BRUCE “SUNPIE” BARNES – ACCORDION
Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes is a veteran musician, park ranger, actor, former high school biology teacher, and former NFL player with the Kansas City Chiefs. His career has taken him far and wide, travelling to over 35 countries playing his own style of blues, zydeco and Afro-Louisiana music incorporating Caribbean and African influenced rhythms and melodies. He is a multi-instrumentalist playing piano, percussion, and harmonica – and he learned to play accordion from some of the best, including Fernest Arceneaux, John Delafose, and Clayton Sampy. With his musical group “Sunpie and the Louisiana Sunspots,” he has played festivals and concerts accross New Orleans and the US, as well as internationally, and they have recorded 5 critically acclaimed CDs.
TERRY BEAN – HARMONICA
Terry “Harmonica” Bean began playing guitar and harmonica as a child, and eventually began performing at family gatherings and house parties. Terry decided to get serious about the blues in 1988 after attending the Delta Blues Festival in Greenville. He went there to see Robert Junior Lockwood, who played with Terry’s idol, harmonica legend Little Walter, but inadvertently fell in with the Greenville blues scene. Every weekend for three years Terry traveled to Greenville and its environs to play harmonica with James “T-Model” Ford as well as Asie Payton at various juke joints. He eventually formed a band of his own, and following the lead of Arkansas bluesman John Weston, started using a harmonica rack and performing as a one-man band, stomping his feet for percussion. Terry has maintained a busy performance schedule as both a solo artist and with the Terry Harmonica Bean Blues Band, performing at festivals across Mississippi as well as in Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee, and at clubs across the region.
ROBERT BELFOUR – GUITAR
Robert Belfour was born in the hill country in the northern part of Mississippi. The region has a distinctly different culture than the more famous Mississippi Delta, and the blues from the region is strong and unique, mesmerizing and hypnotic. Like most of the other accomplished performers from the area, Robert was submerged in the area’s rich musical heritage. Robert’s first memory is that of his father playing a resonator guitar in a style similar to that of Charlie Pattons. In the 1980s, Belfour began playing on Beale Street performing at the Rum Boogie, the Hard Rock Café, and B.B. King’s Club. In 1994 he had eight songs featured on the compilation album, The Spirit Lives On, Deep South Country Blues and Spirituals in the 1990s. This led him to Fat Possum Records and his first album What’s Wrong With You, released in 2000. At sixty, Robert’s guitar playing is mature and highly accomplished; his voice, clear and powerful, and the sound is pure country blues. Robert left the hills of North Mississippi forty years ago but his music never did.
MARK BROOKS – BASS
New Orleans native Mark Brooks attended Southern University in Baton Rouge, where he pursued a music degree along with one of his close friends, Branford Marsalis. Mark has played and toured with an array of artists, including Dr. John, The Neville Brothers, Henry Butler, Charles and Aaron Neville’s Ensembles, Lou Rawls, Fats Domino, Ellis Hall Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Harry Connick Sr. Mark is known for his mastery of different styles ranging from rhythm & blues to contemporary jazz, traditional jazz, blues, and gospel. Mark has to his credit numerous recordings and appearances on local and national television shows, including appearing on screen and the soundtrack for the Clint Eastwood film, The Bridges of Madison County, as well as The Regis and Kathy Lee Show and the movie, Ray, directed by Taylor Hackford, on which he worked closely with actors Jamie Foxx and Terrence Howard.
ELAN CHALFORD – FIDDLE
Violinist, fiddler and composer Elan Chalford has played the stage fiddler in Foxfire, Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Fiddler on the Roof, Phantom of the Opera, A Christmas Carol, Robber Bridegroom and Die Fleidermaus. Additionally he has been Concertmaster for productions of South Pacific, The Mikado, A Most Happy Fellow, and HMS Pinafore. He has also held Concertmaster positions with the Clearwater Symphony Orchestra, the Masters’ Chamber Orchestra, and the Summit Orchestra and Singers. Elan is an award winning Fiddler having won First Prize in the Florida State Fiddlers’ Contest and First Prize in the Twin Fiddle Division. His fiddle recordings include, Fluke, Don’t Bet Your Money on the Shanghai, A Fiddler’s Year, Unhewn Quartz, Elan Go Brag, Top 10 Fiddle Tunes, Touch Lia Fal and Lia Fal Live at the Iron Horse. Elan also teaches, offering private lessons in violin and viola.
