CAT HEAD BLUES UPDATE

1. "LIVE" BLUES THIS WEEK (and beyond)...

Please go to our new Cat Head web site for this week's "live" music news
in the Delta, including BB's Homecoming. The site has just been updated!

http://www.cathead.biz/livemusic.html

2. NEW AT CAT HEAD DELTA BLUES & FOLK ART...

- Book signing at Cat Head:
- This Sat., 6/14, 1 pm - Book signing with Olive Jean Bailey. Her new book "Coahoma: A Little Town With A Million Friends" is out and we have it for just $15. Hear her introduce it and the town of Coahoma,
Mississippi. Plus, take home a signed copy. If you are a band or author, please contact us to arrange an in-store event to promote your wares: 662-624-5992, roger@cathead.biz, 252 Delta Ave., Clarksdale, MS
38614.

- New 2004 calendar at Cat Head: It's true. There is a new, full-length Charley Patton photo!!! It is featured in a brand-new 2004 calendar of newly discovered Paramount advertising materials. The calendar also includes a nice CD of classic Paramount blues, including 3 recently discovered numbers by Blind Joe Reynolds, King Solomon Hill and Tommy Johnson. It's in stock now for just $20. PREVIEW THE PATTON PHOTO ON OUR WEB SITE: www.cathead.biz

- New audio/visuals at Cat Head: New arrival of the classic Earwig Records CDs "Honeyboy Edwards: Delta Bluesman" (one of my favorite CDs of all time - great music and interviews) and "Jelly Roll Kings: Rockin'
the Juke Joint Down" (the one with Clarksdale's Red Top Lounge on the cover). Also, we have Buddy Guy's excellent new acoustic blues CD "Blues Singer" as well as the new Muddy Water's "Can't Be Satisfied"
DVD/video (that's the great PBS documentary that aired last month to much acclaim...). Plus, from the fine folks at the Music Maker Relief Foundation, we have the new "Sisters of the South" blues compilation CD featuring several wonderful (mostly acoustic) blues (and a little gospel) ladies. Women like Precious Bryant, Cora Mae Bryant and Algia Mae Hinton to name a few. Finally, we have the newly compiled Earl King CD featuring his Imperial sides. Hear why everyone covered his songs, and "Come on baby, let the good times roll..."

- New artwork at Cat Head: Debra Edge Taylor from Memphis just dropped off a half a dozen pieces, including "Face On A Plate II", "Blues Woman With Green Guitar" and a couple paintings on 33 1/3 vinyl records.
Prices for her pieces range from $25 to $125. Email or call for details.

- Bring your tour group to Cat Head: Contact me before your tour group of 12+ folks comes to town, and I'll set up a little free or low-cost music in store to entertain you. Email or call to see what we can do.

3. UPDATED SUNFLOWER BLUES FEST LINE-UP/INFO...

"Year of the Blues Salute to Muddy Waters and Othar Turner"

Our festival is a FREE event. Please help us keep it that way by donating something (anything!) to:
"Keep the festival FREE!" c/o Sunflower River Blues Association
P.O. Box 1562, Clarksdale, MS 38614 (OR you can just drop a check by Cat Head, The Delta Blues Museum or
Dela's Stackhouse. We'll be happy to forward it for you. Thanks.)

THURSDAY, AUGUST 7:

Educational Stage (inside air-conditioned Delta Blues Museum)
Afternoon - Educational programs. Details to come.

Juke Joint Caravan - NEW event (at 5 clubs/jukes in Clarksdale) Evening - "Live" blues bands partially subsidized by Sunflower River Blues Association. (Reasonable cover charges at each venue. I swear...
the rest of the official festival events are totally FREE!)

FRIDAY, AUGUST 8

Main Stage (permanent stage outside Delta Blues Museum)
3 pm, Delta Blues Museum students (w/Jacqueline Gooch)
3:30 pm, Jacqueline Gooch w/Delta State's Barry Bays and Joey Cummings
4:15 pm, Blues Prodigy
5 pm, "Mr. Johnnie" Billington and his students
6 pm, The Deep Cuts
7 pm, James "Super Chikan" Johnson
8 pm, Miss Brown Sugar
9 pm, O.B. Buchana
10 pm, Latimore

SATURDAY, AUGUST 9

Othar Turner Memorial Acoustic Stage #1 (inside air-conditioned
Clarksdale Station)
10 am, Mr. Tater "The Music Maker"
10:30 am, John Ruskey
11 am, Pat Thomas
11:45 am, Eddie Cusic
12:15 pm, Bob Margolin, Hubert Sumlin and Carey Bell
1:15 pm, Tribute to Othar Turner (part 1), featuring Sharde and the
Rising Star Fife & Drum Band

