Robert Johnson Blues Foundation Hall of Fame

Raymond Reeves writes about the Robert Johnson Blues Foundation Hall of Fame dinner and shares the teacher behind the Robert Johnson devil myth (read the full story: Playin' the blues)

Ask a music expert about the birthplace of the blues, and the answer will be quick and simple: the Mississippi Delta. But central Mississippi can stake a claim as well, as the birthplace of one of this genre's most influential figures.

Robert Johnson [of Hazlehurst], who, legend says, sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads of highways 61 and 49 in Clarksdale, will be honored this weekend with the annual Blues Jam. The event, in its fourth year, is organized by the Robert Johnson Blues Foundation and features an awards banquet at Jackson's TelCom Center on Friday and a festival in Crystal Springs on Saturday.

The banquet, scheduled for downtown Jackson on Friday night, includes the induction of the latest class into the foundation's hall of fame: David "Honeyboy" Edwards, the last living blues artist known to have played with Johnson, and the late Ike Zinnerman, who will be represented by members of his family. Zinnerman apparently played such a role in Johnson's life that his influence is reflected in the famous legend regarding Johnson's talent.

"Ike Zinnerman is the great bluesman who shared his knowledge of the guitar with Robert Johnson," Clapton wrote. "The (Johnson) family says that, when Robert Johnson came down to study with Ike Zinnerman, he was not that great of a guitarist, quite frankly. When he studied with him, he worked with him so intensely that when he went back to the Delta people were saying 'Man, what happened to you? You must have sold your soul to the devil.'"

Blues Awards

The Blues Music Awards are tomorrow night and as the Clarion Ledger reports, they've come home to the Delta (read the full story: The blues come home):

For the first time in its 29-year history, the Blues Music Awards will be held in the Mississippi Delta. Long known as the birthplace of the blues, the poverty-stricken Delta has taken a back seat to Memphis, headquarters of the Blues Foundation, which puts on the biggest event in the industry. But not this time. Dozens of blues acts - Jimmie Vaughan, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Omar Dykes among them - are set to attend the event, scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Grand Casino Event Center in Tunica. The festivities will kick off at 3 p.m., with Gov. Haley Barbour unveiling a Blues Trail Marker on U.S. 61 in Tunica.

Jay Sieleman, executive director of the foundation, said the group chose Tunica for a couple of reasons. First, the venue in Memphis usually used was already booked. Second, the Delta made sense. "Rather than switch dates," he said, "we thought, how can we take advantage of the situation. From our point of view, historically this is great. The Delta is the birthplace of the blues."

The Ledger has a list of the nominees but for more information visit: www.blues.org

U.S. 61 to get Blues Trail marker

The Associated Press reports:

Gov. Haley Barbour on Thursday will unveil a marker designating U.S. 61 as part of the Mississippi Blues Trail. The ceremony will be held at the Tunica Visitors Center on U.S. 61 in Tunica.

"As the most famed stretch of roadway in Mississippi's storied history, it's only fitting that the highway be permanently and officially designated as the Blues Highway to honor the many talented artists whose travels made it come alive as one of most enduring cultural icons," Barbour said in a statement.

Among the dozens of blues artists who recorded songs about U.S. 61 were Mississippians Sunnyland Slim, James Son Thomas, David Honeyboy Edwards, Big Joe Williams, Joe McCoy, Charlie Musslewhite, Johnny Young, Eddie Burns, Blind Mississippi Morris, and Mississippi Fred McDowell.

The Cotton Pickin' Blues

Here comes another Mississippi Blues Trail Marker Ceremony: Friday, May 9, 2008 at 1pm at the Hopson Plantation in Clarksdale to note The Cotton Pickin' Blues.

Blues Marker for Hubert Sumlin

Greenwood will be the site of a new Mississippi Blues Trail marker honoring Hubert Sumlin. The marker will be unveiled Tuesday, May 6, 2008 at 2pm.

Juke Joints on ABC News

Ron Brown at Mississippi Public Broadcasting shared this piece from ABC News on juke joints and blues in Merigold, Mississippi. Thanks Ron!

Speaking of Ron, here are a couple of great pieces he did for MPB.

Mississippi Born Blues - Sonny Boy Williamson II is one of Mississippi's enduring blues legends. And as MPB's Ron Brown reports, more than a few people are determined to keep his legacy alive.

Natchez Bluff Blues Festival - The 13th annual Natchez Bluff Blues Festival gets underway this weekend. And has MPB’s Ron Brown reports, it begins with a nod to an historic tragedy that blues artists have been singing about for the past 68-years.

