Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival
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American music festival
The Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival is an annual music festival in Clarksdale, Mississippi . It is held the second weekend in August, lasting three days.[ 1] Created as the Sunflower Riverbank Blues Festival in 1988, the festival features veteran and homegrown performers, attracting blues enthusiast from all over the world.[ 2] [ 3] Headliners have included Otis Rush , Ike Turner , Little Milton , Bobby Bland , Bobby Rush , Koko Taylor , Denise LaSalle , Super Chikan , and Robert Plant .[ 4] [ 5]
History
The Sunflower Riverbank Blues Festival was funded by The Downtown Association of Clarksdale partnered with the Mississippi Delta Arts Council, WROX radio, Delta Blues Museum , Rooster Blues Records , City of Clarksdale, Cahoma County Chamber of Commerce, and Sunflower River Yacht Club.[ 4] The event was and organized by Living Blues co-founder Jim O'Neal and Dr. Patricia Johnson in 1988.[ 6] It took place on the banks of the Sunflower River and was filmed by Mississippi Educational Television (ETV).[ 7] Since then, the festival has been organized by the Sunflower River Blues Association, funded by the Mississippi Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts .[ 8]
In 1991, the Early Wright Blues Heritage Award was established to honor Early Wright , "The Soul Man" of WROX radio who was Mississippi's first black radio disc jockey .[ 9]
In 1992, promoters Melville Tillis and Julius Guy held the Issaquena Gospel Festival. In 1993, the two festivals were merged into the Sunflower River Blues & Gospel festival. Tillis became co-chairman of the association. Guy died in 1993, and in 1994, the Julius Guy Gospel Heritage Award was created in his honor.[ 4]
For the first time in 2012, the festival sold V.I.P tickets, for headliners Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters, generating funds for subsequent festivals.[ 4] Also in 2012, the Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival was recognized with a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail .[ 4]
Headliners
Year
Headliners
Notes
1988
James "Son" Thomas & Otis Rush [ 10]
Inaugural event funded primarily by merchants in Clarksdale area and organized by Jim O'Neal and Dr. Patricia Johnson
1989
Bobby Rush & Big Jack Johnson
Funded largely by individual donors. The Williams Brothers was the featured gospel act
1990
Various artists
Performers included Big George Brock , Sam & Doris Carr, Johnnie Billington, and Patrick Murphy
1991
Otis Clay & Big Jack Johnson
Performers included Sam & Doris Carr, Stone Gas Band, Clayton Love , and Wade Walton
1992
Katie Webster , Big Jack Johnson & The Jelly Roll Kings
Performers included Pinetop Perkins , Snooky Pryor , and Lonnie Pitchford
1993
Booba Barnes & Junior Kimbrough
First year for the Gospel Festival. Event included stars from the motion picture film Deep Blues
1994
Bobby Rush & The Williams Brothers
Performers included Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis [ 11]
1995
Denise LaSalle , Charlie Musselwhite & Frank Frost
Performers included Sam Carr , Lonnie Pitchford , Jack Owens, Bud Spires & The Jackson Southernaires
1996
Bobby Rush
Performers included Lonnie Shields , Charlie Musselwhite, Robert "Bilbo" Walker , Willie Neal Johnson & The Gospel Keynotes
1997
Little Milton & Ike Turner [ 12]
Performers included Big Jack Johnson, Clayton Love, Frank Frost & Sam Carr, Slim & the Supreme Angels & Delta Big Four
1998
Rufus Thomas , Lynn White & R.L. Burnside
Performers included Big Jack Johnson, The Kinsey Report , Charlie Musselwhite , Lonnie Pitchford
1999
Otis Clay, Charlie Musselwhite, & Eddie Campbell
Performers included Super Chikan , Frank Frost, Sam Carr, Othar Turner , Johnny & The Midniters
2000
Koko Taylor & Bobby Rush
Performers included The JT Express with Arthniece Jones, the Stone Gas Man, "Tater" Foster Wiley, Blind Mississippi Morris
2001
The Pilgrim Jubilees
Performers included James Williams and The Messengers, Yolanda Troupe-Williams
2002
