Blues at Centrum

The Music of Louisiana Red

The current blues scene in the U.S. and Europe is characterized by a wide variety of styles and musicians. However, as the years go passing by there are fewer and fewer artists left that were active during the formative years of blues music, those who participated in the development of the music.

Thus, it is all the more important and cause for celebration that there are still artists such as Louisiana Red.

Louisiana Red not only plays the blues, he lives it through his guitar and his singing. When Red performs, the songs are often only a launching pad for expressing his immediate feelings in the almost lost tradition of spontaneous composition that goes back to the original Delta Blues artists an even further to the west-African griot bards.

In a career spanning over half a century, Louisiana Red has played with just about every major bluesman you can name, some of the most memorable encounters being his jams with B.B.King and Muddy Waters. But it doesn’t matter who he plays with or where he appears - Louisiana Red brings the same intensitiy and enthusiasm to every stage he appears on, whether in front of 10,000 people at a festival or 100 people in an intimate club.

Corey Harris Named New Blues Artistic Director

“The blues is the blueprint,” says blues and reggae musician Corey Harris, who will take over as the Artistic Director of the Port Townsend Country Blues Festival in 2009. “You can go from that blueprint  and build whatever house you want," Harris says. "That’s something that we as black Americans have given to the world: the concept of the blues. But at the same time, I'm of a different generation. I didn't ever have to go to the back of a bus. If I was out on the road, I wouldn't have to camp in my car because they wouldn't let black people in the hotel. So I'm trying to represent what my tradition is, and then represent my individual self in the contemporary moment."

Follow this link to hear a sample of Harris's music.

“Corey is in a perfect position to continue the tradition of the blues at the Port Townsend Country Blues Festival,” says outgoing Artistic Director Phil Wiggins, who will continue in his role through the 2008 season.

“He has such a strong connection to the blues, and is able to move freely between the root music of all the different countries that make up the African diaspora.”

The Port Townsend Country Blues Festival is known nationally as a week-long, total-immersion experience that passes down the skills, sounds, stories, laughter, and pain of the authentic bearers of the acoustic country blues tradition. Nights feature intimate faculty-led house parties and night-long jamming, dancing, and special events. The Festival culminates on Friday and Saturday with mainstage and club performances at Fort Worden and in the venues of downtown Port Townsend.

Harris currently resides in Charlottesville, Virginia. He polished up his blues-playing while living in Cameroon, studying Pidgin English on a Watson Fellowship. He burst onto the United States scene in 1995 with his debut recording, Between Midnight and Day, an exploration of rural blues styles. At the time, however, few really grasped the scope and range of Harris' musical persona.

After street-busking and taking small gigs near his home outside New Orleans, it quickly became clear that he couldn’t be pigeonholed as simply a blues musician. He'd grown up listening to gospel, funk, Motown, jazz, reggae and R&B, and by the time he moved to New Orleans, he was well on his way to becoming a connoisseur of African music, as well.

His CDs include Between Midnight and Day, Fish Ain't Bitin' , Greens from the Garden, Vu-Du Menz, Downhome Sophisticate, Mississippi to Mali, Daily Bread, and 2007’s Zion Crossroads.

Back Porch Jamming with Robert Belfour

[Robert Belfour playing guitar on the porch of Fort Worden's Building 204]

Robert Belfour at the Port Townsend Country Blues Festival, August 2007. Dates for the just-announced 2008 Festival are July 27 through August 3. 

Eric Freeman Playing the Piedmont Blues at Centrum

[Eric Freeman playing guitar at a Centrum Country Blues workshop]

Eric Freeman is a young Piedmont guitar player who learned directly from John Jackson. He's developed his own high-energy style and knows, teaches, and performs a great repertoire of authentic Piedmont tunes. He'll be bringing his distinctive flair and feel for the blues to the Port Townsend Country Blues Festival July 29-August 5, jamming, leading workshops, and giving mainstage and club performances.

He gives a mainstage performance at Fort Worden's McCurdy Pavilion on Saturday, August 4, at 1:30 pm and club performances on both Friday, August 3 and Saturday, August 4 on downtown Port Townsend's historic waterfront. Tickets are available by calling Centrum at 360.385.3102, x127 and online at our secure Acteva site.

