Between the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Festival International de Louisiane in Lafayette, Baton Rouge will be smack-dab “in the middle of the most musical 125 miles on earth” this week when the city hosts the return of its very own blues festival.
That phrase is the slogan for the Baton Rouge Blues Week, a celebration of the genre that will include performances every night this week at various venues around town.
The week ends Saturday with an all-day festival downtown at Repentance Park.
Marcia Ball, Phil Guy, Tab Benoit and Kenny Neal are all home-grown headliners for the festival who got their start in the Red Stick.
After a 13-year absence, the festival is returning with artists exclusively from Louisiana.
“The Blues Fest is starting up again this year because we have a visionary mayor,” said Baton Rouge Blues Foundation President Johnny Palazzotto. “Three years ago Kip [Holden] said to me, ‘You know what Johnny, we’re going to bring back that blues festival,’ and he kept his word.”
Holden helped fund the blues foundation when it started in 2002.
“Baton Rouge has always been a blues town,” said Palazzotto. “More blues artists come out of here than New Orleans or Lafayette.”
Renowned blues musicians from the city include Buddy Guy, Silas Hogan, Tabby Thomas, Chris Thomas King, Slim Harpo, Tab Benoit and the Neal family.
“Buddy Guy was in Ray Neal’s band,” said Palazzotto. “He was pumping gas at the LSU Esso station in the late ’50s before he decided he was going to Chicago.”
The first song The Rolling Stones ever recorded was “I’m a King Bee” by Harpo, one of the most commercially-successful local blues musicians. Van Morrison and The Kinks also recorded songs written by Harpo.
Chris Thomas King, who played Saturday at Chelsea’s Café and will play Tuesday at Phil Brady’s, has won Grammy awards for his contributions to the movie soundtracks of “O Brother Where Art Thou?” and “Ray.” He also acted in both films, playing different famous blues musicians.
King is the son of Tabby Thomas, owner of Tabby’s Blues Box, one of the most famous blues bars in Baton Rouge before its closing in 2004.
The Baton Rouge Blues Foundation also hosted the 2008 Slim Harpo Awards on Saturday night to kick off Baton Rouge Blues Week.
Nick Spitzer, host of public radio program “American Routes,” received the ambassador award. His program focuses on music indigenous to the United States.
He called the blues “the universal music solvent” that touches everything from reggae to rock ‘n’ roll.
“Blues is one of the great, great gifts that has come out of the southern United States and the African-American community,” he said. “The people who had the least gave us the most.”
The “godfather of Baton Rouge blues” Silas Hogan received the legends award posthumously and Lil’ Ray Neal and Marcia Ball both garnered blues pioneer awards.
Perhaps the most recognizable figure in the room was Mayor Kip Holden, who helped give out medals to the honorees.
Holden advocates the foundation’s Music in the Schools Program, which teaches students about the importance of blues music in Louisiana.
“What’s also important is teaching young people their heritage and giving them the foundation to catapult them out of circumstances that might be poor,” he said.
Holden was born a blues fan and spent a great deal of time at his family’s “jukebox” or “jook joint,” a type of primarily African-American blues bar that originated in the Southeast.
Called Holden’s Cafe, it was located in north Baton Rouge, the area home to Silas Hogan.
“You got a chance to hear some of the classic people that put blues together,” said Holden.
Teddy’s Juke Joint is the only surviving venue of its kind in town, since the closing of Tabby’s Blues Box, and it will feature artists during this week’s festival.
Holden said he is excited about the revival of the festival.
“It allows you to re-experience a part of the city that had gone away,” he said. “There was a void, and now that void is no longer there.”
Palazzotto said one of the main reasons for the festival is to attract tourists to Baton Rouge, to get people to stay in town for more than a day.
“There’s plenty to do here, and Baton Rouge doesn’t get as much attention as some of the other cities,” he said. “We had a blues festival before Chicago, in 1980.”
Harpo’s son William Gambler said he hopes the festival will spark a resurgence of the blues in Baton Rouge.
“Hopefully we can get the blues back into the culture. It’s been a dying thing around here,” he said.
Palazzotto said he hopes the abundance of Louisiana and Baton Rouge artists playing this week will make people aware of the rich cultural heritage the blues has here.
“We have the opportunity to make the rest of the world realize that this whole state is a great cultural asset and that Baton Rouge has got the blues,” he said. “And we ain’t sad about it either.”
A full schedule for the festival can be found at www.batonrougebluesfestival.org.
—-Contact Lauren Walck at [email protected]