(Blues music) (people applauding and cheering) - It's been a week-long celebration of the Blues.

I'm Nikki DeMarks with the American Blues Network.

- And we have been having a fantastic time.

I'm Rob Jay of 105.9 The MAXX.

- The fun is getting started at 930 Blues Cafe in Jackson.

- Jackie Bell and the B-Cats, Willie King & The Liberators, hot new Blues artist, my man, Eddie 'Guitar' Cotton.

- All right baby, pull up a chair.

♪ Whoa, I'm tired of crying ♪ Whoa, I'm tired crying over you ♪ ♪ Whoo ♪ Whoo ♪ Hoo ♪ Whoa, baby crawling so long ♪ ♪ Whoa, on my way back home ♪ ♪ Whoo ♪ Hoo ♪ You know it been raining on me ♪ ♪ You know it been storming too ♪ ♪ You know it been raining on me ♪ ♪ And ya know it been storming too ♪ ♪ Hold on (audience cheers) ♪ Hold on baby ♪ I'll be home after while ♪ ♪ Whoo ♪ Hoo - [Rob] Jack Owens developed his own Bentonia style of Blues known all over the world.

In 1997 he died at the age of 92 right after "Southern Expressions" featured him in his last appearance.

(audience clapping) - Here's Jack Owens once again.

(Blues music) ♪ I'm gonna tell you about ♪ Let it ride by myself - I had just sort of made a concerted effort 10 years or so ago to sort of find out where all the living Blues men were and I met Jack and we hit it off and we remained buddies ever since then.

But, you know, we did some shows together but mostly I just go to see him, you know, and hang out with him up on his front porch and he'd play and I'd take people that wanted to meet him to see him.

He did not play electric, you know, he didn't do any of the modern stuff.

He played the old country traditional Blues style and he played it on his front porch and he was the real thing.

I mean, he lived it, he played it, he had the stories.

He was just an authentic, real genuine guy and a sweetheart to boot.

♪ Go by the way I do - He very clearly knew that he was one of the last and I mean, that was his whole life.

I mean, that's why he got up in the morning was hoping that someone would come by and he would be playing and singing or that he would get a job or that he and Bud could go play and he loved it.

I mean he didn't have to fake it.

I mean, you'd never drive up and he'd go, "I don't feel like it today."

And he was always ready to go.

And one of the things that I would say was that to me, with Jack, he was the beginning and the end.

You know, with him you had the whole history, if you were interested in that style of music and when he died, when he passed, to me that was it.

But you know, one of the keys I guess to Jack's finally getting some recognition was his longevity.

I mean, he was playing up until the day he died.

He was the elder statesman, you know?

And the practicing elder statesman.

♪ Would you stay baby ♪ Bring on close and home ♪ ♪ Couldn't put this baby down ♪ ♪ Ride on home ♪ 'Cause you're bringing my baby down ♪ ♪ And you don't leave me alone ♪ ♪ Why you done me wrong ♪ You're the gal who has done me wrong ♪ ♪ Well, you done me right baby girl ♪ ♪ Think you done me wrong ♪ Baby girl, you done me wrong (audience cheers) - Have mercy!

(audience cheers) Somebody better call me an attorney 'cause I'm gonna need one tonight 'cause I'm gonna teach you fellas a little something about a woman.

- Oh boy.

- Yeah.

Because when you step out on Jackie Bell, I promise you somebody will step in, baby.

Jackie Bell gonna be taken care of one way or the other.

Am I gonna be taken care of?

I want all the ladies to stand up on your feet.

Get up, women!

(Blues music) We fixin' to testify now.

♪ You came home this morning ♪ Oh, what a shock ♪ When you found out your key no longer fit the lock ♪ ♪ Hey baby ♪ Honey, you can go back where you been ♪ ♪ I said, you been stepping out ♪ ♪ Now, someone else is stepping in ♪ ♪ Now, I was your fool ♪ That you could count on ♪ The one that you would call when no one else was home ♪ ♪ Yeah, baby ♪ Honey, I done found myself a new thrill ♪ ♪ I said, you been stepping out ♪ ♪ Now someone else is stepping in ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ So, bite your heart out ♪ You won't get through to me ♪ I'm a brand new woman ♪ And anyone can see ♪ I've got a new way of walking ♪ ♪ Long overdue ♪ My broken heart is mended ♪ And I'm finally over you ♪ I got a new way of wearing my hair ♪ ♪ I got a smile on my face, you didn't put it there ♪ ♪ Aw, baby ♪ Honey, you can go back where you been ♪ ♪ I said you been stepping out ♪ Now someone else is stepping in ♪ Play it for me man.