BILLY CITRIN – MANDOLIN/FIDDLE
A native of St. Louis, MO. Billy Citrin grew up with a background of formal study in classical violin. Later, inspired and influenced by Sonny Terry, Sonny Boy Williamson, Bob Dylan, John Mayall and Stephan Grapelli, Billy would add acoustic guitar, harmonica, and mandolin, to his arsenal, developing proficiency on all four instruments. Always creative, Billy fashioned his own unique style of mandolin blues which he describes as a hybrid of country and blues. In addition to gigs and television commercials in St. Louis, Billy spent two years touring the Netherlands, performing across the United States as member of SPAH (Society for the Preservation and Advancement of Harmonica) at their conventions, and doing mandolin seminars with renowned mandolinist Rich DelGrosso in New York. Currently, Billy resides in Jalisco, Mexico where he has regular gigs touring around Mexico playing Blues, Gypsy Jazz and Mexican Romantic music.
GUY DAVIS – GUITAR
Guy Davis is a musician, composer, actor, director, and writer, but most importantly, Guy Davis is a bluesman. He has dedicated himself to reviving the traditions of acoustic blues and bringing them to as many listeners as possible through the material of the great blues masters, African American stories, and his own original songs, stories and performance pieces. Raised in the New York City area, he grew up hearing accounts of life in the rural south from his parents and especially his grandparents, and they made their way into his own stories and songs. And it’s his storytelling set in an acoustic blues framework that sets him apart from his contemporaries.
RICH DELGROSSO – MANDOLIN
Writer/teacher/performer Rich DelGrosso is widely regarded as the leading exponent of mandolin blues. For over twenty years he has written articles for Blues Revue, Living Blues, Mandolin Magazine, Frets, and Sing Out!, and has published mandolin and guitar instruction books on for Hal Leonard Pub. He has presented workshops across the U.S. and Europe, earning him a Keeping the Blues Alive Award from the Blues Foundation in Memphis. Rich’s many performances, recordings, and festival appearances have garnered him five Blues Music Award nominations. Four of the five were for Best Instrumentalist-Other for his mandolin work, and the other, in 2009, for his recording Live From Bluesville, which was nominated for Acoustic Album of the Year; a recorded live jam session with BMA nominees and winners Fiona Boyes and Mookie Brill at XM radio’s B.B.King’s Bluesville.
GRANT DERMODY – HARMONICA
Grant Dermody is a harmonica player, singer, songwriter, and teacher from Seattle, Washington. He has performed with blues legends Leon Bib, Honeyboy Edwards, Robert Lowery, Big Joe Duskin, John Dee Holeman, and Cephas & Wiggins. As a member of The Improbabillies, whose 1998 self-titled CD made a serious splash in the old-time world, Grant brought a unique blues sensibility and an innovative harmonica style to that genre. He has played on several of Seattle based singer/songwriter Jim Page’s recordings, and was a guest artist on Dan Crary’s, Renaissance of the Steel String Guitar. A dedicated mentor of the instrument, Grant has taught harmonica for many years in both private and group settings nationwide to students of all ages.
Teaching venues have included Blues Week at The Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins West Virginia, the Telluride Acoustic Blues Camp in Telluride, Colorado, and Blues Week at The University of Northhampton in the United Kingdom.
ARI EISINGER – GUITAR
Country blues and ragtime guitarist Ari Eisinger has toured across the US and performed in the UK and Japan, sharing the bill along the way with artists like Doc Watson, John Jackson, Dave Van Ronk, Paul Geremia and Taj Mahal. He has led guitar classes both in the US and the UK, and he is a featured instructor for Stefan Grossman’s Guitar Workshop. His interpretations of the songs of masters like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Memphis Minnie and Reverend Gary Davis celebrate the styles of these pioneering guitar heroes, and are brought vibrantly back to life. Whether he is taking on the crystal tone and virtuosity of Lonnie Johnson or the liquid bends of Josh White played on a low-tuned Stella guitar, Ari deftly recalls the great music of the past while bringing his own brilliant musical personality to bear on some of the neglected classics of the blues.