Delta Avenue Acoustic Stage #2 - NEW! (under tent; 200 block of Delta
Ave.)
1:30 pm, Gelel Kumba
2 pm, Terry "Harmonica" Bean
2:45 pm, Willie King
3:30 pm, James "Super Chikan" Johnson
4:15 pm, Robert Belfour
5 pm, Cadillac John & Bill Abel

Main Stage (outside Delta Blues Museum)
1:30 pm, Othar Turner Tribute (part 2), featuring Sharde and the Rising
Star Fife & Drum Band
2 pm, Mohead
3 pm, Wesley Jefferson Band
4 pm, Big T & the Family
5 pm, Big George & the Houserockers
6 pm Willie King & the Liberators
7 pm, James Mathus & the Knockdown Society
7:30 pm, CeDell Davis
8:30 pm, Early Wright Awards
9 pm, David "Honeyboy" Edwards
10 pm, Bob Margolin's Blues Allstars, featuring Pinetop Perkins, Hubert
Sumlin and Carey Bell.

Gospel Stage (in air-conditioned City Auditorium, nearby)
1 pm, Donald Grant (soloist)
1:30 pm, Sensational Travelers
2 pm, Rev. Lloyd Johnson
2:30 pm, Harvest time Gospel
3 pm, True Believer with Lee O. Surrell
4 pm, Haven United Methodist Church
4: 30 pm, The Myles Family
5:15 pm, The Soulful Messengers

4. ACCOMMODATIONS DURING OUR FESTIVAL...

- I won't lie to you. Many places are already pretty booked up, so CALL TODAY for a room. It'll be a wonderfully long weekend that you won't soon forget. Here are some numbers to get you going. A few places have had cancellations in recent weeks, so anything could be possible.

In Clarksdale:
- The Belle-Clark B&B*, 662-627-1280 or 662-627-3069, vacancies last
time I checked
- Riverside Hotel*, 662-624-9163, vacancies last time I checked
- Delta R&B* (coming soon), 662-627-9025, call for information
- Shack-up Inn at Hopson*, 662-624-8329, NO room vacancies
- Comfort Inn**, 662-627-5122, possible vacancies due to cancellations
- Hampton Inn**, 662-627-9292, NO vacancies last time I checked
- Econolodge**, 662-621-1110, NO vacancies last time I checked
- Southern Inn, 662-624-6558, vacancies last time I checked
- Plantation Inn, 662-624-6541, vacancies last time I checked
- Uptown Inn, 662-627-3251, NO vacancies last time I checked
- Hick's Hotel, 662-624-9900, probably vacancies
- Days Inn, CLOSED

Nearby:
- Uncle Henry's* (at Moon Lake), 662-337-2757, vacancies last time I checked
- Isle of Capri* (in MS across from Helena, AR), 662-337-0027 or 662-363-2250, vacancies - These folks are BIG $upporters of our festival, by the way.
- Magnolia House B&B* in Helena, AR, 870-222-6425, probably vacancies
- Also, as a last resort, there are always rooms available in Tunica (www.tunicachamber.com) or Cleveland, MS (www.clevelandmschamber.com).

For camping:
- Expo Center on Hwy. 61 in Clarksdale*, 1-800-626-3764 (Tourism/Chamber), RV camping available (hook-ups, etc.).
- Hopson/Shack-up Inn*, 662-624-8329, RV and tent camping on grounds - NO hook ups (call first)
- Great River Road State Park** in Rosedale, MS (Hwy.1S), 662-759-6762 - Beautiful place! Neat town.

*For asterisked places, tell them that "Cat Head sent you!"
**If it has one or two asterisks, we have stayed there and/or can recommend it. (The others... I just can't say.)

5. ALSO DURING SUNFLOWER RIVER BLUES FESTIVAL...

- Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art - "First Anniversary Party", featuring 4 days of "live" blues, folk artist meet-and-greets, book signings, music/art giveaways, free refreshments and more! Thurs., 8/7-Sun., 8/8. Watch for details. I promise it will be a blast.
- Jacqueline's Blues Bar - 11-year-old blues guitar prodigy Jacqueline Gooch will play her namesake club on Thurs., 8/7 and host a jam on Sun., 8/10. Stay tuned for Fri. & Sat. listings.
- Hopson Commissary - Already confirmed for Fri. & Sat., 8/8-8/9: CeDell Davis and Jimbo Mathus! CeDell is a Fast Horse Records, Wolf Records and Fat Possum Records recording artist from Pine Bluff, AR; he's a super cool old dude who plays electrified juke joint blues using a butter knife as a slide for his guitar. Jimbo Mathus has a number of CDs out with his Knockdown Society (and before that the Squirrel Nut Zippers) and is the featured backing guitarist on Buddy Guy's new "Blues Singer" CD.
- Ground Zero Blues Club - Already confirmed for Fri., 8/8 and Sat., 8/9: Richard Johnston! You may have heard Richard's award-winning CD. If not, he's a hill country style, cigar box guitar playing blues musician from Memphis... with quite a following.
- More great gigs to come - You know that Clarksdale clubs and jukes like Sarah's, Red's and Reese's are all guaranteed to have some stuff happening as well. (Plus, probably The Junction, Club Millennium, etc.)

