The Legend by Rev. Truman Goines & Jr. Bliggins

Reverend Truman Goines, born Seth Andrew Grossman on December 7, 1955, played music as a child in the Sourland Region Mountain of New Jersey, first taking trumpet and piano lessons from the famed honky tonker, Harold “Ain’t Done Yet” Simpson, at age 6. At 11 years old, trumpet in hand, he left the Sourlands for New York City, where he lived under bridges in Central Park. Faced with finding a means to support himself, he was surprised at the numerous steel drum bands that played in the park on weekends and how well they did. He soon began building marimbas out of fallen oak branches, and discovered his propensity for perfect pitch, as he could look at a fallen limb and declare it “C#” just by looking at it. He soon rented hand-built marimbas to the music-lesson yuppies from Queens who descended on the park on weekends to make a little “pot” money. His renown grew, and in 1964, was asked to join Thad Wheeler and Harcourt Yipple's traveling entourage as a vibe tuner. He traveled extensively throughout Europe and Asia with Wheeler-Yipple, landing in Luang Prabang in 1971. It was there he met, Xiang Ge Pton, Pol Pot’s first voice teacher. Pton was a vocalist, specializing in epiglottal throat singing. Goines and Pton fell deeply in love, and in 1973 Goines left Hampton to live with Pton at her monastery in Fu Shang. It is there we lose touch with Goines, and we term this period (1973- 1989) The Lost Years, as we can only assume it was there, under the tutelage of Pton, that Goines studied Zen Buddhism and further developed his eclectic and spontaneous vocal style. He turned up in Paris in 1989 playing piano at the Trois Amigos, vaguely involved with radicalism and a singer named Patty Foo. Although a political junkie herself, Foo recognized Goines’ greatness, and urged him to get out of politics and cut a CD.

When she died in an electrocution accident from an ungrounded microphone in 1991, Goines finally took heed of his lost love’s advice, got clean of politics and bid adieu to Paris, returning to Lambertville, NJ, where the Right Reverend (he had been ordained by the Heart River Healing School in NYC) has taken to performing in a duo with one Junior Bliggins. Bliggins, a freight-hopping anomaly out of the WPA, has mastered an almost forgotten style of tonsil flailing country harmonica that is reminiscent of the tony quake of Walter “Shakey Legs” Horton enmeshed with the throaty caterwauling of Jet Li. They've dubbed their music "Neuvo ‘Fu Shang’ Piedmont", and Reverend Goines describes their music as a combination of New York/New Jersey urban folk and Fu Shang epiglottal coitis-bar country/mountain blues. Their new eponymous CD, The Legend of Bliggins & Goines, Vol. 1, was released in 2005. Rev. Goines is a releasing a new CD with Bliggins in 2006, The Legend of Biggins & Goines, Vol. 2, and a solo CD in 2007: The Legend of Rev. Truman Goines subtitled: "It never Hurts To Ask - Living and Loving in the Sourlands". You can learn more about the duo at www.bligginsandgoines.com, or purchase the CDs at: cdbaby.com/bligginsandgoines.

According to Goines, at times he is the son of a military man and a school marm. At other times he’s the son of a martial arts teacher and quasi-Egyptian royalty, his mother being the second of three children from the Farouk clan. His father, once a renowed Jin Shin Jitsu instructor, turned to crime late in life using his psychic prowess to initiate electronic transfers. He amassed a small fortune and took a job as Aikido instructor on a cruise ship before disappearing somewhere in the Aleutian Island chain in 1986. Playing a shiny steel body (dobro) guitar, Rev. Goines style is reminiscent of traditional Chinese zither playing with a taste of Philadelphia soul. He has also developed one of the more distinct and original vocal styles to appear from this rugged area, utilizing his epiglottal coitis-bar throatsong to mimic birdcalls, dust storms and diesel engines heard on his various travels across the Piedmont.

The Sourlands are a rocky inaccessible wooded ridge between Lambertville/Hopewell and Somerville. Because the area was useless for farming and because it had no swift running streams to drive early manufacturing the area has been mostly ignored since John Hart a signer of the Declaration of Independence hid from the British there. Today it is one of the largest and last tracts of old growth forests in New Jersey.

