Blues at Centrum

A Medley of Blues Icons by Helah Blumhagen

Seattle artist Helah Blumhagen describes her 8.4ft. long and 3 feet wide mural of historial blues musicians at the 2008 Port Townsend Country Blues Festival.

The following musicians appear in the mural from left to right:

• Blind Lemon Jefferson The king of Texas country blues (1893-1929) "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" and "Black Snake Moan"
• Ma Rainey "Mother of the Blues" (1886-1939) Key songs: "C.C. Rider" and "Bo-Weavil Blues"
• Charley Patton Original king of the Delta blues (1887-1934) Key songs: "A Spoonful Blues" and "Pony Blues"
• Mississippi Fred McDowell Straight, natural, acoustic blues (1904-1972) Key songs: "You Got To Move" and "61 Highway"
• Robert Johnson At the crossroads, he made a deal with the devil... (1911-1938) Key songs: "Sweet Home Chicago" and "Crossroads"
• Bessie Smith "The Empress of the Blues" - first major blues and jazz singer on record (1894-1937) Key songs: "Downhearted Blues" and "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out"
• Muddy Waters Chicago post-war electric blues, major rock & roll influence (1915-1983) Key songs: "Mannish Boy" and "I've Got My Mojo Working"
• Jimmy Yancey First boogie-woogie pianist to record an album of solos, never quit his day job as groundskeeper at Chicago's Comiskey Park (1894-1951) "Yancey Special" and "Jimmy's Stuff"
• Lightin' Hopkins Texas country bluesman who bridged the gap between urban and rural styles (1912-1982) Key songs: "Mojo Hand" and "Baby Please Don't Go"
• Mississippi John Hurt Fingerpicking, gospel-tinged blues enjoyed a revival in the 60s folk movement (1893-1966) Key songs: "Avalon Blues" and "Stack O' Lee"
• Howlin' Wolf Chicago's southside juke joint shout blues (1910-1976) Key songs: "Killing Floor" and "Smokestack Lightnin'"
• Tampa Red Slide guitar wizard who rocked the jukes, the streets, vaudeville (1904-1981) Key songs: "Anna Lou Blues" and "Tight Like That"
• Leroy Carr Pre-war, pre-electric urban blues pianist (1905-1935) Key songs: "How Long, How Long" and "Blues Before Sunrise"

If you are inspired to contribute to this post, please put links to Key Songs in comments.

J-Dog Plays The Port Townsend Uptown Pub Inside and Out

After headlining the Saturday afternoon concert at the McCurdy Pavilion, Jerron "J-Dog" Paxton, did an encore performance in front of the Uptown Pub before going inside to do his evening "Blues In The Clubs" set.

2008 YouTube Channel

This YouTube Channel contains videos recorded by a variety of 2008 Port Townsend Country Blues Festival attendees.

Videoblogging 206 Video Guide:
Interviews, Jams, Concerts (4.5+ hours)

1. Interview Phil Wiggens 15:23 - 2003-2008 Artistic Director
2. Interview Ari Eisinger (Part 1) 04:53
3. Interview Ari Eisinger (Part 2) 08:53
4. Interview Ari Eisinger (Part 3) 07:55 - College drop-out, Xeroxer, C++ Programmer, Teacher
5. Interview Ari Eisinger (Part 4) 03:30
6. Interview Reverend Robert Jones Sr (Part 1) 08:36
7. Interview Reverend Robert Jones Sr (Part 2) 07:42 - First songs and buying a National Guitar
8. Interview Reverend Robert Jones Sr (Part 3) 09:49
9. Interview Reverend Robert Jones Sr (Part 4) 06:56 - What is the blues? Where is the mecca of blues?
10. Interview Reverend Robert Jones Sr (Part 5) 05:57
11. Interview Reverend Robert Jones Sr (Part 6) 09:02
12. Interview Reverend Robert Jones Sr (Part 7) 07:46 - 08Blues Fest highlights
13. Interview Rick Franklin (Part 1) 08:37
14. Interview Rick Franklin (Part 2) 07:07 National Guitar Tricone explained
15. Interview Jerron Paxton Medley 08:31 - Singing Interview
16. Interview Rev. John Wilkins (Part 1) 07:56 -
17. Interview Terry "Harmonica" Bean (Part 1) 08:18
18. Interview Jay Summerour (Part 1) 09:05
19. Interview Shirley Smith, Gospel Choir 15:39
20. Interview Roy Brown WA Blues Society 05:48
21. Blues In The Clubs Reverend Robert Jones Sr 08:50
22. Blues In The Clubs Jerron "J-Dog" Paxton Plays The Uptown Pub 05:25
23. Blues In The Clubs Rick Franklin Plays The Public House 02:46
24. Participants' Concert JT Moor 04:22
25. Participants' Concert - Jerronettes 05:45
26. Participants' Phil Wiggens and Zoë Carpenter Concert 03:02
27. Participants' Concert Shirley Smith Gospel Choir 04:30
28. Student Mary Hilts 03:51
29. Student Tanner Wells 05:21
30. McCurdy Pavilion Friday Night Performances 05:33
31. McCurdy Pavilion Saturday Afternoon Performances 14:02
32. Jam Rev. John Wilkins 204 Sing-a-Long 05:37
33. Jam 204 Jerron Paxton 07:12
34. Jam 204 Tuesday 09:32
35. Jam 210 Jerron Paxton, Jay Summerour, Warner Williams 02:26
36. Jam 204 Monday 09:13
37. Historial Blues Musicians Mural 04:12 - A Medley of Blues Icons by Helah Blumhagen