6. A NEARBY EVENT DURING C'DALE'S FESTIVAL...

In addition to Clarksdale's annual blues fest, some of the smaller southern river towns in the Delta are also having a special celebration the same weekend: "Highway One Gospel & Blues Celebration"

FRIDAY, AUGUST 8
Friars Point
A day of community festivities with a "Riverside Blues" performance in the afternoon. (Roosevelt Robinson: 383 2226)
SATURDAY, AUGUST 9
Rosedale
Great River Road State Park
Morning Gospel Celebration, will begin around 10 a.m. (Calvin Robinson, director of the park: 759 6762)
Beulah
Cotton Harvest Festival - Art fair
African and West Indies exhibits - live music from Nigeria, workshops
and ethnic foods.
"Railroad Blues" performance under the trees by the tracks, at 2 p.m.
Gunnison
Dedication ceremony for the new City Hall at 5 p.m.
Spirituals and prayer dancing in the Main Street Park at 6 p.m.
Rummage sale and afternoon youth activities (games, and pony rides on
the levee.)
SUNDAY, AUGUST 10
Benoit
Catfish Fair and rummage sale - all the ways one can fix catfish, and an
exhibit on the different species in the Mississippi River.
The Great Migration memorial ceremony and "Ozark Mountain Blues," at 1 p.m.
Greenville
Winterville Mounds - Prehistoric Native American ceremonial site.
Festivities begin at 2:30 p.m. Chickasaw dancers will perform around
3:30.

7. INFORMATION ON OTHER BLUES FESTIVALS...

- Final reminder - This coming weekend is the big Highway 61 Blues Festival in Leland, MS. Killer Mississippi bands, both acoustic and electric. Check out the details in last week's Update email or at:
www.highway61blues.nstemp.com/festival.html

- Kansas City Kansas Street Blues Festival is Saturday June 28th. It is again a free festival, and this year's attendance is expected to reach 10,000 with visitors from all over the world. Visit website at www.kckstreetbluesfest.com (Also... As a surprise, Lazy Lester, on the spur of the moment, has decided to come to Kansas City to hang out from June 27th thru July 3rd, before heading up to The Mississippi Valley
Blues Festival in Davenport, Iowa for July 4th and 5th.)

- One additional note on the Mississippi John Hurt Festival: For the church event on July 3, there is no charge. However, for the blues fest on July 4 at the John Hurt Museum, there is a $5 fee for adults. Children under 12 are free. No coolers or alcholic beverages allowed.

- Memphis' WEVL FM90 15th Annual Blues on the Bluff® Concerts
- July 19 - Sid Selvidge, Joyce Cobb & Cool Heat & The Kenny Brown Band
- August 23 - Robert Belfour, Daddy Mack Blues Band & Blind Mississippi Morris & The Pocket Rockets

8. OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI'S "1ST ANNUAL" FILM FESTIVAL...

- The First Annual Oxford Film Festival will be held June 19-22. Highlights include screenings of the Honeyboy Edwards documentary, Robert Mugge's "...Juke" and a preview of the big "The Blues" doc set for fall on PBS. Go to www.oxfordarts.com for event info and descriptions of film, but here is a partial line-up featuring the blues
offerings:

Thursday, June 19
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm Thacker Mountain Radio Show from the courthouse lawn
10:00 pm Kudzu Kings at Proud Larry's Friday, June 20
5:00 pm - 6:45 pm Genghis Blues FCMV
6:30 pm - 8:15 pm Heavenly and Last of the Mississippi Jukes FCMV
3:00 pm - 4:45 pm Man's Search for Happiness and Honey Boy FCMV
5:00 pm - 6:45 pm Documentary Shorts: Buffalo Common, Nutria, Uprooted, and Blue Suede Shoes in the Hood BBA
7:00 pm - 9:15 pm Uncle Sam and Your Money and The Blues FCMV

