Sept. 19, 2003 – There are several things different about this year's 19th annual Chili Cook-off hosted by the Texas Society of the Virgin Islands — including the location and entertainment by genuine Lone Star State musicians.
Sunday's shindig will be at Bolongo Bay Beach Club, not at Sapphire Beach Resort, where it has been held since 1995. And performing will be two popular Austin groups, Van Wilks and the Dave Sebree Band, as well as the local rock band Public Nuisance. The chili tasting begins at noon, with Public Nuisance scheduled to kick off the entertainment at 2:30 p.m.
This year's cook-off also has a new flavor — several, in fact. There will be plenty of pots of chili — 31 cooks had signed on as of Friday morning, event co-organizer Georgeanne "Pepper" Peters said — but there also will be turkey legs, hamburgers, tuna steaks, ribs and other food served by Bolongo, with covered picnic tables to enjoy it all. And Iggies Beach Bar will be mixing up Texas-style margaritas.
John Brittain is "the Great Pepper" this year — the person in charge of the cook-off. He and Peters have been involved in the cook-off for most of its years. "We kind of end up doing it together," Peters said.
Technically there's no deadline until Sunday morning for cooks to sign up to compete in the cook-off, but Peters said: "We like them to pre-register and attend the cooks' meeting and party Saturday night." That's held at Bolongo, too. "It helps us lay out the sites," she said, and after the party, "they can go ahead and set up their tents and tables, so they can just come and cook Sunday morning."
This year's sponsors are Bolongo Bay, Coors Light, Evian Water, Certified Angus Beef, Knight Quality Stations and American Airlines. As has become traditional, cooks will be able to obtain complimentary Certified Angus ground beef through Merchant's Market for use in their recipes. Those still interested in signing up should call Peters at 775-8011 for details.
Cooks have to follow a lengthy set of rules, including the one that says "no filler" — including beans. But after they turn in their samples to the judging panel, they are free to add such traditional ingredients — and more. The judging cups are collected at noon, and that's when the public can begin making the rounds, trying tastes out of as many different pots as their palates will tolerate.
This year, the going rate is three tastes for a dollar. Yes, it used to be four for a buck, but inflation has finally caught up to the Texas Society. In its 19-year history, "that's the only increase we've ever had," Peters said.
In addition to the music, the cook-off will feature the usual fun and games — with "little prizes" for kids and adults in the watermelon seed-spitting contests, flipper and mask races, wooden block and ball races, and tugs-of-war.
Parking should be no problem
Sapphire "told us they were closing for renovations," Peters said, explaining the change of venue. "That hasn't happened, but we have a great setup with Bolongo."
There should be plenty of parking space Sunday afternoon. Peters said Bolongo has worked out an arrangement with nearby churches to use their spacious parking lots — which actually means more room for cars than there was at Sapphire. "Two churches will open up their parking, and shuttles will run back and forth to Bolongo from these lots," she said.
"I believe that comes to about 450 cars' worth," Bolongo Bay manager Paul Doumeng said. Bolongo has hired four police officers for the event, and two will be handling the remote parking. In addition, the Texas Society has hired Sapphire's former security director to help with the big party, which has attracted nearly 5,000 people in years past.
And the fact that the cook-off is on a Sunday isn't a problem, either. Trinity Baptist Church concludes its Sunday services early, Peters said, and Agape Seventh-day Adventist Church holds its services on Saturday.
Doumeng said the security guards will encourage those who arrive before noon to park along the road at a 45-degree angle and will make sure no one blocks another vehicle. He said drivers should not worry about ditches, either. "We've had a lot of roadside cutting, and the road is more graded and flat" than it used to be, he said.
Safari shuttles will take people from the church parking lots to Bolongo and back for $1 and "will be cruising from Donkey Hill to Bertha C. Boschulte School," Doumeng said. "We think we have the traffic covered."
A musical first for the chili fest
The Chili Cook-off was begun by a group of transplanted Texans living on St. Thomas who saw it catch on as a way to have fun, promote chili, and raise funds for worthy causes in their adopted community. They joined the Chili Appreciation Society International, which has raised over $1.2 million in more than 450 chili cook-offs benefitting local charities. And each year they send their local winner off to Terlingua, Texas, for the annual CASI cook-off.
The St. Thomas group has done its share of fund-raising — more than $15,000 last year alone for the Queen Louise Home for the Aged, its primary beneficiary, along with the local chapter of the American Red Cross, Dial-A-Ride, Family Support Network, KidsCope, St. Thomas Swimming Association, St. Thomas Rescue and the V.I. Institute of Performing Arts. Yet something was missing for Texans who hadn't set their boots on Lone Star soil in a while: real, live Texas music, music that is known for its rhythm and blues.
