Pocahontas Sesquicentennial
MUSIC
Oxen-drawn wagon in 2006 Randolph County Fair Parade
POCAHONTAS
SESQUICENTENNIAL TO LIGHT UP
WITH MUSICAL STARS
On Saturday September 30th, the Pocahontas Sesquicentennial Music Heritage Concert will present a musical tribute to the late Robert Palmer, the Arkansas native and frequent Pocahontas visitor with family ties, who made an international mark through his work as a musician, a record producer, a film maker, as the first pop music critic for the New York Times, and as author of the book Deep Blues. The concert will feature a performance by celebrated acoustic blues musician Guy Davis, Arkansas Delta blues legend CeDell Davis, and a Tribute to the Swing Era with the Ozark Jazz Orchestra, an eighteen-piece big band under the direction of Wally Fowler.
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Guy Davis |
Guy Davis www.guydavis.com is a unique blues musician, one equally regarded as musician, composer, actor, director, and writer. Son of the actors Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, he has made his own mark on Broadway, but his deepest love and greatest gift is as an interpreter and innovator of the rural blues. He has recorded nine critically acclaimed albums and is the recipient of the prestigious W.C. Handy "Keeping the Blues Alive" Award.
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CeDell Davis |
CeDell Davis of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, has been nominated for the National Heritage Award and
remains one of the most distinctive and interesting performers of authentic Delta blues. He has overcome adversity and disability, and remains one of the most revered figures in the blues who has drawn the leading figures of blues, rock, and alternative music to play along side his innovative guitar work and deep resonate voice. Palmer’s jazz side (he was also jazz critic for Rolling Stone) will be celebrated by the Ozark Jazz Orchestra with a Big Band Tribute to the Swing Era and the music of Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Stan Kenton, Woody Herman and others. The Ozark Jazz Orchestra, which also features vocalist Lisa Ahia and arrangements by Craig Baker, is under the leadership and direction of trombonist Wally Fowler. Also, a Be-Bop tribute will be performed by Gary Gazaway on trumpet.
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Robert Palmer and El Buho |
Lectures will be presented by Robert Palmer's daughter Augusta Palmer, Robert Gordon, Patricia Rainer, and Arkansas state folklorist Dr. Michael Luster at 5:00 PM, prior to the concert.
Also appearing downtown at the Randolph Music Theater throughout the evening will be Missouri Bluegrass, Hardtimes, Jason Rapert, and the Roy Meadors Family.
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El Buho |
The following Saturday, October 7th, the Pocahontas Sesquicentennial Hometown Legends Concert will present an evening of music by native sons Bill Rice, Billy Lee Riley along with Sonny Burgess and the Pacers, Gary Gazaway "El Buho", Robert Bowlin Bluegrass, and a special late night set by Mike Gray's Electric Hillbilly.
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Bill Rice |
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Billy Lee Riley |
Billy Lee Riley still leaves rockabilly fans shaking their heads wondering why he wasn’t the biggest star of them all with his good looks, strong voice, hot guitar, and catchy songwriting. He recorded for the legendary Sun label with incendiary recordings like "Red Hot" and "Flying Saucers Rock ‘n’ Roll" that still burn up the airwaves. These days he often works along side another northeast Arkansas Sun Records legend, Sonny Burgess and his band, the Pacers.
Burgess is best remembered for
the hits "Red Headed Woman" and "My Bucket’s Got a
Hole in It" and continues to dazzle audiences in
Europe, Japan, and across the USA. Gary
Gazaway, aka "El Buho",
www.elbuho.com is a "cutting edge" trumpet
player with an international following and
repertoire just as large, encompassing contemporary,
traditional, and latin jazz; blues, rock, jam band,
and even bluegrass.
He has worked with Stevie Ray Vaughaun, Joe Cocker,
and Phish. Robert Bowlin was the
last fiddler for the father of bluegrass, Bill
Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys. Bowlin is a
multi-instrumentalist, and a masterful performer on
fiddle, banjo, and guitar. Mike Gray
still calls Pocahontas home and performs southern
rock and roll in the northeast Arkansas region with
his band Electric Hillbilly.
The Pocahontas Sesquicentennial Hometown
Legends Concert will begin at 4:00
PM on Saturday October 7th on the Randolph County Courthouse Lawn in
downtown Pocahontas, AR. Both concerts are
For Information on Sesquicentennial Concerts and Events:
Sesquicentennial Store