ELEANOR ELLIS – PIEDMONT GUITAR
Louisiana native Eleanor Ellis has performed at clubs, festivals and concerts in the United States, Canada and Europe. She has also traveled and played with the late gospel street singer Flora Molton, bluesman Archie Edwards, and sometimes accompanied Delta Blues great Eugene Powell. She is a founding member of the DC Blues Society and the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation, and has written about the blues for several publications. A bluegrass jam session led to a musical collaboration with “Delta Rambler” Hazel Schlueter, and Eleanor later wound up playing stand-up bass in two bluegrass bands, the Green Valley Cutups and Bill Malone’s Hill Country Ramblers. In addition, Eleanor is producer and editor of the video documentary Blues Houseparty, which features well-known Piedmont blues musicians such as John Jackson, John Cephas, and Archie Edwards. She also worked at the Archive of New Orleans Jazz at Tulane University in New Orleans, and at the New Orleans Jazz Museum.
MARY FLOWER – GUITAR
Mary Flower is renowned for a uniquely personal vision of roots music that blends ragtime, acoustic blues, and folk – technically dazzling yet grounded in the down-to-earth simplicity of early 20th century American music. With eight albums under her belt, Mary has earned rave reviews from critics and audiences alike for her unassuming vocals, and her mastery of the difficult Piedmont blues guitar style. She continues to be a highly regarded teacher whose knowledge and technical mastery have inspired students at the Augusta Heritage Center and the Swannanoa Gathering, among many other educational venues. Mary has played shows all over North America as a regular on the blues and folk festival circuit, including performances at Merlefest, the Kerrville Folk Fest and the Winnipeg Folk Festival. Mary performs and teaches internationally, and has released several instructional DVDs, including the highly regarded Homespun Tapes.
BILLY FLYNN – DELTA GUITAR/SLIDE
Over the last 40 years, Billy Flynn has played with a wealth of Chicago blues legends including Jimmy Rogers, Jr. Wells, Otis Rush, Pinetop Perkins, Buddy Guy, Jimmy Dawkins, Koko Taylor, Willie Kent and countless others. Billy’s encyclopedic knowledge and mastery of a wide array of guitar styles from the 1920’s though the present make him the go-to guy when bands and record producers want to recreate a certain blues guitar sound. Billy was tapped to play guitar for the soundtrack for the major motion picture “Cadillac Records,” which chronicled the heyday of the legendary Chicago blues label, Chess Records. As part of the soundtrack, Billy backed Beyonce in her 2010 Grammy Winning recording of Etta James’ “At Last.” In addition to his virtuosic guitar playing, Billy also plays mandolin, banjo, lap steel, harmonica, bass, drums, piano or just about anything else that produces sound, including electric sitar. Billy currently records and performs with the Cash Box Kings, and also produced their second album, Black Night Falling.
ANGELA HILL – GOSPEL CHOIR/VOCAL
Angela Hill strongly believes in gospel music. Even as a young child, she played piano for church choirs,
traveled the country singing in school choruses, and developed her songwriting and musical performance skills. Angela received her B.A. in Music Education from Howard University in Washington, DC, with a double minor in Piano Studies and Dance Studies. Angela has several albums to her credit as both a vocalist and a writer/producer, including an album with the R&B group XL, and an album with the gospel group, Highest Praise; as well as countless nightclub performances as a vocalist for jazz, blues, and country ensembles. Currently Angela serves as Musical Director and pianist for two churches in Maryland, and performs as a member of the metropolitan area based gospel group, UVP. While not performing music, she is devoted to children as a fulltime preschool teacher, and hopes that her artistry will be an inspiration to others through her music.
STEVE JAMES – MANDOLIN/SLIDE/GUITAR
Steve James is a well known name among devotees of contemporary acoustic folk and blues; this notoriety based on numerous critically acclaimed recordings, a tireless international tour schedule and a sheaf of published work including articles, lessons and books for Acoustic Guitar/String Letter and instructional DVDs for Homespun.
He’s a veteran of many music camps and workshop programs, including Cenrum Blues Week where he’s been part of the staff over a dozen times since 1994.
Steve has worked with a variety of artists from Furry Lewis and Bo Diddley to Bad Livers and film director Richard Linklater. He’s been heard on “A Prarie Home Companion”, NPR’s “Morning Edition” and many other syndicated programs. He invites you to visit www.stevejames.com
ORVILLE JOHNSON – SLIDE GUITAR
Orville Johnson has a gift for finding the secret ingredient that makes a song sound letter-perfect, whether it’s an R&B tune from New Orleans, a country blues or a jazz ballad. He moved to Seattle in 1978, where he was a founding member of the much-loved and well-remembered folk/rock group, the “Dynamic Logs.” Other musical associates include Laura Love, Ranch Romance, and the File’ Gumbo Zydeco Band; and he’s shared the stage with artists such as Doc Watson, Bonnie Raitt and John Lee Hooker. Orville’s guitar, dobro, and quavering, honeyed vocals have been featured on more than a hundred recordings, soundtracks and countless TV and radio commercials.
