1/26/07, 5:20 pm EST

Assignment Three Finalist: Ryan Hall on Jimmy Hall (a cruise ship in the Caribbean)

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Note: This is not an official Rolling Stone article. What follows is a submission to the “I’m From Rolling Stone” writing competition.

JIMMY HALL - 1/10/07

by Ryan Hall
Age: 25

With the help of his seventies Southern funk-rock band Wet Willie, a young, wild-haired Jimmy Hall routinely stole the show from bands like Aerosmith, The Grateful Dead, and Grand Funk Railroad with his vocal and harmonica fireworks. Decades later, standing on a cramped stage on the butt of a monstrous cruise ship sailing somewhere in the Eastern Caribbean, Hall grabbed the mic and for ninety minutes, proved that he hasn’t lost anything from the glory days but the bushy hair and manorexic body. Boiling in a Jacuzzi stew of alcohol, sunscreen, and recycled sea water, I watched the gig unfold like a spring break throw-down for the middle-aged, with emcee Hall acting like a soul-infused Mick Jagger who had just handed out vials from the fountain of youth. Backed by a merry band of Nashville session aces, Hall had the boat rocking with the beach-funk of Wet Willie hits “Street Corner Serenade” and “Baby Fat” before dragging the sun below the horizon with his heartbreaking wail and crying harp work on blues achers “Long Distance Call” and an overly jammed-out “Rendezvous with the Blues.” But it was Hall’s gut-wrenching rendition of Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come,” complete with a five minute acapella blues-church-sermon-outro – sample line, “Ya know my baby keep on knockin’ me down to my knees ‘til the good lord come down and gimme more fuel for my blues power…”- that stirred up the butterflies. With the crowd in the palm of his hand and guest vocalists Bekka Bramlett and son Alex Hall on stage for backup, Hall steered the ship home with signature hit “Keep on Smilin’,” which had the tanned revelers singing along with every chorus and waving their hands in unison like it was 1974. I shook my head in admiration; my old man can still bring it.