SUNFLOWER RIVER BLUES & GOSPEL FESTIVAL 1988-1994 PROGRAMS & FLYERS Clarksdale

This lot consists of the following programs and flyers from the early years of the historic festival in Clarksdale, Mississippi:

1994 SUNFLOWER RIVER BLUES & GOSPEL FESTIVAL Program, August 5-7, 1994.  Performer bios and photos: Johnnie Billington, Big George Brock, Mojo Buford, R.L. Burnside, Eddie Cusic, Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis, Honeyboy Edwards, Willie J. Foster, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Frank Frost and Sam Carr, Wesley Jefferson, Big Jack Johnson, James “Super Chikan” Johnson, Arthneice Jones & The Stone Gas Band, Monroe Jones, Junior Kimbrough, Jack Owens & Bud Spires, Lonnie Pitchford, Eugene Powell, Eddie Rasberry, Rawls & Luckett, Bobby Rush, Lonnie Shields, Othar Turner & Rising Star Fife & Drum Band, C.V Veal, Robert “Bilbo” Walker, The Williams Brothers. Also includes performance and workshop event schedules.  Workshop and panel participants include Peter Aschoff, Johnnie Billington, Paul Campbell, Bill Ferris, Arthur Flowers, Sid Graves, Corey Harris, Larry Hoffman, Arthneice Jones, Larry Nager, David Nelson, Jim O’Neal, Tom Rankin, David Suisman, Dick Waterman, and Lane Wilkins. Also includes Clarksdale Blues Sites list, Delta Blues Travel Planning Tips, articles including “Running With the Devil” by Dr. E.H. Summer (Dan Wiebe), “Blacks, Whites & Blues,” and ”Gospel Music” by Rev. Marvin Myles,  plus info about the Early Wright Award and local business ads. 32 pages, newsprint 8-1/2 x 11. Paper has faded with age and there is a small pen mark on the front.

1996 SUNFLOWER RIVER BLUES & GOSPEL FESTIVAL Program, August 2-4, 1996. Blues artist photos & bios: Robert Page Belfour, Johnnie Billington, Frank Frost and Sam Carr, Super Chikan, T-Model Ford, Arthneice Jones and the Stone Gas Band, Paul “Wine” Jones, Junior Kimbrough, Willie Foster, Glenn Faulkner, Sweet Miss Coffy and the Mississippi Burning Blues Revue with Eddie Rasberry, Eddie Cusic, Lonnie Pitchford, Charlie Musselwhite, Little Bill Wallace, Wesley Jefferson, Clayton Love, Othar Turner and the Rising Star Fife and Drum Band, T-Bone Pruitt, Robert “Bilbo” Walker, Bobby Rush, Dr. Mike and the Interns, Monroe Jones with Cadillac John Holden, Lane Wilkins with John Wilkins and Kevin Murphy, Wade Walton, Lonnie Shields, Raymond “Pat” Thomas, Eugene Powell, and Jack Owens & Bud Spires. Gospel photos (some with bios): Willie Neal Johnson & the Gospel Keynotes, Johnny Kinard & the Sensational Voices of Hope, Myles Family, Haven United Methodist Church Choir, Angelic Voices, Rev. Wesley Barnes & the Gospel Six. Delta Blues Education Week Presenters photos & bios: Johnnie Billington, Bll Donoghue, Skip Henderson, Larry Hoffman, Kenneth Jackson, Michael “Dr. Mike” James, Moses I. Lewis Jr., Erich Meili, Rev. Willie Morganfield, Charlie Musselwhite, Harvell & Dione Thomas, Gayle Dean Wardlow, Lane Wilkins, Rev. Marvin Myles, Sule Greg C. Wilson. Plus: tribute photos & text on Jessie Mae Hemphill, Roosevelt “Booba” Barnes (with a quote from James Joyce’s Ulysses) and Mercy Dee Walton; local business ads & map; and info on the Delta Blues Museum, Sunflower River Blues Associaton sponsors & volunteers, and the presentation of the Early Wright Award to Lillian McMurry. 32-page program on newsprint. Program was folded and has a light crease but otherwise is in excellent condition.

1997 SUNFLOWER RIVER BLUES & GOSPEL FESTIVAL program. 32 pages on newsprint with bios and photos of Little Milton, Ike Turner, Big Jack Johnson, Clayton Love, Frank Frost & Sam Carr, Willie Foster, Robert “Bilbo” Walker, Wade Walton, Johnnie Billington, John Weston, John Mohead, Eddie Cusic, The Perry’s, Monroe Jones, the A&R All Stars (featuring future Southern soul star O.B. Buchana, so little known at the time that his name was misspelled and his photo misidentified), David Brinston, Eugene Powell, Lane Wilkins, Andrew “Shine” Turner & the Exotic Queens, Dr. Mike (Michael James) & the Interns, Robert Curtis (R.C.) Smith, Othar Turner & the Rising Star Fife & Drum Band, Fruteland Jackson, “Philadelphia” Jerry Ricks, Josh Stewart & the John Horton Band, Arthneice Jones & the Stone Gas Band, Super Chikan, C.V. Veal, and Lonnie Pitchford. Also included are gospel photos (Slim & the Supreme Angels and The Racy Brothers) and bios of presenters on the 1997 Sunflower River Blues Education Program including Milburn Crowe, Bill Steber, Larry Hoffman, Tom Rankins, Mara Califf, Dione & Harvell Thomas, and Evelyn Palfrey. Plus “eccentric ramblings” in essays by Colin Buchanan (who did the typesetting & layout of these programs) and Dan Wiebe (both written under pseudonyms); an editorial from Living Blues magazine by David Nelson; local photos; the Early Wright Award; and ads for local nightclubs, hotels and other businesses. Newsprint is beginning to turn yellow with age and the front pages have a small tear.

1989 SUNFLOWER RIVERBANK BLUES FESTIVAL flyer for the second annual festival (now the Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival), August 5, 1989. 8-1/2 x 11 two-sided flyer. Performers listed: Wade Walton, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Blind Mississippi Morris, C.V. Veal, the Delta Blues Brothers [Wesley Jefferson's band], Lonnie Shields, J.B. & the Midnighters, John Mohead & Burt French. On the back side is a list of sponsors and patrons including the Riverside Hotel, Early Wright of WROX, Stackhouse/Delta Record Mart and Rooster Blues Records, Delta Chiropractic, Boss Hogg’s Barbecue, Chamoun’s Grocery & Restaurant, Sajjas, Daniel Wiebe & Dorothy Slabach, Panny Mayfield, Ellis Darby, Walter & Mary Thompson, Miro’s Music Shoppe, and others who helped put this festival together at the last minute in the days before there was a Sunflower River Blues Association to formally sponsor it.

1988 SUNFLOWER RIVERBANK BLUES FESTIVAL Flyer, June 4, 1988. 8-1/2 x 11 flyer for the first festival. Performers listed: Big Jack Johnson, Frank Frost, Sam Carr, Jessie Mae Hemphill, the Mississippi Fife & Drum Band, C.V. Veal, the Delta Blues Brothers [Wesley Jefferson's band], T-Model Ford, Boogaloo Ames, Jack Owens, Bud Spires, Lonnie Shields, Otis Rush with Ladies Choice Band, James "Son" Thomas & Walter Liniger. Broadcast live on WROX, 1450 AM, by Andy McWilliams.