Published: May 08, 2009 09:02 pm           

For the love of the blues

Recently I have found myself feeling a little homesick for the blues, and, let’s be honest, while Enid has a lot to offer, blues is not among those offerings. Live music in Enid is somewhat akin to the punch line in the “Blues Brothers” movie when Jake and Elwood stroll into Bob’s Country Bunker Saloon and the bartender tells the boys not to worry because the bar has “both” kinds of music: “Country AND Western.”

So, off I went in search of some genuine live blues in Oklahoma and let me tell you, the pickings were rather scarce. So imagine my relief when I found a juke joint in a little town called Rentiesville. Better yet, the club was bringing in Lil Ed & The Blues Imperials, one of the top blues acts out of Chicago. But a pretty cool thing happened along the blues highway; I not only found some great blues but also found a genuine love story.

Rentiesville is a small community about 75 miles southeast of Tulsa. It’s so small it does not even have its own post office, but it is the epicenter of Oklahoma blues. It’s also one of only 13 towns remaining out of an original 40-50 communities that were founded in eastern Oklahoma by freed black slaves following the civil war with an eye toward making the area the nation’s first all-black state. Obviously that never materialized.

Rentiesville also is the home to D.C. Minner’s Down Home Blues Club which is run by Selby Minner, the charming, engaging and talented widow of the late D.C. Minner, a member of the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame who, aside from being an established blues star in his own right, played alongside musical greats like Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Freddie King. And for Rhode Island native Selby Minner, who has called Rentiesville home since 1988 when she and D.C. moved here after spending several years touring the nation, with a heavy emphasis on the West Coast, this has become a true labor of love in every sense of the word.

Together, D.C. and Selby (they married in 1979 after meeting in California) became the first couple of Oklahoma blues when they made the decision to renovate the property where D.C.’s grandmother operated a “corn whiskey house” several decades earlier. “It was a place with a jukebox and where people came for entertainment and bootleg whiskey,” Selby told me while taking me through a tour of the blues club. “They also made and sold choc beer,” which I learned was good old-fashioned home-brew.

The blues-loving couple completed renovating the house a few years after moving back home. “D.C. did all the work by hand,” Selby explained. But it didn’t end there.

Together, the Minners established the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame in 2004. “That’s what D.C. wanted — he understood he wasn’t going to get wealthy playing blues, but at the end of the day what made it worthwhile was the recognition by his peers. We wanted to share that.”

The couple went on to organize the three-day outdoor “Dusk Til Dawn” blues festival which takes place every Labor Day weekend on the grounds of the blues club and, in 1999, also were recipients of the prestigious “Keeping the Blues Alive” award.

Selby continues to do more than her part in “keeping the blues alive” through the “Blues in the Schools” program as well as offering young people a place to perform on the first Friday of each month (the club is only open the first weekend of each month), with a coffeehouse atmosphere where the bar is closed off and young people are invited to perform during their “Java Jam.”

On this night, Selby’s band, “Blues On The Move” opened up for Lil Ed and Selby’s engaging stage presence, on guitar and vocals, demonstrated how her love of the blues, and for D.C., (who passed away last year at the age of 73) clearly keeps her going. She sang some of D.C.’s original material — apparently there is a veritable treasure trove of unpublished D.C. Minner-penned tunes — and then later jammed onstage with the headliner.

This funky little juke joint seemingly in the middle of nowhere is not, however, just about the blues. It stands as a living, thriving testament to the enduring bond between Selby and D.C. that remains today. You can see it in her eyes and feel it in her words when she speaks about D.C. and, most of all, you feel it in her music.

We should all be so lucky to have such a passion and purpose in life.

Those of us who love the blues are fortunate to have Selby Minner.

(For more information, go to www.dcminnerblues.com)



Ruthenberg is copy editor at the News & Eagle. He can be reached at daver@enidnews.com

DC and Selby Minner worked together for 31 years across the nation and over to Europe:
   Legendary Blues man D. C. Minner returned in 1998 after 25 years on the road to his birthplace in Rentiesville  OK and brought a wealth of music with him. He re-opened his grandmother’s corn-whiskey house The Cozy Corner as the DOWN HOME BLUES CLUB, which ran as an after hours club for 7 years …this evolved into the ongoing internationally respected DUSK TIL DAWN BLUES FESTIVAL, founded in 1991. Minner’s band was added to the OK Arts Council Rosters in 1990.

DC and his wife-bassist Selby play firmly in the OK-TX style of T-Bone Walker, Freddie King, and Lowell Fulson, with singing that is relaxed and ingratiating, funky and LIVE! Their ‘true-juke-joint-for-the-nineties’ continues to his day as a Festival Site, Preservation Hall and Blues Hall of Fame.  The pair has won an international KBA from the Handy People (Blues Foundation in Memphis) for their BITS (Blues in the Schools) work with kids. DC was inducted into the OK Jazz Hall of Fame in 1999, had the street next to the Blues Club named after him the same year; in 2003 he was inducted into the OK Music Hall of Fame and (by popular vote) the Payne County Hall of Fame!

