acoustic blues festival port townsend

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SUMMER FESTIVAL SCHEDULE CENTRUM creativity in community Fort Worden State Park, Port Townsend Corey Ledet ACOUSTIC BLUES FESTIVAL PORT TOWNSEND JULY 31–AUGUST 7 Jerron Paxton, Artistic Director Supplement to the July 22, 2015 Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader

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Summer FeStival Schedule

CENTRUMcreativity in community

Fort Worden State Park, Port Townsend

Corey Ledet

Acoustic Blues FestivAl Port

townsend

July 31–auguSt 7

Jerron Paxton, Artistic Director

Supplement to the July 22, 2015 Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader

2 The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader • 2016 ACOUSTIC BLUES FESTIVAL

Welcome to Centrum’s 43rd Summer Season!

In partnership with Fort Worden State Park, Centrum serves as a gathering place for creative artists and learners of all ages seeking extraordinary cultural enrichment.

OUR MISSION is to foster creative experiences that change lives. From exploring the roots of the blues or jazz, to the traditions of American fiddle music or our award-winning writers’ workshops—Centrum’s summer festivals transform the majestic, inspired setting of Fort Worden State Park into a unique arts destination.

JOIN US and discover a full array of mainstage performances, nightclub events, vital literary readings, lectures, dances and more.

OUR PROGRAMS welcome participants from across the globe. Last year alone we served individuals from 17 countries, 46 out of 50 states, and 77% of the counties in Washington. 27% of those we serve are age 18 or younger and our participants were aged 4 to 97!

We present our programs with support from the Washington State Arts Commission, State Parks Commission, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, National Endowment for the Arts and the Fort Worden Public Development Authority. We thank the many donors and generous sponsors who support Centrum and our unique role in our Puget Sound community, and I hope you will too!

Please join us for cultural experiences you simply cannot find anywhere else on earth. See you this summer at Centrum!

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Hello friends! It is a great pleasure to welcome you all to this year’s acoustic blues festival! I have been fortunate to have spent the last eight of my 27 years teaching at Centrum. Growing with and learning from this festival has been one of the biggest pleasures of my life. Being made artistic director is a great honor.

We have plenty of friends and faculty eager to help this year and it is a safe bet that it’s going to be a hoot. We’re glad you are here to join us!

Blues and the culture surrounding it has been a part of my life since the beginning. My forebears came from the plantations of Louisiana and Arkansas bringing their culture and music with them and instilling it in me. The both lively and lowdown music that was the soundtrack of their lives should not be preserved as an old relic, but be kept as alive and vibrant as it was when it was in its heyday.

Life seems to have given me the task and responsibility to be a steward of the music and culture of my progenitor as they pass into the new bright world. With cultural liveliness as part of my goals and being a reasonable hand at the strings as my credentials, I look forward to doing and learning as much as possible to add a bit of my flavor to the festival.

Peace, Love & Blessings

Jerron PaxtonARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Welcome to the Centrum Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival. This weekend we celebrate the culmination of a week of learning in community with passionate tradition bearers in acoustic blues.

Artistic Director, Jerron Paxton has gathered this community of musicians who were either born into blues traditions or became bearers of these traditions out of direct exposure and passion.

We use the word acoustic to distinguish an earlier era before music ‘plugged in’. Focus of this program is to honor the traditions upon which American pre-war blues music were founded. This meeting of African and European musical cultures had a major effect on the development of modern music. It gave rise to black church songs or ‘spirituals’, old-time, country blues, gospel, jazz, Rhythm & Blues, rock & roll and soul.

Early American blues music reflects a people holding up their humanity and hope under sometimes harsh conditions of oppression. The word blues makes one think of sadness but inside this music you will find hope, love and courage.

I for one am most grateful for this music, its rhythms and melodies resonate with my soul and carry my spirit to a place where it unites with all humanity.

We are honored to share with you, performances by these artists who have shared their knowledge with eager participants this week.

