Charleston Gateway To The Delta Festival
September 29, 2012
The Kudzu Kings made a name for themselves in the late nineties and early 2000s touring all across the US with the likes of Widespread Panic and playing such renowned and revered venues as Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado and Tipitina’s in New Orleans. Their brand of music has been called “Southern roots rock drunken country jungle boogie Americana.” Or, just Mississippi Music. Their shows are rowdy, fun, entertaining, and not to be missed.
Su
per Chikan is literally an international Blues Legend. He has been playing his unique brand of Delta Blues for decades and it has taken him all over the globe, from Clarksdale to Denmark to Switzerland. Winner of the 2010 Blues Music Award for Best Traditional Blues Album and the 2011 BMA for B.B. King Entertainer of the year, our local Oscar Winner Morgan Freeman recently noted in Southern Living Magazine that Super Chikan is his “favorite performer.”
Blue Mountain has long traveled the country spreading their hyperactive version of Mississippi roots music. They signed with America’s largest independent label, toured extensively during the nineties and early 2000s and released several albums before taking a brief hiatus. By 2007 they were back together and touring again. If you have never been to one of their shows, you have no idea what you are missing. In 2008, Gibson Magazine named lead singer and guitarist Cary Hudson one of America’s top ten alt-country guitarists. These days, the band is tighter than ever and command attention every time they take the stage. They will take the stage at the Gateway Festival as part of a months tour that takes them from Mississippi all the way into New England.
Dr. Alphonso Sanders has been involved in music education for over 25 years as an educator, clinician, adjudicator, and performer. He received degrees in music from Mississippi Valley State University, Valdosta State University, and the University of Mississippi. He is presently the Chair of Fine Arts and Director of the B.B. King Recording Studio at Mississippi Valley State University. As a musician, Dr. Sanders has performed at many recognized festivals including the North Sea Jazz Festival, Den Hague, Netherlands; the Montreux Jazz Festival, Montreux, Switzerland; the Lucerne Blues Festival, Lucerne, Switzerland; the Mobile Jazz Festival, and many of the Mississippi Delta Blues Festivals. He has performed with such artist as Mulgrew Miller, Rhonda Richmond, Cassandra Wilson, John Birdsong, Paula West, Debra Brown, Bobby Rush, Little Dave Thompson, Willie King, and Carl Allen among others.
The Bluegrass Appeal from Jackson, Mississippi, has been playing bluegrass, Irish, blues, and traditional music for many years. The band’s members are Jess Dickinson (a Charleston native) on hammered dulcimer, Joe Thornton on fiddle, and Steve Thornton on bass. The band has appeared on Thacker Mountain Radio, the Roots Reunion concert, and twice has been featured at the Columbia Legends of Bluegrass Festival. The Bluegrass Appeal played last year in Charleston at the inaugural Gateway To The Delta music festival. The Bluegrass Appeal’s new CD, From Dublin To The Delta, is available on Amazon, CD Baby, Itunes, and other popular internet music websites.
Touch of Harmony, otherwise known as The Lane Chapel C.M.E. Male Quintet, was first organized in the fall of 1976 at the Lane Chapel Christian Episcopal Church located in Tupelo, MS. Charles Richardson organized the Quintet after his years as a member of Rust College A’Cappella choir, Rust College male Quintet, Sextet and mixed ensemble. The group’s style of music is Gospel A’Capella. They have performed in churches around the country. They have also made appearances at the Oxford Folk Festival, St. Jude Radiothon, Mississippi Arts Commission Folk Music Festival, Mississippi Press Association, 1984 World’s Fair in New Orleans, national Television on the Bobby Jones Gospel Hour. They were the opening act for BeBe and CeCe Winans, The Williams Brothers and the Mississippi Mass Choir.
Like the Bluegrass Appeal, Gone South also has roots local to the Tallahatchie County area. According to the Memphis Area Bluegrass Association, anyone lucky enough to see Gone South live is in for an exciting interplay between the band and the audience. This group enjoys itself, and that comes through on stage and in their recordings. The members of Gone South have tight vocals and music with drive and feeling. They often mix pure bluegrass with smatterings of other genres of music producing a unique sound. Don’t be surprised to hear an Emmy Lou Harris song following a Bill Monroe tune, and even some Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. When Gone South first got together in 1996, it was agreed that they would do songs with a story, no matter where they found them, with their own bluegrass styling. Gone South has performed at a number of local events and out of town festivals. They are winners of the Jackson Area Plectral Society’s Fall festival three years in a row
And finally, Charleston’s newly formed, first ever community ensemble, The Gateway Gospel Choir will kick things off at 11 am. Drawing on the traditional African, Celtic and Anglo music from local churches, black and white, town and country, the Gateway Gospel Choir blends the music that makes worship in Mississippi so important to the cultural landscape of the state and American music in general. Led by three local teachers, Jacquea Johnson, Mandy Ross and Eric Denmark, the Festival will get off on the right foot, spiritually speaking.
There is not a band on the stage you will want to miss. Make the short drive to Charleston. Come early and stay late. It’s going to be a good time.
Here’s how to get to Charleston from Oxford:
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