I'm Not Hungry But I Like to Eat: Chicago Musical Treasure Erwin Helfer

In his early twenties, Erwin Helfer broke racial barrers by moving from Chicago to New Orleans to live in a black neighborhood. This was in the nineteen-fifties, when crossing racial lines could land you in jail, or worse.

While in New Orleans, Erwin studied with Professor Longhair and Tuts Washington, worked with trumpeter Punch Miller, and recorded with Peg Leg Willie and Big Joe Williams.

When he moved back to Chicago, he became an integral part of the city’s blues culture throughout the nineteen-sixties and seventies. He was the accompanist for Mama Yancey—the wife of Chicago blues piano patriarch Jimmy “Papa” Yancey—and released piano duet albums with Jimmy Walker.

Erwin performs regularly at Chicago clubs and annually at the Chicago Blues Festival. His local gigs and frequent European tours have created a strong and loyal following in Chicago and overseas.

He has also performed multiple times in Asia, and the list of all the musicians he’s performed and recorded with is a Who’s Who of blues.

Now seventy, Erwin is a veteran Chicago pianist, who can pound out a down-to-earth boogie and low-down twelve-bar grind or take his audience to the swinging urban elegance of a concert hall. His albums include St. James Infirmary, 8 Hands On 88 Keys, 2003’s I’m Not Hungry But I Like to Eat, (which was nominated for a W.C. Handy Award), and Careless Love.

To hear an NPR story on Erwin Helfer's music and listen to samples of Erwin’s piano playing, follow this link. 

Erwin Helfer will be in residence at the 2007 Port Townsend Country Blues Festival, teaching, jamming, and passing on the stories and the traditions of the blues. On Saturday, August 4, at 1:30 pm, he gives a mainstage performance at McCurdy Pavilion, along with such other blues legends as Robert “Wolfman” Belfour, Paul Rishell and Annie Raines, and the griot stylings of Cheick Hamala Diabaté.

Erwin also plays sets in the intimate clubs of Port Townsend both August 3 and 4, at Lanza’s. Tickets are available by calling Centrum at 360.385.3102, x117 and online at our secure Acteva site. 

From Baseball to the Blues: Terry "Harmonica" Bean

Terry "Harmonica" Bean has decades of experience with the blues. A lifelong resident of Pontotoc, Bean first heard the downhome blues at home. His father, Eddie Bean, sang and played blues guitar and prior to Terry’s birth traveled with an electric blues band. Listen to the music of Terry “Harmonica” Bean: "Rockin' in the Dirty South," "How Many More Yesrs" and "Why Do Men Go Crazy," here.

Terry Bean was one of fourteen children. His father worked as a sharecropper, and Bean picked cotton in the fields surrounding the family home of "Bean Hill."

Terry began playing guitar and harmonica as a child, and eventually his father began featuring him at the home gatherings and taking him along to other house parties. Although Terry was a “natural,” he stopped playing around the time he was twelve because several of his brothers were jealous of the attention he was receiving. (Today, however, Terry's brother Jimmy plays in Terry’s blues band, while brother Jerry Lee sings gospel as well as lead vocals in the Pontotoc-based Legends of the Blues.)

Giving up the blues for a time, Terry turned his attention to baseball. At various levels of amateur and semi-professional play, Terry pitched five no-hitters and attracted scouts from several professional teams. A professional career in baseball was curtailed, however, due to two automotive accidents.

In 1988, Bean went to see Robert Junior Lockwood at the Delta Blues Festival in Greenville, South Carolina. Bean fell in with the Greenville blues scene. Every weekend for three years he traveled to Greenville to play harmonica with James "T-Model" Ford and Asie Payton at various juke joints. He also played across the Delta with such artists as Lonnie Pitchford.

Bean formed a band and began playing guitar himself after becoming frustrated with teaching others his  ideal sound. Following the lead of Arkansas bluesman John Weston, he started using a harmonica rack and performing as a one-man band, stomping his feet for percussion.

Since 2002 he has released six CDs. “What’s stimulating to me,” Bean says, “is people hearing the blues played like they used to hear it.”