Interview with Rick Franklin

Rick Franklin demonstrates the Piedmont blues finger picking style he taught in his class.

Rick explains the internal speaker system of his National Reso-Phonic Tricone Guitar.

Interview with Shirley Smith, Gospel Choir

PT Blues: Interview Shirley Smith, Gospel Choir

Guitar student Tanner Wells sits down with Gospel Choir teacher Shirley Smith in the upstairs hallway of building 204.

Interview: Reverend Robert Jones Sr

An interview with Reverend Robert Jones Sr. Part 1.

Reverend Jones was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1956. His father was from West Pointe, Mississippi and his mother hailed from Conecuh County, Alabama. Consequently, Robert grew up in Detroit in a very Southern household. Early on, Robert Jones fell under the influence of his maternal grandmother’s record collection. He grew up listening to and loving a wide variety of music, especially the blues.

Part 2

Part 3

LIVE Call-in On-Line Talk Radio Show Saturday

A LIVE call-in radio show is scheduled for participants to talk about the 2008 Festival--how it went, what the highlights were, etc.

The online show will start THIS SATURDAY (the 9th) at 11am (PST). You can listen to the show on this blog.

• To call into the show via phone: 206/420-6219 ShowID: 254183.
• To participate in the live chat session, a free account on nowlive.com is required.
• To get a local phone number to call into the show, participate in a webcam chat and access the show go here
• If you want to call into the show via Google Talk, instructions are available here

The Goodness That Is Weenie Campbell

So...you just attended the 2008 Port Townsend Country Blues Festival...you're stoked. You want to learn more.

or...

You wanted to attend the workshops but couldn't.

Over the next few days, we'll be asking folks to share their experiences, both on a radio call-in show, and on-line through Flickr, Myspace, Facebook, and the like.

However, if you are not already a member of www.weeniecampbell.com, you really need to be. It simply is the source for all things Country Blues. In the over-hyped world of 'online communities' this is the real deal. Good people giving good information with good humor.

Get over there and be a Weenie, won't you?

The Jerronettes

Jerron Paxton plays piano as Zoë Carpenter, Pilar McCracken, Martha Wiggins, and Miriam McCracken belt out "Hit The Road Jack" during the Participants' Concert Thursday night.

Phil Wiggins Performs At The Participants' Concert

Singer Zoë Carpenter performed with Phil Wiggins at the participants' concert Thursday night.

Shirley Smith, Gospel Choir Participants' Concert

Shirley Smith, Gospel Choir, performs with her students.

Mary Hilts, Piano Student

Mary Hilts, piano/singing student, talks about her blues workshop experiences.

Tanner Wells Guitar Student

Tanner Wells, guitar student, talks about his classes at the Port Townsend Country Blues Festival

Interview with Wanda Jackson

Grammy-nominated Wanda Jackson , “The First Lady of Rock”, talks about how her career in Rock-n-Roll started, plays one of the first songs she learned and explains how her pink guitar was designed with woman in mind.

Tonight---Tuesday, August 5, 2008. at 8pm--Wanda will perform with Roots of Rock workshop faculty members in a Rockabilly Dance. Tickets are $15 (18 & under; free.

Daryl Davis: The Man Behind "Roots of Rock"

Post by guest author Rebecca Agiewich.

Pianist Daryl Davis, organizer of the Roots of Rock workshop, has spent most of his life steeped in rock and roll. Though he started playing music at the relatively late age of 17, he made up for lost time by majoring in music at Howard University and then meeting his musical idols one by one and learning directly from them.

He loved the music of rock pioneers like Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, and Jerry Lee Lewis and dug deep into the music of his idols. “When I got into somebody – I wanted to know -- Where do they come from? Where did they get their ideas? Then I found out who THEY listened to. And whenever I could, I met those people and became friends with them.”

