Artistic Director Daryl Davis has assembled an outstanding lineup of musicians for the 2013 gathering. Head over to our Blues faculty page for the complete listing.

Here are some highlights:

Boo Hanks

Boo Hanks, a descendant of Abraham Lincoln on his mother’s side, is the greatest Piedmont Blues rediscovery in many years. He sings and plays guitar in the style of the legendary Blind Boy Fuller. At the age of 79, he made his first recording and at 82 he has enjoyed performances around home as well as Lincoln Center and Belgium.

“Most people, when they hear me play, they think it’s two guitars, because I play the bass and the other strings at the same time. They say, man that’s two guitars, and I say no, me, it’s just me by myself. They say, don’t believe you, it sounds like two guitars to me.”

Dom Flemons

Dom Flemons is a multi-instrumentalist and a songster. As a member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Dom has toured all over the world going as far as Ireland, England, Scotland, France, Holland and Belgium.

“A lot of people ask me, how do you do this old-time music and have it stay contemporary to you as a person? What people forget is that on stage I might be playing music that’s 100 years-old, but that doesn’t mean my ears are only listening to music that’s 100 years-old. I got into this via old rock and roll, sixties rock and folk and went back from there. A couple of things got me into thinking about how to smash all of it together, particularly Mike Seeger’s way of taking different kinds of traditional music and putting them together to make new music.”