Mary HiltsPROGRAM MANAGER,

CENTRUM PORT TOWNSEND ACOUSTIC BLUES FESTIVAL

summer at centrum

(800) 746-1982 • Centrum.org

2016 ACOUSTIC BLUES FESTIVAL • The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader 3

Friday, August 5

AMERICAN LEGION HALL(all ages)

1. Scottie Parker & Aaron Gunn 2. Corey Ledet, Kirk Harwood / Mark Rubin / Orville Johnson / Rich DelGrosso

3. Wendy DeWitt / Kirk Harwood / Dean Mueller / Orville Johnson / Johnny Ward

THE BOILER ROOM(all ages)

1. Ari Eisinger

2. Chris Berry

3. Elijah Wald

KEY CITY PUBLIC THEATER(all ages)

1. Lauren Sheehan

2. Pat Donohue & Mark Graham

3. Jerron Paxton & Phil Wiggins

THE WHISKEY MILL1. Tim Williams

2. Terry Waldo

3. Clay Swafford

THE COTTON BUILDING(all ages)

1. Steve James

2. Jimmy ‘Duck’ Holmes

3. Guy Davis & Chaz Leary

THE CELLAR DOOR1. Ernie Vega & Valerie and

Ben Turner

2. Lightnin’ Wells

3. Andy Cohen

Saturday, August 6

AMERICAN LEGION HALL(all ages)

1. Clay Swafford

2. Mark Rubin / Kirk Harwood / Orville Johnson / Mark Graham

3. Wendy DeWitt / Kirk Harwood / Dean Mueller / Orville Johnson

THE BOILER ROOM(all ages)

1. Lightnin’ Wells

2. Ernie Vega

3. Scottie Parker

KEY CITY PUBLIC THEATER(all ages)

1. Jimmy ‘Duck’ Holmes

2. Steve James

3. Guy Davis

THE WHISKEY MILL1. Andy Cohen

2. Jerron Paxton

3. Terry Waldo

THE COTTON BUILDING(all ages)

1. Tim Williams

2. Corey Ledet & Chaz Leary

3. Pat Donohue & Rich DelGrosso

THE CELLAR DOOR1. Elijah Wald

2. Chris Berry & Aaron Gunn

3. Ari Eisinger

Friday & Saturday, August 5 & 6$25 with wristband*

*IMPORTANT NOTEBlues in the Clubs is a moveable feast of great music in various downtown venues, with each venue operating on a first-come first-served basis. Your wrist band is an all-night access pass, and we encourage you to move around throughout the evening to gain the full benefit of the clubs experience. Venue hosts will help direct you to available seating or standing room options. Please read our wristband policy online.

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The Whiskey Mill

Boiler Room

Cellar Door

Cotton Building

American Legion

Key City Public Theater

DOWNTOWN PORT TOWNSEND

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS Marine View Beverage, City of Port Townsend, Subway.

1st set:8-9 p.m.

2nd set:9:15-10:15 p.m.

3rd set:10:30 p.m. –

12 a.m.

*Programs and artists subject to change.

blues i n the clubs

Centrum offers profound thanks to the foundation and government entities that support our distinctive mission. Their grants help fuel our programming, and their imprimatur assists Centrum’s efforts to broaden support for its services throughout the state and nation.

Centrum’s corporate sponsors include regional, national, and international corporations that understand the value of supporting the arts. Their contributions foster the creativity and sense of kinship that has thousands of workshop participants and audience members converging for Centrum’s 2015 Port Townsend’s Acoustic Blues Festival.

4 The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader • 2016 ACOUSTIC BLUES FESTIVAL

Concert ScheduleJoin us for the largest country blues gathering in the nation! Concerts feature players and music from regions where pre-war country blues were formed — Piedmont, the Delta, Mississippi Hill Country, New Orleans, Texas and more. Immerse yourself in the African – American history and traditions from which blues has grown.

Mainstage shows at McCurdy Pavilion cap off a week-long workshop for nearly 250 passionate acoustic blues students taught by artists from across the country. Club shows and a massive Saturday mainstage performances transform Port Townsend into the summer blues getaway.

Wednesday, August 3, 7:30 p.m.

Old-Fashioned Blues DanceFort Worden USO Hall • Tickets $20

General Admission (limited to 150)

Featuring Jerron Paxton, Frankie Basile, Chris Berry, Andy Cohen, Ari Eisinger, Aaron Gunn, Mark Rubin, Ernie Vega and Terry Waldo

Friday, August 5, 8 p.m. - Midnight

Blues in the ClubsDowntown Port Townsend Venues

Admission $25 with wristband (seating limited)

Saturday August 6, 11 a.m.