Blues Trail: Pinetop Perkins

The Mississippi Blues Trail hosts its next marker ceremony at noon on Saturday, May 3, 2008 in Belzoni to honor Pinetop Perkins.

Pickering Promotes Blues in DC

Roll Call reports on a project by Mississippi Congressman Chip Pickering to promote the blues in our nation's capital. Pickering has been a cosponsor of this program for the past few years.

Festival Builds Appreciation for the Blues
April 10, 2008
By Torey Van Oot,
Roll Call Staff

George Higgs has been singing about growing up in a “slow town with a fast name” since he first picked up a guitar and harmonica at age 11.

“I’m telling my life experience through the old blues — the things that I went through and I sang about them. Had some good times and had some hard times, but it’s enjoyable, and I’m telling my story through the song,” said the 78-year-old musician, who was born and raised in Speed, N.C.

But playing the blues doesn’t always pay the bills. That’s where the Music Maker Relief Foundation comes in.

The foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides grant money to traditional blues musicians in need of financial assistance, is being honored by blues legends, lawmakers and music afficionados at the Fifth Annual Congressional Blues Festival on April 23.

The festival, which features headliners Robert Cray and Elvin Bishop as well as traditional blues artists sponsored by Music Maker, is meant to “shine the light on American music’s true beginnings, blues and roots,” founder Ryan Costello said.

Costello first organized the event in 2004 after the political consulting firm he worked for became involved with the North Carolina-based foundation.

“I may be a little bit ashamed to say I’m not as much a blues connoisseur as people might think I would be,” he said. “Really I’m just a music lover and recognize [blues is] where all forms of music come from ... I wanted to honor that.”

What started out as a concert on the balcony of Costello’s Capitol Hill office building has grown to a daylong event featuring nonstop performances on three stages at the Kennedy Center.

Support for the festival has grown as well; it is now sponsored by a 66-member bipartisan Congressional Host Committee.

Host Committee Co-Chairman Chip Pickering (R), whose home state of Mississippi is considered one of the birthplaces of the blues, said he hopes the festival provides awareness of the influence the genre has had on American music.

“The blues provides a musical and lyrical testimony to enduring and overcoming struggles,” he said. “Rich or poor, Southern or Northern, regardless of race or religion, we can enjoy the blues and let it speak to our hearts and move our feet to dance.”

The festival has raised more than $600,000 since its inception to help struggling blues musicians pay for basic necessities such as food, lodging and health care. The foundation also helps artists book performances and record their music.

“When you take an artist who is playing for free on the street, and suddenly they are selling out venues in Europe and fans are buying their CDs, you have given them the chance to make their own way,” Pickering said. “This isn’t only a blessing to the artist, because the world and music consumers are also wealthier for the exposure.”

In the end, blues lovers say they hope the festival and Music Maker’s efforts help keep the tradition alive for generations to come.

“It ain’t like it used to. It’s dying slowly, but we try to keep it alive,” Higgs said. “I’ll play as long as I can — I like this old blues. I hate to see it die.”

The Fifth Annual Congressional Blues Festival will be April 23 at the Kennedy Center. For more information or to enter a lottery for free tickets to the performances, visit congressionalbluesfestival.org. The last drawing will be Monday.

Rhythm Club in Natchez

On Friday, April 18, 2008 at 5:30 PM, the Mississippi Blues Commission will unveil a Mississippi Blues Trail marker in downtown Natchez in remembrance of the Rhythm Club. The ceremony will take place at the NAPAC Museum located at 301 Main Street and will kick off the 13th Annual Natchez Blues Bluff Festival.

Eddy ‘The Chief’ Clearwater

Macon native Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater takes the stage in Clearwater, New Jersey on Saturday, April 12.

During the 1950s, Chicago’s West Side was a breeding ground for some of the world’s greatest bluesmen: Magic Sam, Otis Rush, Freddie King and others. With his fierce guitar playing, soulful and emotive vocals and wild stage shows, Clearwater is now part of that list.

Indeed, between his slashing left-handed guitar work, his room-filling vocals, his self-defined “rock-a-blues” style (a forceful mix of blues, rock, rockabilly, country and gospel), his boundless energy and even his signature Indian headdress, Clearwater is among the practitioners of the West Side blues working today.

The blues world recognized his talent by giving him the Blues Music Award for Contemporary Blues - Male Artist of the Year in 2001.

