Joe & Vicki Price, 2 p.m.
He's been described as "a bit rough and tons of fun"; he's been hammering out the blues for more than 30 years; he's been getting more and more recognition for his talent; and he's going to be in the tent on Sunday.
Joe Price has been attracting the attention of blues fans since his days with the legendary Mother Blues Band. In 2002, he was inducted into the prestigious Iowa Blues Hall of Fame, and just a few weeks ago he was one of the six out of 50 musicians who made it to the finals in the solo/duo segment of the International Blues Challenge. The editors of the National Guitar Catalogue considered him important enough to feature a picture of him playing the National ResoLectric Guitar in their efforts to boost sales of the instrument.
I've been a Joe Price fan since I saw him at the original Mississippi Valley Blues Festival in 1985, and he's one of the few who have played the fest six times. If you add his lovely wife Vicki and her guitar to the show, you know you're really in for a treat!
- Stan Furlong
Eden Brent, 4 p.m.
If you're a fan of the 88-key guitar, you'll want to show up Sunday. When Eden Brent starts pounding the ivories, you'll get a chance to find out why she has a habit of collecting awards the way some guys collect baseball cards.
Eden Brent was born in Greenville, Mississippi, and spent 16 years learning from and playing with the late, great Abie "Boogaloo" Ames. He liked her style so much he started calling her "Little Boogaloo." She gives Ames as much credit for her impressive abilities as the four years of work at the University of North Texas that earned her a bachelor in music degree. "Music school taught me to think, but Boogaloo taught me to boogie-woogie," said the pianist.
The two of them were the subjects of a 1999 blues documentary produced by PBS and, in 2002, another by South African Television. Many blues fans across the pond became Eden Brent fans, and she embarked on successful solo tours through South Africa in 2002 and 2003.
She recently won the solo/duo competition at the International Blues Challenge and before that won the 2005 Mississippi Delta Regional Blues Challenge solo competition. She was inducted in to the Greenville "Blues Walk" and received the Greenville Arts Council Greenville Honors Its Own Artist Award in 2004. Brent got listed on the Mississippi Arts Commission Roster in 1994, and she's also listed with SouthernArtistry.org.
You know she's smart, you know her roots are deep, and you know she's a heckuva piano player. If that's not enough, I give up.
- Stan Furlong
For more information: (http://www.edenbrent.com).
Calvin Cooke, 5:30 p.m.
It's music that's been described as spiritual without being churchy. It's music that is eerily haunting, but still a heckuva lot of fun. It's the music of Calvin Cooke.
Until about a dozen years ago, you had to go to church to hear sacred steel, and even then you had to go to the right one. Black churches, mostly Pentecostal, spawned the genre 65 years ago, and its power grew until the church doors could no longer contain it. Every fan of blues slide guitar that heard this "new" style wanted more. Five years ago, the Campbell Brothers played a set at the festival that people are still talking about.
The country pedal-steel guitarists from Nashville call Calvin Cooke the "B.B. King of sacred steel." His five decades of experience have enabled him to forge a unique take on the genre that, unlike most, includes singing. His influences include not only gospel, but also country, jazz, and even the rock band Yes. Calvin has influenced, among others, Robert Randolph, Eric Clapton, and Carlos Santana.
The master himself can explain his music better than I can. "Gospel and blues aren't too different, you know," said Cooke. "Both are personal. But with blues, whether you're religious or not, you can relate to it. If you went through something difficult or were hurting, then I play with the same feelings you had, people will say, ‘Hey they're talking to me!' I try to play with such a spiritual feeling and try to be so strong with my playing so that people will feel what we're doing, that we meant what we were playing!"
- Stan Furlong
For more information: (http://www.calvincooke.net).
Eric Bibb, 7:30 p.m.
Eric Bibb was born in New York into a musical family. When he was seven, he got his first steel guitar, and by junior high school he was consumed by music. He would skip school often just to stay home and play his guitar. When he was just 16 years old, his father invited him to play guitar in the house band for his TV talent show.
Later in life he moved to Sweden and immersed himself in pre-war blues and continued to write and perform. There was a budding music scene going on before it became a market concept. The album Good Stuff was released in 1997 on Opus 3 and American label Earthbeat! and led to Eric signing to the British Code Blue label. Bibb has gained an international reputation and has toured the UK, the United States, Canada, France, Sweden, and Germany.
In the late '90s Eric joined forces with manager Alan Robinson to form Manhaton Records in Britain. The albums Home to Me (1999), Roadworks (2000), and Painting Signs (2001) followed, as did another Opus 3 release, Just Like Love. In 2005, Eric released his latest album, Ship Called Love, and began a world tour, including a U.S. leg with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers and Robben Ford. Ship Called Love was been nominated for Acoustic Album of the Year in the 2006 Blues Music Awards. Eric's talent for both performing and songwriting has been recognized with a Grammy nomination (for Shakin' a Tailfeather) and four W.C. Handy nominations.
A performance by Eric Bibb is an enriching experience-both musically and spiritually. Purveying a beautifully realized and deftly accomplished soulful and gospel-infused folk-blues, Eric has no problem melding a traditional rootsy American style with a subtle contemporary sensibility. As one critic wrote, "Eric's singing and versatile guitar playing fuse a variety of genres to become a New World Blues."
- From the Web site of Eric Bibb; submitted by Mike Livermore
For more information: (http://www.ericbibb.com).
James Cotton, 9:30 p.m.
"Where Legends Come to Play." Closing the festival's tent stage on Sunday, James Cotton (Cotton to his friends) will take the stage and give credence to that statement. Born July 1, 1935, in Tunica, Mississippi, he was the youngest of eight and grew up in a world of hard work and few opportunities. His mother was the first to introduce the harmonica to young James, and the rest is history. The 15 minutes of King Biscuit Time was where the future would unfold when Cotton first heard Rice Miller (Sonny Boy Williamson II). It didn't take long for him to master Sonny Boy's style and get the "bug" that would take him around the world. His parents died when he was nine, and his uncle would later introduce Cotton to Sonny Boy; from that meeting the two became like father and son.
The list of people that have played with Cotton is impressive, if you just mention people such as Muddy Waters and Hubert Sumlin. Cotton will be receiving the richly deserved RiverRoad Lifetime Achievement Award on Sunday at 7:30 p.m.
- Rick Burris
For more information: (http://www.jamescottonsuperharp.com).
