King Biscuit Time!

Well, for anyone that’s been around me for the past 6 months, and to my music friends even longer, you’ve heard me talk about the King Biscuit Blues Fest (now, due to some legal crap, known as the Arkansas Blues and Heritage Fest). This is another fest that I stumbled upon when I was traveling back in the mid-90s. The gist of it was, camp in the levee area along the Mississippi River and walk into town for the 4 day, free festival. Then, at night, everyone sits around campfires and plays more music! Unfortunately, the past 12 years were full of excuses for missing this fest. But not this year! This was the driving force for leaving Michigan when I did, and I had finally arrived!

To give you an idea, here is a picture of the camping area on the day I arrived (I’m at the far side, behind the orange tent). And here is a picture on Saturday morning (while people were still arriving.) I guess I should mention that since it was one price to park here for as long as you wanted, I showed up on Monday, even though the fest didn’t start till Thursday.

Coffey and I had a great time both at the fest and the campground. As usual, there were more artists than I can list, but here are a few of the more ‘seasoned’ musicians.

71 year old Mr. Sam Carr.

Two time Emmy winner, 95 year old Pinetop Perkins is a festival favorite no matter where you go. It just seems so right to see him here since he’s known as “one of the last original Delta blues musicians." To give you an idea of how much I admire this man, I even let him have his picture taken with ME! Hahahaha Doesn’t he look sharp?

72 year old Willie ‘big eyes’ Smith.

I guess I should have known if I had thought about it, but it was also very special for me when Joe Jonas joined Anson Funderburg. I’ve seen Joe many times in Dallas, in every setting from sold out Festivals, to jam sessions where his golden voice mesmerizes a hand full of us lucky enough to be there on a night when he came in.

As always, the other festival goers were also a source of fun and entertainment. As I pulled into the camp area I was greeted by Ronnie (BlackOak on a blues forum) and welcomed into his camp. I was even invited to join them on Wednesday for the “pre-fest party” at Ground Zero Blues club in Clarksdale. It was a special invitation since they were also celebrating his wife, Tammy’s birthday! More about Ronnie and Tammy later. There were numerous other individuals and groups of folks, including Tent City (whom I had met the Mayor and many others on my first attendance of the fest in ‘95); the crowd across the ‘road’ from me, mostly from Kansas City; and who could forget the gals (and their many guys) from the Baton Rouge Blues Society, who shared media passes and “reserved” seats with me on more than one occasion.

Here’s a shot of the crowd (I was partying with the group under the green umbrella), as well as a collage of just a few of the folks I enjoyed the festival with. It turns out I didn’t do a very good job of getting pictures of some of the folks that were parked closest to me, but I’m sure I’ll be seeing them again (for instance, Maddog is from Chicago, as is Ellen, so I’m sure I’ll see them at the next year’s Chicago Blues Fest!

On Sunday I packed up the house and moved to the RV/Expo center in Clarksdale (about 30 miles away) for the Pinetop Perkins Homecoming (remember him, sitting next to me?) at the Hopson Plantation. Lon’s History Note – Back in the day, field workers and share croppers were most likely a source of the blues. Working in the fields by day and cutting loose and singing and dancing at juke joints on Saturday night. Well, ironically enough, the Hopson Plantation, which is becoming a big part of the re-emerging blues scene, is the place that the first mechanized crop of cotton happened! This was the beginning of the end of the need for labor in the cotton fields, leaving many workers without a source of income and perhaps a driving force in many musicians moving north to Memphis and Chicago! Here, read for yourself.

And here’s a picture of Hopson’s Plantation commissary, where the bands were playing for the Homecoming.

Also on the grounds of the Plantation is the “Shack Up Inn”, where they’ve turned a cotton gin into hotel rooms, as well as imported and built share cropper shacks to rent out as rooms

As usual, it was a great week(end?) of music and friendship.

Well folks, if you can’t tell, this is another festival weekend that will have to be a yearly event for me, and I suggest you try to make it as well. The music and the people are enhanced by the layout and accommodations, and it didn’t hurt that the weather was PERFECT!

Till next journey,

Life is Good,

So are the blues.

Lon