Great musicians like Pinetop Perkins (Muddy Waters’ piano player) and Johnnie Johnson (Chuck Berry’s piano player) would come over to Davis’s house when they came through town and show him things on the piano. 

• See Daryl Davis, along with the Queen of Rock-n-Roll, Wanda Jackson on Tuesday night, August 5, 2008,  at 8pm at the Wanda Jackson Rockabilly Dance. Get your tickets online.

“I got hands-on training from that generation of musicians – that’s part of what I bring to the table,” says Davis. “Those were my mentors.”  His training paid off -- now the Grammy-winning Davis himself plays often with Chuck Berry. (Check out the videos of Davis playing with Berry on Davis’ Web site.)

Davis also has a deep understanding of the racial and cultural issues that surrounded the birth of rock and roll, and he’ll be talking about those at the Roots of Rock workshop, as well as teaching students to how to play boogie-woogie and rockabilly beats on the piano.

“In the 50s, rock music did something that no other form of music had done before – it caused white kids and black kids to jump out of their seats when they heard that new beat, knock down the ropes that were supposed to keep them segregated, and dance in the aisles together.”

Davis, who also wrote about race relations in his book Klan-Destine Relationships, is full of fascinating knowledge about the birth of rock and roll and how it helped to bridge the racial divide. Participants who are here with Davis—besides learning how to ROCK-- are sure to come away with a much deeper historical understanding and appreciation of the music they play.

Saturday Afternoon Show McCurdy Pavilion Performances

2008 Port Townsend Country Blues Festival Performances

This performance clip is from the Saturday, August 2, 2008 1:30pm show, which featured:Rick Franklin, Rev John Wilkins, Mike Dowling, Jerron "J-Dog" Paxton, Ari Eisinger, Rev Robert Jones, Cephas and Wiggins, Arthur Migliazza, and Daryl Davis.

Watch Video on Facebook

Friday Blues Dance

The Friday night performance at McCurdy Pavilion featured: Del Rey, Craig Flory, Phil Wiggens, Lightnin' Wells, Daryl Davis and Terry "Harmonica" Bean.

2008 Blues Performance Guide: Saturday Evening, 8/2

Yesterday, we blogged about the Saturday, August 2 afternoon show. As we wrap up our Blues Performance Guide Series, I'm going to be writing about our Saturday evening show, which starts at 7:30pm in McCurdy Pavilion, the Fort's WWI-era balloon hangar.

Saturday night is our "Women in Blues & Gospel" show. There are still good seats available, and you can purchase tickets online. Tickets for Saturday evening are $16 and remember--if you're 18 and under, your seat is free!

Here's who is playing on Saturday night...

Suzy Thompson is a Festival favorite, and specializes in oldtime fiddle rags and blues songs. She is a dynamite singer, and is a virtuoso on the blues fiddle. She'll be joined by some special friends during this set, but we're going to keep them a secret until showtime!

Resa Gibbs, the primary vocalist with M.S.G., is from Virginia Beach, Virginia. She is known for her silky, soulful and heartfelt sound. Resa sang background vocals on Gaye Adegbalola’s CD Bitter Sweet Blues, and is a featured vocalist with the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation..

Alison Radcliffe has been singing all of her life. She says, "Music is the embodiment of truth and spirituals are the embodiment of music." Alison graced our stage last year for just a brief moment, but absolutely blew the audience away. We knew we had to have her back, and she'll be performing with her partner Allen Holmes.

Eleanor Ellis is known for her tough Piedmont style picking and her  honest singing. According to one reviewer, "More than copying one artist or another, Ellis distills the elements of the originals and transmits them, intact, in her own expressive way.” We're thrilled to have her with us in Port Townsend.

Shirley Smith has shared the stage with many of gospel music’s most prolific artists, such as Cece Winans, Vickie Winans, Yolanda Adams, Mark Kibble, Bruce Allen, and Fred Hammond. She is currently the Minister of Music at The Potter’s House Christian Fellowship in Jacksonville, Florida. Shirley will be leading the Shirley Smith Gospel Choir.

Purchase tickets online.

After the mainstage show ends, join us downtown and uptown Port Townsend for Blues in the Clubs. $15 provides admission to all clubs, where you'll hear the likes of the Gallus Brothers, Cooke & Taborn, the Rev. Robert Jones, J-Dog Paxton, and many many more. Get the complete list at our performance page.

Interview with Phil Wiggins

Click To Play

Phil Wiggins shares his thoughts about retiring as Centrum's Artistic Director for Blues. At the end of the interview, Phils holds court at the Thursday 3:30 204 jam session. Watch Video on Facebook.

Rev. John Wilkins Sing-a-Long Jam

On Wednesday night, Rev. John Wilkins lead a sing-a-long jam to the tune of "This Little Light of Mine" in the 204 lounge.