T-Model Ford Hospitalized

Alex Thomas, Program Manager for the Mississippi Division of Tourism's Heritage Trails, passes this note along regarding T-Model Ford:

Greenville blues musician James "T-Model" Ford was hospitalized Thursday with heart complications. I was informed by T-Model's family that he will undergo surgery Friday morning at Delta Regional Hospital. He is scheduled to be honored on the Mississippi Blues Trail on September 26, 2008 at his birthplace in Forest, MS. Please keep T-Model and his family in your prayers.

Thursday Roundup

Vicksburg - Blues Trail marker honoring Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Willie Dixon to be unveiled today.

Potts Camp - North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic: Friday - Bobby Rush, T-Model Ford, DuWayne Burnside and his Mississippi Mafia, Olga Wilhelmine Mathus, Danny Lancaster, Jocco Rushing and John Barnett. A "sunset jam" brings together roots rockers Mother Tupelo, Rocket 88 and Goshen of Santa Fe, N.M. Saturday - Blue Mountain, the Taylor Grocery Band and Alvin Youngblood Hart's trio Muscle Theory, the Rev. John Wilkins, the Rising Star Fife and Drum Band, David Kimbrough and Garry Burnside of Burnside Exploration, the North Mississippi Allstars, Jimbo Mathus and Knockdown South. (Read the Clarion Ledger story here.)

Oxford - alt-country band Blue Mountain reunites

Willie King DVD

If you've been to the juke joint Betty's Place in Noxubee County, Mississippi, you know about Willie King who lives on the Alabama/Mississippi line. Visible World Films has just put together a DVD on King. The Columbus Dispatch reports (full story at link):

Ever wonder what it's like to be a modern bluesman, living in the woods of the Alabama Black Belt? A pair of Dutch filmmakers, Saskia Rietmeijer and Bart Drolenga of Visible World Films, found out. And now they've brought the experience to everyone.

Just in time for Willie King's upcoming Freedom Creek Festival, the filmmakers have released a DVD, “Willie King: Down in the Woods,” about the bluesman, a local favorite, who lives in Old Memphis, a rural community in Alabama....

"We have always been fascinated by the Old South, which is so rich in culture, music and literature," he continued. "We are big American roots music fans - blues, jazz, soul and Americana. We heard Willie sing and play on his porch and the decision was easily made to make the documentary on him."...

For the DVD, King also was filmed performing with other musicians, such as [Forest, MS native] T Model Ford, and while visiting his mentor, Mississippi bluesman Jesse Daniels....

King was inducted into the Howlin' Wolf Hall of Fame in 2005. He was recognized by Living Blues magazine in 2000, 2001 and 2003 and was nominated for the traditional blues male artist of the year in the 2006 Blues Music Awards. He also is a repeated nominee in the W.C. Handy Awards.

Freedom Creek Festival
May 25, begins at 4 p.m., and May 26, begins at 11 a.m.
Old Memphis, near Aliceville, Ala. (On King's property in Pickens County)
(For directions, contact the Alabama Blues Project at (205) 752-6263.)
Admission: Suggested donations - $5 Friday and $10 Saturday