Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2020 by RBA Publishing

2020 BFG Sponsor

Music by Danielle Nicole: "Save Me"

The Healing Blues A King and A Duke Reel Away the Blues

Blues Festival Guide 2020

PUBLISHED BY RBA Publishing Inc. dba BLUES FESTIVAL GUIDE P.O. Box 920, Arcata, CA 95518 - 707/630-3304 www.BluesFestivalGuide.com Facebook.com/BluesFestivalGuide Instagram.com/BluesFestivalGuide Twitter.com/BluesFestGuide TO HAVE A COPY MAILED TO YOU Send $9.00 ($14.00 overseas) PUBLISHER Kaati: Kaati@BluesFestivalGuide.com EDITOR Irene Johnson: Irene@BluesFestivalGuide.com BLUES FESTIVAL E-GUIDE NEWSLETTER EDITOR Michele Lundeen: michelelundeen@live.com SALES MANAGER/MARKETING DIRECTOR Cheryl O’Grady-Yearnshaw: cogblues@att.net EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS Pascal Bokar Thiam Ed.D., Anita Schlank Ph.D., Eric Steiner, Roger Stolle, Victor Wainwright, Rev. Billy C. Wirtz, Mitch Woods PHOTO & Art CONTRIBUTORS Courtesy Pascal Bokar, Lou Bopp, Courtesy Cali Blues & Folk Festival, Arnie Goodman Photography, Ck Harrington, Courtesy Jimiway Blues Festival, Courtesy Jus’ Blues Music Foundation, Erik Kabik, Richard Kaby, Bryan Ledgard, Michael McGrath, Sachyn Mital, Matt O'Brien, © Joseph A. Rosen, Bob Sekinger, © Marilyn Stringer, Tagles ADVERTISING SALES Cheryl O’Grady-Yearnshaw, Tom Andrews, Heather Penrod-Rudd ADVERTISING TRAFFIC COORDINATOR Heather Penrod-Rudd Administrative/Database MANAGEMENT Heather Penrod-Rudd DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Heather Penrod-Rudd: Heather_P@BluesFestivalGuide.com DESIGN & PRODUCTION/WEBSITE Goran Petko, Aqua Design STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS Tom Andrews, Marilyn Stringer consultants Nancy Edwards, Michele Lundeen, Tom Yearnshaw The opinions of the contributors are not necessarily the views of RBA Publishing Inc. Front Cover Based in Kansas City, MO, the stunning, deep blues-soul-roots singer and bassist Danielle Nicole (née Schnebelen) is truly a force to be reckoned with. Her raw performances, both live and recorded, are soulfully captivating. Many knew her first from the family band, Trampled Under Foot (TUF), which won 1st Place Band at the 2008 International Blues Challenge, garnering them worldwide recognition. In 2014, TUF went on to win the Blues Music Award (BMA) for Contemporary Blues Album, and Danielle was also awarded Best Instrument-Bass. By 2015, Danielle Nicole formed her own band and her subsequent releases peaked at #1 and #2 on Billboard's Blues Album charts. She's a multiple BMA winner, Grammy nominee and multiple Independent Blues Award winner from Blues Blast magazine. She’s soulful and skilled, and her passion is infectious. Here's Danielle Nicole gracing the Bluesfest Windsor stage in Ontario, Canada. FRONT COVER PHOTOGRAPHER © Brita Brookes, www.BritaBrookesPhoto.com

Blues Festival Guide 2020

Dear Blues Family, We find ourselves in this strange time caused by a worldwide pandemic – losing our normal routines, social interactions, sense of security, jobs and even loved ones. Our hearts go out to you all. In a time of crisis, comfort can be found in the kindness, generosity and humanity that shines through hardship and fear. From essential workers on the frontline, to celebrities using their influence to fundraise donations, to everyday people making protective masks and gear, to artists giving concerts from their living rooms for audiences they can’t see – the selflessness and compassion is what binds us together. And yes, music binds us together like none other. With so many festivals postponing or canceling, we thought for a moment we may not print the annual Blues Festival Guide magazine this year. But our readers objected, in the kindest way – we’ve received countless personal calls and emails to check in, and have been bombarded with magazine orders. It seems the more we all sat at home, the more we thought about music and its ability to generate well-being and connection. Artists, too, have come out with tons of new music during this time of social isolation. One of the best ways to connect with each other and our favorite musicians is through live stream concerts, and the Blues Festival Guide website, e-Guide newsletter and social media platforms were quick to offer all artists free advertising space to support this connection. Even though festival offerings are slimmer this year, there are still quite a few events planned for the summer and fall. Additionally, we are pleased to continue to bring you engaging editorial from your blues community – you’ll see that Victor Wainwright, Mitch Woods, Reverend Billy C. Wirtz and Roger Stolle are among our feature contributors this year. Will canceled and postponed festivals be able to bounce back? While we hold out hope, it remains to be seen. In the meantime, let’s all continue to show our kindness and support to one another, our blues artists, the organizations of this community and our entire blues family, to ensure that the blues keeps thriving. Peace and Blues, Kaati & The Blues Festival Guide Team

In this Magazine FEATURED FESTIVALS.............................................................................. 7-18 Living Legend: Charlie Musselwhite by Eric Steiner............................................................................................................ 19 Blues Movies Reel Away the Blues by Roger Stolle............................................................................................................ 24 The Healing Blues by Anita Schlank, Ph.D......................................................................................................................... 28 What's Cookin' with Victor Wainwright............................................................................................................................ 32 Jus' Blues Music Foundation............................................................................................................................................. 36 Jammin' on the High C's by Mitch Woods........................................................................................................................ 38 A King and A Duke by Rev. Billy C. Wirtz......................................................................................................................... 42 Festivals Receive KBA ..................................................................................................................................................... 48 Blues Radio .................................................................................................................................................................... 50 Blues Societies ................................................................................................................................................................ 50 Blues: An African Sonic Response by Pascal Bokar Thiam, Ed.D. ...................................................................................... 51

High-octane blues-rock guitar virtuoso Tinsley Ellis wows at the 2019 Blues From The Top Music Festival. Photo by Å¸ Marilyn Stringer

Blues Festival Guide 2020

Featured Festivals Festivals are listed here in alphabetical order with their page number. On the following pages they appear in date order, so you can easily make your plans. Festival dates are believed to be accurate at the time of publication. Refer to our festival calendar at www.BluesFestivalGuide.com for updates of cancellations, postponements and new dates announcements CHECK BEFORE YOU GO & HAVE A BLUESY TIME! Alpine Country Blues Festival.................................................. 15 Big Blues Bender..............................................Inside Front Cover Big Bull Falls Blues Fest............................................................. 9 Bloomington Boogies................................................................ 8 Bluefield Blues Festival............................................................ 17 Canal Winchester Blues & Ribfest............................................ 16 Chain O’ Lakes Blues Festival.................................................. 12 Crescent City Blues and BBQ Festival....................................... 13 Dusk Til Dawn Blues Festival.................................................... 10 Gator By The Bay................................................................... 14 Grassroots Blues Festival........................................................... 7 Historic Wallace Blues Festival................................................... 7 Juke Joint Festival................................................................... 14 King Biscuit Blues Festival........................................................ 12 Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise............................................. 2 Lone Star Blues & Heritage Festival ........................................ 11 Madison Ribberfest BBQ & Blues . .......................................... 16 Mississippi Valley Blues Fest.................................................... 11 Prairie Crossroads Bluesfest...................................................... 8 Tab Benoit hails from the rich bayous of Southern Louisiana, and his musical passions breathe like fire from his fingertips and rich voice. Like a full-blown backyard party, he’s engaging and full of energy, yet warm like a shot of fine whiskey. Well known on the festival circuit and a fan favorite, Tab is also involved in various nonprofit endeavors. Check out his own nonprofit to restore Louisiana’s wetlands, Voice of The Wetlands, and his label, Whiskey Bayou Records. Here’s Tab at the 2019 Flagstaff Blues and Brews Festival. Photo by Ÿ Marilyn Stringer

Blues Festival Guide 2020

Reds & Greens True Blues Fest................................................. 17 Spirit of Kansas Blues Festival.................................................. 15 Stonebridge Wasaga Beach Blues........................................... 18 Tim Horton's Southside Shuffle................................................. 10

July 10 - 11

Grassroots Blues Festival

Duckhill, MS

July 10 - 12

Historic Wallace Blues Festival

Wallace, ID

Blues Festival Guide 2020

August 7 - 9

August 8

Blues Festival Guide 2020

Bloomington Boogies

Prairie Crossroads Bluesfest

Bloomington, IN

Urbana, IL

August 21 - 22

Big Bull Falls Blues Fest

Wausau, WI

Blues Festival Guide 2020

September 4 - 6

September 10 - 13

Blues Festival Guide 2020

Dusk Til Dawn Blues Festival

Rentiesville, OK

Tim Horton's Southside Shuffle

Port Credit, ON

September 18 - 20

September

Lone Star Blues & Heritage Festival

Mississippi Valley Blues Fest

Tomball, TX

Davenport, IA

Blues Festival Guide 2020

October 2 - 3

Chain Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Lakes Blues Festival

Waupaca, WI

October 7 - 10

King Biscuit Blues Festival

Helena, AR

Blues Festival Guide 2020

October

Crescent City Blues and BBQ Festival

New Orleans, LA

Blues Festival Guide 2020

April 17, 2021

Juke Joint Festival

Clarksdale, MS

May 6 - 9, 2021

Gator By The Bay

San Diego, CA

Blues Festival Guide 2020

June 18 - 19, 2021

Alpine Country Blues Festival

Alpine, AZ

July 4, 2021

Spirit of Kansas Blues Festival

Topeka, KS

Blues Festival Guide 2020

July 30 - 31, 2021

Canal Winchester Blues & Ribfest Canal Winchester, OH

August 20 - 21, 2021 Madison Ribberfest BBQ & Blues

Blues Festival Guide 2020

Madison, IN

August 28, 2021

September 11, 2021

Reds & Greens True Blues Fest

Santa Fe, NM

Bluefield Blues Festival

Bluefield, WV

Blues Festival Guide 2020

September 17 - 19, 2021 Stonebridge Wasaga Beach Blues

Blues Festival Guide 2020

Wasaga Beach, ON

Living Legend:

Charlie Musselwhite By Eric Steiner

Photo by Ÿ Marilyn Stringer

I first discovered Charlie Musselwhite in the 1970s while working at WGLT at Illinois State University. At the time, I was a work-study undergraduate student earning about $1.30 per hour. I was lucky because I had landed a good job in college radio with a seemingly endless library of long-playing records I could borrow and play in my dorm room. Since then, WGLT affiliated with National Public Radio and has developed award-winning, world-class blues programming that streams 24/7 online. To this day, I still play those early blues records that I found in the WGLT record library, especially Charlie Musselwhite’s seminal 1967 debut on Vanguard Records, Stand Back: Here Comes Charley Musselwhite’s Southside Band. It was simply a delight to celebrate the 10th anniversary of that LP on the air! While this Living Legend portrait may admittedly be more personal than earlier articles in this Blues Festival Guide series, I want to show readers how Charlie Musselwhite’s music has continued to inspire me since those early days as a college radio DJ. Perhaps more importantly, Charlie Musselwhite’s music has taught me the importance of being open to new cultural opportunities, learning from elders who have come before me, and appreciating the rich diversity and potential of blues music. Musselwhite was born in Kosciusko, Attala County, MS, on January 31, 1944. His father was an itinerant musician who did odd jobs to help his young family, and when Charlie was three, they relocated to Memphis. Charlie’s parents divorced after their move, and then Charlie focused on joining the world of work as soon as he could. While he lived in Memphis, an important cultural touchstone of his life was AM radio. Specifically, Charlie tuned in to WDIA, billed as “Your All-Colored Station” that featured Rufus Thomas’ nightly blues program with a theme

song by African American harmonica ace Sonny Terry, “Hootin’ Blues.” I’d like to think that Sonny Terry drew young Charlie Musselwhite into the blues tribe as an impressionable teenager. Legend has it that Charlie ran moonshine in a 1950 Lincoln with a flathead V-8, and worked as a construction worker around Shelby County and in predominantly African American communities around West Memphis. Often, he was the only White worker on the jobsite. He earned the moniker “Memphis Charlie,” as he learned to play the guitar and harmonica, and discovered early country blues through the work of noted blues scholar Samuel Charters. Local blues elders like Furry Lewis, Gus Cannon and Son Brimmer each mentored Musselwhite in his Memphis blues apprenticeship on guitar and harmonica. Like many of his fellow Mississippi-born bluesmen after World War II, Musselwhite came up from Memphis to the “City of the Big Shoulders” in the early 1960s to seek a higher paying (meaning $3 per hour!) job in a factory. He quickly joined other White bluesmen, including Elvin Bishop, Nick Gravenites, Mike Bloomfield, Harvey Mandel and Paul Butterfield, as they learned from masters like Little Walter, Howlin’ Wolf, Big Joe Williams and Elmore James at fabled blues venues like Magoo’s, Kelley’s and Big John’s. As blues fans, we are all supremely blessed for Muddy Waters’ mentorship of Charlie Musselwhite as a 22-yearold newly arrived bluesman in Chicago. Muddy noticed an uncommon spark in his latest South Side protégé and introduced him to a very rough-and-tumble club scene. During his five-year residency in Chicago, Charlie, like many aspiring bluesmen, gravitated toward Bob Koester’s legendary Jazz Record Mart on Adams Street, where he met blues writer Pete Welding (who later contributed liner notes to his

Blues Festival Guide 2020

Charlie Musselwhite plays with bandmates Matt Stubbs (guitar) and June Core (drums) on the Edmonton Blues Festival stage in 2019. Photo by Ÿ Marilyn Stringer

debut album). In the 1960s, Jazz Record Mart was a veritable graduate school of the blues as it attracted many blues fans, such as Bruce Iglauer, who would go on to record Hound Dog Taylor and The HouseRockers for his award-winning Alligator Records label. One of Iglauer’s first jobs in Chicago was a clerk at Bob Koester’s store. In Chicago, Charlie’s blues life came full circle on his debut record in 1967. Not only did Pete Welding write the liner notes for Stand Back, but Samuel Charters produced the album, which featured a who’s who of bluesmen who played with Charlie in South Side clubs, including the exceptional engine room of Bob Anderson (Koko Taylor, James Cotton) on bass, Fred Below (Little Walter, Muddy Waters) on drums, Barry Goldberg (Chicago Blues Reunion, The Electric Flag) on keyboards and Harvey Mandel (The Snake, Canned Heat) on guitar. Musselwhite left Chicago in 1967 for the San Francisco Bay Area. Nearly 15 years later, he encouraged John Lee Hooker to move to California, and shortly after that, Hooker was best man when Charlie married his wife Henrietta. That was more than 40 years ago. Charlie’s current band includes Matt Stubbs (James Cotton, James Harman) on guitar, June Core (Mark Hummel, Elvin Bishop) on drums and Randy Bermudes (Rusty Zinn, RJ Mischo) on bass. Musselwhite divides his time between homes in Sonoma County, CA, and the Mississippi Delta in Clarksdale, MS. Musselwhite’s performances on record and on stage stand out for their passion, complexity and unpredictability – whether it’s updating traditional blues forms on songs like “My Road Lies in Darkness” from Sanctuary or “Church is Out” from Delta

Blues Festival Guide 2020

Hardware, or revisiting “Cristo Redentor,” the song that ends each one of Charlie’s set lists. Charlie’s music is deceptively simply. Sure, it generally starts with basic riffs on his Seydel brand harmonica… but then, chord changes – like a boxer’s right hook – hijack the melody in service of the song. A live Charlie Musselwhite show always features some world music that is surprisingly close to American blues. For example, on “Feel It In Your Heart” from Juke Joint Chapel, Charlie takes us down to South America and introduces us to forró, a genre of music unique to Northeastern Brazil that features an accordion, zabumba bass drum and a metal triangle. As Charlie sings, “Forró’s played with heart, about every day and place/ For people of every color and all their daily cares/ Christo Redentor’s stayin’ on Corcovado’s heel/ He beckons you to come on down to Brazil.” Corcavado is a mountain in central Rio de Janeiro known for the 125-foot statue of Jesus atop its peak; Cristo Redentor or Christ the Redeemer. Charlie Musselwhite has released 34 albums on a variety of record labels, including many stalwart roots and blues outlets like Alligator, Telarc, Vanguard and Arhoolie. He’s also worked with some of the more entrepreneurial imprints that tend to feature a wider range of music than traditional blues, including Peter Gabriel’s Real World, Virgin Records’ Point Blank, New West the Ford Brothers’ Blue Rock’It and the revitalized Stax label. His releases on his own label Henrietta – named in honor of his wife and producer – are exceptional documents of a master at work, especially 2009’s Rough Dried: Live at The Triple Door and 2013’s Juke Joint Chapel. I’m particularly biased regarding that live recording at Seattle’s Triple Door because I was there.

Photo by Arnie Goodman Photography

Photo by Ÿ Marilyn Stringer

His versions of classics like “River Hip Mama” and “Cristo Redentor” were bucket list blues performances for me. Throughout his career, Musselwhite has been linked to a number of genre-defining blues performers. I was more than a bit skeptical when I first learned 10 years ago that he’d join Cyndi Lauper on a worldwide tour promoting her 11th studio CD, Memphis Blues. My skepticism, however, evaporated after just one listen. Musselwhite does what he does best on the Little Walter classic, “Just Your Fool,” and Memphis Blues also includes such notable blues guests as Ann Peebles, Allen Toussaint and B.B. King. Memphis Blues was recognized as Billboard’s biggestselling blues CD of 2010, having sat atop the blues charts for 13 weeks, and the album’s tour played 140 dates worldwide, surpassing Lauper’s earlier tours. In the last few years, Musselwhite has continued to tour. Some notable performances include The Blues Foundation Hall of Fame Tour in 2015, in which Charlie teamed up with James Cotton and John Hammond. I hope that The Blues Foundation will continue to

convene artists of their caliber to not only provide work for such accomplished blues artists, but also to bring live blues to new audiences. In 2017, Musselwhite joined William Bell and Bobby Rush for the Take Me to the River Tour, updating classics originally recorded on Stax and Hi Records. Most recently, prior to the arrival of COVID-19, Jimmie Vaughan, Charlie Musselwhite and Buddy Guy played Oakland’s historic Paramount Theatre on March 6, 2020. Perhaps no other touring blues performer, apart from legendary blues guitarist Buddy Guy, has garnered as much recognition as Charlie Musselwhite from blues fans and peers alike. In his career spanning six decades, Musselwhite has received 31 Blues Music Awards, many Living Blues Awards, 13 Grammy nominations and his first Grammy win in 2013 for Best Blues Album, Get Up! with Ben Harper. He received the 2000 Mississippi Governor’s Arts Award and was inducted into The Blues Foundation’s Blues Hall of Fame in 2010, as well as into the Memphis Hall of Fame in 2019. Collectively, these accolades recognize Musselwhite’s lifetime contributions to blues music. At an age when many of his septuagenarian peers have long been retired, Musselwhite continues to record and tour worldwide. I’ll leave the last words to Charlie. Backstage at the Grammy Awards with Ben Harper, he was asked about his motivation for Get Up! “If you think I’m going to make this music to win a Grammy – that’s not the spirit of the music,” said Charlie. “You know we’re playing the music from our hearts and with love and happiness and – you do that first – then you see what happens – see how people like it.”

Musselwhite (ctr), Matt Stubbs (lt) and Randy Bermudes (rt) bring the blues to the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City, February 2020. Photo by Arnie Goodman Photography

Eric Steiner is the editor of the Washington Blues Society Bluesletter and past president of the Washington Blues Society in Seattle, WA. He served on the Board of Directors of The Blues Foundation from 2010 to 2013, and in 2009, the Washington Blues Society received a Keeping the Blues Alive in the affiliate category.

Blues Festival Guide 2020

Blues Movies Reel Away the Blues Willie "Po Monkey" Seaberry looks across the cotton field beside Po Monkey's Lounge during We Juke Up in Here! filming. Photo by Lou Bopp

By Roger Stolle Even before the big blues of the Covid-19 quarantine of 2020, the Blues Festival Guide thought a feature on blues films might be of interest to y’all. Now that the pandemic has hit, all the more reason to check out these films to ease your stay-at-home blues. In this age of YouTube, Netflix, Amazon, etc., it’s easier than ever to access titles via streaming or physical product. In my past 18 years in Clarksdale, MS, I’ve had the pleasure (and at times, adventure) of co-producing four blues film projects, as well as 10 editions of our nonprofit Clarksdale Film & Music Festival (which is chock-full of blues docs and live music). Plus, I’ve become friends with many amazing filmmakers, mostly from across the counter at my Cat Head blues store. What follows is a brief journey through some of my favorite blues-related films (mostly documentaries), including at least one that helped alter my path in life and a few that created memories forever in my heart. Deep Blues Rocks My World One Friday evening in 1991, I was living in Dayton, OH, and looking through the local newspaper’s entertainment listings for the weekend… no Google back then y'all. At the Little Art Theater in nearby Yellow Springs, a film called Deep Blues was screening the next day… I was there. About five years later, I started seeing many of the film’s musicians perform at festivals and juke joints in Mississippi. And I met the director, Bob Mugge.