According to Peters, "This is the first time we've brought off-island music talent to the Chili Cook-off." She said she's looking forward to hearing some powerful guitar licks by Van Wilks, described by the Austin American Statesman newspaper as "a perfect cross between Jimi Hendrix and Van Halen" and called "the best guitarist in Texas" by ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons.
Van Wilks and his three-piece band of the same name have toured frequently with ZZ Top, and his guitar playing echoes that sound, but with a distinctive blues edge that is definitely Texan in origin. Back in the 1970s, guitarist Van Wilks played in a band called Fools that featured Tommy Shannon on bass guitar. Shannon later joined Texas music legend Stevie Ray Vaughan's band Double Trouble.
Today, Craig Nietfeld plays bass guitar with Van Wilks the band, which is based in Austin, the "live music capital of the world." The group has three albums to its credit and is in the Texas Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Van Wilks the musician is no stranger to St. Thomas. He visited the island in the early 1990s and "jammed here with Dave Mason," who was in the original Traffic band and played with groups such as Fleetwood Mac and Eric and the Dominoes.
"Dave lived on St. Thomas and asked if I could play with him down here," Van Wilks recalled at a rehearsal at Latitude 18 on Thursday. "Well, I'd never even heard of St. Thomas, but he said there was a bar down here called Barnacle Bill's 'that would really like you guys.' … So, we came down, and Dave Mason played with us, and it was just heaven."
(Barnacle Bill's, long a mecca for local and visiting musicians of many genres, bit the dust in 1996, a victim of Hurricane Marilyn and the government's decision not to renew its lease in Sub Base. But it's recently been memorialized by Harmony Dem in an original song on the local folk group's first CD, "Harmony Dem … before we forget the words.")
Van Wilks fell in love with St. Thomas and has returned to visit frequently. "To me, St. Thomas is wonderful," he said. "It's a whole 'nother world, but it's a wonderful world. And there's a lot of good musicians here on this little island."
When he heard
there was a Texas Society of the Virgin Islands, he figured it was "a group of ex-patriates who had to leave for reasons they didn't want to talk about … modern-day pirates."
He also has a soft spot for France, where he just finished a tour with ZZ Top this summer. "It's where my record company is, and we have great fans there," he said. "People really appreciate Texas blues there, and they're moved by American music. It was like it is new again; everything is new again."
As he sees it, "Blues is an attitude and a feeling, as well as a genre of music, and that's what sets it apart. Classical you play it like it was written. Blues you play it like you feel it, and I think that's what draws me to it — that it's improvisation. If everything was the same every night, I'd jump in the Caribbean and never come up."
Also booked out of Austin for the Chili Cook-off is the Dave Sebree Band. A Washington Post reviewer described the group's musical style as "a blend of Jeff Beck, Carlos Santana and Pat Metheny" exploring "an electrifying mixture of jazz fusion and Latin rock."
Sebree, who has performed throughout the United States, Canada and Europe for 30 years, writes for Guitar World and Country Guitar magazines. A two-time Grammy award-winning producer, he formerly had a band named Native Sun that was named "best jazz band in Austin" by the Austin Chronicle four years in a row.
The rest of the band consists of Doug Hall on keyboards; Glenn Rexach on bass guitar; Joe Morales on saxophone, flute and vocals; and St. Thomas's own Paul Cater Deaton on drums and percussion. Deaton, a television producer, also is the band's tour manager; as a musician he has worked with the likes of Willie Nelson, Phil Collins, Carole King, Johnny Cash, Leon Russell and The Fabulous Thunderbirds, as well as Wilks and Sebree.
In was Deaton who convinced both Austin bands to play at the Chili Cook-off. "I've known Van Wilks for 28 years," he said. "I thought, what better thing to do music-wise for the Chili Cook-off than have some really hard-rockin', guitar-oriented Texas musicians play here?"
Texas tunes on tap for Friday and Saturday, too
For those who can't wait until Sunday afternoon to see Van Wilks and the Dave Sebree Band, both groups will be playing two earlier, night-time gigs. There's no cover charge for either.
The bands will perform by the seashore at the Renaissance Grand Beach Resort on Friday at 8 p.m. and at Paradise Point on Saturday from 6:30 p.m. until. A special treat for Saturday is that the Paradise Point Tram will be running after hours, with free service up and down the mountain. In fact, the road will be blocked, so taking the scenic ride is the only option. Up top, there will be chili and other Texan specials on the menu, too.
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