REV. ROBERT B. JONES – GUITAR
Robert B. Jones was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1956. By the age of 17, Robert had already amassed a record collection of early blues and begun to teach himself guitar and harmonica. By his mid-twenties, Robert was hosting an award winning radio show called “Blues From The Lowlands,” and, concentrating primarily on traditional acoustic blues, started performing at some of Detroit’s best music venues including the Soup Kitchen Saloon, The Ark, and Sully’s.
Influenced by legendary bluesman Willie Dixon, Robert developed an educational program called, “Blues For Schools,” which has taken him into classrooms all over the country. He eventually reshaped the program into “American Roots Music In Education” (ARMIE), a program that could encompass a wider variety of music including spirituals, gospel and folk songs.
Recently, Rev. Jones presented his ARMIE program at venues in the United States, Canada, England and Germany.
JIMMI MAYES – PERCUSSION
In 1965 Jimmi Mayes worked as drummer for Joey Dee and the Starlighters. He was called on to find a new guitar player for the band and reeled in session player Maurice James (Jimi Hendrix). Shortly thereafter Hendrix formed the Jimi Hendrix Experience but still managed to meet and jam in the recording studio numerous times with Mayes, producing several recordings including “Georgia Blues” which appeared on Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues.
The years following Jimmi spent in Mexico City with his Mill Street Depot funk band. His resume includes work with many artists including James Brown, Martha (Reeves) and the Vandellas, Jimmy Reed, Tommy Hunt of the Flamingos, Marvin Gaye, Frankie Lymon, The Shirelles, Little Walter, Jimmy Reed, Elmore James, Lacy Gibson, McKinley Mitchell, Tommy Hunt, Hubert Sumlin, and most recently Willy “Big Eyes” Smith, and Pinetop Perkins.
ARTHUR MIGLIAZZA – PIANO
Arthur Migliazza was born in Hyattsville, Maryland, and began taking classical piano lessons at age nine. Inspired by his immense talent, blues piano luminaries such as Ann Rabson, Mr. B, and the great New Orleans keyboard master Henry Butler have all taken Arthur under their collective wing.
In 2005, Arthur was awarded the Tucson Area Music Award for Best Keyboardist, and in 2010 he was inducted into the Arizona Blues Hall of Fame. During the past several years, Arthur has been featured on the Cincinnati Blues Fest’s Arches Piano Stage multiple times, and has taught blues piano at Augusta Blues Week in Elkins, WV, and at Centrum.
JOHN MILLER – GUITAR
John Miller has had a forty year career as a professional musician thus far, achieving acclaim as a solo and ensemble guitarist, composer and teacher in a variety of styles, including country blues, old-time, jazz and Brazilian. By the time he was 27, John had released five solo albums to international critical acclaim. For the past 15 years, John has continued to perform in a variety of styles, but has returned again and again to the country blues that were his first love, releasing 10 instructional DVDs focusing on that music. Says Miller, ” I’ve come to realize that everything I’ve played has been informed by my early involvement with country blues and the lessons I learned from that music: the primary importance of rhythm and the need to communicate with clarity and strength of purpose.”
JENNY PETERSON – PIANO
A native of Port Townsend, Jenny Peterson began her blues career at the age of 7 hanging around on the porch at Building 204 with the notable blues musicians who were attending the Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival. Jenny grew up studying classical piano and playing at her local church, but has always been drawn to the blues. Over the years, she has been inspired by various Centrum artists including Daryl Davis, Ann Rabson, Erwin Helfer, and Arthur Migliazza.
For the last four years she has been attending St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, where she is a member of the jazz band, accompanies dance classes and continues to play the blues. Jenny is excited to share everything she has learned over the years at Centrum.
ANN RABSON – PIANO
Ann Rabson has been playing and singing the blues professionally since 1962. She performs solo and with various bands, including ad hoc ensembles known as The Annimators. For 25 years she was a member of Saffire—The Uppity Blues Women. Ann has toured Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hong Kong, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, and Switzerland, performing solo, with Saffire, and with piano legend Erwin Helfer. In 2011 Ann received her ninth nomination for a Blues Music Award (formerly W.C. Handy Award) as Traditional Blues Female Artist of the Year. In 2008 she was nominated for Pinetop Perkins Piano Player of the Year; her first solo album, Music Makin’ Mama, was nominated for Album of the Year in both the Traditional Blues and Acoustic Blues categories; and her composition, “Elevator Man” was nominated for Song of the Year.
