OHR Presents: Country Blues

Ozark Highlands Radio

This week, a titanic trio of certified country blues guitar masters recorded live at Ozark Folk Center State Park. Also, commentary from these blues maestros. Country blues, also known as folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues or down home blues, is one of the earliest forms of blues music. It’s performed primarily as a solo vocal with acoustic finger style guitar accompaniment. Country blues was developed in the rural Southern United States in the early 20th century and stands in contrast primarily to the urban blues style, especially in the pre-world war two era. Artists such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, and Blind Willie McTell were among the first to record blues songs in the 1920s. Country blues ran parallel to urban blues, which was popular in cities. Featured on this episode of Ozark Highlands Radio are renowned old-time singer and multi-instrumentalist Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton, award winning Carolina Chocolate Drops veteran Hubby Jenkins, and celebrated bluesicologist & Reverend Gary Davis protege’ Roy Bookbinder. Jerron "Blind Boy" Paxton is an American musician from Los Angeles. A vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, Paxton's style draws from blues and jazz music before World War II and was influenced by Fats Waller and "Blind" Lemon Jefferson. According to Will Friedwald in the Wall Street Journal, Paxton is "virtually the only music-maker of his generation—playing guitar, banjo, piano and violin, among other implements—to fully assimilate the blues idiom of the 1920s and '30s, the blues of Bessie Smith and Lonnie Johnson.” Hubby Jenkins is a talented multi-instrumentalist, who endeavors to share his love and knowledge of old-time American music. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he delved into his Southern roots, following the thread of African American history that wove itself through country blues, ragtime, fiddle and banjo, and traditional jazz. After years of busking around the country and making a name for himself, Hubby became acquainted with the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Since 2010 he has been an integral part of the Grammy award winning Carolina Chocolate Drops and continues to make solo performances. Guitarist Roy Book Binder has traveled the world as a solo performer for nearly 50 years. Roy’s career and playing style is heavily influenced by the late Reverend Gary Davis, who specialized in a unique style of guitar finger picking. Roy’s performances are as much a story of his life and experiences as they are a musical endeavor. In this week’s “From the Vault” segment, OHR producer Jeff Glover offers a 1981 archival recording of Ozark original Kenneth Rorie performing the tune “The Devil and the Farmers Wife,” from the Ozark Folk Center State Park archives. In his segment “Back in the Hills,” writer, professor, and historian Dr. Brooks Blevins tells the story of Enoch Wolf, an adventitiously fortunate Arkansas Confederate Civil War officer whom, at the very end of the war, was spared an undeserved execution at the hands of his Union captors.