                                   _{Selby now has her own band :}

Selby Minner  Is busy keeping the music alive and kicking working both as a solo and fronting her band, Blues On the Move. She was born in Providence RI in 1949 and attended art school there at the RI School of Design. Her friends dragged her to a concert by Janis Joplin in the school dining hall and her life was changed on the spot. All of a sudden the blues she had been finding and listening to seemed acessable, and Selby knew she had to try and sing the blues no matter what.

She left Providence in 1971 with guitarist Jim Donovan. The couple formed acoustic blues group Home Cookin’ and worked coffee houses in Chicago , DC , New Orleans and eventually gravitated to the flourishing Oakland – Berkeley – SF blues scene. They worked the clubs for 4 years. The group disbanded and Selby worked as a solo, also forming the Shady Ladies Blues Band. Longing to play electric blues she bought a bass from Peggy Mitchell and started the transition. Soon she met and grouped with DC Minner  who had retired from 18 years as a bassist backing such luminaries as Freddy King and OV Wright…DC was now on guitar, needing a bassist, and a ‘match made in heaven’ got together and got busy.  DC Minner, Selby and Blues on the Move. The band lived on the road for 12 years booking themselves from border to border and eventually to Europe . They worked as a three piece, finding local drummers along the way. The pair returned to DC’s birth place in Rentiesville and reopened his Grandmother Lura’s corn whiskey house as a blues club in 1988. The Dusk til Dawn Blues Fest started in 1991. By this time the couple was on the Touring Arts and Artist in Residence rosters of the Oklahoma Arts Council. This led to lots of Blues in the Schools work, eventually garnering them the Keeping the Blues Alive Award from the Handy people in Memphis ; An international Award in Education in 1999. DC has passed away, and Selby, together with the non-profit Friends of Rentiesville (F.O.R.) Blues Inc., is keeping the Festival alive and have great plans for the development of the OK Blues Hall of Fame.
          Selby has performed on stage with Albert Collins, Drink Small, Hubert Sumlin, Lowell Fulsom, Big Bad Smitty, Larry Davis, Smokey Wilson, Little Johnny Taylor, Tony Mathews, Harry and Debbie Blackwell, Lucinda Williams and countless others. She has worked tirelessly to develop the community and spread the good word about Oklahoma Blues. She is now back on the guitar playing great lead and rhythm, very much in D.C.'s funky Texas-Oklahoma Hotbox style.

and here she is sitting in with Lucinda Williams at the Cains, 5-1-07 photo by Bryan Clifton

            Hear and Buy Selby and D.C.'s CD's >



 

this photo is print-ready at  300 dpi

 

Peace love and Happiness 2006 TOUR     --- Schedule BELOW!	D.C. MINNER
	V P          Selby        D.C.      about 1979

<sub>DC at Dusk til Dawn Blues Fest                   Photo by WGB 'Got the Blues"

Another version of the bio:</sub>

_{D.C.Minner was born in January 28, 1935  D.C was raised by his grand mother (LURA DRENNAN) who ran a corn whiskey house while D.C. grew up. "There was no electricity anywhere around , So she would have the guys come over with  their Acoustic Guitars - that was my first time hearing LIVE MUSIC." D. C. says. D. C. moved away when he joined the service. When he returned he took up bass, and worked out of OKC with Larry Johnson and the New Breeds. It was with this band that  he performed behind O. V. Wright, Freddie King, Chuck Berry, Eddie Floyd, Bo Diddley and many more. He moved to California in the late 60's. Had a band with Tony Mathews in Hollywood. Then he moved to the Bay Area, retired from bass, studied Yoga nda, took up guitar and ran into Selby. She was working the clubs in Berkeley and San Francisco with Jim Donovan playing and singing acoustic blues. Selby had bought an electric bass, and was looking to learn how to play it... the couple got together, with the encouragement of friends, Selby as D. C.'s bass apprentice and left the bay area together in 1977.}

_{D. C., Selby and Blues on the Move toured non-stop for 12 years, and then returned to D. C.'s home place and re-opened the Cozy Corner as the Down Home Blues Club in 1988. It quickly became an after hours club. The Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival was founded in 1991 as a way to bring their fans and musician friends together from across the country, among other things. The couple has won the Handy in Blues Education for their Blues in the Schools work; the Keeping the Blues Alive Award, and D. C. was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame, His proudest accomplishment to date has been having his hometown rename part of the Texas Road that runs alongside the club in his honor. The pair now lives at 701 D. C. Minner Street. So if you're coming to the Festival, come into Rentiesville two exits up US 69 from I-40, and when you get to D. C. Minner Street, you'll know you've arrived!}