Terry "Harmonica" Bean will be in residence at the 2007 Port Townsend Country Blues Festival, teaching, jamming, and passing on the stories and the traditions. On Saturday, August 4, at 1:30 pm, he'll give a mainstage performance at McCurdy Pavilion. He plays sets in the intimate clubs of Port Townsend both August 3 and 4. Tickets are available by calling Centrum at 360.385.3102, x117 and online at our secure Acteva site. 

Mercurial Son: The Chicago Blues Stylings of Lurrie Bell

The son of blue harmonicist Carey Bell, Lurrie picked up his father's guitar at the age of eight and taught himself how to play. Gifted from an early age, he grew up with many of the Chicago blues legends that were around him, including Eddie Taylor, Big Walter Horton, Lovie Lee, Muddy Waters, and his cousin Eddie Clearwater. They were all frequent visitors to his house and helped to shape and school him in the blues. 

By the age of seventeen, Lurrie was playing onstage with Willie Dixon. His knowledge of different blues styles, his soulfulness, and his musical maturity brought write-ups in Rolling Stone and the New York Times.

Lurrie has performed all over the world, and has toured with Koko Taylor. For Lurrie, it has never been about how many notes he could play or how fast he could play them. It's always been about the music. It's always been about the blues.

Lightnin' Wells will give a mainstage performance at the Port Townsend Country  Blues Festival on Saturday, August 4, at 1:30 pm. On both August 3 and August 4, he will perform in the intimate club venues of downtown Port Townsend. For tickets, call Centrum at 360.385.3102, x117 or follow this link to our secure online Acteva site.

Robert "Wolfman" Belfour

Robert Belfour got his nickname, “Wolfman,” from the deep, husky tones of his vocals. Born and raised in a plank house in the hill country of northern Mississippi, Belfour grew up playing the blues, learning from his father, who was also a blues musician and who taught him how to play.

The region Belfour grew up in has a distinctly different culture than the more famous Mississippi Delta; the blues from northern Mississippi is strong and unique. When free from chores, he learned from such greats as Otha Turner, R.L. Burnside, and Junior Kimbrough. Kimbrough, in particular, had a profound influence on him.

When Belfour was thirteen, his father died, and music was relegated to what little free time he had. His energy went to helping his mother provide for the family. In 1959, he married Noreen Norman and moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he would work in construction for the next thirty-five years.

In the nineteen-eighties, Belfour began playing on Beale Street and in 1994 he had eight songs featured on the compilation CD The Spirit Lives On. This led to his first album, What’s Wrong With You, released in 2000. In 2003, he released Pushin' My Luck. 

Belfour’s guitar playing is mature and highly accomplished; his voice clear and powerful; and the sound pure country blues. Robert Belfour left the hills of northern Mississippi forty years ago—he currently resides in Memphis, Tennessee—but his music never did.

On Saturday, August 4, at 1:30 pm, Robert “Wolfman” Belfour will perform an extended set as part of the Port Townsend Country Blues Festival. Listen to a YouTube clip of Belfour playing “I Done Got Old” here.

Gospel Singing Workshop

The Port Townsend Country Blues Festival's "Gospel Singing" option gives gospel singing tools to participants who want to learn how to sing with joy and passion.

Led by Shirley Smith, the minister of music at the Potter's House Christian Fellowship in Jacksonville, Florida, the workshop meets daily (M-F July 30 - August 3) from 3:30- 5pm. Cost is only $100 and includes free admission to the Saturday afternoon blues mainstage show on August 4, at 1:30pm.

Shirley Smith has shared the stage with many of gospel music's most prolific artists, including Cece and Vicki Winans, Yolanda Adams, Mark Kibble, Bruce Allen, and Fred Hammond. She is renowned for her teaching ability and her authentic connection to the roots of the music.

To register for this workshop, follow this link.

Paul and Annie

Acclaimed blues duo Paul Rishell and Annie Raines will be hanging out at the 2007 Port Townsend Country Blues Festival, teaching, jamming, and telling stories. On Saturday, August 4, at 1:30 pm they'll be playing a full mainstage set at Fort Worden's McCurdy Pavilion.

