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F O R I M E D I A T E R E L E A S E
OKLAHOMA
BLUES HALL OF FAME INDUCTS HONOREES
May 1, 2012
Contact:
SELBY: 918-855-0978 dcminner@windstream.net
The 8th
Class of Inductees will be inducted into the OK Blues Hall of Fame
in Rentiesville on the Saturday of
Memorial Day Weekend – May 26th,
7 pm at the time worn juke joint / Hall of Fame / family home and
birthplace of founder D.C. Minner. This will be a gala including a
sit down bar-b-que dinner. There will be MANY Hall of Famers present
to welcome the new inductees – and we will hear from them
(musically) too!! The blues will flow until well after midnight.
This year’s
inductees are Leon Blue, Clyde ‘Chico’ Lamar, Baby Ray Mucker,
Malyne ‘Poochie Love’ Lyons, Aaron Harvey King, Harold Jefferson,
The KBA in Education Inductee will be Jahruba Lambeth. Lifetime
Achievement will be awarded to Miss Lura. Media to LaNelda Hughes
for writing the yet unpublished life story of D.C. Minner. KBA
Awards to the late Booker Lowrey and to Robert Williams.
The
Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame was created through the vision of
D. C. Minner and is housed at Minner’s birthplace and Blues Club in
Rentiesville. Friends of Rentiesville (F.O.R.) Blues Inc. is
working to recognize and document the works of important Oklahoma or
Oklahoma-connected artists in the world of blues.
Many ongoing programs at the Hall of Fame, including
lessons, the Weekly Sunday Jam Sessions 6 pm, free, Rehearsal
for Sunday Practice Session on Wed. 6 – 8 pm (musicians only);
outreach to music lovers and students of all ages. The 22nd Annual
Rentiesville Blues Festival will be August 31, Sept 1, 2,
bringing 200 musicians here and celebrating OK Blues and D.C.
Minner’s contribution at the juke joint his family started in 1936.
Oklahoma Blues Hall of
Fame 2012 INDUCTEES and
WHY WE HONOR THEM:
Our four best
shows of the year are the three nights of the Labor Day Weekend
Festival and these Inductions coming up on Decoration Day Saturday –
Memorial Day Weekend, May 26th” Selby announces. “We have
inducted over 50 OK related Blues Artists and this year’s show will
be a great one. 2012 Inductees include Leon Blue, keyboardist
for BB King who has played the Blues Cruises for years and tours in
Europe annually, Poochie Love of Slick Willie and the Right
Cats – a brother and sister based band; she is a great vocalist and
the friendliest diva in the blues. Also Baby Ray Mucker, born
in Slick OK and raised in Stockton CA, he now fronts a new Tulsa
Band, Soul Magnetic, and has a track record playing behind Bobby
Blue Bland, BB, The Whispers, Betty Wright, Billy Preston . . . he
sure is fun”. Selby goes on to say “– we lost old friend and our
first security guard Booker Lowrey just after the Festival
this year so he will get a KBA for his years of passing out Festival
PR at every major blues event in OKC since we started. Jahruba
Lambeth will get inducted with the Education Trophy – Fest
attendees know him as the leader of the drum circles in the Kid’s
Village. Jahruba has charmed listeners with the Signifying Monkey
story and more for years as he slips knowledge into young minds
between the drum beats. His band is the Broke Brothers.
Clyde ‘Chico’ Lamar, born in Rentiesville was in the first
singing group D.C. was in as a teenager the Five Clouds of Joy.
Clyde had a long career with the Platters. Harold Jefferson
Guitarist songwriter singer producer ( Golden Eagle, Johnny Taylor,
Z.Z. Hill, Etta James, Wilson Pickett, The Artistics, Joe Tex, Sam
and Dave, Soul Stirrers and many more). Miss Blues ‘04 (who
was in the very first band D.C. played bass for in the 50’s) comes
in every year from OKC to help us with the Inductions.
More news: this year our Photo Exhibit which just left Connors State
in Warner – From Black Town to Blues Festivals –
opened at both the Jazz and Music Halls of Fame in Tulsa and
Muskogee. . with an awe-some showcase of 15 of our Blues Hall of
Fame inductees being presented at each venue. The exposure resulted
in two of them being inducted last November into the OK Jazz Hall of
Fame. Miss Blues and Rudy Scott; both about 76 and both very much
alive..another great night for OK Blues.
Our
mission is to "preserve and develop African American traditional
musics through education and entertainment." we were founded in
2003, and our major events include the OK Blues Hall of Fame and
it's inductions each year, the Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival each
Labor Day Weekend (see attached press release) and ongoing
educational activities - a jam session each week and jam band on
some Saturdays - also Selby teaches at two local libraries a
semester or more each year; guitar and bass. D.C. Minner and his
wife/bassist Selby returned to his birthplace in Rentiesville after
over 20 years on the road touring and playing bass and later guitar
with some of the best names in the Blues business; Freddy King, OV
Wright, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley to name a few. He returned in
1988 and reopened his Grandmother Lura’s Cozy Corner juke joint as a
Blues Club and was inducted into 5 Halls of Fame before his death at
age 73. He and Selby started the Friends of Rentiesville Blues Inc.
to keep this work going into the future.
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 help
from Alexsis sending you mail
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Cookbooks
The Blues Hall of Fame cookbooks are out and
the are GREAT!! Selling like hot cakes for $10, $12 if they need to
be mailed to you. Thank you for all
the contributions! 200 recipies!
