Blues Week 2024

Phil Wiggins – Advisor

Phil Wiggins will be the week’s advisor and will be facilitating the Wednesday “Blues House Party” special events.

Phil Wiggins is arguably America’s foremost blues harmonica virtuoso, and a master of the unique blues traditions of the Piedmont. He achieved worldwide acclaim over three decades as one half of the premier Piedmont blues duo of Cephas & Wiggins. Blues from the Piedmont—the hilly region between the Appalachians and low-lying coastal areas that stretches through Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland—is one of the oldest forms of the blues. It draws heavily on earlier fiddle and banjo string band music that was equally popular among rural blacks and whites, and served as a staple at country parties, hoedowns and square dances. Although Phil Wiggins’s harmonica playing is rooted in the melodic Piedmont or “Tidewater” blues of the Chesapeake region, his mastery of the instrument now transcends stylistic boundaries.Born in Washington, D.C., in 1954, Wiggins spent summers during his childhood at his grandmother’s house in Alabama, and in church there he absorbed the sounds of old-time hymns sung in the traditional call-and-response style. Phil was attracted to blues harmonica as a young man, and began his musical career with some of Washington, D.C.’s leading blues artists, including Archie Edwards and John Jackson. He attributes his basic style to the years spent accompanying locally-noted slide guitarist and gospel singer Flora Molton.

In 1976 Phil met bluesman Cephas; with pianist Wilbert “Big Chief” Ellis and bassist James Bellamy, they formed the Barrelhouse Rockers. A year later, the duo of Cephas & Wiggins was born. Since the death of guitarist and singer John Cephas in 2009, Phil has brought his harmonica wizardry to bear in a variety of musical collaborations. In addition to his skills on the harmonica, Wiggins is also a fine songwriter.

Phil is a two-time winner of the prestigious W.C. Handy Award. He regularly ranks among the world’s top harmonica players in both Reader and Critics’ polls by Living Blues magazine. In 2017, Phil received an NEA National Heritage Fellowship, the nation’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.

Joan Fenton – Advisor

Beginning Guitar

Folklorist and performer Joan Fenton earned her Master’s degree in folklore from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1981. She records and interviews southern roots artists from North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Louisiana. Artists include: Reverend Gary Davis, Willie Trice, Pink Anderson, and Guitar Shorty. Fenton’s folklore thesis fieldwork on Howard Cotten, recorded between 1976 and 1978, is represented through his songs, anecdotes, and tales about fishing and hunting. Documentation of field recordings include transcription notes from interviews and notes compiled from audio material. She is the owner of several stores in Charlottesville, Virginia that feature traditional and contemporary handcrafts. Joan was one of the founders of Blues Week along with Phil Wiggins and Sparky Rucker.

Sunpie Barnes

Intermediate/Advanced Piano & New Orleans Experience

Sunpie is a former National Park Service Ranger photographer, former high school biology teacher (30 year), former college football All-American, and former NFL football player (Kansas City Chiefs). Bruce Sunpie Barnes’ many careers have taken him far and wide. He has traveled to 53 countries playing his own style of what he calls Afro-Louisiana music incorporating blues, zydeco, creole jazz, gospel, work songs, Caribbean and African influenced rhythms and melodies. He is a multi-instrumentalist, mastering accordion, harmonica, and piano along with rubboard, talking drum, and dejembe. He learned accordion from some of the best Zydeco pioneers in Louisiana, including Fernest Arceneaux, John Delafose, and Clayton Sampy. Along with his musical group Sunpie and the Louisiana Sunspots, he has performed at festivals and concerts across the US and around the globe. Sunpie has currently recorded 7 critically acclaimed CDs with his compositions featured in 19 Hollywood film productions.