Wait a minute.

Ladies you know what?

(women cheer) I used to have me a young man, looked just like this.

He had two problems.

First problem was he was cheating.

(woman yells) The second problem was, he wouldn't stay still long enough for me to get me none.

But you know what?

I went and found me an older man just like this right here.

(audience cheers) See, I like an older man and I didn't have to ask my older man but two questions baby.

And he came through every time.

Y'all wanna know what I asked him?

Come here baby, I got to show you all for sure what I asked this man.

Lord, have mercy.

Are y'all ready for this?

'Cause what I asked this older man, he sure lived up to his part.

♪ Rock me baby (audience cheers) ♪ Rock me all night long (audience cheers) ♪ I want you to rock me baby ♪ Rock me all night long ♪ I want you to rock me baby, like my back ain't got no bone ♪ ♪ Wait a minute ♪ I want you to roll me daddy (woman laughs) ♪ Roll me like a wagon wheel (audience cheers) ♪ I want you to roll me daddy ♪ Roll me like a wagon wheel ♪ I want you to roll me daddy ♪ You don't know how good you make J.B. feel ♪ Now wait a minute.

(audience cheers) Back to this cheap man.

I had to tell him off just right.

Can I do it ladies?

- Do it!

- Can I tell him?

(audience shouts) Come here baby.

(audience cheers) See, I paid the cost to be the boss up in here.

Turn your little self right around right now.

And don't you never do this to me no more, all right?

Ladies, are you ready?

(audience cheers) ♪ Eye for eye ♪ Tit for tat ♪ If you give away that little old dog ♪ ♪ I'm gonna give away my cat ♪ I said, hey baby!

♪ What you're doing will never do ♪ ♪ 'Cause what's good for the goose ♪ ♪ Is good for the gander too ♪ Yeah, yeah, hey ♪ So, cry your heart out ♪ You won't get through to me ♪ I'm a brand a new woman ♪ And anyone can see ♪ I got a new way of walking, long overdue ♪ ♪ My broken heart is mended ♪ And I'm finally over you ♪ I got a new way of wearing my hair ♪ ♪ Got a smile on my face, you didn't put it there ♪ ♪ Oh, baby ♪ Honey, you can go right where you been ♪ ♪ I said, you been stepping out ♪ - Audience: ♪ And someone else been stepping in ♪ (audience cheers) ♪ Now someone else ♪ Someone else is stepping in!

♪ Oh yeah!

(audience cheering) - [Narrator] Mississippian Dorothy Moore has made a name for herself worldwide as a singer and a Blues legend.

She found her inspiration from a number of places over the years.

- The way I plan to preserve the Blues is I continue to add Blues songs in my recordings.

And I go to, well, clubs like this, 930 Blues Club and support it, Jackie Bell who's an artist here and a fan of mine and I'm a fan of hers.

- They're following in your footsteps right now.

- Well, - They're keeping this alive because of you.

- Well, I appreciate that.

I really appreciate that but I love what they are doing also.

But people came before me is who I'm familiar with, people like B.B.

King.

My great-grandmother used to be my chaperone when I was a little girl and that's all I sang was the Blues.

- Did you have, was Blues in your household being played?

- It was in my household, Elmore James, well, Ray Charles believe it or not was in my household and as I told you, I sang the Blues, Jimmy Reed, my great-grandmother played these artists and this is what I heard and on the radio, WOKJ, Jobe Martin played those songs and yes I'm very familiar with it and I plan to continue to record the Blues.

I'm even doing it more now because I've always and I always will appreciate the Blues.

(Blues music) - Put your hands together.