Blues Festival Guide 2020

At the risk of building up Mugge’s ego too much, Deep Blues is, to me, still essential viewing for anyone contemplating a blues journey to Mississippi. Junior Kimbrough, R.L. Burnside, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Big Jack Johnson, Lonnie Pitchford, Booba Barnes, Jack Owens and others totally deliver. There are definite quirks to the film (e.g. the delightfully hippie narration of music critic Robert Palmer and the eternally awkward appearance of rocker Dave Stewart), but they make the whole experience all the more memorable. A couple years after I met Mugge, he offered me a production assistant (a.k.a. “go-fer”) position for a new Mississippi blues film he was making, but I was a “Mad Man” in corporate America at the time and couldn’t do it. Ultimately, the film was called Last of the Mississippi Jukes, and while not as essential in my book as Deep Blues, it is definitely still recommended. It was reissued a couple years back with both the DVD and CD soundtrack packed inside, so look for that version. Deep Blues is currently “out of print,” but well worth scouring the web.

Barefoot Workshops Capture the Blues I relocated to Clarksdale in 2002. Around 2004, I met an impassioned filmmaker and teacher named Chandler Griffin, originally from Jackson, MS, but living in New York City. The blues had started coming back to Clarksdale in a reliable way, and tourism was starting to grow as a result. Griffin planned to bring a two-week film workshop to Clarksdale to capture the often untold stories (and by default, music) of the Mississippi Delta. Soon after, he did – again and again for a decade. Not all the films are “blues” films, but many of the best are, and most of the other stories live within the culture, if not the music. Go to www.barefootworkshops.org, and click on the Video Gallery to watch films for free. In particular, check out The New Roxy, A Blues Redemption, LaLa Land, Just Monkey, Son & Son, Devil Showed Me How, Early Time, The Real Deal, Babies Got the Blues, Black & Blues, The Music Maker, All This Blues, It’s Just a Feeling and Knockdown. You’ll meet everyone from street musician Foster “Mr. Tater” Wiley and folk-artist bluesman James “Super Chikan” Johnson, to Mississippi boogieman Jimbo Mathus and even the blues fanatic who owns Cat Head (yours truly). Hard Times One of the workshop assistants I met during those first filmings was Mississippi cameraman extraordinaire Damien Blaylock. A short time later, I brought Mississippiborn Big George Brock to a (I’ll just say it) ridiculous, allstar blues album recording session up in Memphis. Long story short, martial arts actor Steven Seagal was bringing in the best of the old school to back him up on a CD. That story is for another time, except to say that Blaylock was there trying to capture the whole crazy thing on film for a mutual producer-friend David Hughes. That evidence footage sits in a vault to this day. Anyway, I was impressed with Blaylock as both a filmmaker and a person, so I hired him to film what became Hard Times – the blues story of Big George Brock. Check out a clip on YouTube and buy it at www.cathead.biz. About the time Hard Times was coming out, I met a fellow blues lover in my Cat Head store. His name was Jeff Konkel, and after a weekend of moonshine and juke joints, he pledged to return in two weeks to start a blues record label. He did – the aptly named Broke & Hungry Records. As I worked with Big George Brock, Konkel worked with the then super-obscure Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, slowly helping to bring the Bentonia bluesman out of the shadows.

M for Mississippi & We Juke Up in Here! Konkel and I spent many long weekends searching for the real deal, the authentic, the deepest blues. Along the way, we made great blues friends and experienced situations that led us to turn to each other and say simply, “That’s ‘The Project’!” It became code for what we thought would make great film. And so, in 2008, we lined up some sponsors, withdrew a bunch of cash from our bank accounts and set out on the ultimate sevenday blues road trip through North Mississippi. The idea was to make the blues world here seem just as approachable as it really is – full of Southern hospitality and hints of danger hanging with blues characters from another time and place. Among the living dinosaurs in what became the Blues Music Award-winning movie M for Mississippi, were “Cadillac” John Nolden (still with us today at 93 years old), “Mississippi Marvel” (still can’t give his real name since he had one foot in juke joints and the other in the church house), L.C. Ulmer (perhaps the film’s biggest “discovery”), Robert “Bilbo” Walker (in the performance Chuck Berry didn’t want you to see), James “T-Model” Ford (“I got to go to Parchman”), Wesley “Junebug” Jefferson (the first to pass away after the film’s release) and others.

Terry "Harmonica" Bean plays at Red's Lounge during We Juke Up in Here! filming. Photo by Lou Bopp

Blues Festival Guide 2020

In 2012, we released a follow-up documentary called We Juke Up in Here! which concentrated as much on the juke joints and their owners as the musicians performing inside. The jukes included the Blue Front Café, Po Monkey’s Lounge and Red’s Lounge. The musicians ranged from Anthony “Big A” Sherrod to Elmo Williams, Hezekiah Early and Lil Poochie.

Other Must-See Blues Films Other recommended blues films include: The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins (one of the greatest blues docs ever; lesblank.com), all of the American Folk Blues Festival films (exceptional big-name concert performances captured in the 1960s; see on YouTube), The Search for Robert Johnson (with John Hammond, Johnny Shines, Honeyboy Edwards; trailer on YouTube), The Early Films of William Ferris (including bluesman James “Son” Thomas; dust-digital.com), Cheesehead Blues (a Dutchman’s adventures in Delta blues land; vimeo.com/58095701), Late Blossom Blues (the late-in-life discovery of gospel-bluesman Leo “Bud” Welch; lateblossomblues.com) and Gip (story of 90-something Henry “Gip” Gipson and his juke joint; gipthemovie.com). Clarksdale Film & Music Festival

Leo "Bud" Welch during Moonshine & Mojo Hands filming. Photo by Lou Bopp

Moonshine & Mojo Hands As DVDs gave way to Blu-rays, and everything gave way to downloading and streaming, we thought we’d take a different tact on our (so far) final film contribution to the blues world. Coproducer Konkel and I created a free web series with the hope it would give musicians, juke owners and related personalities bigger exposure. We again hit our own bank accounts, but also ran a successful Kickstarter campaign. The resulting 10-episode web series Moonshine & Mojo Hands (2016) covers a lot of territory throughout the Mississippi Delta, North Mississippi Hill Country and even a quick foray into Memphis. We’re proud of the results, and you can see them at www.moonshineandmojohands.com. The True Delta Project Around this time, I met a few part-time filmmakers from New York who wanted to document the blues in Clarksdale. The main ringleaders were Erickson Blakney and Lee Quinby, and they have gone on to create some beautiful blues films under the umbrella of the True Delta Project, including “True Delta,” “From the Crossroads to the White House” and “Walk with Me,” among others. More info on the films and how to view them at truedeltaproject.org.

Blues Festival Guide 2020

A decade ago, along with my fellow Juke Joint Festival co-organizers, we started a highly specialized film festival. Our theme? Films must be either blues (or roots music) related or Mississippi connected. Most are both. We accept submissions, but also search all year for new films in the process of being made or classic docs that are new to us. This is a curated festival that also includes a healthy dose of live blues performances, workshops, history tours and more. Check out our last festival’s lineup, and plans for 2021 at www.clarksdalefilmfestival.com. By the way, at this year’s festival, we previewed Part I of a forthcoming full-length blues doc by Bostonian Ted Reed. Half filmed by college student Reed in 1970, and half by modern Reed in 2019, his final work, The Blues Trail Revisited, will compare and contrast the blues of then and now. Come see his blues finale at our fest in Clarksdale January 29-31 of 2021, y’all. Till then… Will somebody, please get the lights? Roger Stolle operates Cat Head – “Mississippi’s blues store in Clarksdale since 2002” – co-produces the occasional film or recording project, and is author of Mississippi Juke Joint Confidential and Hidden History of Mississippi Blues (The History Press). His website www.cathead.biz has a local music calendar as well as a celebrated web store.

Owner Red Paden sits outside Red's Lounge during We Juke Up in Here! filming. Photo by Lou Bopp

Blues Festival Guide 2020

The Healing Blues By Anita Schlank, Ph.D. The blues community has mourned too many deaths of extremely talented musicians who have died due to depression. These untimely deaths emphasize that we, as a society, need to speak more openly about mental illness and suicide. While we have come a long way since the times when suicide victims were buried with stakes driven through their hearts (to prevent their “unquiet spirits” from troubling the rest of us), there is still a stigma felt by those suffering from mental disorders that can lead to reluctance in seeking mental health treatment. Raising awareness around this topic and educating the public about available mental health treatment is particularly crucial for artists and musicians, as there appears to be a link between creativity and both mood disorders and addictions. One survey found that people in the musical community were much more likely than the general population to be diagnosed with depression, and more than twice as likely to attempt suicide. This problem can be especially relevant among blues musicians, who are less likely than classical musicians to belong to a union, or to have health insurance provided for them. In fact, Dr. Marc Brodsky (1995) surveyed blues musicians in Chicago, and found that very few could afford individual health insurance plans, and

most reported reluctance in letting others know about medical or mental health problems. In addition, touring on the road can exacerbate problems with depression or substance abuse, given the chronic lack of sleep and easy access to alcohol and other mood-altering chemicals. Luckily, these negative factors are somewhat countered by the fact that there does appear to be a healing effect to both playing and listening to blues music. Listening to and playing music can enhance well-being and reduce pain and suffering. It lowers levels of cortisol, known as the “stress hormone,” and can even improve communication among those with autism (Patel, 2005; Kemper & Danhauer, 2005; Krout, 2001). These effects might be particularly profound when it comes to the blues. The blues is often viewed as one of the most emotional genres of music, and while some may assume that listening to the blues will make a person sad, the opposite tends to be true. The reason for this is not entirely clear. Some believe it is due to the beauty that can be found in sad tones, while others believe the simplicity of the chord structure allows for increased emotional expression. Still, others assume healing comes from the catharsis of hearing blues singers speak about struggles that are similar to one’s own, much like the comfort found in 12-step meetings. These beneficial effects are increased when listening

Left to right: Anita Schlank, Mark Earley, Annika Chambers, Mike Welch, Kevin Burt and Rev. Billy C. Wirtz present a mental health panel at the 2019 Big Blues Bender. Photo by Erik Kabik

