9th Street Music Festival Review

-View Photo-

 I believe in order to discover great things in life you need to be knowledgeable about your subject matter and have a little luck along the way. Well I had both as I visited a good friend of mine who live in Raleigh N.C. for a little fun and sunshine and hopefully catch some great local music. To my great surprise and unbelievable freak, lo and behold Music Maker Foundation (MMF) was holding its first ever street festival on the famous 9th street in heart of Durham N.C. (about 60 miles northwest of Raleigh). The Carolinas, which has a long history of Piedmont blues and mountain hillbilly roots music, and which the MMF is trying its damnedest to keep these musical art forms alive to its truest roots. The foundation, which is run by Timothy Duffy, came out of nowhere a couple of years ago with stellar releases by Cootie Stark, Neal Pattman, and deceased Guitar Gabriel, has continued to put out great releases by under recognized, at least nationally, artists. So it was with great excitement and anticipation, as we drove to Durham to check out "A Celebration of Musical Tradition" on a heavily artistic 9th street, that I knew I would catch musical artists I may never see again. Three small stages located a block apart made this as "cozy and personal" as festivals come. First up was John Dee Holeman whose acoustic CD "Bull Durham Blues" did not prepare me for an electric set of traditional blues music. John like all the artist's that I caught that afternoon was dapper in dress and as real to the genre of blues as you can get. Next up were Capt. Luke and Cool John Ferguson. Capt. Luke, a gentleman in his late 70's, is possessed with a deep rich baritone voice and uses it to bring to life such classics as "Chokin' Kind"," Poke Salad Annie" and "Rainy Night in Georgia". Cool John is one cat that just loves to play guitar, as he seemed to be backing everyone. Cool John who put out a killer CD " Cool John Ferguson" a couple years ago (on MMF) plays ala Jimi Hendrix, left handed and upside down and is just a monster of a guitar player. I heard he is a regular at the "All People's" club on the outskirts of Durham. (What a cool name for a juke joint!). Together they sounded great, check out there MMF CD "Outsider Lounge Music". While all this was going on Lightnin' Wells and Little Pink Anderson where hitting the other stages!! Time was moving all too quickly, but the one man I needed to see was up next, the Blues Doctor himself, Drink Small. Drink, yes it's his real first name, played a national steel and banged out his versions of "Little Red Rooster", "Glory Glory Hallelujah" and "I'm Going To Move To The Outskirts Of Town" were he challenged all living and deceased bluesman to sing deeper than him. Tough stuff.

 Another artist that was on the agenda, but due to serious flooding in his hometown was a questionable show was the great Carl Rutherford. Carl a hillbilly/C&W singer songwriter who put out one of my favorite records a couple of years ago, "Turn Off The Fear", proved to be the real deal. Sitting alone with just his guitar Carl spun musical treasures. He sang to us about how the local strip mining was ruining his view of the mountains. I keep telling myself this was to good to be true!! Other artist that appeared was Cootie Starks, Abe Reid, a young die hard living bluesman who did a wicked version of "Sweet Georgia Brown" and Macavine Hayes.

 Had I known about this little gem of a get together I would have been scrambling to make plans to get there to see all this great music in a setting that was perfect for what it was. But sometimes a little luck is all you need. Please support and check out MMF on their website.

By Dave Moskal