Gospel Choir“Make a Joyful Noise” with Dr. Raymond Wise

Fort Worden Chapel • Free Admission

Saturday August 6, 1:30pm

Acoustic Blues ShowcaseMcCurdy Pavilion, Fort Worden

Reserved Seating Tickets: $45, $35, $25

Featuring Jerron Paxton, The Fairfield Four, Guy Davis, Jimmy ‘Duck’ Holmes, Pat Donohue, Orville Johnson, Tim Williams, Mark Graham, Clay Swafford and Phil Wiggins

Saturday August 6, 8 p.m. - Midnight

Blues in the ClubsDowntown Port Townsend Venues

Admission $25 with wristband (seating limited)

Blues Festival PackagesSeating is reserved at the McCurdy Pavilion performances

includes Acoustic Blues Showcase and Blues in the Clubs.

Pricing based on McCurdy Pavilion Seating

Section A: $85

Section B: $75

Section C: $65

Featured PerformersARTISTIC DIRECTOR, JERRON PAXTONPIANO, VIOLIN, BANJO, GUITAR, ETC. • Jerron Paxton has earned a reputation for transporting audiences back to the 1920’s and making them wish they could stay there for good. Paxton sings and plays banjo, guitar, piano, fiddle, harmonica, Cajun accordion, and the bones (percussion). He has an eerie ability to transform traditional jazz, blues, folk, and country into the here and now, and make it real. In

addition, he mesmerizes audiences with his humor and storytelling. Paxton’s sound is influenced by the likes of Fats Waller and “Blind” Lemon Jefferson. Jerron’s family, originally from Louisiana, moved to LA in the 50′s where he grew up before moving to New York city in 2007, where he currently resides.

JIMMY ‘DUCK’ HOLMESGUITAR • Jimmy ‘Duck’ Holmes is a deep-roots folk blues musician who plays in the blues tradition described as American-primitivism, a repetitive and monotone style that is ethereal, gritty and rough. There are many sophisticated pickers but the primitive school had always been at the core of blues, conveying the most important element – the feeling. Holmes was influenced by Jack Owens and Skip James who

were part of the Bentonia School of blues musicians, influenced by Henry Stuckey. Jimmy is one of the oldest active purveyors of the Bentonia country blues tradition.

FAIRFIELD FOURSINGING • The Fairfield Four sing in the traditional African American a cappella gospel style they have been known for since the group’s inception almost 100 years ago. John Fogerty loved Fairfield’s rootsy sound so much he decided he had to feature them on his second album, Blue Moon Swamp on the track “A Hundred and Ten in the Shade.” Founded in 1921 in Nashville, TN the Fairfield Four have

maintained their authenticity by carrying on traditional stylings exemplified by the Bessemer Sunset Four, the Birmingham Jubilee Singers, and the Famous Blue Jay Singers with Silas Steele. They are the recipients of multiple honors including Grammy Awards for Best Traditional Gospel Recording, “I Can’t Hear Nobody Pray,” and Album of the Year for the O Brother Where Art Thou Soundtrack Recording, and two Lifetime Achievement Awards. They were inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1999.

COREY LEDETACCORDION • Corey Ledet was born and raised in Texas but spent his summers with family in Louisiana. The Creole culture has its roots in Louisiana, but spread across the country, including neighboring Texas. His love for Creole/Zydeco music was instant. He studied the originators of the music such as Clifton Chenier, John Delafose, and Boozoo Chavis. He branched out to include studying any (and all) artists of Zydeco. At

the early age of 10, he picked up shows playing drums for Houston-based band Wilbert Thibodeaux and the Zydeco Rascals and slowly learned the main instrument of the music – the accordion. Corey eventually moved to Louisiana in order to be surrounded by this beautiful culture at all times.

GUY DAVISGUITAR • Guy Davis’ much-praised 1995 debut, Stomp Down the Rider on Red House Records, marked the arrival of a major talent, earning acclaim for his deft acoustic playing, his well-traveled voice and his literate, yet accessible songwriting. He’s taken his music to television (the Conan O’Brien and David Letterman shows) and radio (A Prairie Home Companion, Mountain Stage, World Cafe, E-Town),

as well as performed at theaters and festivals across the four corners of the world. His parallel careers– as a musician, an author, a music teacher and a film, television and Broadway actor—mark Davis as a Renaissance man, yet the blues remain his first and greatest love. Growing up in a family of artists (his parents were Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis) he fell under the spell of Blind Willie McTell and Fats Waller at an early age.

