Honeydripper, a film by John Sayles

Maceo Green can’t believe his good luck. He’s landed in a world full of liquor to drink and to sell, women to play with and hot music to give rhythm to his days. Maceo was always the best sneak in the school, the one who never got caught, or if he did he was the one who could get out of it with a big smile and the plea that he didn’t know that what he was doing was wrong. It didn’t feel wrong.

Maceo’s uncle Stump Green ran a still and when Maceo was just out of school the government did him the great favor of banning alcohol. Maceo became the youngest and most popular bootlegger in the deep south, dealing to black and white alike, quality goods, service with a smile. And hey, it’s only polite to stay and sample the goods for a while, make sure people are having a good time. More than once he crossed paths with Pinetop Purvis, servicing some joint the piano man was playing, and always loved his sound. Prohibition hung on in Alabama longer than up north, but all good things must end (Mississippi, although still dry, is full of disgruntled husbands holding grudges against Maceo). Maceo drove a truck for a while, messed his lungs up working in a cotton gin, put his hand to all manner of things and never got caught doing the ones that were the most fun, but was at loose ends when he came back home to Harmony and discovered that none other than Pinetop Perkins had moved there and was renting the old Honeydripper club. The war years were a non-stop party, what with the Army base springing up practically next door, and Maceo spent so much time in the club that eventually Tyrone asked him to come on and help run the place. Maceo can sense the mood in a bar and do whatever is needed to improve it, can cut the drunks off without having the coldcock them, keep up with a roomful of thirsty field hands without breaking a sweat and keep an eye out for anything still loose when closing time comes around. Ty and Delilah and China Doll have gotten to be like family to him and every night there’s music, Pinetop Perkins on the ivories, and how much fun is that?

But maybe the luck is turning bad lately, or maybe it’s just the price for not moving with the times musically. There’s a stack of bills growing every day and creditors banging on his door when they can’t find Ty and hardly anybody in the club but the same old deadbeats. It’s getting stale. And Ty is taking it hard, growing dark and heavy, there’s that rumor he killed somebody, somebody who must have deserved it but killed him nonetheless and Maceo never wants to see that side of his friend be forced out in the open again. This Guitar Sam idea, it could work, not much time to build it up but it could change the luck, get them moving in the right direction again, one dynamite weekend and you pay your bills, get back in the groove and with the base re-opening they could be swinging to a whole new beat. Let the good times roll.