Summer FeStival Schedule CENTRUM creativity in community Fort Worden State Park, Port Townsend July 31–auguSt 7 ACOUSTIC BLUES FESTIVAL PORT TOWNSEND Jerron Paxton, Artistic Director Corey Ledet Supplement to the July 22, 2015 Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader summer at centrum Hello friends! It is a great pleasure to welcome you all to this Welcome to Centrum’s year’s acoustic blues festival! I have been fortunate to have rd spent the last eight of my 27 years teaching at Centrum. 43 Summer Season! Growing with and learning from this festival has been one of the biggest pleasures of my life. Being made artistic director In partnership with Fort is a great honor. Worden State Park, Centrum serves as a We have plenty of friends and faculty eager to help this year gathering place for creative and it is a safe bet that it’s going to be a hoot. We’re glad you are here to join us! artists and learners of all Blues and the culture surrounding it has been a part of my life since the ages seeking extraordinary beginning. My forebears came from the plantations of Louisiana and Arkansas cultural enrichment. bringing their culture and music with them and instilling it in me. The both OUR MISSION is to foster creative experiences lively and lowdown music that was the soundtrack of their lives should not be that change lives. From exploring the roots of preserved as an old relic, but be kept as alive and vibrant as it was when it was in the blues or jazz, to the traditions of American its heyday. fiddle music or our award-winning writers’ Life seems to have given me the task and responsibility to be a steward of the workshops—Centrum’s summer festivals music and culture of my progenitor as they pass into the new bright world. With transform the majestic, inspired setting of Fort cultural liveliness as part of my goals and being a reasonable hand at the strings Worden State Park into a unique arts destination. as my credentials, I look forward to doing and learning as much as possible to add a bit of my flavor to the festival. JOIN US and discover a full array of mainstage performances, nightclub events, vital literary Peace, Love & Blessings readings, lectures, dances and more. Jerron Paxton OUR PROGRAMS welcome participants from ARTISTIC DIRECTOR 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! Welcome to the Centrum Port Townsend Acoustic Blues We present our programs with support from Festival. This weekend we celebrate the culmination of a week the Washington State Arts Commission, State of learning in community with passionate tradition bearers in Parks Commission, the State Superintendent of acoustic blues. Public Instruction, National Endowment for the Arts and the Fort Worden Public Development Artistic Director, Jerron Paxton has gathered this community of Authority. We thank the many donors and musicians who were either born into blues traditions or became generous sponsors who support Centrum and bearers of these traditions out of direct exposure and passion. our unique role in our Puget Sound community, We use the word acoustic to distinguish an earlier era before music ‘plugged in’. Focus and I hope you will too! 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 Please join us for cultural experiences you simply effect on the development of modern music. It gave rise to black church songs or cannot find anywhere else on earth. See you this ‘spirituals’, old-time, country blues, gospel, jazz, Rhythm & Blues, rock & roll and soul. summer at Centrum! 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. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 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 Hilts (800) 746-1982 • Centrum.org PROGRAM MANAGER, CENTRUM PORT TOWNSEND ACOUSTIC BLUES FESTIVAL 2 The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader • 2016 ACOUSTIC BLUES FESTIVAL blues in the clubs Friday & Saturday, August 5 & 6 $25 with wristband* Friday, August 5 Saturday, August 6 1st set: AMERICAN LEGION HALL AMERICAN LEGION HALL 8-9 p.m. (all ages) (all ages) 1. Scottie Parker & Aaron Gunn 1. Clay Swafford 2nd set: 2. Corey Ledet, Kirk Harwood 2. Mark Rubin / Kirk Harwood / Mark Rubin / Orville / Orville Johnson / Mark 9:15-10:15 p.m. Johnson / Rich DelGrosso Graham 3. Wendy DeWitt / Kirk 3. Wendy DeWitt / Kirk Harwood / Dean Mueller / Harwood / Dean Mueller / 3rd set: Orville Johnson / Johnny Orville Johnson 10:30 p.m. – Ward THE BOILER ROOM THE BOILER ROOM 12 a.m. (all ages) HUDSON ST (all ages) HUDSON PT 1. Lightnin’ Wells 1. Ari Eisinger 2. Ernie Vega THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS Marine View Beverage, City of Port Townsend, Subway. 