Purchase tickets online at Centrum.org or call (800) 746-1982.

2016 ACOUSTIC BLUES FESTIVAL • The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader 5

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ARI EISINGERGUITAR • Ari Eisinger is one of the most impressive country blues and ragtime guitarists playing today. In his performances of the music of Blind Blake and you hear things no guitar player has pulled off since Blake himself in the early 1930s. Able to shift effortlessly from complex East Coast ragtime to the propulsive rhythm of the guitar evangelists, to down-home Texas country blues, Ari is one of the most

authentic musicians you’ll ever encounter. His interpretations of the songs of masters like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Memphis Minnie and Reverend Gary Davis have been called “downright spooky” for the way the styles of these pioneering guitar heroes are brought vibrantly back to life. Whether he is taking on the crystal tone and virtuosity of Lonnie Johnson or the liquid bends of Josh White played on a low-tuned Stella guitar, Ari recalls the great music of the past while bringing his own brilliant musical personality to bear.

PAT DONOHUEGUITAR • Pat’s musical tastes are eclectic. Though he considers himself foremost a folk guitarist, Pat’s influences are rooted in bluesmen Blind Blake, Robert Johnson, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Muddy Waters and Miles Davis. He blends jazz and blues with folk, and the mix is seamless. Over the years he has captivated audiences with his unique original compositions, dazzling instrumentals and humorous song

parodies. His original tunes have been recorded by Chet Atkins, Suzy Bogguss and Kenny Rogers. Pat has also been a featured performer at major music festivals including the Newport, Telluride and Philadelphia Folk Festivals. After wrapping up almost twenty successful years as the guitarist and songwriter on “A Prairie Home Companion” on NPR, Pat now turns to full time concert touring, presenting master guitar workshops and attending music camps.

STEVE JAMESGUITAR, MANDOLIN • Steve James is a Centrum Blues recidivist who first taught and performed here over 20 years ago and has done so regularly since then. An autodidact who sees roots music history as a circle rather than a line he has toured extensively and internationally, including work as an arts envoy for U.S. embassies in Bulgaria, Guatemala and Finland. His original style on guitar, slide guitar,

mandolin and vocals is informed by influences that include blues cornerstone Furry Lewis, rock’n’roll inventor Bo Diddley, and Centrum Blues godfather Howard Armstrong (with all of whom he has played). Steve has supplemented his activities as a performing and recording artist by creating numerous instructional books, DVDs and on-line lessons and participating in over a hundred music camps and workshop programs.

VALERIE TURNERGUITAR • Valerie Turner is a native New Yorker with southern roots and is the co-founder of the “Piedmont Bluz Acoustic Duo.” She plays finger style Country Blues guitar and her eclectic repertoire has been greatly influenced by her studies with both John Cephas and Woody Mann. Valerie’s earliest influences were Mississippi John Hurt and Elizabeth Cotten, and her specialty is the Piedmont style

of fingerpicking.

ORVILLE JOHNSONBOTTLENECK SLIDE AND DOBRO GUITAR • Orville Johnson was born and raised in the southern Illinois heartland right down the road from St Louis, Missouri. He acquired his love of singing as a youth in the Pentecostal church and, when he later began playing guitar and dobro, responded to the roots music that surrounded him by learning to play blues, bluegrass, rockabilly, and country music that are all part

of the mosaic that characterizes his own mongrel music. He is a singer, instrumentalist, record producer, songwriter, session player, teacher, the top dobro player on the West Coast of America and, above all, an instinctive and sensitive musician.

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6 The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader • 2016 ACOUSTIC BLUES FESTIVAL

RICH DELGROSSO MANDOLIN • Rich DelGrosso is widely regarded as the leading exponent of mandolin blues. For over thirty years DelGrosso has written articles for Blues Revue, Living Blues, Mandolin Magazine, Frets, and Sing Out! and has published mandolin and guitar instruction books on for Hal Leonard Pub. He has presented workshops across the Americas and Europe, earning him a Keeping the Blues Alive Award from

the Blues Foundation in Memphis.