As Living Blues notes, "Singing guitarist Paul Rishell and his harmonica-blowing partner Annie Raines have fashioned a fine career for themselves through their refreshing rearrangements of vintage blues, mostly of the rural sort."

A teenager during most of the 1960s, Paul started out as a drummer in a surf-rock band. But a friend turned him on to the music of Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and others, and Paul was hooked for life. In the decades since, he has played with Son House, Johnny Shines, Sonny Terry, and Howlin' Wolf.

The blues muse struck Annie during her teenage years as well, which were in the 1980s. While her friends were listening to Pink Floyd, Annie became enthralled by the Muddy Waters and Sony Boy Williamson. She traveled to Chicago to play with Pinetop Perkins, Louis Myers, and James Cotton. About her, Pinetop said: "She plays so good it hurts!"

Together, Paul and Annie have released I Want You to Know and Moving to the Country, as well as their newest release: Goin' Home. In 2000, the duo won the W.C. Handy Award for Acoustic Blues Album of the Year.

The Griot Tradition of Cheick Hamala Diabaté

Cheick Hamala Diabaté is recognized as one of the world's masters of the ngoni, a traditional Malian instrument. A much sought-after performer, lecturer, storyteller, and choreographer throughout Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America, Cheick Hamala is a steward of the 800-year-old tradition of the Griot (the storytellers of West Africa).

In his teaching and his performances, Cheick Hamala shares the oral history, music and song of his culture as it was passed on to him. At an early age, Cheick Hamala mastered the ngoni, a stringed lute and ancestor to the banjo. He learned to play the guitar from his uncle and now plays banjo and several other instruments; but his renown remains with the historical ngoni.

Cheick Hamala works with notable traditional African dance companies based in the United States, serving as instructor, choreographer and performer. His music always the historical integrity of a rich tradition stretching back hundreds of years to the formation of the Great Malian Empire.

Cheick Hamala will be teaching guitar at the Port Townsend Country Blues Festival, July 29 - August 5. On Saturday, August 4, at 1:30 pm, he will perform an extended mainstage set, featuring many traditional Malian instruments and songs. 

I Done Got Old

[Robert Belfour singing "I Done Got Old" onstage]

Belfour will be hanging out at the Port Townsend Country Blues Festival July 29–August 4, teaching, jamming, and telling stories. He's giving a full performance set on August 4, at McCurdy Pavilion.

Jude Taylor: Zydeco Accordion

Jude Taylor is a hidden gem in the zydeco music scene today. A latecomer to the industry, 50 year old Jude Taylor from Grand Coteau, Louisiana has a unique style of zydeco that combines some of the best elements of jazz, blues, Cajun, and rock ‘n' roll into a musical mix that has catapulted him and his Burning Flames band to headliner status along the club circuit in the Northeast and as part of many international and national zydeco tours. 

Originally a blues vocalist, Jude Taylor picked up the piano key accordion in the decade of the eighties having been inspired by the success and followings of artists like Stanley "Buckwheat" Dural, Jr. and the "King of Zydeco," Clifton Chenier. He spent a good time in his early days shadowing these two zydeco legends and working as part of the road crew, singing background vocals and serving as a personal valet. His soulful rhythm and blues style of zydeco was most influenced by the styles of Chenier and Marcel Dugas, and Taylor was clearly able to perfect his sound as he followed these masters through the Louisiana zydeco dance halls of Grand Coteau, St. Martinville, Lafayette and Lawtell. 

Sometimes overshadowed by the wealth and popularity of new young talent emerging on the Cajun-Zydeco scene today, Jude Taylor remains both pragmatic and focused on his art. He once  told Lafayette freelance writer Todd Mouton, "I'm not downing anyone. I'm not out there mumblin' and jumblin' words together - I'm out there to send a message or tell a story." For Jude Taylor and his many fans the message is one of keeping the traditional zydeco-blues fires burning. The gentle-man from Grand Coteau remains most comfortable interpreting the musical sounds of Clifton Chenier,  Boozoo Chavis, B.B. King, Buckwheat, Roy Carrier and perhaps even Beau Jocque. His style of zydeco-blues is remarkably laced with uplifting rhythms that propel his audiences to the dance floor.