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.
Thanks to the efforts of some amazing traditional music supporters in Seattle, Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival favorite Lauren Sheehan is in the Library of Congress.
Northwest News Network reporter Tom Banse recently interviewed Lauren about her work, and the work of Dyann and Rick Arthur - the couple that have been working hard to boost the representation of women in the traditional music scene through their "MusicBox Project."
Lauren's reaction to being in the Library Of Congress:
"It's unbelievable ... I am only a little drop in the bucket of oral tradition, but I am a drop in the bucket and wonderful players have passed stuff on to me who have now died. All this being in the Library of Congress is so cool because other people can hear that."
Tickets for the Down-Home Country BluesFest on Saturday, August 6, 1:30 PM are available only in person at the McCurdy Pavilion Box Office on Saturday beginning at 12:30 PM.
Club Passes
Saturday club passes (wristbands) are available at the McCurdy Pavilion Box Office on Saturday from 12:30 PM to 3:30 PM or at any club one hour prior to performance time.
For the 20th year in a row, Centrum is proud to present the “Down-Home Country BluesFest,” an eclectic gathering of traditional blues artists, in concert at McCurdy Pavilion on Saturday, August 6 beginning at 1:30 p.m.
Reserved Seating - $33/$24/$18; Patrons under 18 admitted FREE.
The 2011 lineup features a diverse mix of styles and performances, including guitar/piano prodigy Jerron Paxton, master storyteller and guitarist Guy Davis, and the trance-blues sound of guitarist Otis Taylor. The set also includes the legendary boogie-woogie pianist and Chicago master Erwin Helfer, West Virginia veteran bluesman Nat Reese, and singer/songwriter Pura Fé, slide guitarist and founding member of the internationally renowned a capella group, Ulali.
JERRON PAXTON
Los Angeles-based 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.
GUY DAVIS
Guy Davis is a musician, composer, actor, director, and writer, but most importantly, Guy Davis is a bluesman. Guy has dedicated himself to reviving the traditions of acoustic blues and bringing them to as many ears as possible through the material of the great blues masters, African American stories, and his own original songs, stories and performance pieces. Guy’s passion for this music is rooted in the stories and music of his family. It is his storytelling set in an acoustic blues framework that sets him apart from his contemporaries.
OTIS TAYLOR
With Otis Taylor, it's best to expect the unexpected. While his music, an amalgamation of roots styles in their rawest form, discusses heavyweight issues like murder, homelessness, tyranny, and injustice, his personal style is lighthearted. "I'm good at dark, but I'm not a particularly unhappy person," he says. After playing in several bands and on his own, Otis decided to leave music behind in 1976. After a long hiatus, Taylor returned to music in 1995. During the 2000s, Taylor has released a slew of well-received albums. Otis Taylor's sound is a unique and potent hybrid of Delta-inspired country-blues and traditional folk and mountain music. He is also a self-described practitioner of ‘trance blues’.
ERWIN HELFER
Erwin Helfer is a Chicago boogie woogie innovator and master, who has been forging his own piano music legacy. Born in 1936, Erwin has been playing and performing for over forty years. The sounds and personalities of past boogie woogie and blues pianists have nurtured Erwin's musical growth. His way of playing the piano is timeless with its power and impertinence of youth paired with the expertise and humorous wisdom of age, mellowed and ripened not in barrels but in blues joints, jazz clubs and concert halls in the States, Europe and Asia.
NAT REESE
Nathaniel H. ‘‘Nat’’ Reese was born March 4, 1924, in Salem, Virginia. When he was four, Reese’s family moved to Itmann, Wyoming County, where coal jobs were plentiful. In 1935, the family moved to Princeton where Reese heard a rich musical mix from big-name jazz musicians, local black musicians, and performers on such radio broadcasts as the Grand Ole Opry. He learned to play instruments, including guitar, piano, organ, bass, and string harp.
Reese worked in the coal mines after classes at Genoa High School. For two years, he played jazz and blues on Bill Farmer’s Saturday night show on radio station WHIS Bluefield. He attended Bluefield State College for two years, then left to serve in the U.S. Army during World War II. During and after his college years, he was part of a dance band that played jazz, polkas, and blues throughout the southern coalfields.
