July 2003 Feature Story
by Mark Hoffman
Friday and Saturday, Aug 1 & 2
Friday, August 1, 7:00pm: Del Rey & Steve James, Robert Lowery,
Andy Cohen, John Cephas & Phil Wiggins. Saturday, August 2, 1:00pm:
David Evans, Paul Watson & Judy Luis-Watson, Ari Eisinger, John
Miller, Rich Del Grosso, Cora L. Jackson Gospel w/Christina Shinkle.
Saturday, August 2, 7:00pm: Marc Silber, Suzy Thompson, John Dee Holeman,
Aaron Moore, David “Honeyboy” Edwards
Two days of concerts in a beautiful setting by some of the world’s
leading masters of classic, pre-WWII country blues. What better way
to enjoy this Summer of the Blues 2003? Centrum’s Port Townsend
Blues and Heritage Festival is one of the great acoustic blues festivals
in the world today, and we’re incredibly lucky to have it here
in the Northwest every year. Just like every year, the performers are
legendary: three National Heritage Award winners and a 2002 Grammy winner,
including “Honeyboy” Edwards, one of the world’s most
famous elder bluesmen. The venue is spectacular: historic Fort Worden
State Park, a turn-of-the-20th century fort overlooking the Strait of
Juan de Fuca, with expansive views of the Olympic and Cascade mountain
ranges. The festival kicks off with an evening concert on Friday, August
1, followed by Blues in the Clubs—six bands in six Port Townsend
clubs from 9:30pm ‘til closing time. The festival kicks back into
gear on Saturday at 1:00pm with a concert in McCurdy Pavilion at Fort
Worden, followed by “Blues on the Green”—music, food,
and beverages, including beer and wine from Northwest brewers and vintners—on
Fort Worden’s Littlefield Green. Then you can hop a bus or drive
over to downtown Port Townsend to enjoy more blues in the clubs on Saturday
night ‘til closing time, with a free shuttle bus taking you from
club to club so you don’t have to expend your precious dancing
energy on walking.
And hey, if you want to learn how to play the blues, check out the Centrum
Port Townsend blues workshops, which precede the weekend concerts. Intended
for beginners, intermediate musicians, professional players, or anyone
who simply loves the music and wants to find out more about it, the
workshops provide a learning experience that you can’t get at
any other blues festival: music all day and late into the night for
a week, with some the world’s leading blues performers and scholars
in a warm, generous community where everyone shares the same passion
for sharing rare tunes, swapping great tales, and making new connections.
Many blues lovers—myself included—practically live for this
festival and workshop series every year. I’ve had great times
every year there for the last decade, and so will you.
This year’s performers, in order of appearance at the festival,
include:
Del Rey & Steve James: The reigning queen of West Coast acoustic
blues—one of the most amazing fingerpickers you’ll ever
hear (and a leading authority on the women of the blues)—is joined
by her buddy Steve, a powerful player on guitar, six-string banjo, and
mandolin (and a well-known blues writer to boot) • Robert Lowery,
a resonator guitar wizard, has been playing for 50+ years, influenced
by Lightnin’ Hopkins, Blind Boy Fuller, Arthur “Big Boy”
Crudup, and does amazing versions of songs by Robert Johnson. •
Andy Cohen, a great guitar player, pianist, singer, teacher, has played
Southern music professionally for 35+ years and helped revive the music
of Washington Phillips on the little-known dulceola, a small, piano-like
instrument. • John Cephas & Phil Wiggins: Guitarist/singer
Cephas is a National Heritage Award recipient and a master of the Piedmont
and Delta blues styles, while Wiggins is a master acoustic harmonica
player, great teacher, and inspired singer and songwriter. Together,
they’re one of the best blues duos since Sonny Terry & Brownie
McGee. • David Evans, a fine guitarist, is also a leading blues
historian and ethnomusicologist who has uncovered a number of important
players and recently won a Grammy award for his liner notes for Screamin’
and Hollerin’ the Blues: the Worlds of Charley Patton. •
Paul and Judy Luis-Watson: Influenced by Sonny Boy I, Sugar Blue, and
Sonny Terry, Paul leads the band BluesWorks with his wife Judy, a pianist
who grew up in a family of musicians in East Africa and cites Leroy
Carr, Otis Spann, Jeannie Cheatham, and Nina Simone as influences. •
Ari Eisinger specializes in blues and ragtime music for solo guitar;
his primary influences include Blind Blake, Lonnie Johnson, and Lemon
Jefferson. • John Miller is one of the most respected and versatile
guitarists in the Northwest, he’s an expert on the styles of blues
players such as Mississippi John Hurt, Robert Wilkins, Furry Lewis,
Elizabeth Cotton, and Bo Carter. • Rich del Grosso is a specialist
in the blues mandolin style of Yank Rachell, has taught mandolin and
bottleneck slide guitar for 25+ years and writes for magazines such
as Blues Revue, Frets, and Mandolin. • Cora L. Jackson with Christina
Shinkle: Cora led her first kids’ choir at age 12, has been teaching
and directing adult choirs professionally for 25 years, and has written
150+ songs and three musical plays. Christina received jazz piano train
ing from the Interlochen Arts Academy and the University of Miami, and
has accompanied Cora since 1996 in a variety of venues. • Marc
Silber, a blues guitarist, songmaker, and music store owner for 40+
years, founded and ran Fretted Instruments, a legendary 1960s Greenwich
Village music store that was a meeting place for famous blues and folk
players such as Mississippi John Hurt, Gary Davis, Bob Dylan, Elizabeth
Cotten, David Grisman, and Mance Lipscomb. • John Dee Holeman,
a National Heritage Fellowship award winner, is a master bluesman and
buckdancer who has been playing guitar and singing the blues since he
was 14 years old in North Carolina. • Suzy Thompson is one of
the rare musicians today who has mastered the acoustic blues violin,
following the path of Lonnie Chatmon, Clifford Hayes, and Eddie Anthony;
she’s also a great blues singer in the style of Memphis Minnie
and Bessie Smith. • Aaron Moore, born in the 1920s in rural Mississippi,
is a vital link to the boogie-woogie piano styles of Roosevelt Sykes
and Memphis Slim, and played in Chicago with greats such as Muddy Waters,
Howlin’ Wolf, and B.B. King and his old friend David “Honeyboy”
Edwards. A National Heritage Award recipient, Honeyboy was born in Mississippi
in 1915 and has known and played with just about every famous bluesman:
Charley Patton, Big Joe Williams, Robert Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf,
Sonny Boy Williamson, Little Walter, and many others. Honeyboy’s
autobiography, The World Don’t Owe Me Nothing, is one of the best
books ever written by and about a bluesman. (Edwards also appears at
The Experience Music Project, Thurs, 7/24.)
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