Born Edward Harrington in Macon, Mississippi, Clearwater and his family moved to Birmingham, Alabama in 1948. With music from blues to gospel to country and western surrounding him from an early age, Clearwater taught himself to play guitar (left-handed and upside down), and began performing with various gospel groups, including the Five Blind Boys of Alabama. He moved to Chicago in 1950 and his first music jobs were with gospel groups playing in local churches. By 1953, as Guitar Eddy, he was making a strong name for himself, working the South and West Side bars regularly. He recorded his first single, “Hill Billy Blues,” in 1958.

(Read the Full Story Here)

ABC this Sunday

Sunday, April 6, 2008 at 7:00 AM, Good Morning America (ABC) will highlight Mississippi Blues and Juke Joints.

Milt Hinton Legacy Performance

As part of Jazz Appreciation Month, Riverwalk Jazz presents a legacy broadcastof bassist Milt Hinton in a 1991 performance with The Jim Cullum Jazz Band live on stage at The Landing. Milt was 81. Two excerpts and the full one hour show are available at this PublicBroadcasting.net page.

In addition to the music, the page tells about the life of Milt Hinton:

Jazz bass legend Milt Hinton used to say, "A person has to have lived to play great jazz...Unless you've lived, what could you say on your instrument?" Well, Milt Hinton had plenty to say in his thousands of recordings, with his lively storytelling and in some 60,000 'black and white' photographs of his fellow musicians shot behind the scenes.

Milt Hinton is widely regarded as The Dean of jazz bassists. He was the master of the "slap" bass technique that originated in New Orleans with Bill Johnson (born in 1872,) a man Milt knew during his early Chicago days. Jazz historian Richard Hadlock described Milt's slapping as "...a living link with the New Orleans bass style."

Hinton's career spanned more than 6 decades. Born in 1910 in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Milt began playing in Chicago and got his first break in 1931 playing and recording for Victor with Eddie South, billed as the "dark angel of the violin." In 1936, Milt joined Cab Calloway and stayed with him until 1951. Famous as the most sought-after recording "session man" of the New York studio scene in the 1950s and '60s, Milt still holds the record as the most-recorded musician in jazz history, having logged more than 6,000 sessions. He performed with Basie, Ellington and Armstrong, and appeared on network television and radio shows, on motion picture sound-tracks, as well as recordings with Harry Belafonte, Tony Bennett, Sam Cooke, Sammy Davis, Jr., Bette Midler, Frank Sinatra, Barbara Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Quincy Jones, and many more. Milt Hinton died December 19, 2000 in New York City.

(Read the Full Story Here)

Blues Marker for Greenwood Elks Lodge

The Elks Lodge in Greenwood will be recognized with a Mississippi Blues Marker on March 28: "The Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks of the World (IBPOEW) was formed in 1898 in Cincinnati by blacks who were excluded from the “white” Elks organization, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE). By 1899, 12 lodges of the IBPOEW, which became commonly known as the “black Elks,” were established in eight states, including Mississippi. In 1902, a female auxiliary group, the Daughters of the IBPOEW was founded. The chapter in Greenwood was established in 1925, and property at this location was purchased for the establishment of a lodge in 1927. From the 1940s through the 1970s, the hall in Greenwood hosted artists including BB King, T-Bone Walker, Ike & Tina Turner, James Brown, Percy Mayfield, “Little” Junior Parker, Roy Brown and others." (Read The Full Story Here)

BB King Buys Club Ebony

B.B. King has purchased the juke joint Club Ebony in his hometown of Indianola from Mary Shepard who has owned it the past three decades. Shepard is ready to retire and her last day at the club is April 6. A Mississippi Delta Blues Trail Marker outside Club Ebony says several musical icons have played there since 1945 besides King including Count Basie, Ray Charles, James Brown, and Ike Turner.

Lula

Jackson Clarion Ledger: "LULA — Blues legends like Charley Patton and Sam Carr trace their roots to the tiny town of Lula in the Mississippi Delta. Patton, who immortalized Lula in some of his lyrics, his wife Bertha Lee, and Carr are just three of the artists to be honored today when Lula gets a Mississippi Blues Trail Marker. Another marker will be unveiled in Tunica the same day in honor of another Blues giant, James Cotton. Besides Carr and Patton, the Lula area in Coahoma County claims legendary performers like Son House and Frank Frost. Singer-songwriter John Mohead is also from Lula. The marker will be located near city hall at the corner of Front and Second Street. Also today, Tunica will get a Blues Trail Marker honoring Cotton, who is scheduled to perform at the event. The marker for Cotton will be placed at the intersection of U.S. Highway 61 and Bonnie Blue Road, just west of his birthplace." (Read the Full Story Here)

