the Blues Bank Collective prepares to celebrate 20 years of unmasking the blues

In the 1940s, when Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Leadbelly, recorded the song “Bourgeois Blues,” white critics were stunned by the lyrics.

“Well, them white folks in Washington they know how / To call a colored man a nigger just to see him bow. / Lord, it is a bourgeois town,” Ledbetter sang.

Convinced that such politically oriented subject matter was too advanced for the mind of an African American, the critics accused white communist sympathizers such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, who frequently played with Ledbetter, of planting ideas in his head. These insidious accusations reflect the negative stereotypes that have always surrounded blues music, mischaracterizations that the Blues Bank Collective, a nonprofit, educational organization based out of Portsmouth, strives to dispel.
As part of their “blues in schools” programs, they show that the blues is not just a music of mourning and apathy, but a music of protest. TJ Wheeler, local bluesman, is co-founder and artistic director of the Blues Bank. 

“The short, bottom-line version is, use the blues to help cure the blues. Meaning, the blues is an African American music, and it came out of the hard times that African Americans faced in this country, especially in the post-slavery, Jim Crow era. We thought it was really poetic justice to take music and turn it around and use it as a direct frontal assault on the conditions and hard times that created it.”

The Portsmouth Blues Festival, produced by the Blues Bank Collective, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, making it New England’s longest running blues festival. The eight-hour concert at the Redhook Brewery on Aug. 27 will feature a combination of renowned national acts and talented local musicians, representing the Blues Bank Collective’s tireless efforts to spread the blues. Collaborating with Redhook Brewery, 92.5 the River and a number of regional sponsors, the Blues Bank has put together a show that promises to entertain and educate.   

“The Blues Festival itself is really an educational experience for Portsmouth. It’s definitely a real fundraiser for our organization, but it’s definitely an educational experience in itself, with the diversity of music that we have there,” Wheeler says.

Performers include national singing phenomenon Shemekia Copeland, rising folk-soul star Amos Lee, Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas, flamenco guitarist James Cohen, and many other figures from worldly musical backgrounds.

But the music at the festival is just a featured element of a broader picture. The Blues Bank Collective wants people to understand the historical context that created blues music. The blues, like so many quintessentially American art forms, stems from a tarnished past that we as Americans are still trying to reconcile. It’s rooted in the soil of suffering, and its fruits represent the African American will to overcome.

The BBC was co-founded in 1985 by Wheeler and Valerie Cunningham, a scholar of black history and president of the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail. Cunningham and Wheeler have initiated educational workshops across the United States, as well as in Canada, South Africa and Finland. In addition to working in public schools, they’ve offered programs in prisons, homeless shelters, nursing homes, libraries, summer camps and alternative schools. The workshops include discussions, slideshows, performances, even Southern cooking lessons.

“Instead of just going in and doing a performance and talking about ‘Robert Johnson who begat Muddy Waters who begat Buddy Guy,’ which to a non-aficionado is about as interesting as the Old Testament, we try to show the use of blues. So we take lyrics of songs and try to unmask the lyrics,” Wheeler explains.  

Though it’s not always evident on the surface, blues lyrics are filled with complexity and rebelliousness. Blues songs are often automatically associated with lamentation, but many of them are bold-faced protests. Wheeler points to the example of the Bo Diddley song “I’m a Man,” later recorded by Muddy Waters as “Mannish Boy.” At first glance the song seems like a typical proclamation of male machismo, but when put into context it’s much more profound.

“I’m a man. Just that phrase alone, there was no bigger protest,” Wheeler says. “That’s equally as powerful as saying ‘we shall overcome,’ the anthem of the Civil Rights movement. Why? Because if you were black in that era, no matter how smart or how wise you were, you were never called a man when you interacted with the dominant white power structure. You were always called a boy at best, or something much more derogatory.”

Consider that, and then listen to Muddy Waters plaintively, defiantly belt out the words I’m a MAAAAAN! Suddenly it’s more than a macho boast. Over a decade after the song was originally recorded, as Wheeler points out, the same phrase was written on signs held by black sanitation workers on strike in Memphis. It was during this strike, in April of 1968, that Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.

Another poignant example of masked blues lyrics comes from the Robert Johnson classic, “Crossroads.” “Standin’ at the crossroads / risin’ sun goin’ down / I believe to my soul now / poor Bob is sinkin’ down,” Johnson sings. Wheeler explained why the bluesman might not have been anxious for the sun to go down.

“It was curfew. If you were black in the Delta, there was curfew; you had to be off the streets... They didn’t have no place to stay, so they had to hide out or duck into somebody’s house or whatever.”    

Or, in Johnson’s case, try to “flag a ride.”