Blues Festival Guide 2020

to music in group settings, which can provide a strong sense of belonging and community. Because of this complex healing quality, blues fans most often remain blues fans for life, unlike some other genres. In 2019, a group of exceptional blues musicians collaborated on a project aimed at both raising awareness about mental illness and sharing the wonderful healing aspects of this music. Additionally, they aimed to raise money for the Handy Artist Relief Trust (the “HART Fund”), a division of The Blues Foundation that pays for health care (including mental health treatment) that blues musicians are otherwise unable to afford. The result of this collaboration was a book entitled Blues Therapy, which I co-authored with Tab Benoit, with all proceeds donated to the HART Fund. In the book, numerous successful blues musicians share their experiences with mental illness and/or substance abuse, as well as the ways in which this music has been healing for them. In the foreword, Mike Zito describes his journey from mental illness and addiction, while Mike Welch provides a heartwrenching description of his life-long struggles with depression and suicidal thoughts. Annika Chambers shares her history of substance dependence to cope with the ramifications of being sexually assaulted, while Nick Moss describes his struggle with panic disorder. Anders Osborne and Beth Hart discuss their diagnoses of bipolar disorder and substance dependence, and many others – including Amanda Fish, Eric Gales, Janiva Magness, Phil Pemberton, Billy Price, Dawn Tyler Watson, Ronnie Earl, Mark Earley and the Rev. Billy C. Wirtz – also generously share compelling stories about their individual emotional struggles and paths toward healing. In doing so, these musicians use their celebrity status to raise much-needed awareness around this important topic, and also offer comfort and inspiration to those suffering in silence. In addition, they introduce potential new fans to the incredible healing effects of the blues. In its first year of publication, Blues Therapy raised over $11,000 for the HART Fund. Since the book was published in 2019, readers have frequently stated that the musicians’ personal accounts have helped them feel less alone in their struggles, and many also learned about treatment options available to them. They found hope in the fact that these celebrities have all become successful despite their mental health and/or addiction struggles. Several contributors to the book joined together, along with Kevin Burt, to present a panel about mental health at the 2019 Big Blues Bender in Las Vegas. Their emotional disclosures brought tears to the eyes of many in the audience, and attendees noted how helpful it was to learn of others with the same symptoms, who had found success both

Co-authors of Blues Therapy, Tab Benoit and Anita Schlank, Ph.D. Photo by Ÿ Marilyn Stringer

through treatment and the healing effects of the blues. The success of this book has inspired a second volume that is currently in the works. This time, it is co-authored with Mike Zito, who is well known not only for his incredible musicianship, but also for his inspirational writing in his blog, A Bluesman in Recovery. In the second volume, fans of the music will be interviewed as well as blues musicians, to continue to raise awareness of mental illness and addiction, and to further explore the ways in which this beautiful genre provides such a significant therapeutic effect to both musicians and listeners. John Lee Hooker said the blues is a healer, and this appears to be true. Blues Therapy helps spread the word about how this happens. To purchase the book and for more information, visit bluestherapybook.com. Anita Schlank, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist and a board-certified forensic psychologist who has treated criminal offenders for over 30 years. She has authored numerous articles and book chapters, and edited the five-volume book series entitled The Sexual Predator. She is also a passionate blues fan and is on the board of directors for the River City Blues Society in Richmond, VA. To connect, email anita.schlank@earthlink.net. References: Brodsky, M. (1995). Blues Musicians Access to Health Care. Medical Problems of Performing Artists (10), 18-23. Kemper, K.J. & Danhauer, S.C. (2005). Music as therapy. Southern Medical Journal, 98(3), 282-289. Krout, R.E. (2001). The effects of single-session music therapy interventions on the observed and self-reported levels of pain control, physical comfort and relaxation of hospice patients. American Journal of Hospital Palliative Care, 18, 383-390. Mathews, P. (2016). Rhythm and Blues: Help for Kiwi musicians with depression, anxiety and addictions. www.stuff. co.nz/entertainment/music/84835569/rhythm-and-blues-Helpfor-Kiwi-musicians-with-depression-anxiety-and-addictions. Patel, A. (2015). Music and the Brain (Audiotape). Available from www.TheGreatCourses.com.

Blues Festival Guide 2020

What’s Cookin’ with Victor Wainwright

All photos by Ck Harrington

Blues Festival Guide 2020

When your life is spent touring the ol’ blues highway, it doesn’t leave much time to eat well. In fact, it can be a downright struggle! Figuring out what and how to eat is part of a puzzle that I’ve slowly pieced together after nearly 15 years of hard touring. Carbs? They’re on break! Old favorite recipes? Many have been reworked to fit my current lifestyle! However, here’s one dish that’s always been a hit, has stayed more or less true to the original and doesn’t sacrifice any flavor for the sake of dieting. This recipe probably wouldn’t be considered quick, but it is easy and can feed a big house. It does require a little cooking gear, like a smoker, temperature probe, a stock pot... but nothing that isn’t easily obtainable or already owned by most blues fans or food enthusiasts. A Little Background... In 2005, I moved to Memphis, TN. I was born and raised in Savannah, GA, surrounded by the roots music my father and grandfather taught me. They knew the struggles of being a touring musician, because they were themselves professional musicians, so my family encouraged an education. When I was old enough, I went to school in Daytona Beach, FL, to attend Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, where I studied hard to become an Air Traffic Controller and eventually earned a bachelor’s degree in Air Traffic Management. The FAA called me up shortly after graduating and offered to station me in Memphis. I took the offer, of course, hopped on a train and soon after arriving in Tennessee, I bought a big house on a FAA salary, settling in for what was going to be a wild ride! Fast forward two years later, and the draw of Air Traffic Control was being quickly swallowed up by the allure of Beale Street and amazing blues music. I was hooked, and my budding career as an Air Traffic Controller soon took a back seat to late nights under Beale Street lights, paying dues and honing chops. It wasn’t easy though! Just as my family already knew, the hardships of being a musician were real, and the new career wasn’t financially comparable to working for the FAA. I had a big house with a big mortgage, and playing for tips on Beale Street wasn’t going to cut it. I had to think, quick... I had all these empty bedrooms. Who needs affordable housing the most in Memphis that I could easily get along with? Musicians! The rest is history. I have always rented my spare rooms to musicians in Memphis, and throughout the last 15 years, some 11 professional touring musicians, many of whom you all know, have stayed in my house. Together, we’ve shared some of the very best of times and formed amazing, lifelong friendships. With so many musicians living in the house, it was never quiet. It was always filled with music and it was always LOUD! That was OK though! We slept musician’s hours, worked on music and didn’t give a lot of attention to much else while helping each other hone our craft. We focused, had fun and enjoyed each other’s camaraderie.

The Food There’s a lot of hunger in a house full of musicians. None of us had much money, but somehow, we managed without opening too many packets of Ramen – big family meals became the norm. I’ve always loved entertaining, and cooking big meals for large crowds is just another form of that. It also makes eating more affordable. So, what’s on the menu? What takes us from Savannah to Memphis on the music and food train? What’s relatively cheap, can feed an army and bring together a house full of musicians to the dinner table amid the loud music playing, chatter, laughter and normal everyday noise? Memphis Loud BBQ Stew with Mamma’s Cornbread My current lifestyle and diet choice would be considered “low carb.” This, along with moderate exercise, has helped me lose over 150lbs. I dabbed in the keto diet (low-carb, moderate protein, high-fat) for a while as well, and although I wouldn’t classify this recipe as keto, it is very carb conscious. The flavors here meld together the highway from Memphis to Savannah, from Beale Street to the Low Country – there’s something here for all our friends, far and wide. To start, we need a good ol’ pork butt, smoked low and slow. You know what’s good about smoked pulled pork? Everything. You can follow this recipe, cook the pork and stop right there. It’s damn well good enough to eat by itself. Putting some of it in this stew, though, is going to take the whole experience over the top! So, what do you need to smoke a pork butt? Well, you need a smoker. It can be coal, gas or electric, it doesn’t matter and I’m not biased to one versus the other. I’m not an expert at smoking meats, but I have learned plenty from living in Memphis, which is famous for blues and BBQ. Along with my own trial and error, I have it fairly honed in for my personal tastes, which I think you’ll like! Now, I know some of you are already panicking because you don’t have a smoker. However, most all of you know a friend that has one. Why not collaborate on this recipe? Just like when I’m feeding an entire house full of musicians, this recipe is going to make a ton of food and it’s going to be a party, so why not ask your friends to pitch in? Everyone involved is going to most definitely benefit! He/she helps you with the pork butt, and you make the stew... If you don’t have access to a smoker at all, or you just don’t like pork, then you can skip ahead and make this recipe substituting the pork for additional grocery store rotisserie chicken. The Rub If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my time in Memphis, it’s that really great BBQ starts with the “rub,” the seasonings. The combinations of spices will build flavor on the outside of the meat while it cooks. You know that amazing wonderful bark that forms on the outside of a properly smoked pork butt or slab of ribs? That comes from the rub.

Blues Festival Guide 2020

1. Put six big handfuls of wood chips in a big bowl of water. I There are plenty of store-bought options for BBQ rubs on the market, but I tend to use an old local favorite, the “Rendevouz” rub from here in Memphis. As a bonus, this rub doesn’t include sugar. Most all rubs start with the same basic recipe. You probably have most of the spices in your home cabinet. So, if you feel like making your own, experiment with the below basic rub recipe. You can’t go wrong with it! For a basic rub, mix together: ½ cup paprika ½ cup salt ½ cup granulated garlic ¼ cup granulated onion ¼ cup chili powder ¼ cup cumin 2 tbsp black pepper 2 tbsp dry mustard 1 tbsp cayenne pepper ½ cup Splenda brown sugar (optional) Preparing the Butt Once you have the rub together, take a 6-8 lb. pork butt out of the packaging and dry it off with paper towels. Once it’s dry, cover it with some yellow mustard, nice and even. That’s right... yellow mustard, the simple hot dog kind. It doesn’t have to be a lot. What we’re trying to do here is give the rub a nice way to stick to the butt. You don’t taste the mustard, and all together this will form the bark. Once the butt is covered in an even layer of mustard, start shaking on the rub. Don’t be afraid, coat that sucker until it is completely covered! If you’re preparing this the night before, stick it on an aluminum pan covered in foil and place it in the fridge. Otherwise, it’s ready to go on the smoker! Smoking the Butt Depending on what smoker you have, the following can change just a bit, but generally, this is what I do for mine:

Blues Festival Guide 2020

like apple, cherry and pecan wood chips, but use any you’d like. Let them soak for 30 minutes.

2. Get your smoker to a steady 275°F. 3. Place the soaked wood chips in the little box in the smoker. 4. As soon as it starts smoking with the wood chips, add the

meat (fat side down) in the smoker, right on the grate. If, at any point, it stops smoking, add more chips.

5. About every hour or so, spritz the meat with a 50/50 mixture of apple cider vinegar and water.

6. Let it go for about 4-5 hours or until the internal temperature reaches 165°F. We’re done with the smoke and spritzing at this point.

7. Take the meat out, and wrap the butt in two layers of aluminum foil, tight.

8. Place the wrapped butt back in the smoker and let it go until

the meat reaches 198°F internal temperature. The general rule of thumb is that at 275°F, it should take about an hour per pound, but every butt is different – when it’s done, it’s done!

9. When it’s done, take the meat out. I usually let the butt rest in a dry cooler for an hour before pulling it apart. The Stew 1 tbsp olive oil 1 yellow onion, diced 2 stalks celery, chopped 3 lbs. pulled pork 1 store-bought cooked rotisserie chicken, pulled 1 (30 oz) can whole peeled tomatoes with liquid, chopped 1 cup sugar-free ketchup 1 cup sugar-free BBQ sauce Salt and pepper to taste Hot sauce to taste (I use 2 tbsp of Louisiana Hot Sauce) 3 cans of triple succotash (lima beans, corn and tomatoes) 1 can cut green beans 1 green bell pepper

1. Grease a 10”x15” glass pan. 2. Heat the oven to 350°F. 3. Combine all ingredients in mixer, except the milk, and mix on low speed.

