Blues Moon Radio: Special guest tonight from Folk Fabulous Festival on Blues Moon Radio tonight

We're excited to announce that our special guest on Blues Moon Radio, Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016, is Laura Green. Laura is here to tell us about the University of South Carolina's McKissick Museum and the annual Folk Fabulous Festival Saturday, Sept. 24th from 11-5 p.m.

Craftsmanship and artisanship are key ingredients of the event, which is free on the historic Horseshoe between Bull and College Streets on campus.

But Blues Moon Radio is focused this evening on showcasing the musical acts that will entertain you at the festival, especially the Blues/Roots music of Mill Billy Blues and Drink Small, the Blues Doctor.

Below is a playlist showing the songs we'll draw on during our interview with Laura, who is the cultural and Folk life director for McKissick and the South Carolina Arts Commission. We'll kick off the show with Drink Small, who is also our Word of Mouth Productions' Artist of the Week, and was Blues Moon Radio's Artist of the Year (even the Millennium) last year.

Note: You can click on any image to enlarge it

Drink Small and Clair DeLune

Drink Small started his music career in high school in Bishopville, S.C., in a gospel group, then because of his deep basso profundo vocals, he was recruited to move to Columbia to join the Spiritual Aires, one of the first gospel groups to perform at the Apollo in New York City. Small has toured with greats such as Sam Cooke, Sister Rosetta Tharpe (as a duo), and countless spiritual groups.

Small, who never aspired to be a farmer, although he grew up on a small farm, attended barber college, but left the trade to pursue music full-time, and "never looked back."

The music selections chosen for this preview show his very early gospel work, his early solo work, his mid-range (1980s) sound and one of his most recent original songs about Barack Obama's election, which was recorded to express his "joy at living to see an African-American in the White House."

Drink Small's selection as one of the National Endowment for the Arts' Heritage Fellows in 2015 was a capstone honor in a life filled with many awards and accolades.

He has been featured in at least six books, including the Encyclopedia of Blues, and the Encyclopedia of South Carolina Jazz and Blues as well as this radio show host's own history of "South Carolina Blues" on Arcadia Publishing and one more yet to be published by USC Press, in addition to his biography put out by the History Press.

Mill Billy Blues will open the show with their unique brand of Roots music. A supergroup of Carolina musicians, they will make you want to clamor for more. Tonight, we'll treat you to a preview of two of their songs. Featuring two longtime and frequent guests on Blues Moon Radio, Freddie Vanderford on harmonica and Brandon Turner on guitar, they are often joined by respected guitarist Shane Pruitt and other well-known Upcountry SC players on a rotating basis. Vanderford, as well as Small, are each recipients of South Carolina's highest Folk life honors, the Jean Laney Harris award for their careers dedicated to South Carolina music.

The second hour of the show will be part two of Prison Songs, from a "sister" show hosted by a Blues brother, Blues Unlimited's Steve Franz. He'll tour you through some of the distaff side of prison songs, and we'll hear from a few incarcerated fellows, too, of course.

On this last day of summer, we bid adieu temporarily to one of our underwriters, who helped bring you great music all summer - California Republic. But rejoining us for their fabulous fall and spring concert season is the UU Coffeehouse Concert Series - next to appear is Claude Bourbon, a rootsy singer of Americana style songs with a beautiful French twist. He'll be in Columbia at the UU Coffeehouse on October 15th.

Thank you for listening, and be sure to tune in again next week... that show will feature some of the artists coming to the annual Carolina Downhome Blues Festival in Camden, S.C., which is held each year on the first Thursday, Friday and Saturday of October.

Stay bluesy...
Clair DeLune and RockyDawg Blues Defender

As always we thank our underwriters, who help bring great music to the Midlands, because we could not imagine our show without their input and support: Papa Jazz Record Shoppe; the UU Coffeehouse; California Republic Stand Up Paddleboards in Leesville near Lake Murray (closed for the season); and Word of Mouth Productions. You can link to these orgs by clicking on the visuals...