ffi*W:; - Mariposa Folk Festival

M
BLUE SERGE
(Read Blues Surge)
Many peoPle have discovered the
blues of late, targely on the coaftails
of Robert Cny, But for many the blues
has atways been there as a mainstaY
of their musicat diet. Here are a few
brues facts Provided to You bY
G/Rf's "The mately 600 members. The Toronto
Blues Society Newsletter lists ten
radio programs that PlaY blues or
mostly blues in the Toronto area -
no other city can claim that. Two
maior radio stations, Q107 and
CFNY, bring blues to large audiences;
CBG AM's
Blues Hour" o-host and
Toronto Blues Society lrea surer John
Valenteyn.
by John Valenteyn
Blues, the folk music of the rural
Black American South, is doing very
well in Southern Ontario. The Toronto
Blues SocietY has aPProxi-
"SaturdaY Night
Blues" is a national network show
"The
out of Edmonton; CJRT-FM's
Blues Hour" is available by satellite
to cable subscribers throughout the
province; and CFNY's DaddY Cool
is also available to anyone in North
America with a satellite dish.
On the live music front, clubs that
book blues seem to be doing well.
Albert's Halland the Horseshoe continue
to book the important acts, and
there is one, the Black Swan, that
has a local blues act every night
except Sunday and twice on Saturday.
The Hoodoo Lounge in Kitchener
has to turn people away with its
recently inaugurated blues policy.
Larger venues like the Diamond Club
and Entex are booking more blues.
And blues is featured prominently in
Festival season. The Harbourfront
Soul 'N' Blues Festival is four days
of blues. Mariposa has always had
some blues and continues to do so.
In fact, there are manY Toronto area
performers who were heavilY influenced
by artists MariPosa has
brought over the years.
All of this activity has not gone
unnoticed. Toronto was one of onlY
nine North American cities chosen
as locations for the Chicago Blues
Festival
"Win ATripTo Chicago" promotion
campaign. The Toronto Blues
Society won a W.C. Handy Award as
Blues Organization of the Year in
1 986. The Handys, awarded bY The
Blues Foundation in MemPhis, are
starting to achieve international recognition
(thisyear, B.B. King willhost
the November event with guests
Bobby Bland and Little Milton). The
Blues Foundation is making great
strides in 'networking' blues - it used to be combined with
traditional music - and in Canada
the Canadian Academy of Recording
Arts & Sciences (CARAS) has
announced it is creating a Juno category
for blues and roots music.
The list goes on: Movies like
"Crossroads", "The
Color Purple"
and
among the
various blues societies and festivals
and fans. The U.S. GrammY Awards
now have a separate category for
"Aventures
in Babysitting" (with
its wonderful appearance by Albert
Collins), commercials (Levi Strauss),
W shows (Dion Payton in "Miami
Vice").
Through all of this the music is
thriving. Young musicians are playing
in blues bands and older musicians
are coming out of retirement
to play once again. lt is safe to say
that they could use more work but
there is probably more now than
there has been in some time.
Mariposa'88: The Blues Tent is a
Juke Joint!
The juke joint was where you would
go on Saturday after a hard week's
work. In the Mississippi Delta, the
men would workthe fields Saturday
mornings and then gather the family
together and head into town to Pick
up whatever supplies were not available
around the farm. Then for some
it was off to the iuke. The best example
was the highlight of the movie
"The
Color Purple". The word
"juke"
seems to be derived from "dzugu"
which means
"wicked" in the Bambara
language in North Africa.lt may
also be related to the word 'Joog" SING
@uT!
in
the Gullah tribe where it means
"disorderly".
The interior of North
Africa, which is now known as the
Sahel, was where most of the slaves
that ended up in the United States
Sing Out! Magazln€ provldes a unlqu€ly
dlverse and entertalning 3€lectlon
came from.
of traditlonal and conl€mPorary
And these places often were
tolk muslc.
wicked and disorderly as the boot-
Each l33ue i3 a coll€ctot's lt€m
leg corn liquor flowed and the eve-
Includtno at toast 15 songs wlth over
4 scoro pagos, record and book revlews'
ning wore on. lt was on Places like
lnstrumont this that the blues singers' livelihood
depended. They would travel around
to the various jukes, playing for tips.
Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller)
would announcg where he was PlaYing
that night on his King Biscuit
Time radio program in an effort to
get as many people out as Possible.
Butthe juke joint here atthe Festival
is notwicked and disorderly, and
the musicians performing there today
are led by guitarist Bowling
Green John Cephas and Harmonica
Phil Wiggins. They were named En-
"Teach-lns," feature articles'
and In-depth Intsrvl€ws. PLUS regular
columns by Pete Seeger, Stefan
Grossman, and Mlchael Cooney.
4 Tlmes a Year
SING OUT & SIGN UP NOV.
tl5.OO (1 ya8r) 125.00 (2 y68rs) 335.00 (3 voa6)'
Box 5253
Bethleham PA 18015
SING@UT!
The Folk Song Magazine