4. Add milk, a tablespoon at a time, until it becomes like a cake batter consistency. Sometimes, I only use one tablespoon.

5. Bake at 350°F for about 45 minutes. 6. At this point, turn the pan around in the oven, and bake in 10-minute increments until a toothpick inserted on the middle comes out clean. The top will be a very light brown color, and the edges will have turned brown. Enjoy!

1. Heat the olive oil in a large stock pot and sauté the onions and celery with a little salt and pepper until soft and translucent.

2. Add the chicken and pulled pork and mix, bringing everything up in temperature.

3. Stir in the cans of vegetables, undrained. 4. Add in the ketchup and BBQ sauce. 5. Season with salt, pepper and hot sauce. 6. Place the whole green pepper into the mixture.

Since perking up ears with his 2005 release, Piana’ From Savannah, the now Memphis-based Georgia native has been a vital force in the blues music scene. Victor Wainwright’s highoctane boogie piano and big soul sounds have, among numerous industry recognitions, earned him six Blues Music Awards from The Blues Foundation − including Band of the Year and B.B. King Entertainer − as well as a 2020 nomination for the Pinetop Perkins Piano Player of the Year. With his band The Train, their self-titled studio debut got the nod at the 2019 Grammys with a nomination for Contemporary Blues Album, and look out for their latest release, Memphis Loud. Follow Victor on his journey through Facebook, Instagram and victorwainwright.com.

7. Cook low, stirring occasionally, for 2-3 hours or to desired consistency. I like it thick.

8. Remove the green pepper and chop it up and return it to the stew. Now it’s done!

Mamma’s Hot Cornbread Now... everyone needs a little extra lovin’ when they’re passing through their hometown. For me, the perfect side to Memphis Loud BBQ Stew is Mamma’s Hot Cornbread. Fair warning though, there’s nothing low carb about this cornbread. So, if you’re trying keep those sugars down, you might want to double down on the stew and after a couple bites of the cornbread, leave the rest to your band mates and instead double up on Mamma’s hugs – which coincidentally are even sweeter than the cornbread, but won’t raise your blood sugar. 3 Jiffy Cornbread boxes 3 eggs 1 can whole kernel corn, drained 1 can creamed corn 16 oz sour cream 1/2 jar sliced jalapenos, chopped OR 1/2 jar diced jalapenos (both drained) A little milk (no more than 1/4 cup)

Blues Festival Guide 2020

Celebrating 25 Years! Twenty-five years in and just getting started – the Jus’ Blues Music Foundation keeps growing and finding new ways to support and celebrate the deepest roots of America’s music. The Foundation is a long-standing nonprofit working to preserve blues heritage through performances and education. Best known for the Jus’ Blues Music Awards and Conference held each summer in Tunica, MS, the Foundation does much more. It also regularly presents workshops on how to use technology to reach new audiences, brings blues into schools, offers songwriting workshops and sponsors tours of blues heritage locations. If it’s something to do with advocating the blues, you can bet Jus’ Blues is working to support it. For example, their annual event hosts a two-day Technology Conference featuring presentations from renowned blues artists, attorneys, historians and social media marketers on the various ways to better promote, protect, market, sell and get music heard in today’s technological age. The Foundation also boasts the impressive “Blues Got A Soul” (BGAS) initiative, which brings educational programs to youth and adults, to help inspire a deep understanding and lifelong appreciation of the music. BGAS programs include classes on blues history and legends, the business of music, blues lyrics, women in blues, Delta blues preservation, technical workshops, instruments, and blues artist performances, jam sessions and meetand-greets. For instance, the BGAS’s 2020 Black History Month presented to over 100 students from the Shelby County, TN, school

Founder and CEO Charles Mitchell (lt) and legendary blues Drummer Tony “TC” Coleman (ctr) with BGAS’s Best Academy students. Photo courtesy of Jus’ Blues Music Foundation

Blues Festival Guide 2020

system. Presentations covered the history of Beale Street by Music Specialist Allen Johnston, the life and legacy of Memphis Minnie by songstress Toni Green, the history of how B.B. King came to Beale Street by B.B. King Museum Operations Director Robert Terrell, the history of the harmonica and the blues by Damion “Yella P” Pierson, and stories and performance by historian, educator and Grammy Award-winning bluesman Bobby Rush. Instilling the significance of blues history and love for blues music in today’s youth ensures a healthy future for the blues. The Foundation’s crown jewel, the Jus’ Blues Music Awards, began back in 1995 as the Atlanta Heritage Blues Festival. Founder and CEO Charles Mitchell has been working in the music industry for over 30 years. He explains, “I grew up hearing this music. It’s what my parents listened to. I love it.” Though the Awards show has evolved and moved on from Georgia, to Beale Street in Memphis, to the Mississippi Delta, Jus’ Blues has always operated with the central goal of recognizing blues and soul artists who are frequently overlooked. The Jus’ Blues experience was conceptualized and has been led from its earliest days by African Americans who are determined to keep their music alive. Jus’ Blues events are an immersion into the African American cultural experience with a large, welcoming family of artists and attendees all celebrating the origins of the blues, as well as the many new styles emerging as the genre continues to evolve. “Honoring the wonderful work of musicians and other industry professionals, no matter what color or nationality they are, is important. Jus’ Blues is dedicated to recognizing Black blues and soul artists who don’t always get recognition from mainstream media, and often don’t even get to perform at large blues festivals,” says Mitchell. Mitchell’s drive has been to keep blues history alive and blues men and women working and recording. This intention can be seen in the names of the individual awards given out each year, which are named in honor of blues legends including B.B. and Albert King, Koko Taylor, Little Milton and Muddy Waters – ensuring their contributions to the blues remains front and center in our collective memory. Bobby "Blue" Bland, Denise LaSalle and Bobby Rush have all been regular attendees of the Awards show and, at times, performers as well. Latimore, Theodis Ealey, Millie Jackson, Willie Clayton and Trudy Lynn have also participated in the growth of the Foundation.

Big Bill Morganfield proudly displays "The Muddy" Lifetime Blues Award he received at the 2016 Jus’ Blues Music Awards. Photo courtesy of Jus’ Blues Music Foundation

Rush, one of those rare bluesmen to receive mainstream attention, finally got a Grammy in his 80s. “I’m one of the last ones left. We’ve got to find a way to keep this music going.” The Jus’ Blues Music Award Show does just that – bringing to light these artists who contribute so greatly to the genre. Jus’ Blues also focuses on a younger generation – many of whom play what is left of the Southern soul circuit. Ms. Jody, O.B. Buchana, Lola Gulley, Grady Champion, Zac Harmon, Karen Wolfe and many others offer some real hope that this music has a bright future. By making these introductions, attendees get to hear some of their favorites and discover a few performers they had never heard before. Mitchell says, “Everyone should come to have a good time. For the artists and music professionals, it’s network, network, network. It’s a great place to connect with people. They’re all here.” To date, the Foundation’s Music Award Show has honored almost 250 musicians, songwriters and other industry professionals that have helped keep the blues alive. Mitchell says, “We are just getting started. I have so many ideas and there is so much to do.” This year, the Jus’ Blues Music Awards and Conference will take place July 29-August 1. To learn more about the Jus’ Blues Music Foundation and its programs, visit www.jusblues.org.

Blues icon Bobby Rush plays oil can guitar at a BGAS youth camp. Photo courtesy of Jus’ Blues Music Foundation

Blues Festival Guide 2020

Jammin’ On The High C’s On Board the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise A glimpse of the LRBC piano bar. Photo by Ÿ Joseph A. Rosen

By Mitch Woods In 2002, I was invited as a special guest on the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise (LRBC). Cruise promoter Roger Naber asked me aboard and said, “Just do what you want, sit in, wherever.” I noticed there was a piano bar on the ship, so I went in late one night and started playing. Pretty soon, I had a crowd – everyone gathered around the piano, having a great time. After many drinks and a lively crowd with some musicians sitting in, the place was rockin’. At about 4 a.m., I decided it was time to go to bed and bid everyone a good night. About a half hour later, I got a call from Tracy, one of the LRBC staff, who said, “get your ass down here to the piano bar, you got a full house!” So I came ambling back from my room in my pajamas, and I noticed a handwritten sign on the door that said, “Mitch Woods’ Club 88!” I proceeded to pound the ivories ‘til dawn, and that was the beginning of Mitch Woods’ Club 88 and the piano bar on the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise. What you have to understand is that it is a blues piano bar... no Elton John or Billy Joel! When I first started the piano bar, I was the only piano player, but now we have six or seven players who all take shifts. Of course, they usually leave the late-night shift to me and I still come in my pajamas. Now there are two pianos as well, so some nights are dueling piano shows.

Blues Festival Guide 2020

We pair up, and it’s always a ball with some of my fellow pounders who each has his or her own style of blues. Some of the pianists include Rob Rio, Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne and Scotty Miller, who plays with Ruthie Foster and writes his own tunes. Reverend Billy C. Wirtz is always hilarious with his own crazy tunes, like “Mennonite Surf Party”... you have to hear and see him to understand. Eden Brent is another wonderful vocalist and pianist, and has had legendary sessions in the piano bar. As far as tunes go, I have a big repertoire of blues, New Orleans classics and my own tunes. I enjoy getting the crowd involved and singing along (Sing Along With Mitch!). “Rockin’ Pneumonia,” “How Blue Can You Get” and “Boom Boom” all go over well. As people loosen up and the alcohol takes effect, things can get crazy. I have had times when drunk cruisers have taken over. One night, I had a blitzed harmonica player reach over the ledge of the piano bar to adjust his mic and he fell in, under the piano! That’s when I left and went to bed! The piano bar has become one of the most fun venues on the cruise. You never know what will happen or who will show up. I invite everyone – cruisers and pro musicians alike – to come and sit in. I have had Tab Benoit playing buckets and spoons along with me, James Cotton on harp, Taj Mahal on guitar, Tommy Castro, Roomful of Blues' horns and the California Honeydrops,

Reverend Billy C. Wirtz. Photo by Bob Sekinger

as well as many greats who have left us, like Johnnie Johnson, Matt Murphy, Pinetop Perkins and many more. I’ve had didgeridoo, tuba and, of course, countless harmonica players, some who could play, and others I had to get the hook for! I have seen everything in there... one night a guy came in with an Alphorn! I couldn’t believe it – it was about 10 feet long and stretched over the piano! Of course, there is a copious amount of drinking and partying going on into the wee hours, and the piano bar attracts the diehard blues cruisers who refuse to go to bed. And why not? There is music 24/7 on the ship, and it all started at the piano bar. One of the funniest things to happen had to be a night I was playing ‘til dawn. The sun started coming up and we had to close the curtains to keep the mood going. The crowd was totally blitzed, literally a-rockin’ and a-rollin’! Suddenly the door opens, and in walks a very straight-laced crowd. They looked at us and were shocked. We looked at them... whaaa?? Turns out it was the “Friends Of Bill W.”... the AA group had scheduled their meeting in the piano bar! I’m sure that with one look at us, they realized why they had stopped drinking! It has been 18 years that I’ve played the piano bar, and most cruisers don’t even realize that I usually play with my band, Mitch

