The Opal Foxx Quartet: 1991, Avondale Town Cinema Atlanta GA,

I’m guessing as to the year, but I may have been at this show. I arrived with Miss Laurel, the tap dancer from South Carolina.

Benjamin Smoke, aka Opal Foxx, was a Cabbagetown institution.  People who enjoy Tom Waits might like his singing, but the timbre is more Southern and the environment more collaborative.

About ten years ago a documentary was made about Benjamin Smoke. It’s not, unfortunately, available on Netflix, but here is the trailer.

There are a two cds available and lots of youtube footage.   No major label records.  I have to confess, I didn’t appreciate what I was being shown.   I expected it to be more difficult to run up on genius than I found it in Underground Atlanta.  The scene still exists, but lacking a free radical that could pull disparate parts together.