Live blues return to West Point Friday, Sept. 4 when the Black Prairie Blues Festival begins on the Mary Holmes College campus. The event marks the 20th anniversary of this celebration, formerly known as the Howlin’ Wolf Memorial Blues Festival.
Three premier entertainers will perform. Eddie Cotton, winner of the 2015 International Blues Challenge (IBC), headlines. Teen phenom Christone “Kingfish” Ingram and repeat Blues Music Award winner Super Chikan precede Cotton.
“We’ve got a great lineup,” said Jeremy Klutts, who chairs the music event. He serves as program director for the Prairie Belt Blues Foundation, serving on the board with Foundation President Milton Sundbeck and fellow directors Scott Allen, Cameron Boyd, Carrie Hamilton, Deborah Mansfield, Rita Mattix, Beverly Norris, Becky Shirley and Rufus Ward. The foundation, formed in 2014, is committed to preserving and promoting traditional blues music and the legacy of blues musicians born in Mississippi’s Black Prairie region.
The late Howlin’ Wolf, born Chester Arthur Burnett in the White Station community near West Point, is a center point, but the foundation and festival also honor the influence of musicians including Lucille Bogan, from near Amory; Willie King, born in Prairie Point; Bukka White, from near Houston; and Big Joe Williams, who lived in Crawford.
The players
Klutts, a longtime blues fan, has assisted with the festival for several years and is eager to welcome the dynamic lineup.
Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 4, the chair said. “Kingfish” Ingram begins at 6:15 p.m., followed by Super Chikan at about 8 p.m. Cotton is expected to go on stage at approximately 9:45 p.m.
Ingram is only 16, but has already performed at the White House, opened for Buddy Guy and toured in France.
A cousin to Charley Pride, Ingram soaked up the rich gospel music at his family’s church, combined with the blues he heard in his Delta neighborhood. He began playing drums at the age of 6 and, by 14, had mastered not only drums but bass and lead guitar as well. He sings, too.
“When I have something to say, I can just go to my guitar,” Ingram has said. “This is what I am going to be playing for the rest of my life.”
Super Chikan makes a return visit to West Point’s festival. The Clarksdale-based musician has received multiple Living Blues Awards and took the Blues Music Award for Traditional Blues Album of the Year in 2010. In 2004, he received the Mississippi Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.
Cotton is based in Vicksburg. The minister’s son grew up singing and playing in church and studied at Jackson State University on full scholarship, thanks to a sister who sent the school a tape of him playing. His music has been described as a stinging attack of blues, funk, boogie and R&B in a melodic yet fiery brand of soul-blues.
“I have always loved the blues,” Cotton has said. “I used to hear Howlin’ Wolf and all them when riding along in cars with my uncle … and I would hear that blues that made me feel like church, the same feeling when I was in church and sometimes an even deeper feeling.”
Tickets
Tickets are $20 in advance ($25 at the door) in Columbus at the Columbus Arts Council’s Rosenzweig Arts Center, in Starkville at Jack Forbus Insurance, and in West Point at the Growth Alliance. Or purchase tickets online at wpnet.org/index.php/attractions/howlin_wolf/blues_festival.
Food, beer and soft drinks will be available for purchase. Klutts urged music fans to leave personal coolers at home.
“We’re indoors and air conditioned,” he said. “We invite all ages to come out and enjoy the live music and then take in the Prairie Arts Festival in West Point the next day.”
For additional information, call 662-494-2573. Follow the festival on Facebook.
Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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