home in Hopkins, Mo.

"That house where I live is Matthew and Phoebe Roseberry's house. That street was named after them. They, like, settled that town up there in 1872," Forney said.

Forney said he'll get help from the town folks to help restore his home. He's pretty handy, too. But he didn't have insurance. He needs more help.

There will be a fundraiser for Jerry Forney at 9 p.m. Saturday, April 5, at Magoon's Famous Delicatessen, 632 S. Eighth St. The plan is for local and area musicians to have a blues jam in support of their brother and provide entertainment for the crowd too while they're at it.

It will be from a pain that provides joy.

Alonzo Weston can be reached

at [email protected].

Follow him on Twitter: @SJNPWeston.

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