Left to right: Mick Kilgos, Leon Blue and Taylor Streiff. Photo by Bob Sekinger

Woods and His Rocket 88s. But I enjoy the hell out of it and love to entertain in such an intimate and informal environment, and that is what makes the piano bar so special. I look forward to seeing all my friends there, and invite everyone to sing, play, clap or just smile along while I am “Jamming on the High C’s,” which happens to be the title of one of my CDs recorded live at Mitch Woods' Club 88, the LRBC piano bar. I did create a bit of a monster though, as now I have to be dressed in my PJs and fez, or nobody recognizes me. I always tell the crowd, remember, “What happens on the Blues Cruise, stays on the Blues Cruise.” The piano bar is just one of many exciting offerings you can find on board the LRBC. In addition to 100-plus scheduled shows, the pro jams, artist workshops, autograph signings, industry panels, culinary demos, theme nights, land excursions and amenities of a five-star full ship charter will leave you testifying, like many blues cruisers, that the Bluesin’ Experience is life changing! For information on upcoming cruises, visit BluesCruise.com. Mitch Woods and His Rocket 88s take inspiration from the great classic jump n’ boogie outfits and add a healthy dose of New Orleans rhythm and blues, piledrivin’ piano and some of Woods’ own contemporary playful lyrics to forge their own brand of music they call “rock-a-boogie.” Woods tours worldwide with his band, and performs solo as well. He is popular on the festival circuit, playing festivals around the world including the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Telluride Blues & Brews Festival, Umbria Jazz Festival, Edmonton Blues Festival, Lincoln Center’s Midsummer Night’s Swing and more. Woods has 13 albums to date; his latest, A Tip of the Hat To Fats, was recorded live at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. All are available on mitchwoods.com, and for booking information, contact: info@mitchwoods.com

Jump-swing piano torchbearer, and author of this feature, Mitch Woods. Photo by Michael McGrath

Blues Festival Guide 2020

Syd Nathan of King Records

Don Robey of Duke Records

A King U A Duke By Reverend Billy C. Wirtz

The story of the blues often centers around colorful performers and great bands, however, the story behind the scenes was every bit as unique and colorful. The record labels that recorded blues, hillbilly and gospel during the latter half of the twentieth century were independent operations, often either run by one man or a family (as in the case of Chess). Unlike later labels like Delmark and Alligator, these labels were often run by tough, old school hustlers who weren’t afraid to pad a few pockets and/or play rough if needed. Two of the most influential and colorful of that era were Syd Nathan of King Records and Don Robey of Duke Records. King Records King Records was founded by Syd Nathan, a frustrated drummer and dry goods merchant in Cincinnati, OH. Around 1947, Nathan couldn’t ignore the sales figures in his store’s music department; he was doing a huge business

Blues Festival Guide 2020

in used records. These “next-to-new” items were bought by transplanted Southerners lured to the factories during World War II. The records being sold were not the mainstream popular ballads and big-band selections produced on the coasts. His customers wanted the music that came from their world. Whites from Kentucky wanted hillbilly, the Blacks wanted blues and they both wanted gospel. Nathan did so well he opened a small record shop in the Black section of town and decided to try his luck making records. He began in 1947 with a hillbilly record by guitar genius Merle Travis and Grandpa Jones under the name “The Sheppard Brothers.” It didn’t set the world on fire (that would happen shortly), but broke even and then some. Nathan began recording all types of music, much of it aimed at a Black audience. Rhythm and Blues In 1946, a White disc jockey named Gene Nobles had begun programming rhythm and blues as it’s now known,

on WLAC 1510 AM in Gallatin, TN. During the day, it had a local area following, but at night it switched to a huge 50,000-watt directional signal. This meant you could hear it all the way from Key West to Canada. Although it was aimed at a Black audience, this jumpin’ and jiving post-war R&B drove teenagers of all colors completely insane, and Mr. Nathan took notice. Beginning with the jump blues of the ’40s, through the group era of the ‘50s, all the way to the birth of soul in the ’60s, King Records sold millions of records to a waiting audience all over the world. When Nathan first began, there were several other independent record labels recording this new music, but the store’s location played a big part, especially in the early days. Had King Records been in New York or Los Angeles, the legacy might have been far different, and Cincinnati itself was a pretty conservative Midwestern city, but just over the bridge… My Old Kentucky Whorehouse Newport, KY, was known as “Sin City, U.S.A.” The small town across the river from the Queen City, had three main industries: sex, whiskey and gambling. Mobsters

from Cleveland ran the nightclubs in the most corrupt and brazenly hedonistic little city in America. As we’ve seen in numerous documentaries and books, environmental factors often play a huge role in changing popular culture. When Muddy Waters, Elmore James and the rest of the Mississippi players relocated to Chicago, they realized that (among other reasons) the sheer noise level of the city necessitated plugging in their instruments to be heard of above the din. The result: Chicago blues. Likewise, in Newport around 1947, the casinos, brothels and “dance” clubs all needed music that fit. The patrons of the Newport casinos were almost all vets and working-class Whites and Blacks from the South. They liked their music loud, fast and unrelenting; “Moonlight Serenade” just didn’t cut it in Sodom and Gomorrah. There was no need, nor time, for music to “get acquainted” – you weren’t there to fall in love, you were there to kill pain, kick some ass and engage in back-booth trysts you’d tell the boys about at the VFW 50 years later. It was a land of screaming tenor players, with names like “Big Jay,” “Red” and “Thin Man,” the designated Pied Pipers of Pleasure. It was walking 50-foot oak-topped bars, wailing “Flyin’ Home” for 20 minutes at a time, playing

Blues Festival Guide 2020

between the thighs of the shake dancers, challenging each other to winner-take-all cuttin’ contests, Satan himself, running on no sleep for the last week, cakewalking down in Hell, while casino walls shook to the sounds of jackedup patrons shouting “Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop.” “It” was ignored by, or simply unknown to, polite society, the elected (and well-compensated) officials on both sides of the Ohio River made sure of that. What had once been called “race” music was becoming even more primal and unrefined; many jazz players mocked it, and major record labels barely even acknowledged “it” as “music.” But, night after night on Newport’s bandstands, something was changing. The old songs were being played with a raw, brash attitude and new songs were being written. Drivethru brothels, amphetamines and 24-hour gambling weren’t spawning tunes with titles like “How Much Is that Doggie in the Window?” Even the music from five years before was too square. The tunesmiths and musicians knew that if they wanted to keep their gigs, it was time to move on from the relatively harmless and fun picture painted by songs like “Saturday Night Fish Fry,” to the music being recorded by a cigar-smoking, asthmatic record dealer named Nathan in an old warehouse in Cincinnati. Raunch and Roll King Records and Syd Nathan stepped up to the plate, supplying Newport (and the rest of the country) with the best and raunchiest records of the era... Wynonie Harris, The Dominoes, The Swallows, Bullmoose Jackson and others specialized in R-rated classics with titles like “Big Ten Inch (Record of the Blues),” “Keep On Churnin’ Till the Butter Comes,” “Rocket 69,” “It Ain’t The Meat, It’s The Motion” and “Big Long Slidin’ Thing.” Recorded in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, they flew under the radar and, along with country music, became the roots of rock ‘n roll. Secret Weapons Mr. Nathan also had a couple of secret weapons. Unlike the other independent labels, he ran a full-service operation. While other companies kept their offices, recording studios, pressing plants and distribution centers in separate parts of the country, Nathan ran all of them out of one building. He could record a song in the morning and within a matter of hours, have it mastered, pressed and shipped to DJs across the country. The other ace up his sleeve: Henry Glover. Henry Glover did it all. He produced, arranged and wrote milliondollar sellers and even built the studios. The one-man hit machine wrote for The Delmore Brothers, and produced sessions for Moon Mullican and others for the hillbilly market. On the R&B side, he wrote and produced mega hits for Hank Ballard and The Midnighters, James Brown, Little Willie John and Bill Doggett, and became the first African American executive in the record business.

Blues Festival Guide 2020

End of an Era During the ’50s, King Records had phenomenal power in the music world, giving us “The Twist” by Hank Ballard, hit after hit on the R&B charts, country, rockabilly, gospel, spoken word, polka and, of course, James Brown. Soul Brother Number One would change music history, and by the ‘60s, he was paying the electric bill for Syd Nathan. As times and tastes changed, many of the older artists were no longer selling, Motown and Stax were now the power brokers in Black music. Nathan passed in Miami in 1968 at the age of 64, and shortly thereafter, King Records went out of business and was sold. Down the Road in Houston, TX Don Robey looked more like a driver’s education teacher than a well-connected record mogul. He was the biracial son of a chef and a laborer and used to brag “I’m half Black and half White, I’m smarter than you and I can kick your ass.” He was indeed smart when it came to signing artists, and not shy about practicing the ass-kicking part of the statement. In 1944, he opened the Bronze Peacock Dinner Club in Houston, TX. The Peacock was the Copacabana of Black society in the Lonestar State. His #1 attraction was flashy guitarist T-Bone Walker, who became a target for a tsunami of room keys and panties nightly tossed onstage. Robey wanted in on this phenomenon and produced the first records by another guitarist, a young upstart named Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown. Brown was his first artist, and although he hung on for a few lean years, Robey wouldn’t hit real paydirt till 1954. That year “Pledging My Love” by Johnny Ace crossed over and hit #1 on the pop charts. The soulful ballad would be the first R&B song to crossover onto the pop charts, opening a huge door that had been previously closed to Black artists. The Gospel According to Robey In 1952, Robey bought out Duke Records, and Peacock Records became his gospel label. Gospel had been virtually ignored by the big labels. Not only did he scoop up groups like the Dixie Hummingbirds, he changed the basic sound of commercial gospel. Before him, the groups recorded acapella or with minimal accompaniment. Beginning with the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, he began using rhythm sections. He made gospel records in Chicago with Willie Dixon and the same musicians that played on blues records, blurring the line between Saturday night and Sunday morning. The old school church crowd turned its back on him at first, calling the new sound demonic and blasphemous. Oh well, their loss. Robey’s style of gospel took off and began to outsell even secular music. The driving beat, and even the songs of the Five Blind Boys and the Dixie Hummingbirds – later modified by Ray Charles, Hank Ballard, Jackie Wilson and countless others – all began with Don Robey.