♪ Laying there beside my baby ♪ Love Jones come a-tumbling down ♪ ♪ The girl knows where to touch me ♪ ♪ She turned my smile into a happy frown ♪ ♪ Check it out man ♪ If it takes me all night long ♪ ♪ If it takes me all night long ♪ ♪ If it takes me all night long ♪ ♪ I'll be stroking like my back ain't got no bone ♪ ♪ Ooh, you're so good to me ♪ You know, it make me scream and shout ♪ ♪ There's no doubt, heh ♪ That your girl has turned me out ♪ ♪ If it takes me all night long ♪ ♪ If it takes me all night long ♪ ♪ If it takes me all night long ♪ ♪ I'll be stroking like my back ain't got no bone ♪ Kimble Funchess on trumpet, let's hear it for him.

(audience cheers) Lorenzo Gayden on trombone, let's hear it for him.

(audience cheers) Can I go a little further?

♪ Me and my baby started making love, heh ♪ ♪ In the midnight hour ♪ Went all way up 'til the crack of dawn ♪ ♪ The sun rose ♪ The rooster crowed ♪ Me and that old gal were still getting it on ♪ ♪ If it takes me all night long ♪ ♪ If it takes me all night long ♪ ♪ If it takes me all night long ♪ ♪ I'll be stroking like my back ain't got no bone ♪ - [Audience Member] All right, all right, all right.

(audience cheers) - You know what?

Bring it down, man.

I hate y'all can't get down with me.

But put those hands together, if you don't mind.

(audience claps) And if you have to way, if you know what I mean, you can, shake it a little bit, whoo!

Feels so good.

How ya feeling, Grady?

I'm eating after in the Blues key.

You want some of it?

Come take me to the deli.

Let's hear it for Grady Champion!

(audience cheers) Good friend and brother of mine.

Whoo!

Can you feel that, Jackie?

(laughs) Get it boy.

Whoo!

Whoo!

Yeah, yeah.

Look out, girl.

Bring it all the way down now.

That's it for Grady Champion.

(audience cheers) Now I want to get y'all to do something for me.

First, I want you to help me say something.

♪ All night long ♪ All night long ♪ All night long ♪ All night long ♪ All night long ♪ All night long ♪ All night long ♪ All night long ♪ I feel all right ♪ I feel all right ♪ I'm feeling all right ♪ I'm feeling all right ♪ I'm feeling all right ♪ I'm feeling all right ♪ I'm feeling all right ♪ I'm feeling all right ♪ All right ♪ All right ♪ All right ♪ All right ♪ All right ♪ All right ♪ All right now ♪ All right now ♪ All night, y'all (audience yells) (audience cheers) (audience cheers) - [Narrator] 77 year old Blues man R.L.

Burnside was born in Coldwater, Mississippi.

He learned to play the guitar by watching his neighbors.

He sat down to play for us in this Mississippi Roads Classic from 2000.

(Blues music) - I grew up around, pretty close to Fred McDowell.

You know, Mississippi Fred McDowell, you heard of him.

And Rainy Bunny was married to one of my aunties, and he played a guitar then too, you know?

And I had listened to those guys and that's when I started off playing.

I'd watch 'em, you know?

Didn't nobody never just teach me nothing but I just sat and watch them, you know?

(Blues guitar riff) When I'd hear tell of people that tourin', you know, going all around the world playing the Blues, I've always wanted to do that but I'd never thought I'd have been up where I could be able to do it, you know?

But after I started touring, I was proud there.

- He's traveled abroad a lot, I mean, you know, probably been to Europe over 200 times now.

Even when he had almost no career here, he was sort of a legend in Holland and Sweden.

- When I played in Sweden, the first time I went over there and they couldn't, the fellas who I was playing couldn't speak English but they was patting their hand and standing up and trying to dance all with the music.

I'd said, you know, I'd get through, I'd say, "well, well, well," I'd got that old word, you know?

So, by the fourth time I went over there, when they'd call my name, I'd be fixing to come on the stage, "R.L.

Burnside from Coldwater, Mississippi, "well, well, well," everybody'd go to hollering that (laughs).

(Blues music) The best thing about playing the Blues is you're trying to get people to understand that all the music started from the Blues.

That's where all the music started from, the Blues.

- He's just brilliant, you know?

And he had, though he hasn't written a whole lot of songs, he's written, I mean, "Love is the devil but it won't get me."

(laughs) You know?