Playing the steel dobro, Rev. Goines style is also reminiscent of ragtime banjo with a taste of that Philadelphia soul. He has also developed one of the more distinct and original vocal styles to appear from this rugged area. A voracious songwriter, Goines writes and performs songs about escaped scoundrels, loss and love, and other unpublished sagas of the New Jersey Sourlands. Growing up amid the largest and last tract of old growth forest in New Jersey, Goines recalls the sound of the wind as it blew through the tall pines in late autumn: “It was like your mama murmuring a lullaby.” Goines captures these sounds of his youth in such tunes as “Harbourton” and “West Amwell”. By the age of 14, he was playing at "Hill Billy Hall" in Hopewell, New Jersey where he took the stage name, Truman Goines to avoid being discovered by truant officers and a bevy of old girlfriends who claimed him to be the father of their children. Says Truman of this phenomena “It just could be… I really don’t know…”. He later picked up gigs throughout the region playing guitar, er-hu, tenor guitar, and piano. Influenced by Dr. John, Tom Waits, Randy Newman, Josh White, Jr. Bliggins, Brownie McGhee, Blind Blake, Rev. Gary Davis, William Moore, Willie Walker, Curley Weaver, Blind Willie McTell, Granpa Jones, One-String Frank, Eldridge Cleaver, Sally Fields, Totie Fields, Tootsie, Squeeky Frome, Jack Daniels, Fess Parker, Oprah, Captain Nemo, Vic Morrow, Edie Gorme, Michel Foucault and Leonard Nimoy, he merges the Piedmont style with urban folk, soul and jazz idioms of the region. He remains an enigma, a national treasure and someone with soul and wisdom to just about make your day. Goines is winner of the 2005 New Jersey Folk Festival, New Folk songwriters contest.

Jr. Bliggins and Rev. Goines began playing their special blend of blues, folk and hillbilly songs as children. Although Rev. Goines spent nearly 20 years away from the Sourlands, becoming an ordained minister in 1998, eventually he moved back. Coming from Paris and New York City back to Lambertville, NJ to become Bliggins's neighbor once again. Bliggins lived in Georgia for several years and has spent extensive time in the Netherlands. Now together again, telling stories they knew as children as well as new songs that constantly drip out of Rev. Goines as if they come from a leaky bucket.

Jr. Bliggins influences are: Annie Raines, Bending harmonica, Bending reeds, Big Walter, Big Walter Horton, Billy Boy Arnold, Billy Branch, Blind Boy Fuller, Blues Harmonica, Carey Bell, Carlos delJunco, Charlie Musselwhite, Corky Siegel, Country Blues Harmonica, Deford Baily, Dennis Gruenling, Digging My Potatoes, Gary Davis, Gary Primich, Gary Smith, George Harmonica Smith, George Harmonica Smith, Golden Melody, Harmonica train, Howling Wolf, JC Burris, James Cotton, James Harmon, James Arnez, Jazz Gillum, Jerry Portnoy, Jimmy Reed, Johnny Mars, Juke Logan, Junior Parker, Junior Wells, Harpo Marx, Kenny Neal, Kim Wilson, Lazy Lester, Little Sonny, Little Walter, Madcat Ruth, Magic Dick, Marion Jacobs, Michael Pelogquin, Model T and the Train, New Jersey Blues, New Jersey Folk Harmonica, New Jersey Folk music, New Jersey Folk tales, New Jersey Harmonica, Noah Lewis, Norton Buffalo, Papa Lightfoot, Paul Butterfield, Paul Delay, Paul Oscher,Peter Madcat Ruth, Phil Wiggins, Piedmont Harmonica, Pro harmonica, Raful Neal, Rick Estrin, Rob Paparozzi, Rod Piazza, Sam Myers, Slim Harpo, Snooky Pryor, Sonny Boy Williamson, Sonny Boy Williamson I, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Sonny Terry, Steve Guyger, Sugar Blue, Sugar Ray Norcia, Tom Ball, Train Song, Train Song Harmonica, Trenton Blues, Tuning reeds, Joe Zook, old school harmonica, Hillbilly music, hoedown, honkytonk music, old-timey music, jook joint music.

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