ERNIE VEGA MANDOLIN • String master Ernie Vega performs stark versions of Country Blues, Gospel-blues, Old-Time, & Jazz classics stripped down to their barest elements. Sounding like ghosts from a by-gone era, he illustrates the simple elegant power of these great songs. Ernie performs and teaches his broad repertoire of songs at the fabulous Jalopy Theater, a venue fast becoming Brooklyn’s center of Folk, Roots

and the Art of the Jug. Ernie transports you to a time when the Village was still bohemian and old-time music was all that existed.

CHRIS BERRYGUITAR/BANJO • Chris Berry has been playing country blues and old-time country music on guitar and banjo for over 25 years. Since 2008 he’s played guitar and sung as part of Sausage Grinder, the Los Angeles area’s premier jug band. Along with blues greats like Mance Lipscomb, Sleepy John Estes, Bo Carter and many others, Chris especially loves those rarely documented areas where blues and old-

time overlap, like Lusk, Gribble and York, the Baxters, Luke Jordan, Dock Boggs and Frank Hutchison. He learned many tunes and a lot about music from the late legendary Illinois/Southern California fiddler Mel Durham and plays banjo on his CD “Skillet Fork.”

MARK RUBINSTRING BASS • Mark Rubin is a musician living and working in New Orleans. You can find him around town playing with local guitar hero Chip Wilson. Or maybe even playing string bass or tuba with the New Orleans Rag Weeds. Or tenor banjo or whatever with just about anyone. Some of you will remember him as partner to Danny Barnes in the pioneering Weirdo-Americana act Bad Livers, or maybe as

Santiago Jimenez, Jr.’s bassist and producer. And there’s probably quite a few who searched for the guy who teaches and performs klezmer music around the world, or toured with Boban Markovic Orkestar and Frank London’s Klezmer Brass All Stars, and the Other Europeans Project.

DR. RAYMOND WISEGOSPEL • As a singer, pianist, composer, director, conductor, lecturer, and teacher, Dr. Wise regularly serves orchestras, opera companies, and choral festivals throughout the nation and abroad. Dr. Wise has served as a church musician for more than 30 years and has appeared on radio and television, recorded 22 albums, performed with opera singers, orchestras, dance companies, professional recording

groups, and has toured extensively throughout the USA, Canada, Europe, and Asia, as a singer, dancer, pianist, composer, choral director, lecturer, and teacher. He has penned more than 600 compositions. His Anthology of 21 Spirituals for the 21st Century has received national and international acclaim.

ELIJAH WALDGUITAR/HISTORY • Elijah Wald has been a musician since age seven and a writer since the early 1980s. He has published more than a thousand articles, mostly about folk, roots and international music for various magazines and newspapers, including over ten years as “world music” writer for the Boston Globe. In the current millenium, he has been devoting most of his time to book projects, including volumes

on such disparate subjects as Delta blues (Escaping the Delta), Mexican drug ballads (Narcocorrido), hitchhiking (Riding with Strangers), and a broad social history of American popular music (How the Beatles Destroyed Rock ‘n’ Roll).

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2016 ACOUSTIC BLUES FESTIVAL • The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader 7

TIM WILLIAMSGUITAR • Tim Williams’ career began in the coffee houses of Southern California in the mid-1960s and continues today around the world from his home base on the Canadian Prairies. His guitar skills are frequently compared to Ry Cooder and David Lindley (and like them, Tim plays a wealth of string instruments), and his songwriting has won praise from the likes of Tom Russel and Willie Nelson.

A string of Maple Blues Award nominations (Toronto Blues Society), three JUNO award nominations (Canada’s Grammy equivalent), five Betty Mitchell Awards for composition/musical-direction in theatre, and roughly a dozen awards from Real Blues magazine (as artist, guitarist, producer), attest to the high caliber of his work. Tim’s recent win at the International Blues Challenge as Best Solo or Duo, and Best Guitarist (solo or duo), are just the latest accolades in a career entering its fifth decade.