Joe Filisko

Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced Harmonica

Revered as a master player, teacher, custom harmonica pioneer, researcher, and historian, Joe Filisko is arguably the world’s foremost authority on many aspects of the diatonic harmonica and a key figure in today’s harmonica scene. Over the past 20 years he has had a tremendous influence on developments in the culture of the instrument. His much sought after custom harps are used by a remarkable roster of players and are prized for their superb response and tonal qualities by a client list that includes a large proportion of the world’s diatonic harmonica elite. Since the early 1990s, his groundbreaking work in improving the playability of the instrument has directly affected the production of all major harmonica manufacturers. In 2011 Joe Filisko entered into a close cooperation with Hohner as Head of Certification Process for the company’s new Affiliated Customizer Program, a bold move to guarantee standards for purchasers of custom harmonicas which is without precedent in the harmonica industry. He also made important design contributions to the latest model of Hohner’s Marine Band range, the Thunderbird, which bears his signature and has been cited as the finest low key harmonica available on the market today.

Fueled by his desire to preserve historical harmonica styles from extinction, Joe Filisko has amassed not only an encyclopedic knowledge of the entire gamut of traditional harmonica techniques, but has mastered them to an extent unrivaled among contemporary players. His passion for both the well-known and the unsung heroes of the 10-hole diatonic has made him a riveting performer in his own right, with a fluid command of a wide range of styles and possibly the most powerful hand effects ever heard. A master of tone and complex, nuanced tongue block rhythms, he has for many years shared his knowledge with students on five continents and so contributed enormously to the widespread understanding of traditional harmonica styles among a new generation of players.

Though his work as a scholar and a craftsman has rightly earned him a place in the harmonica pantheon, it is as a player that he truly shines. Joe Filisko coaxes sounds from the harmonica which few before him have ever created and which open up new perspectives for countless players and lovers of this remarkable little instrument.

Resa Gibbs

Blues Vocals, all levels

Resa Gibbs, lead vocalist and percussionist for MSG Acoustic Blues Trio (a trio steeped in the Piedmont Blues tradition), is known for her warm, soulful, and heartfelt sound. A sought-after vocal instructor, she feels pleased and honored by the opportunity to instruct vocal workshops at Augusta Heritage Center’s Blues & Swing Week 2019.

In the summer of 2008 and 2009, Resa taught blues singing during Country Blues Week at Centrum in Port Townsend, WA. She has also been an assistant instructor at Augusta’s Blues & Swing Week gospel mini-course. In 2010, she, along with Jackie Merritt, was accepted into the Library of Congress “Americana Women: Roots Musicians – Women’s Tales and Tunes” as part of the MusicBox Project collection, some of which has been catalogued in the American Folklife Center.

Resa has made vocal contributions including backing vocals on several award winning singer / songwriters’ albums. Most notably, she sang background vocals on Gaye Adegbalola’s Bitter Sweet Blues CD, produced by Rory Block and recorded by Alligator Records. On the 2008 CD project by Gaye Adegbalola entitled Gaye Without Shame, Resa sang a featured duet with Gaye and added backing vocals to several tracks. This CD was produced by Blues Music Award winner Bob Margolin. She performed with Gaye, Bob Margolin, Jason Ricci, and other nominated artists at the 2009 BMAs (Blues Music Awards) in Memphis. She also had the pleasure of singing on Roddy Barnes’ ODD album in 2015.

MSG’s 4th CD, The Flood, was released in the spring of 2016 and nominated in the first round for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Traditional Blues Album. It was also selected by the DC Blues Society for submission to the International Blues Challenge in the category of Best Self-Produced Album.

Hubby Jenkins

Intermediate & Advanced Guitar

Hubby Jenkins is a talented multi-instrumentalist who endeavors to share his love and knowledge of old-time American music. Born and raised in Brooklyn he delved into his Southern roots, following the thread of African American history that wove itself through country blues, ragtime, fiddle and banjo, and traditional jazz. Hubby got his higher musical education started as a busker. He developed his guitar and vocal craft on the sidewalks and subway platforms of New York City, performing material by those venerable artists whose work he was quickly absorbing. An ambitiously itinerant musician, he took his show on the road, playing the streets, coffee shops, bars, and house parties of cities around the U.S. 

