The Bentonia Blues Festival takes place in downtown Bentonia, located off U.S. 49 between Jackson and Yazoo City. Performers at the free event include headliner Bobby Rush, scheduled to appear at 9 p.m. The day's events begin at 9 a.m. with a series of gospel performers.
The festival is run by bluesman Jimmy "Duck" Holmes, proprietor of Bentonia's Blue Front Cafe, one of the oldest juke joints in the state. Holmes' parents, Carey and Mary Holmes, started the cafe in 1948, and the festival evolved out of blues gatherings at their home.
Holmes, who began performing actively in the last decade, has recorded four mostly acoustic CDs and aims to keep alive the distinctive local tradition most famously represented by blues pioneer Skip James.
"It's an honor to pay homage to the old guys like Skip James, Jack Owens and Jacob Stuckey who laid down the foundation for it all," says Holmes. "I feel like it's because of them that I'm doing what I'm doing, and to take it in another direction would be to dishonor them."
Last weekend Holmes performed at the Chicago Blues Festival on the Mississippi Juke Joint stage, which is underwritten by the Mississippi Development Authority to promote blues tourism. The Bentonia event will feature a number of other artists who appeared in Chicago, namely Dexter Allen, the Jarekus Singleton Band and the duo of Alphonso Sanders and Bill "Howlin' Madd" Perry.
Also performing are Eden Brent, 19th Street Red, the Roosevelt Roberts Blues Review and Brian Sivils.
Related events include a free screening of the blues documentary M For Mississippi, which features Holmes, at the Triangle Cultural Center in Yazoo City at 6:30 tonight, and a jam session at the Blue Front Cafe that begins at 5 p.m. Friday.
For more information, visit Bentonia Blues Festival on Facebook.
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