One Track Mind: Ironing Board Sam, “Nothing But Your Butt” from Double Bang (2013)

Deliriously unself-conscious, and funky as hell, “Nothing But Your Butt” rumbles out like a throwback, sex-obsessed ’70s soul number — right down to Ironing Board Sam’s recitation of his love interest’s physical dimensions.

There’s a reason for that: Ironing Board Sam is an all-but-forgotten gem from that time, a complete showman who once — during a 1979 date at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival — performed while inside a 1,500-gallon tank of water. Earlier runs through the chitlin’ circuit found Sam fronting a band that included a young Jimi Hendrix. He has recorded for the Atlantic, Orleans and Holiday Inn labels.

Yet Ironing Board Sam remained largely forgotten, having moved to the Carolinas after Hurricane Katrina, until the belated release in 2011 of the all-new Going Up and then last year of a lost 1970s-era album called Ninth Wonder of the World of Music — a sudden uptick that then helped him to 2012 comeback honors from Living Blues magazine. “Nothing But Your Butt” hails from the forthcoming studio effort Double Bang, due July 9, 2013 from the Music Maker Relief Foundation’s Dixiefrog Records.

The foundation, based out of North Carolina, has been doing yeoman’s work for nearly 20 years now in finding previously obscure traditional American musicians living in poverty, and then helping to jump start their careers. Hard on the heels of Guitar Lightning Lee and Little Freddie King, Ironing Board Sam is another terrific find.

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Nick DeRiso

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