After years of busking around the country and making a name for himself, Hubby became acquainted with the Carolina Chocolate Drops. He was an integral part of the Grammy award winning Carolina Chocolate Drops (2010 – 2016), as well as a member of Rhiannon Giddens band. Today he spreads his knowledge and love of old-time American music and history through his dynamic solo performances.

Judy LaPrade

Beginning Piano

Judy LaPrade grew up playing piano at home and in church. She started as a toddler mimicking her older sister and then began classical lessons that left her strong, natural ear in the dust. Augusta’s Blues Week in 1985 began the long road to recovery of that ear with a deep love of traditional Blues. This background makes her a somewhat nervous performer but a wonderful teacher who truly understands the challenge of leaving printed music behind. She has a gift for breaking things down in a systematic yet artistic way that blends the use of the left and right parts of the brain.

Judy has taught Blues piano for ten years in a variety of Blues camps with students who are both raw beginners and trained pianists who yearn for freedom from the printed page. She has a joy for teaching that encourages people to have fun and move past the voice in their heads that says, “”This is too hard. I can’t do it.”” She found this joy as a member of the Elktones, a group of women musicians from Elkins, West Virginia, known for vocal harmonies and an eclectic repertoire that included African music, blues, rock, and folk. She is a life-long teacher in every aspect of her work, since she directed music programs and the choir at a local state mental hospital in junior high school.

Judy fell in love with the blues, studying piano, accordion, and voice with Maureen DelGrosso, Ann Rabson, Erwin Helfer, and others. It is her mission to keep traditional blues alive and growing by passing this joy on to others.

Eric Noden

Intermediate Guitar & Jug Band

Eric Noden is an award-winning blues and roots guitarist and producer based out of Chicago, Illinois. Noden’s music is both a tribute to the past and a reflection of current times. From barrelhouse blues to New Orleans grooves to dazzling guitar instrumentals Eric’s live performances are festive and celebratory events. Noden has been featured on music festivals in over 15 countries and 3 continents. He has released 9 albums including his duo work with harmonica master Joe Filisko and blues legend Billy Boy Arnold.

Miles Spicer

A native of the Washington Metropolitan area, Miles Spicer has been a part of the DC blues scene since the 1990’s. He learned from the world class Piedmont Blues performers who called this region home. His teachers and influences are John Jackson, John Cephas, Michel Baytop, Archie Edwards, Eleanor Ellis and Paul Bell.

Miles is one third of M.S.G. Acoustic Blues trio and contributes guitar and vocals to the band. In addition, songs written with his writing partner David Bird, form a significant part of the groups’ repertoire. M.S.G has produced 3 full length CD’s and an EP and have played small and large venues all over the U.S.

In addition to M.S.G. Miles is part of the duo Spice Cake with Yaya Patterson. They were semi-finalists at the 2023 International Blues Challenge.

Miles is a founder of the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation and serves on its board of directors. He is also a staff teaching artist for Arts for The Aging (AFTA) and through them performs workshops for senior citizens throughout the D.C area.

Bob Thompson

“Pianist Bob Thompson has enjoyed a long and active career as a performer, composer, arranger, and teacher. For decades he has played in West Virginia, and at festivals and venues around the country, including the Blue Note in New York, Blues Alley in Washington D.C. and the Newport Jazz Festival in Saratoga, NY. He has also taken his music to Europe, Africa, and South America. In December 2022 he was featured at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts playing solo piano as part of “A Jazz Piano Christmas”, which was broadcast on NPR. Bob Thompson was also a guest on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz, on National Public Radio.

Since 1991 Bob Thompson has been pianist, and regularly featured artist on West Virginia’s NPR syndicated radio show, Mountain Stage. For the past thirty years he has also been co-producer and host of Joy to the World, a Holiday jazz show featuring Bob’s band, and each year, a special guest vocalist. The show is broadcast on public radio stations nationwide, and heard internationally on the Voice of America.