Wheeler deconstructs blues lyrics in this fashion during his educational performances, which he has now conducted for over 170,000 children in schools throughout the United States and elsewhere.

“One of our education programs is named ‘Hope, Heroes and The Blues,’ to try to show that the music of the blues is really a music of hope, and African American pioneers in the blues are no less than heroes for us all. Certainly not saints, but definitely heroes who deserve recognition for their courage as well as their music,” Wheeler says.

Gerald Effendahl, an historian and archivist from Bainbridge Island, Wash., has known Wheeler since Wheeler was 13.

“He pretty much has dedicated his life to using the blues as a vehicle to teach history, as well as culture, and to share the American experience and the roots of the music with audiences of all ages,” Effendahl says. He’s seen Wheeler perform his blues workshops at several schools.

“I’ve sat down and watched him go through three high school lectures one day, and each one went for over two hours, and the kids would not let him leave the auditorium. He took them on his own trail of discovery as to who he was and who America is and who these black musicians were,” he says.

Over the last several years, Wheeler has noticed a reduction of interest from public schools concerning his workshops. He sees this as a problem for enrichment programs across the board, due to the added stress that’s been leveled upon teachers due to Leave No Child Behind legislation. However, he’s still very active in alternative schools. Recently, Wheeler collaborated with young, special needs students at the Spaulding Youth Center to write a song about the Old Man of the Mountain, which they plan to make into a DVD.  

In addition to educational workshops, the Blues Bank Collective has initiated many movements on the Seacoast. Cunningham is president of the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail, a nonprofit walking and driving tour of black history on the Seacoast. The two organizations frequently cross paths.
“Our interests are very similar,” she said. “The Blues Bank is focused on roots of American music, and the Black Heritage Trail is focused on roots of African History in America.”

One movement the two groups worked on together is the Portsmouth-Accra Sister City Connection. Portsmouth also has sister city relationships in Japan, Germany, Ireland and Russia. But Accra, which is located in the West African nation of Ghana, is the first African city on the list.  

“Our focus (in Ghana) is not so much on business; we’re focused on cultural and educational exchanges,” Cunningham says.

The goal is to invite people from Ghana to schools in New Hampshire, and vice versa, in order to share educational and cultural viewpoints from across the globe. The Blues Bank Collective and the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail originally collaborated on the idea in 2002. The motion was officially approved by the City Council last year. This September, as part of the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail’s 10th anniversary celebration, two Ghanaian tribal leaders have been invited to visit Portsmouth. 
“We have such distorted perceptions of what life is like for ordinary people based on what we see on TV,” Cunningham says. “We want students to have personal contact with someone from this particular country.”

The BBC has also involved itself in the Annual Black Heritage Festival since 1985, an event to celebrate Black History Month with a series of events throughout February. The Collective always produces at least one event during the festival, often a blues concert. But they also participate by creating an artistic poster aimed at advertising the different events included in the festival, encouraging people of all races to get involved. 

“Black history does mean something to everybody, no matter who you are or what color you are,” Cunningham says. “It’s part of American history.”

The Portsmouth Blues Festival emphasizes the parallels between blues music and African American History. It was Cunningham’s idea to introduce barbershop singing this year, pointing out the music’s overlooked connections with the black struggle in America. The Rhythm of New Hampshire Show Chorus, directed by Jessie Samuel, will open the festival with a set of Broadway-style, barbershop harmonizing.
“The history of barbershop singing has its roots in African American history. It started off with black men singing harmony,” said Cunningham. White singers began mimicking the style in the 1800s, when minstrel shows became popular.

“The barbershop singing then became identified with the white people who were singing these old plantation songs and so forth.... You know what you think of when I say barbershop singing, kind of old fashioned and hokey. It was not just hokey, but sometimes very insulting to black people.”

The true origins of barbershop singing reflect the economic and political state that was faced by African Americans during this period. Cunningham points out that barbering was one of the few industries a black person could get into in the 1800’s.

“Black people were not hired to do the labor that white people could be hired for, so they had to create their own work; they had to become entrepreneurs.... This was true in Portsmouth, it was true in Boston. This was something that black men could do, the hairdressing of white people.”

Because barbershops often served as forums for political discussion, Cunningham explained, barbering for whites had other advantages. 

“Since (black barbers) came in close contact with the white people, they knew what was going on because they overheard the conversations. So they could go back to the black community and say, ‘This is what is going to be happening politically.’”

Jessie Samuel, according to Cunningham, strives to honor the real history behind barbershop music.
“One of her goals is to re-educate people about the historical origins of barbershop singing. But also to take the music back to those origins. So when they perform, they don’t do the typical barbershop singing, but they do Broadway musical stuff like ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’’ and the music from ‘The Color Purple.’”

