The official site of the Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival, and other blues education and performance programs offered by Centrum, the nonprofit center for the arts located at Fort Worden State Park, in Port Townsend, Washington.
Chuck Berry aficionado Peter O'Neil came out to Port Townsend for the 2010 Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival. The draw for him was faculty member Daryl Davis, who in addition to being an outstanding and complex musician in his own right, also serves as musical director for Berry.
Peter was kind enough to write about his experience, and it is one of the most informative reviews (from a concert-going perspective) we've seen. He talks about Daryl's musical effort to inform the public about the true roots of Rock-n-Roll, Annieville Blues, and also gives a nice tourist snapshot of Port Townsend.
"Aside from great music, what the show gave me was a better sense of who Daryl Davis is: not only a great musician and entertainer, but also an historian and teacher. He teaches the audience where the music comes from, and obviously takes huge pleasure in teaching his craft to the workshop attendees."
We love everything about the Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival, but Blues in the Clubs seems to set the town ablaze with music. On Friday and Saturday night, the artist faculty head to numerous venues in Port Townsend's historic downtown and uptown districts to play sets in all sorts of interesting combinations.
It's jamming at its finest, and an experience you don't want to miss. One cover each night gives you access to an amazing variety of musicians. Sets begin at 9pm, 10pm, and 11pm.
Tickets are available online, or by calling 800-746-1982.You can also get club tickets at the door of each venue while the music is playing. "Will Call" tickets can be picked up at the Upstage.
Visit our Blues in the Clubs page for the complete schedule. Here is a list of the clubs - and please - show them how much you value their participation by purchasing food and beverages:
Saturday afternoon at the Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival is a highlight of summer in Port Townsend. When the sun is out, we open the huge hangar doors of McCurdy Pavilion, letting audience members and music spill out on to Littlefield Green. It's simply a great day of music.
This year, we have an especially fun group of performers doing their best to take you down-home - country blues style.
Tickets for all Blues Festival performances are available online,
or by calling 800-746-1982.Purchase Festival
Packages and Save!Allfest Package: $74/$9; Mainstage
Package:$44/$60.
Saturday, August 7 Down-Home
Country BluesFest McCurdy Pavilion | 1:30 pm |
$18/$24/$33
The Ebony Hillbillies: One of the Last Black String Bands
Steve James: Roots and Blues via Austin, Texas
Nat Reese and Phil Wiggins: West Virginia Songster with Piedmont
Master
The Jerron Paxton Band: Blues Guitar/ Piano Prodigy Joined By a
Host of Festival Friends
Ebony Hillbillies In Southern
states in the 19th century up to the ’20s and ’30s, it wasn’t uncommon
to hear a hoedown coming from a black man’s fiddle. At the time, music
was an interracial affair. White and black musicians seldom played
together, but they did share repertoires and traditions—Cajun waltzes,
Appalachian murder ballads and the blues.
New York’s Ebony
Hillbillies, a string band composed entirely of African Americans,
diversifies the foot-stompin’, fiddle-sawin’ archaic country music
typically dominated by white players. The 19th century string band sound produced
by a core of fiddle, banjo and guitar was a key element in the genesis
of blues music, and seeing black musicians reclaim the sound that was once
theirs is refreshing. They provide a great introduction to a largely forgotten
African American cultural legacy.
Steve James Guitar goniff,
mandolin maven and roots/blues road veteran Steve James is known for his high energy performances and technical virtuosity.Besides his many international tour
dates and critically hailed recordings, Steve is known to fans of "the
real" from his appearances on NPR's Morning Edition, A Prairie Home
Companion and many other syndicated broadcasts; also numerous books,
articles and lessons for Acoustic Guitar and instructional DVDs for
Homespun.
Nat Reese and Phil Wiggins We’re extremely
honored that Nathaniel Hawthorne “Nat” Reese will make his first visit
to Port Townsend this summer. Mr. Reese was born March 4, 1924 in Salem, Virginia
to Thomas Walker Reese and Rosa Sylvester Caroline Wilson Reese. Thomas
was originally from Montgomery, Alabama, and Rosa from Bessemer, Alabama.
The family moved to West
Virginia when Nat was four, and it was in the
coal company towns that Nat was exposed to many itinerant musicians, and
many kinds of music. In 1939, Nat first met and performed with
multi-instrumentalist Howard Armstrong, who was traveling through and
playing the coal camp circuit from his home in Tennessee. The duo was to perform
together with increasing regularity over the next sixty-five years until
Armstrong’s death in 2003.
Nat will be performing with the great Phil Wiggins, who was Centrum's first Artistic Director for Blues.
Jerron Paxton An amazing young musician based out of Los Angeles, Jerron Paxton plays guitar, banjo,
piano, harmonica, and washboard. While there are few young African
American musicians learning country blues in the communities from which
it arose, there is a definite increase in younger black musicians
learning and playing blues in much the same way that young white people
did forty years ago - by listening to recordings and personally
experimenting on their instrument. Jerron
Paxton is a supreme example of this, a young man from Watts with a huge repertoire of prewar blues and
rags, and an uncanny ability to channel the spirit of pre-war guitar and
piano blues music.
Each year, hundreds of blues musicians descend on Fort Worden State
Park, turning the historic facility in to a giant resonating chamber for
acoustic blues music. The Park comes alive, and so does each musician
who makes it happen.
After a week of workshops, we present the
renowned artist/faculty in a series of public performances - in Fort
Worden's WWI-era McCurdy Pavilion, as well as intimate club
performances in Port Townsend's historic downtown district.