So he's incredibly succinct.

He doesn't have to play a million notes or be all over the guitar.

He kind of gets it done with a lot less.

♪ Baby, I can't stay alone ♪ No, no, no, no ♪ Love can't do me no harm ♪ Oh boy, I'm a long way from home ♪ ♪ Love can't do me no - (laughs) All right.

(Blues music) ♪ Mama killed a chicken ♪ Thought it was a duck ♪ Put him on the table with the legs sticking up ♪ ♪ Shake it, baby ♪ Shake it, baby ♪ Baby, you shake that thing ♪ ♪ Look out there, Jack ♪ Took a little nickel ♪ A dime is a dime ♪ Take care of your business ♪ I'll take care of mine ♪ Shake it, baby ♪ Shake it, baby ♪ Shake it, baby ♪ Baby, yeah you shake that thing ♪ ♪ Two old maids ♪ Lying in bed ♪ One turned over ♪ And the other one said ♪ Shake it, baby ♪ Shake it, baby ♪ Shake it, baby ♪ Baby, yeah you shake that thing ♪ ♪ Jack and Jill went up the hill ♪ ♪ Jill back with a $50 bill ♪ Shake it, baby ♪ Shake it, baby ♪ Shake it, baby ♪ Baby, yeah you shake that thing ♪ ♪ She told her mama she just wanted to get some water ♪ (Blues music) - [Rob] Johnnie Billington's Delta Blues Education Program was started to keep traditional Blues music alive in the younger generation.

- I got involved with the Blues because I was very young, I was probably about 10 years old and I got my first guitar and at the time when I was 10 years old, basically in this area here which I was born and raised up, there was nothing, people didn't hear anything but the Blues and it inspired because not just to hear the Blues but the lyrics of the song, what the man was saying, it meant that it was part of everybody's life or what how people were living at the time.

- [Narrator] Johnnie Billington's been playing the Blues for over half a century and for almost as long he's been teaching others to play as well.

Several years ago impromptu sessions at his Clarksdale home drew so many youngsters, he couldn't accommodate them all and then he had an idea.

- And so, I finally said to some of the city officials over in Clarksdale that it would be better to take the Blues to the schools.

I understood I was getting Blues to a few kids that wanted to come to me, (audience claps) but there may have been 1,000 of other kids that would like to have played that wouldn't have the opportunity to come.

It would be easy for me to go into a school to try and do as much as I could, and hope that somebody else could do the same.

- [Narrator] Grants and donations helped keep the Blues program alive, barely.

So Mr. Johnnie, as he's called, thought of a simple way to bring in some more money: start a touring band.

- The group is called J.B. and the Midnighters and once they come in here and once they learn to play well enough to where I feel like they can meet the public, of course then those kids starts to perform and then they gets paid.

(Blues music) I tell the kid when he comes if you came, volunteer, "did you volunteer to come here?

"Did somebody send you?"

And they says, "no, I came here on my own "because I wanted to come."

Well okay, we have rules.

One of the rules is that you's a Blues artist, even if you can't play and so therefore Blues artists is a proud people.

They didn't make any money, but they was proud of what they could do and play the instrument and so they had a dress code and then I have discipline because when you're working as a team, we don't want to be fighting or hitting each other.

So, I tell the kids that plays with me as J.B. and the Midnighters, if the kid hits another kid, they don't tell me, then if I find out then I charges them and takes it out of their fee because some other kid was being bad because kids know just about what other kids are doing.

- [Narrator] After living in Clarksdale for years, Mr. Johnnie recently moved back to Quitman County, near where he grew up.

Billington bought a house with a huge backyard where he plans to build a stage for outdoor concerts.

He's also purchased a ramshackle building in the abandoned downtown area of Lambert, Mississippi.

It'll soon open as a Blues nightclub.

This is also where he hosts free afterschool lessons for budding Blues players.

(Blues music) - Missing, come up with, learn but got to be able to pay attention to what you're doing, okay?

And then once you learn, then you can really observe all the other things that's happening.

Let's go through it again.

It does not take a parent to raise a child.

It takes a whole community to raise a child.

It may not be your child, but if you see that child, you know, I've been fortunate enough that if I see a child, black, white, brown, it doesn't make any difference, if you approach him in the right way, he will listen.

