Blues Moon Radio Show - October 5, 2010
Tonight's show is targeted toward letting Blues fans know about the four-day festival in Camden this weekend...
Tonight's show features interviews with several great entertainers, national and local. Sugar Blue, whose harmonica became a part of the fabric of our musical lives in the Rolling Stones' "Miss You" will be on the show, as will South Carolina's own, Jeff Norwood, who will represent us in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis in 2011 - take your National Steel guitar "national," Jeff!
Starting out tonight's show is an interview with musician Danny Riddick, who has served as technical director of the Carolina Downhome Blues Festival (CDHBF) since its inception - he does the same for the Camden and Cheraw Jazz Festivals (the latter is coming up in two weeks, so mark your calendars). He's going to share some behind-the-scenes stories I guarantee will intrigue you to attend the festival if you are not planning to already.
For tonight's playlist we will be hearing from many of the artists who will be playing at the festival...
Interview with Danny Riddick, Technical Director, CDHBF
Interview with Jeff Norwood
Jeff Norwood - Save My Wicked Soul b/w Walking Catfish Blues
Interview with Sugar Blue
Sugar Blue - One More Mile to Go
Drink Small - I Really Don't Wanna Know
New Legacy Duo (Freddie Vanderford and Brandon Turner) - Chickens
NOTE: Freddie Vanderford is the leader of the Shades, who are also playing
Jeff Liberty and Mike Nazarenko - Lightnin' Man
Marv Ward - It Ain't About You
Naz and the Falsehoods (they roared at the Columbia Blues Festival this past weekend!) - That Ain't Right
Wanda Johnson - Just Tell Me
Shrimp City Slim (aka Gary Erwin, booking and talent for CDHBF) - She Got Papers
NOTE: that cut features Charleston based harp-slinger Juke Joint Johnny, who will make a fest appearance.
Lil' Ed and the Blues Imperials - Pride and Joy (Lil' Ed is the nephew of JB Hutto (and the Hawks) of Edgefield, S.C., so we are pleased to welcome him for one show only Thursday night.
Price breaks for weekend passes end Thursday... I suggest you get a weekend pass - even if you don't use it each night, it supports great Blues in our region and amounts to about 75 cents per act. Really! Amazing, huh? Hope to see you all there!
For more information, the Kershaw County Current has a large spread on the concert, or click on: www.camden.bluesbash.com.
The article I wrote for the Current about the CDHBF is appended below...
Camden is renowned for horse racing, its role in the Revolutionary War, for the charm and gentility of the Old South, and, during the past decade and a half, for being the home of one of the best music festivals in the country.
South Carolina's Downhome Blues Festival (SCDHBF) will be rollicking and rolling through the streets, pubs and fine dining establishments of Camden from Thursday Oct. 7 through Saturday Oct. 9, bringing with it the best in local, national and international Blues acts.
"South Carolina sure does have a lot of great Blues acts performing there for such a small state," said Mary Roby, of Mary4Music, a leading Internet resource site for Blues music.
The festival’s success can be attributed to several factors: Roadhouse Blues, acoustic Blues, Jazzy Blues offered across a wide array of venues including a theatre show at the Fine Arts Center. Most venues are located within a short jaunt of each other, facilitating quick transfers on foot between acts and locations; a vast assortment of talented players to choose from; and a generous breadth of dates.
The Blues is a truly American art form and is made up of many genres and subgenres of styles, much like the fabrics in a patchwork quilt. It is the very nature of Blues that many talented artists are not household names but should be. What makes this festival unique is the broad span of talented artists who comprise the fabric of South Carolina's Downhome Blues Festival. The festival features artists who have influenced nearly every type of music heard today as well as younger players who are working diligently to help carry on the Blues.
In previous years, attendees enjoyed gourmet fare while listening to Statesville’s Matt Walsh, whose gravelly voice puts a picture of the late great Howlin' Wolf in one’s mind. Columbia's world-class talent performed as well: Perennial favorite, South Carolina's own "Blues Doctor," Drink Small growled out tunes, while around the corner Mike Nazarenko and Jeff Liberty provided fans a treat with their coffee and dessert and Congaree belted out throaty acoustic Blues with a harmonica chaser on the down the block.
Memories from the SCDHBF last long after the performances are over and the artists have gone. Perhaps the most poignant performance of the past 15 years was the last time Carolina’s own Blues Shouter, Nappy Brown, performed at the SCDHBF. Despite failing health, he was in excellent form when he used his deep, gospel-honed baritone voice to belt out his original composition, “Night Time is the Right Time,” which Ray Charles made famous. Before Brown slipped into the infectious rhythms of the song, which had the whole house on their feet, he stood on the large wooden stage jingling the money in his pocket, sweetly crooning, “Ra-a-a-y Charles, you’ve been s-o-o-o good to me!” while beaming the audience his thousand-watt smile.
When asked, as host of the Blues Moon Radio Show, which acts not to miss, it is most common to hear me answer: "Don’t miss a thing. Try to see and hear them all." Even if you have never heard of an act, you'll be talking about them for years and years to come. The SCDHBF is truly a compilation of artists you didn’t know you needed to see.
Clair DeLune is a music writer, professor and historian. She has hosted the weekly Blues Moon with Clair DeLune radio show since 1990, which is heard on WUSC-FM and via the Internet. Tuesday is Bluesday - get your Blues licks at 6 p.m.
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