Mark Hinson

Democrat senior writer

I first met the young Tallahassee bluesman and roots musician Dylan “Ragpicker” Allen last December in guitar-maker Ted Crocker’s workshop out near Lake Jackson. Crocker was teaching Allen, who was a 17-year-old senior at Florida High at the time, how to build musical instruments out of such everyday items as cigar boxes, hub caps and junk.

“I have gone from playing Ibanez Guitars to playing one-string canjos,” Allen said and chuckled.

Then he picked up a homemade guitar that he said was built “from my grandmother’s hard-wood floor” and whaled on an original tune called “On This Road.” It was about a cheating woman who came to a bad end. His voice sounded much older than 17 and the music was straight out of the early 20th century South.

It was refreshing to see a bright, genial, talented teenager who was clearly taking more musical cues from John Lee Hooker and Howlin’ Wolf than from Kanye West and Jason Aldean. Allen is part of that Old Weird America musical tradition that music critic Greil Marcus talked about. You can tell because his other original songs have titles such as “Primal” and “Ain’t My Granny’s Gospel.”

“I fell in love with the blues when I first heard Elvis Presley when I was a kid,” Allen said. “It really hit me.”

Like any good bluesman learning his craft, Allen has been playing all around the city at any venue or locale that will provide him an audience: First Friday Gallery Hops in Railroad Square Art Park, open-mic jam sessions at The Warehouse, shows at the American Legion Hall, on a stage at the open-air Downtown Marketplace.

This weekend, Allen will make his debut performance as the opening act at the 36th Annual Swamp Stomp at the Tallahassee Museum, 3945 Museum Drive.

“I’ll be playing original stuff, R.L. Burnside, Elvis, Muddy Waters,” Allen said during a break at his summer job working sales for a local transmission shop. (Can you get more blues cred’ than working at a transmission shop?) “I’ll be playing handmade guits, foot percussion, harmonica, cigar-box instruments, all that jazz.”

The music will start at 4 p.m. Saturday and run until 9 p.m. This year’s lineup also includesDrew Tillman (4:30 p.m.), Hot Tamale (5 p.m.), Bill and Karen Gay (5:30 p.m.), Ben Edmund Powell (6 p.m.), Reed Mahoney (6:30 p.m.), Belle and The Band (7 p.m.), Mimi Hearn and Ric Edmiston (7:30 p.m.) and Del Suggs as the closer. Tickets are $6, $8.50 and $9. Visit www.tallahasseemuseum.org.

The Swamp Stomp concert was introduced in 1978 to attract visitors to the museum in the muggy, buggy middle of summer. It originally showcased the talents of such well-known, Florida-centric entertainers as famed troubadour Gamble Rogers (1937-1991) and scrappy singer Will McLean (1919-1990) and down-home storyteller Cousin Thelma Boltin (1904-1992).

"It was sort of an extension of the Florida Folk Festival (held each Memorial Day along the Suwannee River)," said singer-songwriter-motivator Del Suggs, who started playing at Swamp Stomps in the mid-'80s. "It was a mini-Florida Folk Festival and Gamble was always the big headliner out there."

Ah, but time marches on. The first generations of folk singers died out and the Tallahassee Junior Museum soon stretched out to become the Tallahassee Museum of History and Natural Science. The compound at Lake Bradford soon tailored its Swamp Stomp into a showcase for Tallahassee talent, such as Ragpicker Allen.

I have survived a few Swamp Stomps in my day, so I reccomend bringing along a comfy folding chair, a hat, sunscreen, a rain poncho and, most of all, some powerful bug repellent. Also, leave the wool pants and parka at home. You will want to wear shorts for this one.

If you are looking for some musical options that involve the miracle of air-conditioning, let’s take our weekly tour of some other worthy shows that are heading this way in the good ol’ summertime:

BRING IT ON ‘HOME’: The Damon Fowler Group will play plenty of songs from its new CD, “Sounds From Home” during a blues-rockin’ show at 9 p.m. Friday at the Bradfordville Blues Club, 7152 Moses Lane. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 day of the show. Visit www.bradfordvilleblues.com.

BREAK OUT THE FUNK: Double your dancing pleasure when The Vinyl Kicks and The Owsley Brothers team up for Funk Night starting at 9 p.m. Friday at The Hop Yard, 453 All Saints St. There’s a $5 cover charge.

HERE COMES FALL: The songs will be loud, fast and full of metallic hooks when Surrender The Fall pulls into town for a show at 9 p.m. Saturday at Pug’s Live, 926 W. Tharpe St. The bill includes Artifas, Hybrid Mind and Last True Evil. Tickets are $8 advance and $10 at the door. It’s an all-ages show. Visit www.ticketweb.com.

BETTY ROCKS THE ‘WORKS: Dance the night away when Bedhead Betty breaks out a big bag of tunes from 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday at Waterworks, corner of Thomasville Road and Beard Street in Midtown. There is a $5 cover charge at the door.

Keep in mind, that the Spaceport bar located in the rear entrance of Waterworks will have its bar open on Saturday night and there is no cover charge to enter the Spaceport.

LET’S GET CROOKED: Take the party outdoors when Crooked Shooz provides some snappy music from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday at Hurricane Grill & Wings, 6800 Thomasville Road. There is no cover charge.

FRESH FROM FLORIDA: Guitar-pickin’ Florida bluesman Joey Gilmore, who hails from Ocala, returns for a big show at 10 p.m. Saturday at the Bradfordville Blues Club, 7152 Moses Lane. Tickets are $18 advance and $23 day of the show. Call 906-0766 or visit www.bradfordvilleblues.com.

STORMING BASTILLE DAY: Get in a French frame of mind by attending a short play called “Celebration of Ice,” hearing a dramatic reading of the Rush song “Bastille Day,” listening to a trumpet fanfare and watching a dude in a Gorilla suit named Jungo call out Bingo numbers starting at 8 p.m. Sunday at Waterworks, corner of Beard Street and Thomasville Road in Midtown. It’s free but you must be 21 or older to enter.

“Celebration of Ice” was written by Dennis Gephardt and typically stars a lot of non-actors who aren’t very good actors. I’m allowed to say that because I was once invited to be one of those bad actors and had a blast, fake French accent and all.

The brilliant and brief “Ice” work tells the story of how Dr. John Gorrie introduced machine-made ice during a Bastille Day party with French bigwigs in Apalachicola during the mid-1800s. Every time you walk by an ice machine or an AC unit in Florida, you should fall on your knees and thank Dr. Gorrie.

TACOS AND TUNES IN MIDTOWN: Hear some of the city’s most popular and successful contemporary-country acts — Wilson Dean, The Todd Doss Band and Houston Deese Band — during the Music at Midtown benefit starting at 6 p.m. Thursday at the 5th Avenue Tap Room, 1122 Thomasville Road. Tickets are $30 person and they include a dinner from Taco Republik, which makes some dang tasty food. It’s raising money for the Community in Schools Foundation, which helps students stay in school until they graduate. For more, visit www.FortheCityEvents.com.

HOW DO YOU GET TO CARNEGIE HALL?: I don’t know but why don’t you ask Longineu Parsons, who played a tribute to Louis Armstrong during a concert at Carnegie Hall in Manhattan in late June. The performance got a standing ovation.

If you missed the big show in Midtown Manhattan last month, head out of Midtown Tallahassee when Parsons and Blue play a jazz-funk-fusion show at 8:30 p.m. Thursday at Waterworks. There is a $5 cover charge at the door. You’ve got to be 21 or older. The Spaceport will be open for business, too, and there’s no cover charge in the ‘Port.

AND IN OTHER MUSICAL NOTES ...: Enjoy “peppy songs about the apocalypse” when Human Progress provides plenty of original songs during a supper club party at 7 p.m. Saturday at The Collection at Southside, 227 E. Palmer Ave. Tickets are $25 and that includes dinner. Visit the Human Progress page on Facebook to make a reservation. ... The Seattle duo Iska Dhaaf, which makes a lot of swirling and spacey noise for a two-piece outfit, will bring its echoing brand of pop-rock-strangeness to town for a concert starting at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday at Pug’s Live, 926 W. Tharpe St. The opening acts are N. Skywalker, Lingua Franca and Degraciadas. Tickets are $8 and $6. It’s an all-ages show. ... Dying Whale swims across the state line from Valdosta, Ga., to play at 9:30 p.m. Thursday at Pug’s Live. Those tickets are $7 and $5. It’s all-ages, too. ... There will be plenty of earthy acoustic vibes in the air when guitarist David Evans, who teaches ethnomusicology at the University of Memphis when he’s not on the stage, joins Belmont & Jones to perform the finger-picking blues and more at 8 p.m. Thursday at The Warehouse, 706 W. Gaines St. It’s $8 at the door and open to all ages. Start ‘em young.