PEACE LOVE AND HAPPINESS TOUR 2006

DC & Selby MINNER	on tour! with the entire band!	John Seymour bass, Daniel Williams drums, Ray Tubbs keys
918-855-0978	dcminner@uslogon.com
FRI OCT 20	Bisbee AZ	The Stock Exchange 520-432-1333
SAT OCT 21	Bisbee AZ	St Elmo's Bar
TUES OCT 24	San Francisco CA	The Saloon, Upper Grant St 415-989-7666
THURS Oct 26	Garberville/Redway CA	The Mateel - Blues Nite 707-923-3368
FRI Oct 27	Eureka CA	Pearl Lounge 707-223-3368
Tues  31st	Whale Gulch Meadow	Trade Fair  --- Halloween!
FRI  NOV 3	Dunsmuir CA	Blue Sky Room 530-235-9931
SAT NOV 4	Mt Shasta CA	The Vets Club
FRI NOV 10	North Fork Grange	Junction City near Weaverville CA
SAT NOV 11	Hayfork Mtn. CA	The Hayfork Hotel 530-628-5337
SUN NOV 12	Sacramento CA	Blues in Schools Benefit
FRI NOV 17	Bisbee AZ	The Stock Exchange 520-432-1333
SAT NOV 18 *	Bisbee AZ	St Elmo's Bar
WED 22nd	Cowgirl Pickup	Santa Fe NM 505-982-2565
	Happy Thanksgiving!
SAT NOV 25th	Madrid NM	the Mineshaft Tavern 505-473-0743
SAT DEC 2 nd	BLUES CLUB OPEN	at home in Rentiesville OK 918-473-2411
* Selby's birthday		print page 5 for this schedule

Dusk Till Dawn Blues Festival burns the midnight oil

By Leif M. Wright
Phoenix Staff Writer

— Chances are, you have never heard the blues.
Oh, yeah, you’ve probably heard Stevie Ray Vaughn, and you probably watched that movie about Ray Charles.
But you ain’t heard the blues, man.
“Most people think blues is just sad music,” said Selby Minner, one half of DC and Selby Minner, the virtuoso blues pair from Rentiesville. “But blues is party music. After you’ve worked hard, you have to party hard.”
To that end, DC and Selby are hosting their 16th annual Dusk Til Dawn Blues Festival in Rentiesville this weekend at the Down Home Blues Club.
“Musicians love to play here,” Minner said, but she had a hard time putting a finger on why. “Maybe it’s because we’re musicians, too. Maybe it’s because we invite them into our home.”
Either way, musicians love the gig, and some are willing to go out of their way to make sure they get the chance to play.
In fact, a few years ago, Guitar Shorty made it his mission to make the festival.
“He called me up and said, ‘I’m ready to play the festival,’” she said. “But I said I didn’t know if I had the kind of money to get him here. He said, ‘Just tell me what you want.’ I was honored.”
Blues, which is the root for all the rock-and-roll inspired music of today, from country to pop to hip-hop to southern rock, was music created by those who needed an escape from hard times, hard luck and hard lives.
“Blues is how they let go,” Minner said. “It’s got all the emotions, from sadness to joy.”
From its signature pentatonic scales to the three-chord progression, blues forever changed music, and is today still influencing major artists such as Christina Aguilera, whose latest album, which is skyrocketing up the charts, is a tribute to the music from which all other modern music flows.
The Dusk Till Dawn Festival is a celebration of that heritage, the history of a music founded by people pouring out their hearts to three chords and heartfelt solos.
“After 2 a.m., all the headliners get up and play together,” Minner said. “It’s great to see different combinations of people jam on stage.”
The jams often last until 5 a.m., she said.
Most importantly, the festival is a celebration of success. DC Minner, a tremendously successful bass player for many popular acts, “got tired of waiting around for guitar players,” so he took up the guitar and a the blues man made the instrument his own.
It’s a tribute to his success that so many musicians are chomping at the bit to play with him at his home in Rentiesville.
“The feeling here is so laid-back,” Selby Minner said. “It’s not like a city or anything. People just love to come here.”
In the end, it’s about the music.
“Blues has influenced all the music that’s come since blues,” Minner said. “Right across the board.”
You can reach Leif M. Wright at 684-2906 or lmwright@muskogeephoenix. com.

Copyright © 1999-2006 cnhi, inc.

check out the Bluesland "It's a Girl Thang" interview by Lea Gilmore at: 
http://bluesland.net/thang/behind.html)
DC BIO as seen on the OK MUSIC HALL OF FAME website:
www.oklahomamusichalloffame.com/minner.html 

D.C. Minner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to
PLUG IN - TUNE UP - PLAY!! Guitar and bass lessons at the Jim Lucas Checotah Public Library
We will meet every Tuesday from 3:30 til 5:30, beginners first and at 4:30 we will take a short break and do the intermediate class - lead scales and more advanced blues progressions. If you have questions you can call me at 918 855 0978. the website is www.dcminnerblues.com 
                                       Here's to having fun and learning some music, Selby Minner