(Blues music) (audience claps) - [Host] Let's give 'em a round of applause.

(Blues music) ♪ The sky is crying (audience cheers) ♪ Look at the tears rolling down the street y'all ♪ ♪ The sky is crying ♪ Look at the tears rolling down the street ♪ ♪ I've been looking for my baby ♪ ♪ And I wonder where can she be?

♪ ♪ You know I saw my baby early one morning ♪ ♪ And she was walking on down the street ♪ (woman cheers) ♪ You know I saw my baby early one morning y'all ♪ ♪ And she was walking on down the street ♪ ♪ You know it hurt me so damn bad ♪ ♪ Made my poor heart skip a beat y'all ♪ ♪ Oh, y'all know she heard it (audience cheers) ♪ You know I got a real bad feeling ♪ (audience cheers) ♪ That the pretty little nappy headed sweet thing ♪ ♪ Don't love me no more ♪ You know I got a real, real bad feeling ♪ ♪ That the little girl don't love me no more ♪ ♪ You know the sky's been crying ♪ ♪ Can't you see the tears roll down my nose?

♪ (audience cheers) - [Rob] Willy Foster was known as the godfather of the Blues, "Mississippi Roads" sat down to talk with Willy in the spring of 2001, only a few months before he passed away.

(audience cheers) - Thank you so much!

- Now, the good flow Blues.

(harmonica music) I'm not ashamed of my culture.

(car passing) I was born with nobody.

Like a rabbit out across the cotton field, on a cotton sack and a cotton patch, my mother then was sharecropping.

She was picking cotton when I was born.

♪ Born in this old My name is Willy Foster, ♪ All alone J's middle initial for James.

I've been playing the Blues and blowing the harmonica approximately 71 years.

♪ Living in this world Leland was my hometown.

I learned what the Blues was all about when I was about seven years old.

I bought my first harmonica at seven years old, age of seven.

The Blues is a feeling, ♪ Now my mother and father ♪ Both are gone the Blues is an expression, it's about your past life, the life that you had lived.

I have lived the Blues, that's why I know the Blues.

The Blues is anything, like you can have a headache, you got the Blues.

You can stomp your feet, long as it's hurting you got the Blues.

But the word Blues is that, that's why I say the Blues is a feeling.

I've had all kind of Blues, I had the work sick Blues.

I went to work when I was seven years old, I went to work for 30 cents a day from sunup to sundown.

I lose my left leg in '94 on Christmas Day went out in the ocean to swim, stepped on a mussel shell, lot of 'em out there.

The tide come in and bring in a lot of 'em and when the tide leave out, (seagulls cawing) it leave a lot of them on the bank when the sunshine hit 'em they die and their shells are still there.

It started burning in there between my little toe and next morning, that thing had my foot swelled up, and I couldn't get my shoe on.

I went to the doctor and they said that had set up an infection in there, what it do is they had to cut it off, cut that thing off.

I had one foot, one real leg and then had a false leg on this one.

I was getting up in the van and my foot stepped off and hit the corner of that running board getting up in the van and that leg just knocked all that skin off of my leg.

So I went to the doctor, had a bad infection there.

Said you got to cut all this meat off down here.

I said, "No, if you're gonna do any cutting, "just cut it off."

I got burnt in my eye, I was letting the door up and down was melting aluminum and I looked up at the wrong time.

Just as I stopped, the door fell from being crank-sided, all them cinders, those hot cinders just come right down.

It got all in my eye, went in my hair on my head, went in my clothes.

They had to put me in some kind of a oil to unstick my clothes, get my clothes off of me.

98% blind, they say they ain't got no cure for it.

I could get an eye transplant, I could get an eye transplant, I said no, I'm leaning on God.

♪ Got a cross ♪ Let me drank it for you, Lord ♪ ♪ I gotta cross to the Lord ♪ Put me back ♪ Close the door ♪ I cut the boots so easy for ya ♪ ♪ Can't help but to do the song ♪ ♪ Now the double blade is back ♪ Really cutting through it ♪ Drank it in your wood, you got it ♪ ♪ Duty Mary takes you again ♪ If I can't be your lover ♪ Please let me be your friend, whoo ♪ (harmonica music) (Willy laughs) My happiest time is when I'm playing my music and my band is doing good behind me and I'm telling my true stories, talking about my past life and people sitting and listening or dancing all for it and I enjoyed, you know, I'll crack a few jokes.

