29 Jun 2004

20 Years of Blues-Fest Performers

By No Author
A major milestone is a good occasion to step back and see what's been accomplished. Now in its 20th year, the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival has hosted more than 400 performers on its stages. Here's the complete list, not including this year's lineup.
29 Jun 2004

Master of Many Styles

By Jeff Ignatius
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown will not have the blues when he performs at the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival this weekend and receives the RiverRoad Lifetime Achievement Award. There's too much music in him. He plays guitar, harmonica, violin, mandolin, viola, and drums, and he simply doesn't abide by any musical boundaries, comfortable in the Cajun music of his birthplace and the Texas blues and country styles of his youth, along with jazz and R&B and calypso and pretty much anything else he can get his hands on.
29 Jun 2004

The World's Hippest Praise Group

By Administrator
Interviewing Clarence Fountain is a bit like asking a question of a Magic 8 Ball. The answers are short, glib, and often contradictory. Fountain, the leader and one of the original members of the Blind Boys of Alabama (which was formed in 1939), is feisty, and his responses don't do justice to his music.
29 Jun 2004

New Label, New Attitude, Same Soul

By Jeff Ignatius
W.C. Clark is something of a legend in his native Austin, Texas, having been a key player in the integration of the blues scene, giving a boost to artists such as the fiery guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. But it wasn't until 2002 - after Clark dedicated himself to his music in a new way - that he started to get his due.
29 Jun 2004

Piazza Plays a "Strong, Strong Card"

By Administrator
W.C. Clark is something of a legend in his native Austin, Texas, having been a key player in the integration of the blues scene, giving a boost to artists such as the fiery guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. But it wasn't until 2002 - after Clark dedicated himself to his music in a new way - that he started to get his due.
29 Jun 2004

A Voice That Will Not Be Contained

By Jeff Ignatius
A little time off can do wonders for an artist. Before singer Reneé Austin gave up performing music in 1999, she felt in a bit of a rut, stuck performing blues material that really wasn't her. She had an album, Dancin' with Mr.
29 Jun 2004

Musselwhite Creates a Sanctuary with New Record

By Jeff Ignatius
For Charlie Musselwhite, the blues aren't 12 bars and three chords. "It's the feeling," he said. "You can find the music of lament anywhere." The irony of that statement is that harmonica wizard Musselwhite was at the forefront of the white-blues movement of the 1960s, and - as the All Music Guide notes - he was "especially faithful to the style.
29 Jun 2004

Origins of a Blues Fest

By Todd McGreevy
Editor's note: In 1995, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the first Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, Todd McGreevy traced the history of the event and the organization that plans and runs it. On the occasion of the 20th festival, the Reader is reprinting this condensed version.
29 Jun 2004

The River Cities' Reader's Unofficial Guide to the 2004 Mississippi Valley Blues Festival

By Administrator
For the 20th edition of the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, we've chosen to highlight a wide variety of performers as well as provide some historical perspective on the festival. Our coverage includes two acts who pretty much stick to the blues - Rod Piazza and W.
22 Jun 2004

Grand Excursion Steams into the Quad Cities

By Jeff Ignatius
A glance at the events slated for Grand Excursion 2004 can be more than a little overwhelming. The event's centerpiece is a six-boat flotilla that convenes in the Quad Cities on Saturday, June 26, and travels up the Mississippi, arriving at Minnesota-St.

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