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- The Leader Newspaper
- Previous Posts
- Down in Bentonia
- More downhome blues
- Give the gift of music
- Jazz and blues records of the year
- Chicago labels still keep blues alive
- Big Jack Johnson: Great bluesman
- The great Helena blues festival
- B.B. King: World's greatest entertainer
- Music still fills the air over area
- Death of a tenor giant
- Blues symposium in Oxford
- Pharoah Sanders in Little Rock- A Genius at Work
- John Hurt Festival in Avalon, Miss.
- Helena to host bluesmen
- Blues in Helena: Singin’ in the Rain
- A memorable weekend: Blues Divas and Handys
- Arkansas on Delmark
- World-class blues played near here
- Two festivals compete in the Delta, but Clarksdale wins
- A century of Boogaloo, starring Sam Cooke, others
- Blues Traveling’ a helpful guide to tri-state Delta sites
- B.B goes home then to funeral
The Leader is published in Central Arkansas near the Arkansas Delta, which holds the annual King Biscuit Blues Festival every October in Helena.
Arkansas was home to Junior Wells, Albert King, Louis Jordan, Roosevelt Sykes, Robert Nighthawk (whose son, drummer Sam Carr, lives just across the Mississippi River), as well as Robert Lockwood Junior, who plays every year at Helena. Howlin' Wolf performed regularly in east Arkansas when he first started out, as did B.B. King, Sonny Boy Wiliamson and others. CeDell Davis and Michael Burks live in Arkansas. Calvin Leavy, another gifted blues musician, unfortunatley is incarcerated in Cummins Prison in Pine Bluff.
Both sides of the Mississippi River have a rich blues tradition carried on by local artists who often play in the area even if they have moved away to the big city. Many musicians have never left and can be heard on weekends in country juke joints much like the ones Robert Johnson, Sonny Boy Williamson and Robert Nighthawk played in.
There's still plenty of music in the Delta on weekends, and festivals are held almost every month except during winter. From Helena to Memphis to Clarksdale, and in place in between, there's plenty of blues and sites to see in the Delta if you only seek them out.
The Leader celebrates this great blues tradition through its coverage of live music, CDs and books. Send us news about the blues, and let us know what you think about our site.
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