The Peacock label turned gospel artists out as fast as they could record them, and then sent them on the road in package shows to churches and meeting halls across the South, giving the light-skinned boss a virtual lock on the Gospel Highway and its performers. Meanwhile, Duke, and another of his labels, Back Beat, cranked out legendary R&B talents like Bobby Bland, OV Wright and Junior Parker. Robey ran his show with an iron fist and a loaded gun, but he got the job done. He also had a couple of secret weapons. The first was Evelyn Johnson. Behind all the bluster, Ms. Johnson ran the show, bragging that Don Robey didn’t know a good record from a hubcap. In truth, she kept the books and did the bookings. Along the Chitlin’ Circuit and the Gospel Highway, she kept strict control over how shows were promoted, how many tickets were sold and who was turning the profit. A Touch of Class Robey’s other ace card was Joe Scott. Trumpeter Joe Scott arranged the music for some of Duke’s greatest records. Much like how Newport influenced the raunch of King Records, Joe Scott added horns and strings to give a big band, Bronze Peacock feel to the blues and R&B. He added breathtaking and dramatic solos to such Bobby Bland classics as “Turn on Your Lovelight” and “36-22-36.” Scott produced Bland’s masterpiece album Two Steps from the Blues, which remains the gold standard of blues albums to this day. This sophisticated sound would become known as “soul blues,” favored by B.B. King, Little Milton and others and sustain Bobby “Blue” Bland’s career into the early ’70s. Robey ran his empire until 1973, when he sold the label to ABC Dunhill and stayed on as a consultant. He passed away in 1975 from a heart attack, at the age of 71. Legacy The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame says this about Syd Nathan: “In the process of working with Black R&B artists and White country artists, Nathan helped effect a cross pollination of two worlds, thereby helping lay the groundwork for the musical hybrid known as rock ‘n roll.” He also gave us such diverse talent as James Brown, Hank Ballard and Grandpa Jones. Don Robey’s controversial methods often overshadowed his musical legacy, especially in the gospel world. His addition of a rhythm section (drums and bass guitar) to the quartets laid the groundwork for artists like Ray Charles, Jackie Wilson and eventually an entire Motown sound. Along with gospel, he gave us Bobby “Blue” Bland, Jr. Parker and a host of other R&B giants. The King and Duke labels presented music and artists that changed the landscape of music. Without them, we would not have experienced it in quite the same way. For instance, there was King artist Hank Ballard, who saw some

kids dancing and asked what they were doing. They replied, “We’re twistin’ it, Daddy!” He went back upstairs and wrote “The Twist” – a song that would spark an entire new style of dance in the ‘60s. Then there was Bobby “Blue” Bland onstage at Ruthie’s Inn in Oakland, CA, in 1975, kneeling on his white monogrammed handkerchief to protect his lemon-colored suit, whispering, “Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy on me,” as the audience fell apart. Years later, a young Texan guitarist titled his first album after an obscure 1958 blues song by Duke artist Larry Davis. His 1983 album Texas Flood would go “Double-Platinum,” launching the career of Stevie Ray Vaughan. As a fan, I thank Mr. Nathan and Mr. Robey for bringing these artists and their music to the world. Rev. Billy C. Wirtz lives in Ocala, FL, with his wife Linda, 10 cats and a horse. For more information, he can be reached at revbilly88@aol.com or at facebook.com/revbilly88. All original artwork by Matt O’Brien. Check him out on Instagram @skullface_project

Bobby “Blue” Bland

Blues Festival Guide 2020

Festivals Receive KBA

This year, The Blues Foundation awarded the Keeping the Blues Alive (KBA) Award to two international festivals that are exceptional in supporting the blues. From Columbia to Poland, the blues is thriving worldwide – thanks, in part, to the efforts and passion of the Cali Blues & Folk Festival and the Jimiway Blues Festival.

Colombian musician Carlos Reyes (rt) leads a blues masterclass at the Cali Blues & Folk Festival. Photo courtesy of the Cali Blues & Folk Festival

Cali Blues & Folk Festival A Stepping Stone for Cultural Exchange Cali, Colombia

Cali, Colombia, traditionally known as the world capital of salsa, carries a historical musical tradition with deep African roots, easily found in the city’s food, diverse community and openness to visitors. It was only natural that it become home to one of the most important blues festivals in Latin America. Each September, the Cali Blues & Folk Festival takes hold of Cali and up to nine other cities in Colombia with a week-long celebration of concerts and educational activities that promote blues music, its history and its culture as a genre that is very much alive outside the United States. Festival programming showcases live performances and educational events (conferences, masterclasses and workshops) with musicians, artists and scholars from the U.S., Colombia and around the world. The festival also offers diverse thematically curated content such as library events and film screenings, reaching an increasingly diverse audience. The Cali Blues & Folk Festival is a multi-venue, nonprofit event organized by the Centro Cultural Colombo Americano, a binational organization whose mission focuses on creating transformative experiences for the community through teaching

Blues Festival Guide 2020

English and promoting cultural dialogue with the United States. With this mission in mind, the Cali Blues & Folk Festival serves as a platform for exceptionally talented artists from Colombia and the U.S. to showcase their distinctive styles of music. The festival’s multi-city tour has made it possible for Colombian, as well as international, performers to build new audiences around the country. Keeping true to this purpose, the Festival helped create the Colombian Blues Society in 2013, an organization recognized by The Blues Foundation, and which promotes the Colombian blues music scene. For over a decade, the festival has been an important platform for artists to reach audiences throughout Colombia, enabling exposure to each city’s different characteristics and traditional music. Each city within the tour becomes a stage for experimentation, exchange of knowledge and transformation for the participant artists and audiences. The Cali Blues & Folk Festival has been strengthened through networking with local, national, international, public and private cultural and educational institutions. Festival partners and sponsors have included the U.S. Embassy in Colombia, Colombian Ministry of Culture, the national network of binational centers, local governments, universities and cultural centers. The Cali Blues & Folk Festival was honored with the 2020 Keeping the Blues Alive Award, becoming the first Latin American organization to receive the award. The organization’s Cultural Director, Michael Cadena, accepted the award at the ceremony in Memphis, TN. This year the Cali Blues & Folk Festival will take place September 21-30, 2020. For more information, please visit www.colomboamericano.edu.co/programa-especial/bluesand-folk-festival

Jimiway Blues Festival Spreading Love for the Blues Ostrów Wielkopolski, Poland

Out of passion for the blues, the Jimiway Blues Festival in Ostrów Wielkopolski, Poland, was founded in 1994 by father and son team, Benedykt Kunicki and Oskar Kunicki. Named in tribute to legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix, it has become tradition to open the festival with Hendrix’s anthem “Who Knows,” getting the crowd excited for the two-day event held each October. The festival, which is attended by 1,400 fans each year and often

Lucky Peterson plays to the crowd of the Jimiway Blues Festival in Ostrów Wielkopolski, Poland. Photo courtesy of the Jimiway Blues Festival

sells out within a half hour of opening ticket sales, is held in the beautiful hall of Ostrowskie Centrum Kultury. The Jimiway Blues Festival prides itself on presenting a diverse variety of blues music styles, and has become a destination for blues lovers in Poland and worldwide. Jimiway’s lineups boast a broad spectrum of the blues genre. The festival is proud to present the best Polish blues artists – veterans such as Tadeusz Nalepa, Dzem, Easy Rider, Irek Dudek, Sławek Wierzcholski & Nocna Zmiana Bluesa, Leszek Winder and Jan “Kyks” Skrzek, as well as talented representatives of the younger generation, like JJ Band, Blues Doctors, Magda Piskorczyk, HooDoo Band and the Boogie Boys. Over the years, as the festival has gained international recognition and importance, it has also attracted renowned American artists including Sugaray Rayford, Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials, Kenny Neal, Joe Louis Walker, John Németh, Curtis Salgado, Nick Moss, Coco Montoya, Tommy Castro, Toronzo Cannon, Mr. Sipp, Lucky Peterson and Albert Cummings. In addition to the artistic forces on stage, there is also an acoustic blues scene, jam sessions and music photo exhibits. The Jimiway Blues Festival not only brings the diversity of the blues genre to Poland, but aims to reach out to young fans and fuel the hope for a generational transfer of the blues tradition. Festival attendees come from all walks of life and range from grandparents to small children – all joining together in celebration and adoration of the blues. Through its efforts for over 25 years, the Jimiway Blues Festival is keeping the blues alive and well in Poland. It has been recognized by The Blues Foundation with the 2020 Keeping the Blues Alive Award and Benedykt and Oskar Kunicki accepted the award in Memphis. This year’s festival will be held October 16-17, 2020. For more information about the Jimiway Blues Festival, visit Jimiway.pl and Facebook.com/JimiwayBluesFestival

Blues Festival Guide 2020

BLUES RADIO Support your local blues station by tuning in and enjoying some bluesy tunes

SOME OF OUR FAVORITE BLUES RADIO SHOWS… INTERNET / SATELLITE RADIO Blues with Russell Thurs. 7pm – 9pm DJ Russell Luzio 481 Open Hill Ave. Henderson, NV 89011 909/967-1330 (office) blueswithrussell@aol.com www.blueswithrussell.com YouTube/blueswithrussell

CALIFORNIA NEVADA CITY KVMR 89.5 FM Streaming: www.kvmr.org Sun. 1pm – 3pm “Blues Spectrum” DJ Steve Cagle ATTN: Sean Dooley, Music Director 120 Bridge St. Nevada City, CA 95959 530/265-9073 (office) 530/265-9555 (on air) music@kvmr.org www.kvmr.org

HAWAII HONOLULU KTUH 90.1 FM Streaming: www.ktuh.org Thurs. 9am – Noon “Somethin’ Blue” DJ Steve Stoddard 2345 Ala Wai Blvd. #814 Honolulu, HI 96815 808/926-1783 (office) 808/956-7261 (on air) stoddardsl@yahoo.com www.stoddardshale.com

TENNESSEE KNOXVILLE WDVX 89.9 FM / 102.9 FM Streaming: www.wdvx.com Fri. 9pm – 3am “Johnny Mack’s Friday Night Blues Attack” DJ Johnny Mack 301 S. Gay St. Knoxville, TN 37902 865/544-1029 (office) 865/494-2020 (on air) studio@wdvx.com www.wdvx.com

Blues Societies… Join One! CALIFORNIA

KENTUCKY

OHIO

CANADA

Kern River Blues Society Kern County, CA 93305 USA 661-872-7517 Facebook/Kern River Blues Society kernriverbluessociety@gmail.com

Central Kentucky Blues Society 1736 Shenandoah Dr. Lexington, KY 40504 USA Facebook.com/ CentralKentuckyBluesSociety Ray Current, Treasurer centralkyblues@gmail.com

Northeast Ohio Blues Association (NEOBA) 12315 Springwater Ave. Uniontown, OH 44685 USA 330-877-3913 bluesNEOBA.org Andy Pressler, NEOBA President