His recordings include ‘‘Just a Dream’’ and ‘‘West Virginia Blues by the West Virginia Blues Man.’’ Among his honors are the 1988 John Henry Award and the 1995 Vandalia Award. He was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2009.
PURA FE
Pura Fé plays acoustic lap slide guitar. Her soulful voice and acoustic lap steel carry the ancestral message of the ‘Indigenous World’ and the missing history that unified and separated the blood ties of Black and Indian people of the South. Pura Fé resurrects the Indigenous (Native American) influence on the birth of the Blues.
Pura Fé is a founding member of the internationally renowned a capella trio, Ulali, and is recognized for creating a new genre, bringing Native contemporary music to the forefront of the mainstream music industry.
Thanks to our friends at the Port Townsend Jefferson County Leader, the official program for the 2011 Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival is viewable online.
However, a limited number of general admission tickets will be available on a first-come basis for $25 at the McCurdy Pavilion Box Office, on the campus of Fort Worden State Park, beginning at 10 a.m. on the morning of Wednesday, August 3.
The box office will be open from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m., or until the remaining tickets are sold. These special general admission tickets feature seating to the sides of the pavilion mainstage, and are ONLY available at the pavilion box office beginning Wednesday morning at 10 a.m.
Ann Rabson, who was scheduled to be on piano faculty for the 2011 Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival, has had a recurrence of cancer, and therefore is taking some well-deserved time to heal and won't be joining us in Port Townsend. Our thoughts are with her.
In her place, the fantastic blues and boogie-woogie piano player Arthur Migliazza will teach intermediate and advanced piano to workshop participants. Arthur was born in Hyattsville, Maryland, and began taking classical piano lessons at age nine. He soon found himself under the tutelage of Festival alum Judy Luis-Watson, who introduced him to the soul in blues music. He began listening to blues piano greats such as Otis Spann, Champion Jack Dupree, Jimmy Yancey, Professor Longhair, Jay McShann, Katie Webster, and many more.
Inspired by his immense talent, blues piano luminaries such as Ann Rabson (from Saffire – the Uppity Blues Women), Mr. B, and the great New Orleans keyboard master Henry Butler have all taken Arthur under their collective wing.
In 2005, Arthur was awarded the Tucson Area Music Award for Best Keyboardistand in 2010 he was inducted into the Arizona Blues Hall of Fame. During the past several years, Arthur has been featured on the Cincinnati Blues Fest’s Arches Piano Stage multiple times, and has taught blues piano at Augusta Blues Week in Elkins, WV, and here at Centrum.
In 2009 Arthur released an album of songs with Blues Harmonica player Tom Walbank entitled "Burn Your Bridges. In January 2010 the duo were finalists at the International Blues Challenge held in Memphis, TN. 2010 also saw the release of an EP entitled "Clamdiggers", featuring Arthur on piano and keyboards, Mike Levy on bass and Alejandro Canelos on drums. Arthur currently resides in New York City.
Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival workshop participant Micah Kesselring is making a name for himself at the 2011 International Blues Challenge taking place in Memphis.
Public Radio Station WKNO has a great profile of Micah, who is 17 years old and already in his third IBC. We encourage you to check it out, and listen to the fierce blues this young artist is offering to the world.
We are particularly gratified that Micah talked about the scholarship he received to attend the Port Townsend gathering.
" 'I was awarded scholarship to the Port Townsend Acoustic Blues, and I presented that at the band finals. That was a pretty life-changing achievement,' Kesselring explains. Yes, it was. He met Otis Taylor in Port Townsend, and has since played with Taylor at the prestigious Blues Music Awards in Memphis last year."
We're particularly excited to welcome the legendary Guy Davis, who will be teaching and performing at the Festival. Guy is a musician, composer, actor, director, and writer. But most importantly, Guy Davis is a bluesman. The blues permeates every corner of Davis' creativity.
Guy says, "I have things to say to people; that there's magic in this old wood and steel, that there's magic in a harmonica."
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:
