We’ve just opened registration for the 2015 Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival. Don’t wait to register –early-registrants get first dibs on Fort housing, as well as the best blues mojo going into the new year!

• Register online for the Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival

We’re still hard at work putting together the 2015 gathering, but we have confirmations from Paul Asbell, Michael Jerome Browne, Daryl Davis, Pat Donohue, Mary Flower, Samuel James, John Miller, Lauren Sheehan, Cyd Smith, Alice Stuart, Valerie Turner, and Phil Wiggins. Stay tuned for more updates.

As always, our focus for the week is acoustic pre-war (1920s and 1930s) country blues, the African-American cultures it grew out of, and their traditions. Steeped in the rich music and cultures of rural communities of the Southern USA, this workshop gives attention to styles typified by the different players from various regions (Piedmont, the Mississippi Delta, Hill Country, and Texas), the differences in technique as well as how to get the proper sounds of these styles out of your instrument.

The music is the primary focus of the multi-generational in-residence workshop week but the downhome back-porch vibe of the country blues culture creates a community vibe that lends a family gathering feel to the week.