FCMV: Ford Center Main Venue
BBA: Black Box Annex

9. OTHER LOCAL MUSIC/ARTS NEWS...

From Clarksdale Press Register:

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* Lineup set for blues fest
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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The good sound of gospel is coming home.
(By: Emily Le Coz - Staff Writer)
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=8230212&BRD=2038&PAG=461&dept_id=
230617

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* Clarksdale bluesman wins Handy award
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Confirming for the world what his hometown already knew - the Clarksdale bluesman is good, real good - Big Jack Johnson won his first W.C. Handy
Award last month.
(By: Emily Le Coz - Staff Writer)
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=8248520&BRD=2038&PAG=461&dept_id=
230617

10. RECENT "LIVE" BLUES AND EVENTS IN THE AREA...

- Paul "Wine" Jones (with Pickle, Bill and Levin) played all his Fat Possum Records hits and more this past Saturday night at Leo's Market in Rosedale. Great crowd. Great food.

- Precious Bryant and Jesse Mae Hemphill were on NPR's Thacker Mountain Radio show this past Sunday afternoon. The event was recorded about a month ago in Oxford, MS. (Last year's Precious CD on Terminus was up for a Handy Award recently, and Jesse Mae has a new album in the works, by the way.)

- Reese's continues to be the juke joint of choice around Clarksdale. I couldn't make it this past Sunday evening, but tourist/guitarist "Jeff The Cop" reports that Big T played and was joined at times by the "Jeff
The Cop," the Deep Cuts' Josh "Razorblade" Stewart and Delta drumming legend Sam Carr of Jelly Roll Kings fame. Be there if you can for another great time next Sunday night!

- Other musicial high points in C'dale this past weekend: Louisiana blues and zydeco by Mem Shannon and Lil' Brian at Ground Zero plus a mix of pop, rock and boogie at the Chamber of Commerce's annual Delta Jubilee.