Bob was born in Jamaica, New York. He moved to West Virginia to study instrumental music at West Virginia State University, with trumpet as his major instrument. While in college he began playing jazz piano. After winning awards at the Notre Dame Collegiate Jazz Festival, and subsequent State Department tours abroad, he decided to pursue a career in jazz.

His recordings on Capitol’s Intima label, and Ichiban International, received high recognition on the national jazz charts, with some reaching the top-ten. Musicians who have recorded with Bob Thompson include: John Blake, Kevin Eubanks, Omar Hakim, Larry Coryell, Gerald Veasley, Chris Dave, Jean-Paul Bourelly, Dwayne Dolphin, and Rodney Holmes.

Bob Thompson “Live” on Mountain Stage, and Smile, with the Bob Thompson Unit, are on his own label, Colortones.com. The latest recording by the Bob Thompson Band, “Look Beyond the Rain”, is on Blue Canoe Records.

In October 2015, Bob Thompson was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.”

Dom Turner

Intermediate & Advanced Guitar

Voted ‘Traditional Blues Artist of the Year 2022’ by the Sydney Blues Society, multi award winning Australian blues artist, Dom Turner is best known as guitarist, ‘bottleneck’ slide guitarist, lead vocalist, and founding member of the Australian hybrid-blues group, Backsliders as well as other international tours and recordings with including R.L. Boyce with Dom Turner (with Mississippi hill-country blues legend RL Boyce), The Turner Brown Band (with Sacred Steel artist Nikki Brown) and Phil Wiggins & Dom Turner (with US National Heritage Award recipient and harmonica virtuoso Phil Wiggins)

Dom has toured the festival circuit in Australia and internationally since the 1980s and regularly appears at major, blues-related music festivals. He is a regular visitor to the home of the blues, the USA performing at festivals including Augusta Blues Week in West Virginia, RL Boyce Picnic as well as the Otha Turner Goat Picnic in Mississippi. He also toured Mexico with US blues greats, Del Ray and Steve James

Dom’s musical influences are many and varied – a blend of Mississippi hill country blues, delta blues, Piedmont blues, dub and sounds of Asia. His first love though is early 20th Century rural blues of all styles. As a teenager he first started listening to artist such as Lead Belly, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Robert Johnson, Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Willie McTell, Charley Patton, Son House and Big Joe Williams.

He has had a lifelong journey playing learning about blues, along the way recording and collaborating with various blues and gospel tradition-bearers including Phil Wiggins & Dom Turner, R.L. Boyce with Dom Turner and The Turner Brown Band (with Sacred Steel artist Nikki Brown). Dom’s other musical projects include international collaborations; Kim Sinh & Dom Turner (with Vietnamese stringed instrument master Kim Sinh) as well as Dom Turner & Jin Hi Kim (with innovative Korean komongo musician, Jin Hi Kim).

During the 2010’s Dom completed a doctorate in creative arts, connecting American blues and gospel with early Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese forms of ‘microtonal’ or ‘slide’ based music, through a series of cross-cultural collaborative recordings. In 2004 Dom was voted ‘Blues Songwriter of the Year’ at the Australian Blues Awards. His
trademark ‘slide’ guitar sound and song writing can be heard on myriad session recordings and his songs have featured on the ABC TV programme ‘Seachange’, as well as the
soundtrack to Tim Winton’s best-selling novel, ‘Dirt Music and the 2013 Channel 9 TV series ‘Underbelly – Squizzy Taylor’.

In 2008 Dom was invited onstage to play with slide guitar legend Derek Trucks at the Adelaide international Guitar Festival.

Turner is a phenomenal guitarist – slide and otherwise – and brilliant songwriter with
trademark vocals” Rhythms Magazine
 
“The man is a phenomenal blues player.” BWW Reviews

www.domturner.com.au