Bluebonnet Blues & Fine Arts
Festival brings array of blues artists and styles
to Texas Hill Country event
MARBLE FALLS, TX — For three days
at the end of March, this Hill Country town will be
jumping with a variety of blues artists you’re
unlikely to find at most — if any — other
blues festivals.
The
third annual event will feature music at six venues
over a three-day span, from headliners such as W.C.
Clark, Anson Funderburgh, Whitey Johnson, Ruben Ramos
and Zac Harmon on the festival’s main stage
to Joe Ely and Joel Guzman in the more intimate setting
of a 250-seat nightclub. Throughout the weekend, there
will be blues being played up and down a two-block
stretch of historic downtown Marble Falls.
The lineup includes traditional Texas
and Mississippi blues, Tejano blues and Cajun blues.
A Pianorama featuring four master keyboardists will
light up the beautifully restored Uptown Marble Theater
Friday night. On Saturday, the theater will host a
continuous all-day showing of a 30-minute cut of the
film, “Antone’s: Home of the Blues”
that tells the story in words and music of the legendary
Austin blues club and its late founder and patron
of the blues, Clifford Antone.
In fact, Antone was part of the first
Bluebonnet Blues & Fine Arts Festival, helping
Hugh “Blowgum” Vaughn, his wife Cindy,
and Russell Buster, book acts and even give a talk
on the History of the Blues. As part of the Friday
night event in the Uptown Marble Theater, folklorist
Dr. Barry Lee Pearson will host a Musicians Workshop
on the History of the Blues. “He’ll be
up there with a bunch of blues musicians, and what
they’ll do is have a conversation in words and
music,” said Vaughn. Pearson is the author of
Jook Right On: Blues Stories and Blues Storytellers.
“This is different than most festivals,”
said Vaughn. “I can’t think of any that
has the variety that we offer.” And the number
of venues on stages and in small clubs is reminiscent
of SXSW, albeit on a much more intimate scale. “I’m
drawing together the variety of blues from every walk
of life,” he said. “There are different
nationalities and different types of music, but there
is blues in every kind of life.”
Marble
Falls is located in the heart of the Highland Lakes
area about 45 miles northwest of Austin and 85 north
of San Antonio. The Marble Falls Historic Main Street
Association sponsors the Bluebonnet Blues & Fine
Arts Festival and a portion of the proceeds go to
the Highland Lakes Service League, which supports
local non-profits, charities and social services.
In addition to the three days of music, the festival
hosts a “Paint the Town” event, which
invites juried artists to a plein air painting contest.
There will be activities for children and plenty of
food choices, including crawfish, fajitas, red beans,
and more.
Tickets for the festival, and a complete
music lineup, are available online at www.bluebonnetblues.com
is a $2 service charge for tickets purchased online.
Ticket prices are Friday: $5, Saturday: $10.00, Sunday:
$10.00, Weekend (Fri. - Sun.): $20.00. Pianorama:
$15.00. (Separate tickets are required for the Joe
Ely-Joel Guzman show at Lorraine’s on Friday
night www.liveatlorraines.com.)
For Information Please Contact:
Cindy Vaughn
Phone: (800) 864-5175
Email: cindy@historicmainstreet.org
Barry Dugan
Email: barrydugan@sbcglobal.net
www.bluebonnetblues.com
