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by Jonas Beals Next Wednesday, the Kennedy Center will host a music festival that could happen only in Washington. The fifth annual Congressional Blues Festival provides a chance to see politicos and congressmen get down to blues superstars including Robert Cray and Elvin Bishop, as well as less-known legends such as Macavine Hayes, Captain Luke and Big Ron Hunter.
The event is a celebration of America’s roots-music heritage, and an opportunity to recognize the efforts of the Music Maker Relief Foundation, a Hillsboro, N.C., nonprofit that helps forgotten Southern music pioneers gain recognition and pay their bills.
Albert White is one such musician. He grew up in Atlanta playing guitar with his uncle, Piano Red. He later performed live or on record with Clarence Carter, Ben E. King and Hank Ballard. He never became a star, but his guitar was an important fixture in popular regional blues and R&B.
by Rick Cornell A long weekend in late April brought Alison Krauss, Tony Rice, Del McCoury, Elvis Costello and over 100 other bands to Wilkesboro this year, where they shared the grounds of a community college with beloved patriarch Doc Watson. For the last 19 years, thousands of fans have gathered at Merlefest, taking in four days of roots music 23 miles down U.S. 421 from Watson’s birthplace of Deep Gap.
Elsewhere, the fall and spring editions of the Shakori Hills festivals—twin mini-Merlefests in Chatham County, if you will—hosted a similar variety of roots-leaning acts. As usual, bluegrass festivals remained widespread in the state, publicity occasionally consisting of a few cardboard signs posted a couple weeks in advance. Somehow, fans of high and lonesome still find them. And in Carrboro, the fourth annual American Roots Series at the ArtsCenter again hit every corner of the sprawling Americana tent, from folk and swing to honky-tonk and sacred steel.
by Abby Buehler As he closed his eyes, a deep, soulful moan escaped his pursed lips, reverberating through the dimly lit bar. He moved his right hand over the six strings of his acoustic guitar, letting another chord out into the anticipating crowd.
As he shook his head and looked down, one wondered what he was thinking. Was he thinking of his childhood? Those early years of his life spent on the street corners with his father, playing for money. Or was he thinking about where his next dollar was coming from?
“Joy.” That was the one word that summed up Alvin “Little Pink” Anderson’s emotions on that stage.
by Jim Reed Most folks who were either raised in the South —or who have taken it upon themselves to learn a bit about the popular music traditions which have emanated from this region over the past century or so— cannot help but have at least a cursory knowledge of both traditional rhythm and blues and black gospel.
However, despite ample and undeniable evidence which demonstrates that these two seemingly incongruous genres are in fact inextricably linked (“bound to be bound” to borrow a phrase from a songwriter friend of mine), there still exists no small amount of confusion over the roots of not only rural, acoustic “country” blues and its cousin, electric “city” blues, but of their flashy grandchild: rock and roll.
Adolphus Bell knows this heritage better than most.
Source: Connect Savannah
by Jamie Williams Tim Duffy, founder of Durham’s Music Maker Relief Foundation, said Durham has a legitimate right to be called “home of the blues.”
“People think that the blues came out of Mississippi, but Durham has just as much of a claim as anyone.
“Blind Boy Fuller is arguably the biggest blues star of all time and he came right out of Durham.”
Source: The Daily Tarheel
by Larry Benicewicz Well, there’s an old expression: what goes ‘round comes around. But who could imagine that string band street music from the Roaring 20s could ever be resurrected and moreover be warmly and enthusiastically welcomed by a whole new audience of listeners? After all this is the technological age, wherein tunes born of slick, sophisticated, computer enhanced engineering are downloaded (some say stolen) in a flash to personal iPods. How can, you say, instrumentation of such a primitive origin - washtub basses, earthenware jugs, kazoos, washboards, fiddles, banjos, and resonating, steel guitars ever have a chance to speak to or appeal to such a zoned out, plugged-in generation? But then who can gainsay the overnight success of the upstart Carolina Chocolate Drops, who like a breath of fresh air, gain converts each day to their Gospel of real, authentic Piedmont blues, played in their inimitable manner with nary a hint of irony.
Source: Blues Art Journal
by Chris Toenes Calvin Thomas Brandon has gracefully lifted himself above hardship his whole life, and that feeling ends up in his throat when he sings the blues. As one of 16 children on a farm near Roxboro, he looked forward to singing when his family went to church. They lived in the house Brandon’s father, a carpenter while in the military, built, eating a lot of fatback and pinto beans and surviving from what they made growing tobacco.
Source: Independent Weekly
The 18th Efs Pilsend Blues Festival, which aims to reach smaller cities in Turkey, comes to an end after a month. The jazz artists John Primer, Adolphus Bell and Bernard Allison enjoyed and admired the big audiences.
Source: Turkish Daily News
James was born on August 31, 1931, in Houston County, Georgia, to Ulysses and Bessie Davis. James was preceded in death by two sisters, Elvia Watkins and Thelma Lester. He was educated at Davis Chapel Elementary School. He was formerly employed at Tolleson Lumber Company.
He was also a renowned musician, known by many as the “Drum Beat Man” and inducted into the Music Hall of Fame and highlighted in The Living Blues (The Magazine of the African American Blues). Many of James’ albums and CDs will live in our hearts “forever.” He was accompanied most of these musical years by the following drummers: Mr. Eddie Releford, Mr. Jimmy Thomas and Mr. Pumpkin Whitfield. He also had a lead Drummer, Mr. Verlon Gilbert.
Like barbershop quartets, fiddle-and-banjo bands are usually thought of as the province of white musicians. But African Americans were heavily involved in the genesis of both traditions.
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