Music in the Key of Bee
King Bees Duo, Possum Jenkins play Friday at Jones House

By Frank Ruggiero

Downtown Boone will be abuzz with music Friday, as the King Bees Duo takes the Jones House porch for

this week’s Concert on the Lawn.

The blues roots group, its core members being husband-and-wife musicians Rob “Hound Dog” Baskerville and Penny “Queen Bee” Zamagni, considers the Jones House a favorite venue, though they’ve played the world over, from southern barrooms to New York’s Lincoln Center to European tours.

The King Bees started stingin’ and swingin’ in 1987, after Baskerville and Zamagni met at a musical event. “I discovered that she had a passion for music that was every bit as strong or stronger than mine, and she has an excellent ability to write songs,” Baskerville said.

Zamagni (bass, vocals) writes the words, while Baskerville (guitar, keyboards, vocals) handles the notes, a musical relationship that’s proven most constructive, creating a chemistry evident on both stage and record.

“And to this day, people are coming up and saying it’s amazing how the two of us really work together,” Baskerville said. “It gives us an advantage, because we support each other, and if we get into a rut, we’re also free to take a left turn somewhere along the way musically to explore something different, and we’re always comfortable in that. We can steer each other in different directions, and that’s a chemistry a lot of musicians don’t have.”

Both Hound Dog and Queen Bee grew up in music, with Zamagni’s father a jazzman and her older brothers accomplished musicians, who introduced her to the swampy rock, blues and R&B of New Orleans. Baskerville’s father was a big band drummer and jazz buff, often taking young Rob to see notable outfits, such as the Count Basie Orchestra, perform.

“I also have an older sister, and she would be listening to (Jimi) Hendrix, and while she and my dad would argue about which music was better, I was hearing both of those people playing blues, but with a radically different approach,” Baskerville said. “But both those cats were very blues oriented.”

Baskerville considers blues to be elastic, in that the genre’s flexible enough to welcome varied approaches. One such approach was that of the Allman Brothers Band, whom Baskerville considers a main influence in his music.

“That was the first eye-opening thing to me – this is blues, but it’s different and beyond, so I would look at the albums and see T-Bone Walker and Elmore James’ names written on those albums,” Baskerville said, “and I’d say, ‘Who’s Elmore James?’ and go back and do my homework, and it opened up a huge new world, a whole musical world.”

This inspired Baskerville to seek out all things blues.

“If someone made a blues record in the last century, I probably have heard it or attempted to hear it,” he said. “I was just crazy for it. I heard every band I could and bought every record I could, from LPs to 78s – it didn’t matter. If I could get a chance to hear it, I was determined to hear it.”

Though Baskerville and Zamagni learned from those records, the King Bees continue to learn today.

“Our goal is to apprentice with real Southern African American blues people,” Baskerville said, noting that this has led them to open shows for names like Bo Diddley and B.B. King, among other blues legends. “In doing that, our name got around, and because we were apprenticing with some pretty important people, they were kind enough to give us a good word in a few places, and that led to being signed.”

The King Bees were signed to a Dutch record label, Tramp Records, cutting three albums and touring France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Spain and Belgium, an experience they felt could only be positive.

“It’s something that a lot of bands aspire to, and we were fortunate to do quite a few tours,” Baskerville said. “And the knowledge and respect of American roots music overseas is phenomenal.”

The same can be said for Boone, which welcomes hometown favorites Possum Jenkins to the porch Friday. “We’re happy to have Possum Jenkins back on the concerts schedule,” Watauga Arts Council folklorist Mark Freed said. “They are one of the few bands that can swap guitar player with drummer mid-set and pull it off. The crowd can expect a nice mix of electric Americana, heavily dosed with blues and southern styles.”

Freed added that the crowd should also expect the unexpected.

“Last summer’s concert with the King Bees Duo was a load of fun –  Rob Baskerville came out into the audience with his cordless electric guitar, and he commenced to play slide guitar with various objects from the audience,” he said. “Rob is the only concert performer that I know of who has played a solo on the Jones House lamppost.”

The concert begins at 5 p.m. and is being sponsored by Daniel Klinedinst, Attorney at Law. The 2009 Concerts on the Lawn series is sponsored by Alpine Storage, the Downtown Boone Development Association and Mast General Store.

The Jones House Community Center is located at 604 W. King St. in downtown Boone. For more information, call the Watauga Arts Council at (828) 264-1789 or visit www.watauga-arts.org.

For more information on the King Bees, visit www.myspace.com/thekingbeesblues.

Concert Schedule
July 3 – Bluegrass and old-time fiddling with Surefire & Meade Richter
July 10 – Classic and original rock with Echo Park & Melissa Reaves
July 17 – Jazz, country and blues with The Harris Brothers & Swing Guitars
July 24 – Southwestern and local old-time with North Valley Tune Tanglers & The Sheets Family
July 31 – Hammered and mountain dulcimer music with Steve and Ruth & Deeper Roots
Aug. 7 – Bluegrass string bands with Amantha Mill & Upright & Breathin’
Aug. 14 – Bluegrass and folk duets with Lisa Baldwin and Dave Haney & Buck and Nelson
Aug. 21 – Evening of Watauga Women Songwriters with Crys Matthews, Becca Eggers-Gryder, Deborah Jean Sheets, Monica Woodard, Lisa Baldwin, Ruth Smith, Susan Pepper, Renee Blacken and more
Aug. 28 – Bluegrass and old-time string bands with The Dollar Brothers & Elkville String Band
Sept. 4 – Downtown Boone Bluegrass Bonanza with Southern Accent, Sigmon Stringers, Bluegrass 1101, Diana and Sarvis Ridge & Leftover Bluegrass
Sept. 11 – Old-time duet and bluegrass band with Whitetop Mountaineers & Lost Ridge Band
Sept. 18 – An evening of barbershop quartets with Mountain Aires and more