When I'm with nice people, that's my happiest time.

- I been with Willy seven or eight years.

I love to play with him, he's a lot of fun to be around.

He have his own, his own style of music.

It really is different from every person that I work with.

- I found Mr. Foster to be an interesting person.

He lived across the street from me.

We had done some stories about him previously on his trips going to New Zealand and overseas, different places.

So once he moved across the street, I used to just go over there and sit there and talk with him from time to time.

So I got to know a lot about him.

I found him to be just a nice guy, very friendly, very outgoing, open and he'd tell some good stories.

- I had the couldn't go to school Blues.

Lot of times I'd get ready, put on my overalls, get ready to go to school and the boss man would come by and say, "Don't let that boy go to school today.

"It's dry enough to cut stalks, or it's dry enough to plow, "or dry enough to drag" or whatever.

I'd put on my work clothes and get ready to go to work.

Go catch that mule and to go to work.

I tell my story and it's educational for people that desire it.

I mean it from my heart to love people and I love everybody, I love to meet people and love to meet lovely people.

We go places and play and people that gather around me, I share mine, they want, they listen to my music, I play from the heart and people sat up and look at me and make me cry.

It's about my ladies, my wives and my people.

If anybody ask me the meaning of any of my songs, I give 'em detail, what it, the meanings of it.

If I can't help you up, I'm not gonna push you down.

Long as there's a black person in the world, Blues will never die.

- Somebody would always speak a word for him, all the way down the lines.

- But I love the life I live and I live the life I love.

I love to be here by myself.

All my children say, "Daddy, why don't you come home?

"We'll take care of you."

No, I'm doing fine, when I fall and can't get up, then you come and pick me up.

But let me live on my own.

(Blues music) ♪ I like it, I like it ♪ Hey, I like it this way ♪ Yeah, I like it, I like it ♪ Hey, I like it this way ♪ I like it, I like it ♪ Yeah, I like it this way ♪ What kind of man is this?

♪ To set my soul on fire ♪ What kind of man is this, y'all?

♪ ♪ That almost drives me wild ♪ He got the kind of love I can't describe ♪ ♪ Every time I'm with him, I feel alive ♪ ♪ Good things come to those that wait ♪ ♪ Hey, daddy don't make me late ♪ ♪ What kind of man is this?

♪ To make my dreams come true ♪ What kind of man is this, y'all?

♪ ♪ To make me say I do ♪ Anytime, I don't care ♪ It makes no difference if my baby is down ♪ ♪ Or if all I want is my mistake ♪ ♪ Hey, I like it this way ♪ I like it, I like it ♪ Yeah, I like it this way ♪ I like it, I like it ♪ Yeah, I like it this way ♪ Anytime, I don't care ♪ It makes no difference if my baby is down ♪ ♪ Or if all I want is my mistake ♪ ♪ Hey, I like it this way, whoo!

♪ ♪ What kind of man is this?

♪ That keeps me on the phone ♪ What kind of man is this, y'all?

♪ ♪ That answers every time I call ♪ ♪ Anytime, I don't care ♪ It makes no difference if my baby is down ♪ ♪ Or if all I want is my mistake ♪ ♪ Hey, I like it this way ♪ I like it, I like it ♪ Hey, I like it this way ♪ I like it, I like it ♪ Hey, I like it this way ♪ Anytime, I don't care ♪ It makes no difference if my baby is down ♪ - Well, how about that?

Lots of folks have dedicated themselves to keeping the Blues legacy alive.

- Nowhere is it more alive than right here in Mississippi.

- I'm Rob Jay of 105.9, thanks for celebrating this week of Blues with us.

- And I'm Nikki DeMarks of the American Blues Network.

Good night everybody.

(Blues guitar riff) (audience clapping) - Thank you so much!

On the bass Mr. Keith Cullins from San Antonio, Texas.

(audience cheers) On the drums we have my son Corey Jenkins, y'all.

Yours truly, Bernard Jenkins, thank you so very much!

(audience cheers)