The 9th annnual Mount Baker Blues Festival returns to the River's Edge Christmas Tree Farm in Deming off the Mount Baker Highway at the end of July.
Weekend Tickets: Advance $50, plus $3.50 processing fee and additional fee for outside of USA orders on-line
Day Tickets: Advance $25 with $3.50 processing fee added for on-line orders.
Read Jade Wailers review of Saturday's show in 2004 at the Mount Baker Blues festival.
Hubert Sumlin and Magic Slim, July 31- August 1
HUBERT SUMLIN
Hubert (Huber) Sumlin is best known for his 25 years of guitar work in the Howlin' Wolf Band which he joined in 1954. The self taught guitarist (immortalized in the early electric Chicago blues catalogue) has roots deep in the Mississippi Delta. Sumlin was born on a farm near Greenland, Mississippi in 1931 and first performed gospel music of the Sanctified Baptist church on guitar. The weekly radio show of James Cotton could be heard late nights in the area by the youthful Sumlin, and in his late teens he would join the Jimmy Cotton Band (initially filling in for Pat Fare) to play venues around the South. Those early years of the Jimmy Cotton Band can be heard on the Memphis Sun label.
Howlin Wolf sent for Sumlin to join him in Chicago in the mid-fifties beginning a musical alliance that would change both men and influence the sound of blues music to this day. It's difficult to imagine those classic Chess Records of Howlin' Wolf without the wicked, unique guitar lines of Hubert Sumlin. The Howlin' Wolf Band continued to work after it's founder died in 1976, but the passing of his mentor was a shattering event for Sumlin. He would later emerge as a bandleader in his own right, performing and recording.
His 1989 Blind Pig Records Heart & Soul reunited him with his old friend James Cotton and captured new fans during the blues resurgence of the late 1980's and early 90's.
The 73 year old guitarist is an active and vital blues artist. His July 2004 schedule includes performances from Illinois to Bagnols Sur Ceze, France and ends with his Saturday, July 31st show at the Mount Baker Blues Festival in Deming backed up by Crossroads from 8 to 9:30pm..
Crossroads features award winning Seattle harpman Steve Bailey (ala' The Blues Flames) and Bellingham's Patrick McFarland (Slowclaw, Native Boys, Issac Scott Band, Dick Powell Band) on guitar. Crossroads was nominated by the Washington Blues Society as Best Blues Band in 2004.
MAGIC SLIM
We might be talking about a famous blues piano player named Morris Holt were it not for a cotton gin accident that took away the little finger on his right hand. Finding it difficult to play piano after that, this lanky youth switched to a guitar (homemade with baling wire from a broom) at weekend house parties and continued working the cotton fields by day.
Young Morris Holt got some acoustic guitar tips from Magic Sam sitting under a tree in Grenada, Mississippi on Sunday afternoons. "...don't try to play like nobody. Get a sound of your own." Years later, Magic Sam would let Holt play bass in his 1955 Chicago Band and dub him Magic Slim. That nickname stuck and so did the encouraging lessons on being himself. Magic Slim would soon leave Chicago discouraged about the blues scene but determined to improve himself as a musician. Five years of woodshedding later, Magic Slim returned as a formidable force on the Chicago scene.
In 1967 Magic Slim formed his own band, The Teardrops, featuring his younger brothers Nick and Douglas (Lee Baby) in the rhythm section. A string of singles chronicle his career until his first album in 1977, Born Under A Bad Sign. (French MCM) He would release titles for Alligator, Rooster Blues and Wolf Records before his five most recent albums for Blind Pig Records (Gravel Road, Scufflin', Black Tornado, Snakebite, and the critically acclaimed Blue Magic.)
In 2004, Magic Slim stands tall as a six time WC Handy Award winner (most recently honored as 2003's Blues Band of the Year) and an acclaimed international performer who captures audiences with his raucous, spirited guitar and vocals. The Mount Baker Blues Festival showcases Magic Slim and the Teardrops as the closing act of the event on Sunday, August 1st beginning at 6:30 pm.
OTHER MOUNT BAKER BLUES PERFORMERS
Other performers of note on the Mount Baker Blues Festival stage include Russia's top blues band the Blues Cousins on their 2004 American Tour, Mississippi blues guitarist Big Jack Johnson (backed up by the Russell Jackson Band), rockin' pop guitar gal Taylor James, and Moby Grape founder Jerry Miller with special guest Alice Stuart.
Vancouver's Incognito has proven a popular Mt. Baker Blues Festival staple over the years, their performance at the festival this year will include special guest Gary Comeau.
Jude Bowerman (whose new band draws on a number of genres), Kingalings founder Chris Stevens, acoustic act P.K.Dwyer, Bellingham locals Harder-Payne, the Shadow Creek Project, Old Skool and Evan VanFossen round out the Mount Baker Blues weekend entertainment line-up.
Live music from a stage nestled in the trees, vendors, a beer garden and available camping (next door to the festival at the Deming Speedway) should make for a fun filled weekend.
Be sure to visit the Mount Baker Blues Festival web site where you can order tickets, see photos of all the entertainers and be up to date as this 2004 Best Blues Event (Washington Blues Society) returns to Whatcom County, Washington.
Mount Baker Blues Festival.