RIP - David Lee Durham

Delta Democrat Times: "The Delta blues community has lost another of its favorite sons. David Lee Durham, 64, will be laid to rest Saturday during a service at Gentry High School in Indianola. The self-taught guitarist died on Jan. 24 at South Sunflower County Hospital. Durham, who played a trademark white guitar with patriotic stars and stripes, was longtime leader of the Ladies Choice Band. In 2004, the group won the Delta's Regional Blues Challenge. That same year, the Mississippi Delta Blues Society of Indianola named Durham 'Blues Musician of the Year.' While we Deltans love the blues, and we love to share the history behind it, we're reminded of the harsh reality of the life of a local blues musician when someone like Durham passes - without sufficient means to cover funeral and burial costs. One postive of this is that fellow blues musicians, including Mickey Rogers of Greenville, joined forces Wednesday night for a benefit at Indianola's Club Ebony, with proceeds to cover those costs."

RIP - Jessie White

Detroit Free Press: "Jessie White, a popular figure who brought his Mississippi-bred stylings to the Motor City half a century ago, died Tuesday from complications after a heart attack....He was 87. Musicians from the city's blues and rock scene were scheduled to gather at a Detroit bar Thursday night for an informal music memorial to White, and friends are hoping to have a proper tribute concert by the spring. In recent years, the pianist-vocalist known as Uncle Jessie had been a fixture at the Attic Bar in Hamtramck. There he played regular gigs with a group of younger musicians, performing sets of blues standards and his own gritty material. Born in Mississippi, White moved to Detroit in 1950, finding work in the junk business. His house on 29th Street became a popular gathering spot for hometown and touring blues musicians, home to whiskey-fueled jam sessions that became the stuff of local lore." (Read More Here)

Pinetop Perkins

Pinetop Perkins: 94 years old and still pounding the piano (Citizen Times, North Carolina): "Pinetop Perkins has been playing the blues so long that when he started, radio was still a newfangled novelty. Maybe the senior star on the blues circuit, Perkins’ career dates to 1927, and yet the musician, who turns 95 in July, continues to tour....Born Joe Willie Perkins in Belzoni, Miss., Perkins started off playing both guitar and piano...Perkins told The New York Times that he played at chicken fights, where his pay was the dead chicken. His nickname came from the classic blues tune “Pinetop’s Boogie” by Pinetop Smith. He is best-known for a long hitch playing piano with the Muddy Waters Blues Band, 1969-80. Margolin also worked in that group. Perkins and others from the Waters band left to begin their own act." (Read The Full Story)

Milt Hinton

Playing The Changes -- New book about Milt Hinton: "The life story of Milt Hinton is rooted in hard times, rising from segregated backwater clubs to elegant concert halls, offering a perspective on the African American experience that is unique in its mix of humor and wisdom. The publication of Playing The Changes: Milt Hinton's Life in Stories and Photographs (Vanderbilt University Press, January 2008) not only tells Milt's compelling story, in his own inimitable style, but also exquisitely reproduces 260 of his incredible photographs. He began taking pictures in the 1920s and continued documenting the world that he knew, in and away from the spotlight, up to his death in 2000 at age 90....Included with the book is a CD of music and interviews with Milt Hinton, along with a discography and a filmography. This remarkable book reveals as well that Hinton possessed a gift of narrative. Blessed with a storyteller's facility, he leads the reader back to his first memories as a child in Vicksburg, Mississippi....Interweaving photos and prose, the book traces Milt's path from Mississippi to Chicago, where he polished his music through the famous Wendell Phillips High School program and earned money running errands for the Al Capone organization. Committing full time to music, Hinton crossed paths with people who seem cut from a mold that was broken long ago. Many have left vivid marks on history, from the legendary boxer Jack Johnson to the incomparable Cab Calloway, with whose band Hinton traveled for many years." (Read the Full Story)

Blues Trail - Robert Johnson - Hazlehurst

On Thursday, January 31, 2008 at 4:00 PM, MDA Tourism Heritage Trails Program, the Mississippi Blues Commission and the City of Hazlehurst will honor blues legend, Robert Johnson at the historic train depot located at 138 N. Ragsdale Road in downtown Hazlehurst, Mississippi. Claud Johnson (son of Robert Johnson) and his family will be present to receive this honor.

"Robert Johnson's reputation as one of the most prominent Blues pioneers is exceeded only by the myths that surround the origins of his musical career," Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour said. "We don't know if he made a deal with the devil, but one thing is certain: Robert Johnson's innovative sound and soulful Blues rhythm makes him a perfect recipient for this designation of a second Blues Trail Marker in his honor."

Clarion Ledger: "Hazlehurst to unveil Robert Johnson blues trail marker"

WLBT: "Robert Johnson Honored with Blues Trail Marker"