Charlie Musselwhite and Bobby "Blue" Bland
Tribute to Little Junior Parker . Performers included Big Jack Johnson, O.B. Buchana , The Jackson Southernaires
2003
Latimore , T-Model Ford , Big Jack Johnson, Sam Carr
A tribute to Othar Turner featured a documentary by filmmaker Scott Jennison with music by Othar Turner's granddaughter, Shardé Thomas
2004
Latimore, T-Model Ford, Big Jack Johnson, Sam Carr
Performers included Latimore, Super Chikan, T-Model Ford, Big Jack Johnson & the Oilers, Nelson Larkins & God's Possey of Chicago
2005
Charlie Musselwhite & Shirley Brown
Performers included Robert Belfour , Big T & The Family, David "Honeyboy" Edwards , Rev. Andrew Cheairs & The Songbirds
2006
North Mississippi Allstars , Latimore
Performers included Super Chikan, Big George Brock, Wesley Jefferson, Jimbo Mathus
2007
Bobby Rush and Denise LaSalle
Performers included Howlin' Madd Bill Perry, Rita Engedalen & Spoonful, Shardee Turner, Billy Rivers & The Angelic Voices of Faith
2008
Darrell McFadden & the Disciples
Performers included Bill Howlin' Madd Perry, Cadillac John & Bill Abel, Arthniece "Gas Man" Jones, and Shemekia Copeland , Selvy Singers
2009
Bettye Lavette and Super Chikan
Performers included George Horn and South of Memphis, James "Super Chikan" Johnson, T-Model Ford , Chapel Hill's Mens Chorus
2010
Johnny Rawls and Homemade Jamz Blues Band
This year's festival was a tribute to Ike Turner & "Rocket 88 "
2011
Dorothy Moore and Johnny Rawls
Performers included David Brinston, Nathaniel Kimble, Super Chikan, Earnest "Guitar" Roy, Kenny Brown , Robert Belfour , Eddie Cusic
2012
Robert Plant with special guest Patty Griffin
Performers included T-Model Ford, Eddie Cusic, Robert Belfor, Pat Thomas, Arthniece Jones, Charlie Musselwhite, Bobby Rush
2013
Bobby Rush and North Mississippi Allstars
This year's festival was dedicated to the late Melville Tillis, owner of the Rivermount Lounge
2014
Various artists
This year's festival was dedicated to the legacy of Big Jack Johnson
2015
William Bell and Rita Engedalen
Performers included Leo "Bud" Welch , Sharde Turner, Jimmy "Duck" Holmes , Super Chikan, Terry "Big T" Williams & The Family Band
2016
Super Chikan and Lonnie Shields[ 13]
Performers included Heavy Suga & the Sweet Tones, Josh "Razorblade" Stewart, Jimbo Mathus, Little Willie Farmer , Leo "Bud" Welch
2017
Charlie Musselwhite and O.B. Buchana
Performers included Jimmy "Duck" Holmes, Lucious Spiller, Watermelon Slim , Rich "Daddy Rich" Crisman, The DBM Band and Ghalia Vaultier [ 14]
References
^ "Clarksdale Music Festivals" . City of Clarksdale .
^ "Sunflower River Blues" . Mississippi Blues Trail . Retrieved 2020-02-13 .
^ Collins, Janelle (2015). Defining the Delta: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on the Lower Mississippi River Delta . University of Arkansas Press. p. 205. ISBN 978-1-55728-687-1 .
^ a b c d e O'Neal, Jim (August 2017). "The Sunflower River Festival Blues & Gospel Festival @ 30" . Living Blues : 8–19.
^ "All That Glitters … Robert Plant to Headline 25th Sunflower River Blues and Gospel Festival 2012 in Clarksdale" . Delta Bohemian . March 5, 2012.
^ "Amazing Hometown Talent Booked for 31st Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival" . Blues Festival Guide Magazine . August 9, 2018.
^ "Welcome to the Sunflower River Blues and Gospel Festival" . Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival .
^ Johnston, Ashley (June 1, 2016). "Hitting the High Notes: Sunflower River Blues Festival" . Memphis magazine .
^ Citchens, Addie (August 11, 2019). "The Soul Man of Clarksdale, Not a Eulogy" . Mississippi Folklife .
^ "Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival - 1988" . Delta Blues Museum .
^ Komara, Edward; Lee, Peter (2004). The Blues Encyclopedia . Routledge. p. 255. ISBN 978-1-135-95832-9 .
^ "Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival - 1997" . Delta Blues Museum .
^ "Sunflower River Blues and Gospel fest" . The Clarion Ledger . August 11, 2016.
^ "CLARKSDALE: Sounds Around Town - Sunflower Blues Fest Week Edition!" . Msbluestrail.org . August 7, 2017. Retrieved September 14, 2022 .
External links