PT. Townsend Country Blues Festival

by Jim Kelton, Marlee Walker

In one of the most beautiful places in the Northwest, it's one of the most unique and largest events dedicated to traditional blues. If you want to experience the real folk blues of artists who have lived the music, you should be at this event. The weeklong workshops are followed by Friday night & Saturday (2&7pm) concerts in an oddly ambient space, the McCurdy Pavillion (used for parachutes).

The following is a list and some details about the artists involved this year: (Often, due to the lack of an active performance schedule for many of these artists, biography material and recordings are rarely available, so please excuse some abbreviated mentions.)

John Cephas & Phil Wiggins - The blues come in all varieties but the Piedmont of Tidewater style so vividly carried on by John Cephas and Phil Wiggins, is among the most beautiful. A rich combination of melody, lyricism and harmonious bouyancy, the Piedmont blues constitute an easily recognizable link to the origins of country music. They sing with irresistible intricacy. Expert guitarist Cephas and harmonica wizard Wiggins, modern-day counterparts of the string bands that pioneered their peculiar legacy, let their instruments do the talking for them.

"Cool Down" is the title of their latest album on the Alligator label and it's a true musical tour of the blues as they developed not inthe intense and violent Mississippi Delta but in the more pastoral setting of the Atlantic tidewaters. It contains not only brilliant original numbers such as "Action Man," "No Ice In My Bourbon" and "Man Without A Future" but also virtuosic renditions of such classics as Blind Boy Fuller's "Screaming and Crying," "Bessie Smith's "Backwater Blues," Leroy Carr's "hard Liquor" and Rev. Gary Davis' "Twelve Gates to the City."

The current preoccupation with roots by blues fans is severly limited by the fact that the grand masters have either passed away or settled into well-deserved retirement. It's left then to traditionalists to preserve and expand on the music as they find it. There's no substitute for experience in any kind of folk music. However, there are alternatives. One of the most rewarding of those is to develop an appreciation for the depth and meaning of the blues, which is one way or another have touched us all. Cephas and Wiggins make that wasy...and thoroughly enjoyable.

Robert "Wolfman" Belfour - (who replaces Alvin Youngblood Hart in the line-up) is a deep-blues guitarist from Memphis, Tennessee, who grew up in Northern Mississippi on the music of his father, Howlin' Wolf and John Lee Hooker and the "open house" concerts of his homeland where country homes get turned into juke joints for non-stop musical parties Friday thru Sunday night.

Steve James - From Texas, he has recorded for Antones Records, in Texas and returns to share his crafty licks again.

John Miller - He has five albums on Rounder Records, has written a book "Fingerpicking Gershwin," published by Oak Publications, cofounded the band Country Cooking (Rounder), and Wide Awake, and also writes liner notes for blues reissues on Yazoo Records. A longtime teacher, Miller is a board member & coordinator of the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop and cofounded the Seattle musician's cooperative/music school, the Musical Arts Workshop.

Suzy Thompson - A prize winning blues fiddler!

Mike Lightnin' Wells - A North Carolina native, Wells has chosen to follow his love for folk music, specifically acoustic Southern blues, recording, performing & teaching across the country.

Lynn August - A Zydeco/blues artist from Louisiana who has released the tasty "Sauce Piquant" available on Black Top Rec.

John Jackson - This gentle person lends his spirit and genuine happiness to the festival every year, making it all that much more fun to learn with the masters, in this case a National Heritage Fellowship winner. His recordings on Arhoolie explore his West Virginia roots, and are always pleasing to the senses.

Roy Book Binder - On Rounder, this guitar pickin' hillbilly blues singer from Florida brings life to the music of Pink Anderson and Rev. Gary Davis, both mentors to Roy in their later days. Now he lives on the road, tours from coast to coast and passes on the legacy.

Del Rey - She's a popular acoustic blues queen who has released two recordings that were actually recorded in Port Townsend.

Ethel Caffie-Austin - From West Virginia, she performs gospel music and spirituals across the country (her choir was a big hit in '95), also sharing a rich cultural black heritage music through historical and experiential narratives. She has received much recognition for her work in the educational system with numerous residencies and two plays to her credit.

Howard "Louie Bluie" Armstrong - A National Heritage Fellowship winner, and very popular with his Northwest fans will be returning to the festival.

Orville Johnson - He has been performing & writing for about 25 years, winning awards for his distinctive style of blending roots music, blues, rock, country and folk balladry with his powerful voice and slide guitar/dobro. He's recently released an original CD and, in the past few years, has taught at the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, Georgia Strait Guitar Workshop, and at Pt Townsend's Country Blues Workshop.

Annieville Blues one of the Northwest's finest boogie blues pianists has a flock of students of her own, and now at the Pt. Townsend workshops, where she was instrumental with Pinetop Perkins last year. She also hosts a popular jam (kids OK 7-9pm) at the Scarlet Tree in Seattle.

Algia Mae Hinton, a woman who posesses the rare ability to buckdance and play guitar at the same time.

Downtown Port Townsend venues will feature bands from the area on the weekend including T.J. Wheeler, Trouble At Home, Sheila & Backwater Blues, Cobalt Hook, Guitar Slim and Nick Vigarino's Meantown Blues. (see calendar for details) Plus, a National Resophonic Polychrome Steel guitar will be raffled at the festival.