The performers who will follow the Rhythm of New Hampshire Show Chorus represent many shades of the blues. Bruce Pingree, a member of the Blues Bank Collective’s advisory board, will emcee the festival. In addition to hosting a blues radio show on WUNH, Pingree manages and books musical acts for The Press Room. He’s exceptionally enthusiastic about this year’s festival lineup. One of the hottest names on that lineup is Shamekia Copeland, who performed at The Music Hall in Portsmouth last fall with Dr. John.

“Shamekia Copeland is the daughter of the late, great Johnny Copeland, a great guitar player from Texas,” Pingree explained. “Shamekia definitely is someone who was born in the blues. She’s an amazing performer. I’ve gotten to see her about five or six times now, and she’s a dynamite singer.”
Another one of the bigger names in the lineup is Amos Lee, who Blue Note records has been billing as the next Norah Jones.

“Amos Lee is a new face for most of us. He’s a Philadelphia native guitar player and singer,” said Pingree. “People are calling him a folk-soul artist. He definitely is heavily influenced by diverse people, like Stevie Wonder and John Prine.” 

Accordion player Nathan Williams and his band, the Zydeco Cha Chas, will bring the Zydeco sounds of Louisiana to the festival. Immersed in Zydeco music since his youth, Williams confidently refers to himself as “The Zydeco Hog.” 

The James Cohen Caravan will demonstrate the flamenco guitar style, which stems out of Eastern Europe. Wheeler described Cohen’s group as a “flamenco gypsy jazz band,” which represents the ties between American blues and European music.      

Harmonica player Rockin’ Jake, who moved to New Orleans from the Seacoast some 14 years ago, will represent the harmonica-driven blues of the Big Easy. Jake has shared the stage with such R&B and blues legends as BB King, Dr. John, and the Neville Brothers, among others.

Bala Tounkara, who hails originally from Mali, is a master of the West African string instrument, the kora. His music connects modern blues to its original, African roots. Bob Halperin, a 95 North recording artist, is a renowned folk and blues guitar player in the Northeast, especially known for his abilities with the slide.

Another group that will appear at the festival is The Funky River Band, a Seacoast youth group that plays blues, jazz and jug band music. The band started out as part of a music workshop put together by Wheeler at Strawbery Banke. All of its members are now teenagers. Ben Burdick, an 18-year-old harmonica and djembe player, has been in the group for half his life.

“TJ has really brought me up musically,” said Burdick. “I think I’m actually the oldest member. I’ve been around since its conception.”

Burdick, who started with the band when he was nine, has now played in front of thousands of people. His experience has been rewarding both musically and cognitively.

“Besides increasing musical talent, it’s been so much fun. The best is when TJ calls at the last minute about a gig, and I bring my djembe and my harmonica and head out to play somewhere.”

Also performing at the annual concert will be local bluesy folk musicians Doug Bennett, Paul Prue and, of course, TJ Wheeler.  

This will be the second consecutive year the Blues Festival has been held at the Redhook Brewery at Pease Tradeport in Newington. Prior to 2004, it was held at Strawbery Banke for several years running. The Brewery proved to be a more practical location in terms of space and noise capacity. David Drapcho, husband of Blues Bank treasurer Mary Ann Drapcho, has been in close communication with Redhook in planning the details of the event. Drapcho explained that there will be two outdoor stages, allowing for continuous live music. The larger stage will be erected in part of Redhook’s parking lot. The bigger, electric acts will perform on this stage, while acoustic acts will set up on a smaller stage on the Brewery’s back patio. Performances will alternate between the two stages, so that while a band is playing on one stage, another band can set up on the other.       

The Portsmouth Blues Festival is a crucial fundraiser for the Blues Bank Collective, which operates under an annual budget of approximately $40,000 and puts on the majority of its year-round events for free. The festival begins at noon on Aug. 27. Tickets can be purchased at Redhook Brewery, The Press Room, Bull Moose Music, Exeter Music, Inn on the Blues and Acoustic Outfitters.

These days, most of us are familiar with blues music largely because of the “British Invasion” of the 1960s. Bands like The Yardbirds, The Rolling Stones, Cream, Led Zeppelin and countless others became rich playing songs that were often originally written by American bluesmen who died penniless. It’s ironic that so many American youths had to be introduced to the blues by white, British rockers, when it sprouted up right under their noses. The Portsmouth Blues Festival highlights the blues’ ancestral roots in the African American community of this country. 

“This music has been played, and we encourage it to be played, by people of all colors all around the world,” said Wheeler. “But you still have to honor the source, and that’s an African American source.”