Unwrinkled Blues

Ironing Board Sam puts the “show” in show business. A Sam appearance is a dazzling event — the pianist/philosopher/inventor often takes the stage in a gold lame form-fitting space suit and some sort of sparkly headgear. Watching his performances is like watching Little Richard and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins in a battle for possession of the same body.

Sam likes to act out the parts of the characters in his tunes. At a recent show, while playing a song about an interloper he suspected of sneaking into his house and doing the horizontal bop with his beloved, he began a one-handed search for him under the piano while banging out the melody with his other hand. After the under-the-piano search failed to turn up the culprit, he ran offstage, reappearing in the audience, wading through the crowd, peering into men’s faces to see if he could spot the sneaky fornicator. Failing to turn up the diverter of his darlin’s amorous attentions, he threw the mic down in disgust and ran out of the building.

The artist formerly known as Sam Moore knocked around the country from Miami to Memphis before settling in New Orleans in the ’70s. He added “Ironing Board” to his name due to his penchant for using that platform to rest his piano on. But neither Sam nor his piano get much rest during a show or on record.

Even though his latest, Super Spirit, is a studio record, it has the same energy and wildness as his live performances. Recorded in Mississippi with the help of co-producer and guitarist Jimbo Mathus (Squirrel Nut Zippers, Knockdown Society, South Memphis String Band), fellow Squirrel Nut bassist Stu Cole, and Screaming Trees drummer Barrett Martin, Sam’s sound is rough-hewn soul and blues held together, or more often than not, torn asunder by his extraterrestrial piano figures.

“Baby You Got It” is jangly, swampy soul with a jungly backbeat. Sam takes his keyboard with him, wading hip deep into uncharted outer spacial territory. 

“I Can’t Take It” is Sam with his wildman suit on, sounding as tough as Magic Slim, relentless, pounding blues that hits like a rabbit punch to the kidney.

Sam can also croon buttery soul, as he proves on his cover of Roy Hawkins’ ’52 hit “The Thrill Hunt.” Hawkins was best known for composing “Why Do Everything Happen to Me,” which was covered by James Brown, as well as B.B. King’s signature tune, “The Thrill Is Gone.” But with the help of co-producer Bruce Watson, who bought the tune to Sam, the two manage to give the song a “Thrill Is Gone” feel, as if performed by Toussaint McCall.

But Sam is more fun on the upbeat cuts. “I’m Gone” is Meters-worthy struttin’ funk, perfect for second-lining down the middle of the street on Mardi Gras day.

“I Wanna Be There” sounds like it was snatched right up out of church, with secular lyrics pasted in and dropped down in a barroom for a whiskey-fueled revival meeting.

Sam’s career and his health have been in jeopardy for some years until Tim and Denise Duffy’s Music Maker Foundation — which aids needy musicians by providing health care, medicine, money and career opportunities to tour and record — picked him up in 2010 and relocated him to Chapel Hill. Since then, Sam has played the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, toured worldwide, and recorded two albums, 2014’s Ironing Board Sam and the Sticks on the Music Maker label and his latest debut on Big Legal Mess.

Sam is in fine shape here, taking on all comers and laying ’em out, his spirit and his skills stronger than ever.