Please
send check to:
Friends of Rentiesville Blues, Oklahoma
Blues Hall of Fame
WISH LIST
all
donations deductible
Hope you buy a cookbook and check it out
2007 was a great year for the Blues on the green Golf Tournament
- Someone hit the flagpole at the hole-in-one hole, but the ball did
not go in as it did last year! Too bad. But the weather was fair,
the greens were impeccable, lots of sponsors made the tournament a
rousing financial success and there were two first place winners,
$200 to each team! So now it's frull steam ahead booking and
promoting the next (17th) Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival to be held
over Labor Day Weekend. Keep checking back for updates, please!
Thanks, Selby
701 DC Minner Street Rentiesville, OK,
74459 (918)473-2411
__dcminner@uslogon.com______________________________________________________
DC gives keys to The Muries
FIRST
SHOT OF 2006 TOURNEY WON THE CAR!!
…Area
Music Lovers Provide Golfers an Exciting Day at Fountainhead, Raise
Funds for Dusk til Dawn Fest
"You’ll never see that again, as long as you
live!" said the golf pro at the “Blues On The Green”
tournament about the shot that won the car last weekend. On the 18th
hole sat a brand new Nissan Altima, with the Fenton Nissan sign on
the door. It was around 10 am and a husband and wife team started
their day at the hole-in-one hole, number 18. It was their first
shot - the first shot of the whole tournament, actually, and Leo,
like most, had never made a hole-in-one in his life. In it goes! It
was a clean shot! “He made it!” “He what?!?” --cries rang across
the golf course “He made a hole in one!” … “Someone said it was the
smoothest swing they had ever seen”, said Barbara Traylor. Sandra
Crockett from the Friends of Rentiesville Blues was the witness.
Sandra jumps up and Domenica screams and runs, congratulating Leo
Murie (from Pawnee) and his wife Helen who are overjoyed - later on
they said they had ‘just started shopping for a car for her to get
to work with, anyway!’ This was Blues on the Green Tournament number
three, and F.O.R. Blues Inc. (Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame) could not
be more proud to finally be giving away a new car this year.
Domenica Lovera, tournament organizer said “you hope but never
expect for someone to win. Never in a million years did I think it
could happen!! It’s a once in a lifetime thrill. What a lucky shot
and a thrill - even to me!” Michael Urbach-Teague, co-organizer,
said he was glad that their “payments for (car) prize insurance
actually paid off.”
You can meet everybody - the car will
be given away in a few weeks. Hall of Fame and Blues Festival
founder D.C. Minner will give the car to the Muries at the Fenton
Nissan Dealership in McAlester. We will be sure to let you know
exactly when.
Cash awarded for 1st place went to
Billy Torix and Kyle Tingel. 2nd Place was won by Jamie
Carman and Steven Sykes, and 3rd went to Cody Jennings
and Brad Whitmus. Melvin Potter won the Closest to the Pin prize, a
putter from Budweiser. A beautiful golf bag, with all the trimmings
including a timepiece, also from Budweiser, was awarded to Kyle
Tingel for the Longest Drive.
Every player won a door prize. These
were donated by the Creek Nation Casino, Budweiser, and others.
Tahlequah Native American artist Dana Tiger donated a signed print
which was snatched up by an early winner. Prizes included fancy golf
shirts, towels, golf shoe bags, carry-alls and other items that make
a golfer's game comfortable and elegant. Sponsor Hole In One
International out of Reno NV provided a coupon for each player to
redeem for a wood valued at $100, as well as great prizes for
hole-in-ones at all par-3 holes over 135 yards. Prizes were awarded
by co-organizer Janie Teague-Urbach who adds “An equally exciting
Blues on the Green Golf Tournament is planned for next year!”
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DC and Selby Minner and the Friends of
Rentiesville Blues Inc. hosted the 2007 Inductions into
the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame Saturday May 26th. This
was the first time the awards have been given at an event
seperate from their annual Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival,
and it was a rousing success! There were performances and jams
by inductees Miss Blues, Watermelon Slim, Tony Mathews, DC and
Selby Minner. Also youngster (age 12) Blue Fire Foley
performed, as well as Sunset and Sunshine. A full slate
kept the time worn juke joint DC inherited from his family
rocking until close to daylight!
Media awards were given to writer and managing editor Jack
Fowler of the McIntosh County Democrat (the Checotah
paper) and the Muskogee Phoenix. The
Phoenix
has created and inserted the Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival
program into their general circulation since the festival's
infancy in 1993. The editor of the Weekender, Leif Wright,
received the award for the
Phoenix
.
Baskets and trophies went to the inductees. Their photos are
now on the Hall of Fame wall in the Blues Club. Selby Minner
said "At some point we hope to build a concert hall
upstairs which will be the true Hall of Fame, complete with
exhibits of our inductees. We work to honor musicians and
others with a lifetime in this music and
Oklahoma
roots. We are starting with inscribed bricks people can order
which will create a walk of fame in form the corner. The
corner of
DC
Minner Street
and
John
Hope Franklin Blvd.
"
Minner is an Oklahoma blues legend who started his career as a
bassist working in the bands of Chuck Berry, Bo Didley, OV
Wright and Freddie King....He started singing and
writing songs and switched to lead guitar in the early 70's.
DC grouped with his wife/bassist/vocalist Selby Minner in
California
in 1976. After 12 years living on the road performing the
couple settled back in Rentiesville and has been on the OK
State Art's Council Touring Arts and Artist in Residence
rosters since the early 90's.
Having been included in 5 halls of fame around the state
himself, Minner is proud to share the spotlight and honor
other worthy players - while they are alive, if possible. The
Friends of Rentiesville Blues Inc has been created to keep the
Festival and Hall of Fame moving forward well into the future.
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