11. NY TIMES ARTICLE ON CLARKSDALIAN (courtesy of Cat Head friend Kevin
Holley)...

June 4, 2003
East Meets South at a Delta Table By JOAN NATHAN
CLARKSDALE, Miss. < In this town in the Delta, home of the blues and Muddy Waters, cooks are sizzling catfish and collards and crayfish every day and night. But you don't expect to find those home chefs stir-frying
them or steaming them in a giant backyard wok. But the Chow family, like the other hundred or so Chinese-Americans here with Delta roots going back a century or more, use the ingredients at hand and the techniques passed on for generations. "What we eat connects us so that we know we are both Chinese and Mississippi Delta folks," Gilroy Chow said in his thick Southern drawl as he cooked crayfish Cantonese style in an outdoor wok. Near the crayfish, an eight-pound catfish was cooking in another wok. The fish, too big for a poacher, was a gift to the Chows from a fellow member of the local Baptist church. He had caught it that morning in the
Mississippi, and now it was simmering in the giant wok. Covered with aluminum foil and balanced on a large propane burner, the wok is a family heirloom brought over from China. The recipe is an heirloom from China as well, although with a couple of adjustments. After the fish was cooked, it would be seasoned with soy sauce, then garnished with garlic, ginger, scallions and crisply sliced strips of bacon, "The bacon is something that we have incorporated," Mr. Chow's wife, Sally, said. "It's the same with our fried rice. I don't think many Chinese would make fried rice with bacon, as we do." The Chinese first came to the Delta during Reconstruction, when
plantation owners, looking for cheap labor and worried that black workers were acting like free people rather than slaves, lured the immigrants with promises of jobs, said James W. Loewen, author of "The Mississippi Chinese: Between Black and White" (Waveland, 1988). "But the Chinese immediately found that they had been lied to," Mr. Loewen said. "They could never make money and send any home competing against America's lowest-paid work force, blacks in the Mississippi Delta, so they opened grocery stores. Ninety-five percent of the Chinese operated grocery stores, mostly for black clientele." Most Chinese who came to the South settled in the Delta, Mr. Loewen said. The 2000 census lists 689 in the Delta counties, but local Chinese-Americans say there are more than twice that many. The Chows came after the first wave. "My father settled in Cleveland, Miss., in 1912," Mr. Chow, an engineer, said. "Later, he opened a grocery store in Greenville." Like many other Chinese in the South, the Chows lived above their grocery store and grew Chinese vegetables in their backyard. In a
segregated society, they maintained distinctiveness from blacks and whites, having their own schools and Chinese Baptist churches. Today they are more integrated into society. The Chows are active in the
Oakhurst Baptist Church, the largest in Clarksdale, and Ms. Chow is its organist. "We were all born in the Delta," said Mr. Chow, 62, one of six children. "My father was an entrepreneur and was traveling, selling meat
throughout the South." After making commercial contacts in the North, Mr. Chow's father moved the family to Forest Hills, Queens, in 1947. He exported cotton and tobacco to China and imported tea, silk goods and
Chinese figurines to the Delta. But two years later the Communist Revolution put an end to that business, and he opened a restaurant in Manhattan. While his family stayed in Queens, Gilroy Chow studied engineering at
Mississippi State University, where he roomed with a cousin and met his future wife, also named Chow, a common name among Chinese-Americans in the Delta. Ms. Chow's grandfather grew up in Marks, Miss., 20 miles from Clarksdale. "In the rich alluvial soil of the Delta, he had a grocery store and grew Chinese vegetables to send up to Chicago," Ms. Chow, 56, said. Family and friends would also share the bok choy, winter melon, Chinese broccoli, mustard and radish, grown at home. These days, the garden is tended by Ms. Chow's 90-year-old uncle, L. K. Pang, who lives with them. He grows tomatoes, okra, beans, squash and Chinese
vegetables. The family also leases 1,000 acres of farmland south of town, where it grows rice, cotton, soybeans and wheat. Collards have become a Chow family favorite. They demonstrated their version, stir-fried collards with oyster sauce and garlic, on the National Mall at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington in
1997, after being selected by local folklorists. The recipe was adapted by Ms. Chow from Yung Chow, a sister-in-law. With no garden and unable to find local Chinese greens like bok choy or Chinese broccoli, she substituted the Southern staple. When the Chows' son, Bradley, was studying at Mississippi State
University in Starkville, he tasted the collards at his aunt's home in nearby Columbus. Because he liked it so much, it has become a family favorite. Now his wife, Jennifer, makes it for him at their home in nearby Memphis.
As conversation in the South often does, the discussion of collards turned to the difficult task of ridding greens of grit. "My aunt puts turnip greens in the gentle cycle of the washing machine," Ms. Chow said. Another guest said she did too, but also used a little mesh bag. Even though Chinese ingredients are much more available everywhere nowadays, the Mississippi Chinese still like to blend the best of America with their traditional Chinese cooking. Back in China, the family would have made chicken wings or a whole Peking duck. The Chows have adapted this recipe into a simple but delicious whole roasted chicken caramelized with the hoisin. Instead of displaying it whole on the table, like most of their neighbors would do with a roast bird, they cut it into pieces.
On the other hand, memories of China season an asparagus stir-fry with tofu and thinly sliced beef. "When we got married 33 years ago, all Chinese staples came in from California or New York," Mr. Chow said. "Twenty years ago we could go to Dallas or Houston for Chinese groceries. Now we can go to Memphis, where
you can find lots of Chinese grocery stores." She listed baby bok choy, tofu, five-spice powder, hoisin, chicken fat, hog maw and tripe < "things you wouldn't find at Kroger's." Once, they did buy oyster sauce, a condiment often used in vegetable stir-fries, at Kroger's, the grocery chain. "It tasted like cough syrup," Ms. Chow said. "It wasn't anything like we get in the Chinese stores." As they do almost every week, the extended Chow family < Ms. Chow's brothers are pharmacists here < gathered at her home to cook. "We do it on Mondays because we are so involved in our church on Sundays," Ms. Chow said, checking the catfish. Ms. Chow, judging by her schedule, is involved throughout the week. A teacher who mainstreams special education students into the regular curriculum at Coahoma County High School, Ms. Chow is also known locally for her little sideline, Chow Cakes, a special-occasion cake business she and Alice Chow, another sister-in-law, run. She was even a finalist in 1996 for the new image of Betty Crocker, that great symbol of traditional America. She was nominated by her husband in a contest sponsored by the company. Today, though, Ms. Chow was relaxing with her family.
Three generations of Chows held hands around the table and said grace. "When you're living day to day," Ms. Chow said, "routine can blind you to your heritage. I think it's important to retain our traditions and pass them on to our children." And yet, the Chows are Southern. "You hurry back," Ms. Chow said as I left after dinner. "Next time we'll cook y'all some turnip greens and corn bread."

12. CHECK OUT "BLUE MOTHER TUPELO" WEB SITE...

Blue Mother Tupelo has some gigs coming up. Check 'em out on their site, or better yet book 'em for an event of your own: www.bluemothertupelo.com
PO Box 1038
Hendersonville, TN 37077-1038
ph: 615.826.1489
mail@bluemothertupelo.com

13. ALSO, CHECK OUT "THE ELECTRIC MUDD"...

Mississippi roots band schedule, booking info and more...
www.theelectricmudd.com