SCOTTIE PARKERGUITAR • Folks frequently recognize Scottie outside of New Orleans, recalling their days spent on Royal Street, where he has been a linchpin of the busking community for a number of years. They may also recognize him from his role as Scottie the “Shanghai Rooster” in the television series Treme. Well-traveled and seldom in one place for long, Scottie has played the street corners, bars and stages of countless

towns in the States and abroad. Scottie’s resume isn’t exactly typical: Appeared at Brooklyn’s notorious Jalopy Theater; Flanked by burlesque beauties in Nashville; Shared the stage with T Model Ford in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Scottie’s brand of blues is a blend of Country, Delta and Piedmont stylings, reflective of his roots in Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina. He plays a cross section of the best of American vernacular music, from delta blues to Appalachian stomps to early jazz and popular songs.

ANDY COHENGUITAR • Andy Cohen plays Blues and country ragtime on a guitar, with fingerpicks, hard enough to be heard in a noisy juke, without a mic. He lives in Memphis when he’s not living in his car, which is most of the time. Although not strictly speaking a bluesman, he has eked out a living playing for more than fifty years playing all over the country, and been an advocate, lead boy, agent and friend to a solid gang of

‘source’ bluesmen and gospel musicians in those years. He feels he hasn’t wasted his time.

MARK GRAHAMHARMONICA • Born in Renton, Washington, Mark Graham’s early musical experience was confined to school band clarinet playing and listening to Homer and Jethro records. Upon discovering the harmonica and southern old-time music, Mark began a musical career that included his early years as a street musician in Seattle and stints with such stellar old-time string bands as The Hurricane Ridgerunners

and The Chicken Chokers. Graham has recorded or performed with Orville Johnson as The Kings of Mongrel Folk, Tom and Patrick Sauber, Tim O’Brien, Laurie Lewis, Danny Barnes, Pete Sutherland, The Horseflies, and Benny Thomasson and has played and recorded with Irish fiddler, Kevin Burke, in the band Open House.

PHIL WIGGINSHARMONICA • Phil Wiggins is arguably America’s foremost blues harmonica virtuoso. While rooted in the melodic Piedmont blues of the Chesapeake region, his mastery of the instrument now transcends stylistic boundaries. During the early years of his development as a musician, Phil was constantly playing with and learning from some of the most notable acoustic blues musicians that made

their homes in the Washington area of his youth: Flora Molten, Mother Ester Mae Scott, Wilber “Chief” Ellis, John Jackson, Archie Edwards, John Cephas, and others. He was mentored as well by many other musicians who frequented the D.C. area: Johnny Shines, Sam Chapman, Sunnyland Slim, Henry Townsend, Robert Lockwood, John Dee Holeman, Algia Mae Hinton, Howard Armstrong, Ted Bogan, Etta Baker, and others. In the late 1970s, Phil and John Cephas formed the duo Cephas and Wiggins and performed together for over 30 years.

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8 The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader • 2016 ACOUSTIC BLUES FESTIVAL

TERRY WALDOPIANO • Terry Waldo, the protégé of the legendary Eubie Blake, is a virtuoso ragtime, stride, and blues pianist. He is also a vocalist, composer

of show tunes, film and TV scores, and has led many highly regarded musical groups. His book “This is Ragtime” was just republished with a new introduction by Wynton Marsalis for Jazz at Lincoln Center Library Editions. His 26-part radio series of the same title was produced for NPR and fueled the 1970’s ragtime revival. Recently he has been teaching courses on early jazz and ragtime piano styles for Jazz at Lincoln Center. Terry has several new recording projects and is working on a PBS music documentary on ragtime. He regularly performs in New York at several prestigious venues including The Rum House, The Dead Rabbit, and Chez Josephine.

WENDY DEWITTPIANO • Wendy DeWitt plays boogie-woogie and blues piano at a high pitch. Intense, personal and delivered with a contagious smile, her work is inspired by

Otis Spann, Memphis Slim, Sunnyland Slim and Pete Johnson, and seasoned by international touring and work with Delmark recording artist Steve Fruend and R&B legend Hank Ballard. Wendy also organizes the Annual Queens of Boogie Woogie at Yoshi’s Oakland, the SRO International Boogie-Woogie Festival at SFJAZZ and the Blues Piano Orgy Series. Along with duo partner Kirk Harwood (Norton Buffalo), Wendy is an International Blues Challenge Finalist.

