Listen! Hear the Sound that Stirs the Soul of Appalachia!
A celebration of the life of Howard Armstrong

Louie Bluie Music and Arts Festival
June 14   11 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Cove Lake State Park, Caryville, TN

Schedule of Events

Closing - 9:15 pm - Spectacular fireworks over Cove Lake by Pyro Shows, Inc. of LaFollette

All  Day - Visit the exciting Arts and Crafts Village of more than 60 vendors (closes at 8 pm), the Kids Fun Zone (Idea! Kids, post your festival experience on YouTube!), and NEW THIS YEAR the first Louie Bluie Regional Artist Contest Exhibit - in the Pavilion (closes at 7 pm), PLUS jamming on the grounds (bring your instruments).

Music Performers

Hokum's Heroes | (MP3)

Hokum's Heroes is a revolving-door aggregate of Boston-based musicians united by their passion for the music of Howard Armstrong. They perform early 20th Century pop music, twining together the roots of early jazz, Vaudeville, hokum, string band, jug band, gospel and blues. Looming largest is the influence of euphoric rag-tinged string bands like R.Crumb's Cheap Suit Serenaders and the legendary black string band Martin, Bogan and Armstrong. Hokum's Heroes band members have played at venues as diverse as Lincoln Center, Boston Folk Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, Country Music Hall of Fame, and the New York City Blues Festival.

Hector Qirko Band | (MP3)

Hector Qirko Bank describes themsleves as a blues band, with a mix a lot of other styles of music, including even the occasional polka. But the blues -- electric, Chicago-style blues in particular -- are at the core of what they do. Voted Knoxville’s “Best of the Best- Favorite Local Music Group” for 2000 and“Best Local Blues Band” about ten times by MetroPulse reader polls.

Pinnacle Mountain Boys

Though the Pinnacle Mountian Boys have not performed in thirty-five years, the band’s great vocals, strong songwriting, and instrumental prowess built a reputation that never faded in East Tennessee. Their individual talents have been appreciated regionally and nationally for over fifty years, and the band is remembered as one of the finest bluegrass ensembles connected to East Tennessee. Starting with Buster Turner’s collaborations with young Frank Wakefield in the 1950s, through the bristling banjo work of Loren Rogers in the early 1960s, the PMBs super group of mid-1960s, and the superlative duet of Gulley and Turner into the 1970s – these musicians still claim the attention of afficionados of traditional bluegrass, newgrass, hillbilly bop, bluegrass gospel, and bluegrass-country crossover.

Ann Rabson | (WMA)

Ann Rabson has been playing and singing the blues professionally since 1962. A member of Saffire—The Uppity Blues Women, she also performs solo and with various other bands. Ann has been nominated eight times for a Blues Music Award (formerly W.C. Handy Award) as Traditional Blues Female Artist of the Year. Her first solo album, Music Makin' Mama, was nominated as Album of the Year in both the Traditional Blues and Acoustic Blues categories, and her composition Elevator Man was nominated as Song of the Year. Ann has toured Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hong Kong, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain and Switzerland, performing solo, with Saffire and with piano legend Erwin Helfer. In 2000 she headlined the BluesAlive international blues festival in Sumperk, Czech Republic.

Wallace Coleman | (MP3)

As a youth in eastern Tennessee where country & western music still prevails, Wallace Coleman was instead captivated by the sounds he heard late at night from Nashville’s WLAC….the Blues. Coleman left Tennessee in 1956 to find work in Cleveland, Ohio. He found steady work and, to his delight, an active Blues community where Jimmy Reed, Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, B.B. King and others came to perform. An innovator himself, Coleman created 3rd position harmonica parts  for several Robert Johnson songs performed by Lockwood (Johnson’s step-son and student). Performing and traveling in the U.S., Canada and overseas with Lockwood were Coleman’s first steps onto his own professional musical path.

Maggie Longmire | (MP3)

Folk singer, blues rocker, song writer Maggie Longmire is one of East Tennessee's finest artists. Voted by the Knoxville Metro Pulse readers as Best Local Musician, her "honey-sweet" yet powerful alto voice spans blues and country styles. Some say her voice is fuller and more resonant today than it was a quarter-century ago when, known as the "Lily of LaFollette", Longmire ruled the nights in East Tennessee back rooms and concert halls. Her evoking lyrics and haunting melodies are drawn from her roots and often recall a history of the region.

Sparky & Rhonda Rucker | (MP3)

Internationally acclaimed James "Sparky" Rucker is a leading folklorist, historian, musician, storyteller, and author. He has been singing songs and telling stories from the American tradition for over 40 years. Sparky accompanies himself on guitar, banjo, and spoons, and has released over 11 recordings. Rhonda Rucker practiced medicine for five years before becoming a full-time performer. She began taking piano lessons from a ragtime player when she was four years old. In addition to piano, Rhonda adds sweet-sounding vocal harmonies, a mean, gutsy blues harmonica, old-time banjo, and rhythmic bones to their music. She began performing with Sparky in 1989.