Ottawa Blues Society P.O. Box 35043 - RPO Westgate Ottawa, ON K1Z 1A2 CANADA 613-290-4840 www.ottawabluessociety.com Dave Brennan, President ottawabluessociety@gmail.com

Left Coast Blues Alliance 4509 Stonewall Dr. Fair Oaks, CA 95628 USA 951-836-6762 leftcoastbluesalliance.com Rick Snyder Rick@LeftCoastEntertainment.com ILLINOIS Crossroads Blues Society P.O. Box 840 Byron, IL 61010 USA 779-537-4006 crossroadsbluessociety.com Steve Jones, sub_insignia@yahoo.com IOWA Southeast Iowa Blues Society P.O. Box 1718 Fairfield, IA 52556 USA 641-233-7438 southeastiowabluessociety.org Gary Henry, ga.henry@yahoo.com

Neobablue@yahoo.com MINNESOTA Minnesota Blues Society P.O. Box 580704 Minneapolis, MN 55458 USA 651-955-2612 www.MnBS.org info@MnBS.org MISSISSIPPI Washmo Blues Society P.O. Box 1283 Washington, MO 63090 USA 636-221-2116 washmobluessociety.org J.R. Jones jnsfoto@yahoo.com NORTH CAROLINA Charlotte Blues Society P.O. Box 32752 Charlotte, NC 28232 USA 704-779-0996 www.CharlotteBluesSociety.org Mary London Szpara, President CLTBluesSociety@gmail.com

Blues Festival Guide 2020

TENNESSEE Music City Blues 3610 Old Hickory Blvd. Old Hickory, TN 37138 USA 615-847-9687 www.musiccityblues.org Charles Kotlaris chuck@mindspring.com Smoky Mountain Blues Society P.O. Box 52925 Knoxville, TN 37950 USA 865-288-0672 www.smokymountainblues.org Facebook.com/ SmokyMountainBluesSociety Don Linde, President smokymountainbluessociety@gmail.com

For a complete list of Blues Societies, check blues.org/affiliate-search Stay connected with other blues lovers in your area during this time of pandemic. Many blues societies publish e-newsletters, host virtual events and have engaging social media pages. Join a blues society today!

Blues: An African Sonic Response The question came innocently, primarily because the recording industry has given us a habit in the last hundred years of naming, marketing and categorizing music based on the geography, the political correctness of the times (or lack thereof) and/or ethnicity – i.e. race records, gypsy jazz, Brazilian jazz, rhythm & blues vs. rock ’n roll, British rock, blue eyed soul vs. soul, gospel vs. soul gospel, and so on. It makes total sense since the nature of the business of selling requires the necessary “careful” identification of any product for appropriate distribution – in this case, music. In order to appreciate the complexity of music as a creative and living entity, it is important to first appreciate the context in which it is born. First and foremost, music made by humans is an expression of cultural power. American blues, in its earliest and deepest expression, is the crystallization of West African musical aesthetics sculpted to withstand the winds of the political, economic and socio-cultural hurricane that American slavery brought to bear on the African populations of the Southern plantations of North America. West African musical aesthetics are the architecture and foundation of the sonic expression of African socio-cultural experiences of Blacks in America. Second, the musical aesthetics that formed what we now call the “blues” subconsciously reminded Blacks in America that they

were Africans, and that while they had left Africa, Africa never left them. The blues is the African sonic response to the American socio-cultural and political experience of Blacks in America. You can hear the musical foundations of the Delta blues in the music of Timbuktu, Mali, performed by “banjoist” Bassekou Kouyate with the vocals of his wife Awa Sacko, or in the guitar of Ali Farka Touré or in the music of Salif Keita. African music is the root of all of humanity’s music. We should never lose sense of the actual chronology of time that defined our collective African genetic human lineage and cultural heritage. We should remember that Africans developed on the planet five million years ago and have been dispersing to the far corners of the globe ever since. We should also keep in mind that the Suez Canal was only dug in 1859, which means that prior to that, one could walk from Senegal, West Africa, to Beijing, China… and African folks traveled. Third, the creation by Blacks in America of the “American blues” is the umbilical cord to Africa that fed their collective sacred cultural consciousness in North America and bonded them as a people. The blues is that cord, that connection to the aesthetics of the Motherland, that allowed them to survive as a people in the socio-cultural, economic and political American experience. It is important to remember that 99% of African Americans come from the west part of the African continent, and while they

Iconic Malian singer and multi-instrumentalist bluesman Ali Farka Touré singlehandedly brought “desert blues” to an international audience. Photo by Tagles1

Musician Bassekou Kouyate is internationally known as master of the ngoni, an instrument similar to the banjo. Photo by Richard Kaby2

By Pascal Bokar Thiam, Ed.D. I was asked, “Is there an African blues?”

Blues Festival Guide 2020

Often referred to as “The Hendrix of the Sahara,” Vieux Farka Touré continues his father’s legacy of merging African sounds and the blues. Photo by Sachyn Mital3

A powerhouse vocalist and champion of women’s rights, Oumou Sangaré is a Grammy Award-winning Malian Wassoulou musician. Photo by Bryan Ledgard4

did not all necessarily speak the same languages, they had cultural markers in common in the expression of movement through dance. These West African populations had in common musical instruments, melodies, songs and concepts of rhythms anchored in a polyrhythmic ternary appreciation and subdivision of time or groove, from which the great Duke Ellington concluded, “It Don’t Mean A Thing if It Ain’t Got That Swing.” African rhythms swing, therefore African Americans’ expressions of rhythm swing. We should not forget that to Africans, music is part of every human activity. There is the recognition that the management of sound wave vibrations (i.e. music making) is also a space where the sacred nature of the sound is and should be celebrated, thus the importance of the Black Church in African American life as early as its arrival on the continent of North America. The connection between sound and sacred is part of an important tradition of religious rituals on the continent of Africa, in which communication with the sacred and ancestors is done through music, rhythms, trances and possessions of the spirit through sounds. The Great Malian guitarist/vocalist Ali Farka Touré from Timbuktu used to say, “In reality, there is no such a thing as Black Americans... but there are Blacks in America... which means that they came with their culture...” While this seems an obvious statement, given the forced nature of the migration through the period of the Atlantic slave trade, it underscores the power of African culture, the resilience of its people, its identity markers through its aesthetics and its unique ability to morph and adapt to its changing environment. The celebrated ethnomusicologist and blues guitarist Ry Cooder came to the same conclusions when he first heard the traditional music of the Songhai people of Mali in the songs, rhythms and riffs of guitarist Ali Farka Touré. These African aesthetic markers were so evident to the European-American clergy, who heard the rendition of their Christian hymns by the Black Church, that the White clergy felt the need to give them the new name of “Negro Spirituals.”

America’s oldest musical, melodic, harmonic and rhythmic instrument celebrated since the earliest beginnings of this nation’s musical mecca – Nashville – is an instrument from West Africa that is called the ngoni – the banjo. President Jefferson referred to the banjo in his letters to Monticello as an instrument played by his slaves that he had never heard before, but “which is quite pleasant to the ear.” The banjo was the vehicle through which African culture maintained its umbilical cord to Africa through the expression of its tonal colors, its rhythmic syncopations and its harmonic and melodic systems in blues music. Furthermore, it is the rhythmic and melodic syncopations of the banjo that Blacks replicated on the left of the piano to create ragtime, when Christian missionaries introduced the piano on the plantations. There hadn’t been a single banjo in England, Scotland or Ireland. The populations from the British Isles immigrating to the United States and moving into the South – the Appalachians, Kentucky, Tennessee – found on the Tennessee River banks these African populations playing the banjo. They incorporated these sounds, colors, textures and rhythms from the music of the Mississippi Delta into their own Celtic heritage to create an authentically American music and style that we call bluegrass. No instrument or culture from Mali, no bluegrass! Several musicians on the scene today continue the tradition of incorporating African musical aesthetics to animate the blues. Vieux Farka Touré, son of venerated Songhai guitarist/vocalist Ali Farka Touré continues in his father’s footsteps to promote the musical aesthetics of the Malian empire on today’s festival circuit, along with powerhouse vocalist Oumou Sangaré. The West African Cameroonian veteran of the saxophone, Manu Dibango, is still on the scene today playing musical riffs that animate the concept of the American blues, but more importantly, let’s remember American blues superstar guitarist/vocalist Bonnie Raitt, a lady who really knows about the blues and can converse about Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters or Son House, and who traveled to Mali and sang in Bamako with the great Ali Farka Touré, stating the experience “changed her musical outlook on music” (Public Radio International, May 2017).

Blues Festival Guide 2020

The reason why the blues speaks to our collective humanity beyond race and nationality is because in its tonalities and delivery, the blues reflects and expresses the sum of our human suffering and grief, as well as our aspirations and hopes for a better tomorrow. Music is an expression of our collective humanity, and Africa speaks to us through the depth of the blues, because each and every one of us on this planet is a descendant of Africa. So, to the question, “is there such a thing as an African blues?” the answer is, Africa speaks to our collective humanity through the blues. Dr. Pascal Bokar Thiam, a.k.a Pascal Bokar in the music world, is a guitarist/vocalist from West Africa, Senegal. He is currently a faculty member of the Performing Arts and Social Justice Department of the University of San Francisco where he teaches jazz studies and directs the USF Jazz Band. He received the Jim Hall Jazz Master Award for Guitar from the Berklee College of Music and the Outstanding Jazz Soloist Award from Dizzy Gillespie and James Moody. In 2015, his CD Guitar Balafonics received the “Best CD of the Year” distinction from Downbeat Magazine with a four-star review. Bokar is considered the Father of the “Afro Blue Grazz” sound that melds together African musical traditions, American blues and funk with bluegrass stylings. www.afrobluegrazzpascalbokar.com Photo Sources 1 Tagles, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Ali_Farka_Toure.jpg 2 Richard Kaby, CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/2.0), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bassekou_ Kouyate_photo.jpg 3 Sachyn Mital, CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-sa/3.0), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Vieux_Farka_Tour%C3%A9.jpg 4 Bryan Ledgard, CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/2.0), Taken for BBC Radio 2 at 2009 Cambridge Festival, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oumou_ Sangar%C3%A9_(3785248191).jpg

Author and musician Pascal Bokar Thiam, Ed.D., is considered the Father of the “Afro Blue Grazz” sound. Photo courtesy of Pascal Bokar

Blues Festival Guide 2020

Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2020

Articles inside

Blues: An African Sonic Response by Pascal Bokar Thiam, Ed.D

Blues Movies Reel Away the Blues by Roger Stolle

Jammin' on the High C's by Mitch Woods

What's Cookin' with Victor Wainwright

A King and A Duke by Rev. Billy C. Wirtz

Festivals Receive KBA

Jus' Blues Music Foundation

The Healing Blues by Anita Schlank, Ph.D

Living Legend: Charlie Musselwhite by Eric Steiner