CLAY SWAFFORDPIANO • Firmly rooted in the blues tradition, Clay Swafford was raised in the small rural community of Providence, Alabama. Born into a musical

family; he was immersed in the sounds of Baptist Hymnals, Country and Bluegrass. He took interest in the piano at an early age and, after hearing the music of B.B King and Bobby Blue Bland at age 15, Clay was hooked on the blues. At 16, he attended the Pinetop Homecoming Celebration and promptly found himself on stage with many of his idols. In 2005 (age 20), the hard work paid off: Clay was asked to be a part of the boogie-woogie piano documentary “Falsifyin” alongside Jerry Lee Lewis, Pinetop Perkins, Marcia Ball, and Henry Gray. Clay has played with Willie “Big Eyes” Smith and numerous other blues legends.

LIGHTNIN’ WELLSUKE • Mike “Lightnin’” Wells breathes new life into the vintage tunes of the 1920s and depression era America employing various appropriate

stringed instruments in a dynamic style which he has developed in over thirty years of performing. Raised in eastern North Carolina, Wells learned to play harmonica as a young child and taught himself to play the guitar as he developed a strong interest in traditional blues and folk music. He has presented his brand of acoustic blues throughout North Carolina, the United States and Europe. Lightnin’ remains an insatiable student and researcher, studying the various forms of American roots music from bygone eras. His musical style is personal and energetic yet remains true to the original root form. His goal is to entertain and educate using a variety of sources, influences and techniques to express his dedication, respect and pleasure in presenting this unique American art form.

CHAZ LEARYWASHBOARD • Though comfortable in all forms of our diverse American musical heritage, Washboard Chaz Leary has achieved dominance and

international recognition in acoustic country blues. He has played with an impressive array of world-class musicians, both on the stage and in the recording studio. He has played with a wide variety of bands including the legendary Ophelia Swing Band, Prosperity Jazz Band, BBQ Bob & Washboard Chaz, Judy Roderick and the Forebears, and Bleecker St. Upon arrival in New Orleans, Chaz established himself as a seasoned musician, forming his Washboard Chaz Blues Trio. Shortly afterward, he joined the Tin Men, one of New Orleans’ most unique and recognized bands. Since then, Chaz has also played with the cream of New Orleans musicians, including the New Orleans Nightcrawlers, The Iguanas, Tuba Fats, Royal Fingerbowl, The Jazz Vipers, The Palmetto Bug Stompers and Washboard Rodeo.

AARON GUNNVIOLIN • Aaron “Mr.” Gunn is a veteran of the new generation of blues and string band musicians that have cut their teeth on the streets of the U.S. and abroad.

Growing up in Florida, music was his avenue to other cultures and his teachers were the great recordings of earlier generations. He started playing as a young teen in the old time and Irish communities, but didn’t begin busking in earnest until moving to Asheville, NC, where he discovered that he could make an honest living via bucket and case. In New Orleans, Gunn found a broader community with the same mindset and moved there shortly after. He has grown into a formidable multi-instrumentalist with a solid grounding in jazz & vernacular music from America and beyond, but it is the role, voice and proper use of the violin that remains his principal obsession.

Summer Hours: 7 am - 10 pm

360- 385-0500

aldrichs.comMaxwellbean

Hours: M-F 10-4,

Sat 10-2:30

Great Sushi Voted Best Soups and Salad Bar

Large Selection of Wines, Beer and Spirits

Artisan Ice Cream

And Chocolates Made Here by our Elevated Candy Co.

Handcrafted • Fresh • Healthy • Delicious!Open at 10 am - see our website at

www.elevatedicecream.com 627 & 631 Water Street, Port Townsend

360-385-1156

Make New Memories Here!

926 Water Street- Downtown -

Port Townsend, WA

360-379-1859

Mad Hatter & Co. has an eclectic collection of quality felt hats, handmade hats, handmade jewelry & accessories and a selection of music & vintage treasures.

Mad Hatter & Co.

Try Transit Your connection to Fort Worden, Downtown,

Uptown, the Port Townsend Ferry & more For schedules or information call or go to our website.

360-385-4777 ● www.jeffersontransit.com ● 800-371-0497

Find your way to local attractions and events without the parking challenges

Adults ride all day for

$1.50

Purchase tickets online at Centrum.org or call

(800) 746-1982.