The Lone Tones | (MP3)
The LoneTone's new album, Nature Hatin' Blues is dedicated to hometowns and misfits everywhere, mountains and people who fight to save them, the soil we grew up in…. To a certain degree, the dedication sums up both the album and the band. The music is deeply rooted in the mountains of Appalachia, but is also subject to the ruminations of those who try to escape their steep mountain walls. The band's instrumentation looks that of a bluegrass or old-time string band. But that's not exactly it. The songs at times sound ancient and worn. But there's more to it than a simple rehashing of the past. Influenced heavily by more modern sounds from rock, the folk revival, singer-songwriters, alternative country and even emo, the band plays their own kind of original mountain music.

Earl T. Bridgeman
Earl T. Bridgeman plays and sings a powerful blues forged in Pikeville, TN in the Sequatchie Valley.  The son of legendary fiddler Shorty Bridgeman, young Earl T., through the encouragement of an uncle, came to favor the sounds of bottleneck-style guitar.  Though he spent a career in the Navy and traveled across the world, Earl T. always returned home to Pikeville and always returned to the blues.  He has performed throughout the region, continuing to share his distinctive style anywhere people will listen, be it in a club, juke joint, tea house, or outdoor cafe.  For him, the music holds a universal appeal:  “The blues touches everybody.  Life is not peaches and cream.  Somebody might be born with a silver spoon, but I don’t know them.” 

Music remains a family tradition as Earl T.’s son, Earl Thomas, currently enjoys a celebrated recording career playing soul and gospel infused blues.  In 2003, Earl Thomas recorded his father and produced “516 Rockford Road,” a critically acclaimed independent release.  Whether live or on record, to hear Earl T. is to hear a rare and hard-earned musical expression:  “Blues comes from your soul.  It’s like a minister delivering a message.  When I’m feeling good, that’s when I want to express myself.  ‘Course when I’m feeling band I want to do it, too!”

Nancy Brennan Strange
Nancy Brennan Strange has been singing in & around Knoxville, Tennessee for over 3 decades! She started her performing career at the early Jubilee Festivals (Laurel Theater roots). Presently she sings with the Tennessee Sheiks.

Christie Burns & Butch Ross

Burns & Ross - A young wife/husband team performing as a duo since 2003, with Christie on hammered dulcimer and Butch on mountain (lap) dulcimer and guitar. You'll be amazed and thrilled by their highly energetic performance of traditional tunes. Christie founded and directed the Cork Dulcimer Festival in Cork City, Ireland, and both teach and perform at dulcimer and acoustic music festivals all over the US and abroad. They will appearing on the Community Sstage at 1 p.m. for a full hour.

Wade Darnell & Ethan Ferguson

Sixteen year old Wade Darnell plays the banjo and ten year old Ethan Ferguson plays the fiddle. Wade and Ethan with Lacy Lee on bass will appear on the community stage at 2:30 p.m. They will entertain everyone with Flatt & Scruggs music as well as some old time classics.

Theatrical Performances

Carpet Bag Theater | (MP3)
The Carpetbag Theatre, Inc. (CBT) is a professional, multigenerational ensemble company dedicated to the production of new works.  For over thirty-five years, Carpetbag Theatre has been a pioneer in addressing issues and dreams of persons who have been historically silenced by some form of oppression. They have effortlessly taken on the burden of giving voice to those who should be prominent in the American lexicon but are seldom, if ever, heard.

Carpetbag Theatre will perform an excerpt of their new musical play at the Festival, BETWEEN A BALLAD AND A BLUES paying homage to African-American-Appalachian renaissance man, Howard “Louie Bluie” Armstrong, one of the most famous string-band musicians in the history of American music. BETWEEN A BALLAD AND A BLUES, written by acclaimed playwright, Linda Parris-Bailey, this moving musical soliloquy spans the career of Armstrong for seven decades, beginning during the roaring 20’s all the way through until his death in 2003. From humble beginnings in the hills of East Tennessee, playing a homemade fiddle with his siblings, to his noted collaborations with fellow traveling musicians, Carl Martin and Ted Bogan, Howard Armstrong toured extensively around the world sharing string band music and planting the seeds for other American music forms including Country, Bluegrass, and the Blues.

Cast members include Marquez Rhyne, Bert Tanner, and Seed Lynn Heathcock (pictured at left), as well as Linda Upton Hill, Allie Pryor and Lyigia Simmons. The playwright is Carpetbag's executive/artistic director Linda Parris-Bailey, and the play is directed by Steven Kent.

Louie Bluie Festival First Amateur Adult & Youth Art Competition A juried art competition will be held in conjunction with the 2008 Louie Bluie Music & Art Festival for amateur adult and youth artists. Amateur artists are defined for this competition as any artist whose primary source of income is not derived from sales of his or her art and whose art has not been published or sold in galleries.Cash prizes and ribbons will be awarded, and entries will be exhibited during the festival. (Click Here for More Information) PDF

Brought to you by the:
Campbell Culture Coalition
and these sponsors:

Campbell County Chamber of Commerce
City of Caryville
	Campbell County Commission

Pyro Shows
The Willows at Twin Cove
Hampton Inn / Comfort Inn
Peoples Bank of the South

Ayers Realty & Auction
Sharp Communications
Jubilee Community Arts
Twice the Ice

Donations to the Louie Bluie Festival are greatly appreciated.