Come Together by Sir Rod & The Blues Doctors

Sir Rod & The Blues Doctors came together in an unlikely way, almost as if by fate.
In early December 2019, Rod emailed Adam.  "My name is Rod Patterson," he wrote.  "I’m Mr. Satan’s Nephew (Uncle Sterling).  Congratulations on all your success.  I love the documentary.  Great job!  I would love to do a Satan and Adam tribute tour.  I can’t play guitar but I can sing my uncle's songs."
The documentary was Satan & Adam, which had been screening on Netflix since June 2019.  A two-decade project by filmmaker V. Scott Balcerek, it told the story of Adam's longtime blues duo, a Harlem street act in the mid-1980s that became a national touring act in the 1990s, suffered a series of setbacks, but somehow managed to rise again, capped off by a triumphant reappearance at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 2013.
Sterling Magee, it turned out, had lived down in Florida with Rod and his mother Ollie--Sterling's sister--for several years in the early 1980s.  This was not long after Magee had had a breakdown and renamed himself Mr. Satan.  He played guitar for Ollie's house parties; Rod watched, listened, grooved to his uncle's music.  Eventually Magee returned to Harlem, where he established himself as Mr. Satan, the guitar man of 125th Street.  That's where Gussow first began jamming with him in 1986.
So Rod and Adam spoke on the phone.  They'd both been mentored, they realized, by the same master musician.  They were Mr. Satan's children.  They shared stories, memories.  They chatted about the Satan & Adam songbook--Magee's compositions and other songs the duo had performed over the years.  Rod had been woodshedding with Satan & Adam's old albums:  Harlem Blues, Mother Mojo, Living on the River.  "Sir Rod" was the stage name he'd been using in Atlanta, where he'd been preaching against bullying in local schools and bringing his high-energy tribute act--the music of Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, James Brown, and Michael Jackson--to local nursing homes.  
In early January 2020, Rod drove to Water Valley, Mississippi, where Adam had set up a recording session with guitarist Alan Gross, his partner of eight years.  Hands were shaken; hugs were given. Within an hour, tape was rolling.  Seven of the eleven tracks on this album were iced in the next 24 hours.  The vibe was uncanny, like old friends reuniting.  A spirit had risen.  Sir Rod & The Blues Doctors were born, or reborn, that weekend.
A second session in mid-February finished off the album--including the lead track, "Come Together."  Adam sent Rod the music the day before the session; Rod wrote the lyrics in a few hours.  Only later, after the COVID-19 pandemic sent death and destruction across America, did the song's deeper meaning become apparent.  (Sterling's old bandmate, Jerry Jemmott, contributed some fat-bottom bass.)
 
So that's who we are and how we came together.  We're sheltering in place, y'all.  When the rain stops, when the clouds part, we'll be coming soon to a venue near you.  Meanwhile, please enjoy our music.  It's Sterling's music, too.      
 
--Rod, Adam, and Alan
ATL and Oxford MS
April 2020    
 

The two-man band has become a three-man wrecking crew. The Blues Doctors are happy to welcome singer/dancer "Sir Rod" Patterson to the team. Rod is Sterling "Mr. Satan" Magee's nephew. This is the birth of the Sir Rod and The Blues Doctors.