Today, we're going to preview the Friday, August 6 evening mainstage performance at McCurdy Pavilion.
Tickets for all Blues Festival performances are available online,
or by calling 800-746-1982.Purchase Festival
Packages and Save!Allfest Package: $74/$9; Mainstage
Package:$44/$60.
Lightnin’ Wells: Blues, Rags and Roots From a Piedmont Master
David Bromberg Quartet: Instrumental Virtuosity Meets
Spontaneous Energy and Humor
Lightnin' Wells Hailing from Fountain, North Carolina, Lightnin' Wells breathes new life into the vintage tunes of the 1920s and depression era
America.
He learned to play harmonica as a young child and taught himself
to play the guitar as he developed a strong interest in traditional
music. He has presented his brand of acoustic blues throughout NC, the United States and Europe, and he is a favorite of workshop participants and Festival audiences, who enjoy his guitar, banjo and uke mastery.
David Bromberg We're excited to welcome David Bromberg back to Port Townsend after almost 20 years! His live shows remain as unique as ever; the give and take between band members
is complete, spontaneous, and totally sincere.
Bromberg started playing guitar at age 13. He heard Pete Seeger and
The Weavers and, through them, Reverend Gary Davis who became his
mentor. He then discovered Big Bill Broonzy, Muddy Waters and the
Chicago blues. His sensitive and versatile approach to
guitar-playing earned him jobs as a backing musician for Tom Paxton,
Jerry Jeff Walker and Rosalie Sorrels, among others. He became a
first-call, hired gun guitarist for recording sessions, ultimately
playing on hundreds of records by artists including Bob Dylan, Link
Wray, The Eagles, Ringo Starr, Willie Nelson, and Carly Simon. Solo success soon followed, receiving a Grammy nomination in 2007 for his solo release Try
Me One More Time.
Folks, we have awarded all of our allocated scholarship money for the 2010 Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Workshop. An enormous thank you to all of our donors who contributed funds to make it possible for those who needed help attending the gathering.
Blues in the Clubs is perhaps the signature experience of the Port
Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival. On Friday and Saturday night, dozens of musicians fan out to numerous venues in Port Townsend's historic
downtown and uptown districts to play sets in all sorts of interesting
combinations.
At last year's Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival, we recorded an interview with Washboard Chaz. Chaz is based in New Orleans, and is one of the only professional washboard players around. 2009 was his first time at Centrum, and he was such a great teacher, we asked him back to be on faculty at the 2010 Festival.
In this interview, Chaz talks about the history of the washboard, the Port Townsend experience, and playing the blues.
Survey of Slide Guitar with Rev. Robert B. Jones This class teaches the basics of playing in a variety of traditional slide guitar styles. The class will showcase slide styles of artists like Son House, Robert Johnson, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Bukka White, Tampa Red and Blind Willie Johnson.
No previous playing slide guitar experience is necessary, however a basic knowledge of blues fingerpicking is helpful. Students should have a steel stringed guitar (conventional or resonator) and to have a slide/bottleneck.
Slide Guitar Tunes and Techniques with Steve James After a brief musical demo and chronology of slide guitar, two open tunings long used by slide guitarists, "Spanish" and "Vastopol" (i.e.: open G and open D), will be explained. Next some ways that harmonies and phrases with blues tonality can be produced by altering the simple three note chord that forms an open tuning will be detailed; also the slide techniques that produce the clear, sustained tones, vibrato, and subtle control of pitch and dynamics. Also important are the way in which the thumb and fingers of the picking hand are used to combine lower and higher pitches to produce melody, harmony and rhythm simultaneously.
During the remaining days of the program playing and listening skills will be further developed by hearing, and learning by practicing a variety of guitar arrangements (along with devices like tapping, harmonics, and slide bouncing). Expect to play plenty of blues, but it may be spiked with some country, gospel and train imitations.
Just bring your guitar. James'll sell you a slide if you haven't got one. The hand-outs are free. Just don't get him started on that Furry Lewis deal. Wanna record? Ask first.
We have a robust ukulele offering this summer - here are daily offerings from Lightnin' Wells and Del Rey:
Blues Ukulele Styles of the Early 20th Century - Del Rey You’ll learn tunes from Hokum groups like The Pebbles in the '20s, New Orleans blues from Lemon Nash, Piedmont ukulele from Rabbit Muse and some guitar sources that work on uke like Papa Charlie Jackson and Charlie Jordon. Music will be taught by ear - no tab, bring your uke and a recorder and notebook.
Mainland Uke - Lightnin’ Wells You’ll learn vintage tunes in the mainland style for the standard (soprano) ukulele. Vintage tunes from the 1920s, when the uke reigned supreme in America, will be explored such as It Ain’t Gonna Rain No Mo’, My Blue Heaven, I’ll See You In My Dreams and Shine On Harvest Moon. You’ll learn how to jam along to some blues tunes on this small but mighty instrument. Copies of many of the songs presented from vintage sheet music from the era with chord diagrams will be available. All songs will be presented in the now widely accepted C tuning for the ukulele G-C-E-A.
Born in Los Angeles, Annieville started playing piano at age 5. She went on to discover boogie woogie and blues piano, and her inspiration to learn more about these styles was sparked by collecting old recordings of legendary pianists, including Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis, Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller, Otis Spann, and Professor Longhair, to name a few.
Thus began Annieville's thirst for knowledge and her continuing passion to play roots blues and boogie woogie music - a thirst we all share at the Festival.
