PORT TOWNSEND –– The cure for the summertime blues may be, well, the blues.
Centrum’s annual Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival is this weekend and features country blues musicians from around the country, including renowned artists such as Maria Muldaur, Alvin Youngblood Hart, gospel singer Ethel Caffie-Austin, Corey Ledet and Cedric Watson.
“This music is the heartbeat of American music, the legacy of our African-American brothers and sisters who brought with them the sounds and rhythms of their homeland,” said Mary Hilts, manager of Centrum’s blues program.
This weekend offers several chances to see what artistic director Daryl Davis hailed as “indisputably the most influential genre of music our country has ever produced, the blues.”
Mainstage concerts are at Fort Worden’s McCurdy Pavilion and feature some of the best voices of gospel, country blues and down-home blues.
“There are few places in America, and few opportunities in any year regardless of where one lives, to pay homage to and intensively study the roots of American blues,” said Centrum Executive Director Robert Birman. “The opportunity to see and hear so many standard bearers in this tradition comes only once a year.”
Saturday’s 1:30 p.m. Acoustic Blues Showcase Concert at McCurdy Pavilion features Caffie-Austin and Delnora Roberts’ gospel choir, along with performances by Terry Harmonica Bean; Maria Muldaur and Chris Burns; Alvin Youngblood Hart; Steve James; Mike Dowling and Roger Edsell; Carl Sonny Leyland; and zydeco with Cedric Watson, Corey Ledet, Washboard Chaz and Mark Brooks.
In addition, musician combos who have been honing their practice of the blues tradition all week will hit six downtown clubs and venues to bring the blues to the streets tonight and Saturday night.
For tickets, wristbands and pricing, visit www.centrum.org or phone 800-746-1982. Tickets are also available at the box office beginning one hour before each show.