TIM SPARKS – GUITAR
Tim Sparks started picking out tunes by ear on an old Stella flat top during an illness that kept him out of school for a year. He taught himself to play the music he heard around him: traditional country blues and the gospel his grandmother played on piano in a small church in the Blue Ridge Mountains. At 14, Tim was nominated for a scholarship at the prestigious North Carolina School of the Arts. There he studied the classics with Segovia protégé Jesus Silva while continuing to play all kinds of music, increasingly turning to classic jazz for inspiration. He adapted compositions by Jelly Roll Morton, Scott Joplin, and Fats Waller to the guitar, frequently reducing piano arrangements to their essence. Sparks also found time to revive his interest in classical music, adapting Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite to the guitar, a work that has been cited as a significant contribution to solo guitar literature. In recent years, Sparks’ musical focus has come full circle, returning to the country blues and classic jazz that served as a springboard for his worldwide guitar explorations.
ELIJAH WALD – GUITAR/BLUES HISTORY
Elijah Wald spent many years hitchhiking and performing all over North America and Europe, as well as much of Asia and Africa, including several months studying with the Congolese guitar masters Jean-Bosco Mwenda and Edouard Masengo in eastern Zaire. In the early 1980s, Elijah began writing for the Boston Globe, and was in charge of the newspaper’s “world music” coverage for most of the 1990s, as well as contributing articles to various other newspapers and magazines. His books include Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues, Josh White: Society Blues, Global Minstrels: Voices of World Music, Dave Van Ronk’s memoir The Mayor of MacDougal Street, River of Song: Music Along the Mississippi, and Narcocorrido, a survey of the modern Mexican ballads of drug smuggling and social issues.
His latest book is How the Beatles Destroyed Rock ’n’ Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music. He has won a Grammy Award for his album notes to The Arhoolie Records 40th Anniversary Box, for which he was also nominated as a producer.
LIGHTNIN’ WELLS – UKELELE
North Carolina musician Lightnin’ Wells breathes new life into the vintage tunes of the 1920s and depression-era America. Lightnin’ produced the first commercial recordings of the North Carolina blues veterans Big Boy Henry, Algia Mae Hinton and George Higgs. He has traveled and performed extensively with these musicians and has documented their backgrounds and musical histories for future generations. Lightnin’ is a life-long student and devotee of the pioneering performers in the piedmont blues tradition which once thrived in the Carolinas, including such artists as Blind Boy Fuller, Rev. Gary Davis and Elizabeth Cotton.
PHIL WIGGINS – HARMONICA
During the early years of his development as a musician, Washington, D.C. native Phil Wiggins was constantly playing with and learning from some of the most notable acoustic blues musicians in the Washington area, including Flora Molten, Wilber “Chief” Ellis, John Jackson, John Cephas, and others. He was mentored as well by many other musicians who frequented the D.C. area, including Sunnyland Slim, Henry Townsend, John Dee Holeman, Algia Mae Hinton, Howard Armstrong, Etta Baker, and others. In 1976 he met and joined with Chief Ellis on piano, John Cephas on guitar, and James Bellamy on bass, to form, Ellis and the Barrelhouse Rockers. Not long after, Phil and John Cephas formed the duo Cephas and Wiggins. As ambassadors of the Piedmont blues, Cephas and Wiggins took their music all over America and the world, including Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Opera House, Royal Albert Hall, and the White House. Phil is a highly sought after instructor, and was the Artistic Director of the Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival from 2004-2009.
2012 BLUES TUTORS
Lauren Sheehan
With trademark silky vocals and brilliant guitar, mandolin and banjo picking, Lauren Sheehan plays from her American musical heritage – traditional and original music improvised for the times. Her shows are intense and warm, deeply human and unusual in the breadth of musical styles that range from blues to ballads, from bawdy to heartbreaking, from bluegrass to old country, 60′s and modern folk. Inspired by study with musical elders, oral tradition and scholarship, Lauren weaves authenticity into her evocative performances
Dean Mueller
Dean is originally Chicago, and had played electric bass since he was a kid. He picked up the upright bass as an adult and now wows audience with either instrument. A fixture in the Pacific Northwest blues scene – Dean is always a welcome addition to the Port Townsend gathering.