2. Chris Berry 3. Scottie Parker JEFFERSON ST 3. Elijah Wald KEY CITY PUBLIC THEATER FRANKLIN ST JACKSON ST KEY CITY PUBLIC THEATER (all ages) (all ages) 1. Jimmy ‘Duck’ Holmes 1. Lauren Sheehan 2. Steve James American Legion MONROE ST 2. Pat Donohue & Mark Graham QUINCY ST 3. Guy Davis JEFFERSON ST MADISON ST Key City Public Theater 3. Jerron Paxton & Phil Wiggins TYLER ST THE WHISKEY MILL ADAMS ST THE WHISKEY MILL 1. Andy Cohen TAYLOR ST 1. Tim Williams Boiler Room 2. Jerron Paxton 2. Terry Waldo WASHINGTON ST 3. Terry Waldo 3. Clay Swafford WATER ST Cotton Building THE COTTON BUILDING Cellar Door THE COTTON BUILDING (all ages) (all ages) The Whiskey Mill 1. Tim Williams 1. Steve James 2. Corey Ledet & Chaz Leary 2. Jimmy ‘Duck’ Holmes DOWNTOWN PORT TOWNSEND 3. Pat Donohue & Rich 3. Guy Davis & Chaz Leary DelGrosso THE CELLAR DOOR *IMPORTANT NOTE THE CELLAR DOOR 1. Ernie Vega & Valerie and 1. Elijah Wald Blues in the Clubs is a moveable feast of great music in various downtown venues, with each venue Ben Turner operating on a first-come first-served basis. Your wrist band is an all-night access pass, and we encourage 2. Chris Berry & Aaron Gunn you to move around throughout the evening to gain the full benefit of the clubs experience. Venue hosts 2. Lightnin’ Wells 3. Ari Eisinger will help direct you to available seating or standing room options. Please read our wristband policy online. 3. Andy Cohen *Programs and artists subject to change. Centrum offers profound thanks to the foundation and government entities that support our Centrum’s corporate sponsors include regional, national, and international corporations that distinctive mission. Their grants help fuel our programming, and their imprimatur assists Centrum’s understand the value of supporting the arts. Their contributions foster the creativity and sense efforts to broaden support for its services throughout the state and nation. of kinship that has thousands of workshop participants and audience members converging for Centrum’s 2015 Port Townsend’s Acoustic Blues Festival. 2016 ACOUSTIC BLUES FESTIVAL • The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader 3 Concert Schedule Featured Performers Join us for the largest country blues gathering in the nation! ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, JERRON PAXTON Concerts feature players and music from regions where PIANO, VIOLIN, BANJO, GUITAR, ETC. • Jerron Paxton has earned a reputation pre-war country blues were formed — Piedmont, the Delta, for transporting audiences back to the 1920’s and making them wish they could Mississippi Hill Country, New Orleans, Texas and more. stay there for good. Paxton sings and plays banjo, guitar, piano, fiddle, harmonica, Immerse yourself in the African – American history and Cajun accordion, and the bones (percussion). He has an eerie ability to transform traditions from which blues has grown. traditional jazz, blues, folk, and country into the here and now, and make it real. In Mainstage shows at McCurdy Pavilion cap off a week-long addition, he mesmerizes audiences with his humor and storytelling. Paxton’s sound is influenced by the workshop for nearly 250 passionate acoustic blues students likes of Fats Waller and “Blind” Lemon Jefferson. Jerron’s family, originally from Louisiana, moved to LA taught by artists from across the country. Club shows and in the 50′s where he grew up before moving to New York city in 2007, where he currently resides. a massive Saturday mainstage performances transform Port Townsend into the summer blues getaway. Wednesday, August 3, 7:30 p.m. JIMMY ‘DUCK’ HOLMES Old-Fashioned Blues Dance GUITAR • Jimmy ‘Duck’ Holmes is a deep-roots folk blues musician who plays in Fort Worden USO Hall • Tickets $20 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 General Admission (limited to 150) primitive school had always been at the core of blues, conveying the most important Featuring Jerron Paxton, Frankie Basile, Chris Berry, Andy element – the feeling. Holmes was influenced by Jack Owens and Skip James who Cohen, Ari Eisinger, Aaron Gunn, Mark Rubin, Ernie Vega were part of the Bentonia School of blues musicians, influenced by Henry Stuckey. Jimmy is one of the and Terry Waldo oldest active purveyors of the Bentonia country blues tradition.