1967 program for Second Annual Memphis Blues Festival, Overton Park, Memphis, Tennessee
Program for The 2nd Annual Memphis Blues Festival, June 3, 1967, 8pm at the Overton Park band shell. The Festival was produced by The Memphis Country Blues Society. Five festivals were produced between 1966 and 1970.
"THE MEMPHIS COUNTRY BLUES SOCIETY
The Memphis Country Blues Society is dedicated to the promotion and preservation of the Real Memphis Sound, and of the musical forms which have evolved from it.
The Society is a unique force in the Community. It seeks to remind Memphis of its important contributions to American Musical Culture, and makes it possible for Memphians to hear the sounds of their city, in their city.
The staff of the Society includes Bill Barth, Randall Lyon, Nancy Jeffries, Jim Page, Warren Gardner, and Bob Palmer.
--
'The musicians seen here tonight reflect a tradition which goes back over 60 years of Memphis oriented traditional blues. The singers have played in and around the Memphis area for most of their lives, and it can be said their music is truly the spirit and soul of the 'MEMPHIS SOUND'.
Furry Lewis got his first guitar from W.C. Handy, and was one of the first blues men to record in Memphis, where he has lived for most of his 74 years. Furry recently retired, after working as a city street cleaner for over forty years,
Bukka White was born in Aberdeen, Miss., but has lived in Memphis for over thirty years. He was featured at the Memphis Folk Festival last summer, and this fall he will tour Europe, playing his driving, powerful delta blues as part of a large blues show.
Rev. Robert Wilkins has lived in Memphis since 1916, when his family moved from Hernando, Mississippi. He was the first negro to appear on Memphis radio (WHBQ, in 1929) and in the 1930s he stopped playing blues to become a minister. Together with The Maxwell Singers he communicates the feel of genuine old-time gospel music.
Nathan Beauregard is a songster and traditional bluesman. Blind since birth, he played widely around Memphis during the 1920s and '30s. He can play more different ways, and has more variety than most singers.
SPECIAL GUEST ARTIST Joe Callicott was rediscovered last week in Hernando, Miss., and his performance at the Memphis Blues Festival ends a thirty year retirement. Callicott recorded in the 1920s, is an old friend of Rev. Wilkins, and is a brilliant, unique country blues voice.
Bill Barth is a uniquely inventive guitarist in an updated blues idiom, and is responsible for the rediscovery of many of the country blues artists on the program, Singer Nancy Jeffries, a former New Jerseyite who has made Memphis her home, sings both blues and contemporary music, and appears regularly with Barth.
Funky Down-Home and the Electric Blue Watermellon is a band embodying the modern Memphis Rhythm-and-blues sound. Saxophonist Trevor Koehler, who appears with the watermellon and other groups, is a contemporary jazzman who came to Memphis from the west coast via New Orleans."
Ads inside for Ardent Recordings, Inc. at 1457 National, The Bitter Lemon music spot at 2839 Poplar, Levy's Shoes, and Quality Courts Motel by the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge.
1967 program for Second Annual Memphis Blues Festival, Overton Park, Memphis, Tennessee
Program for The 2nd Annual Memphis Blues Festival, June 3, 1967, 8pm at the Overton Park band shell. The Festival was produced by The Memphis Country Blues Society. Five festivals were produced between 1966 and 1970.
"THE MEMPHIS COUNTRY BLUES SOCIETY
The Memphis Country Blues Society is dedicated to the promotion and preservation of the Real Memphis Sound, and of the musical forms which have evolved from it.
The Society is a unique force in the Community. It seeks to remind Memphis of its important contributions to American Musical Culture, and makes it possible for Memphians to hear the sounds of their city, in their city.
The staff of the Society includes Bill Barth, Randall Lyon, Nancy Jeffries, Jim Page, Warren Gardner, and Bob Palmer.
--
'The musicians seen here tonight reflect a tradition which goes back over 60 years of Memphis oriented traditional blues. The singers have played in and around the Memphis area for most of their lives, and it can be said their music is truly the spirit and soul of the 'MEMPHIS SOUND'.
Furry Lewis got his first guitar from W.C. Handy, and was one of the first blues men to record in Memphis, where he has lived for most of his 74 years. Furry recently retired, after working as a city street cleaner for over forty years,
Bukka White was born in Aberdeen, Miss., but has lived in Memphis for over thirty years. He was featured at the Memphis Folk Festival last summer, and this fall he will tour Europe, playing his driving, powerful delta blues as part of a large blues show.
Rev. Robert Wilkins has lived in Memphis since 1916, when his family moved from Hernando, Mississippi. He was the first negro to appear on Memphis radio (WHBQ, in 1929) and in the 1930s he stopped playing blues to become a minister. Together with The Maxwell Singers he communicates the feel of genuine old-time gospel music.
Nathan Beauregard is a songster and traditional bluesman. Blind since birth, he played widely around Memphis during the 1920s and '30s. He can play more different ways, and has more variety than most singers.
SPECIAL GUEST ARTIST Joe Callicott was rediscovered last week in Hernando, Miss., and his performance at the Memphis Blues Festival ends a thirty year retirement. Callicott recorded in the 1920s, is an old friend of Rev. Wilkins, and is a brilliant, unique country blues voice.
Bill Barth is a uniquely inventive guitarist in an updated blues idiom, and is responsible for the rediscovery of many of the country blues artists on the program, Singer Nancy Jeffries, a former New Jerseyite who has made Memphis her home, sings both blues and contemporary music, and appears regularly with Barth.
Funky Down-Home and the Electric Blue Watermellon is a band embodying the modern Memphis Rhythm-and-blues sound. Saxophonist Trevor Koehler, who appears with the watermellon and other groups, is a contemporary jazzman who came to Memphis from the west coast via New Orleans."
Ads inside for Ardent Recordings, Inc. at 1457 National, The Bitter Lemon music spot at 2839 Poplar, Levy's Shoes, and Quality Courts Motel by the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge.