2006 INDUCTEES
   

 INDUCTED DURING THE
DUSK TIL DAWN BLUES FESTIVAL
 SEPT 1, 2, 3 2006 IN RENTIESVILLE
 
          We are honoring Oklahoma or Oklahoma related Blues musicians who have a lifetime of achievement in the blues -- 6 people nominated by Blues Societies around the state and chosen by DC Minner and the Friends of Rentiesville Blues Inc.
Elvin Bishop
James Jr. Markham
Selby Minner
Steve Pryor
Frank Swain
James Walker
Lifetime Achievement Award:
D.C. Minner

                             dcminner@uslogon.com   www.dcminnerblues.com  F.O.R. Blues Inc.  (918) 473-2411

         OKLAHOMA BLUES HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES FOR 2006

Elvin Bishop  

BIOGRAPHY:
When guitarist/vocalist Elvin Bishop took the stage at San Francisco’s Biscuits & Blues on January 9, 2000 (the first of three nights of sold-out shows), he knew that sparks would soon be flying. That’s because his longtime friend and mentor, guitarist Little Smokey Smothers, was joining him. After all, without Little Smokey Smothers, Elvin Bishop’s career path would have been completely different. It was Smothers who befriended Bishop when Bishop first arrived in Chicago . Smothers taught Bishop about the blues, taught him how to play guitar, and, most importantly, he taught Bishop about life as a bluesman. In fact it was Smothers who secured harmonicist/vocalist Paul Butterfield’s very first gig before Paul formed (and Elvin joined) the Butterfield Blues Band. Over the years Elvin and Little Smokey have remained close friends, and in 1995 they recorded together on Smothers’ very first solo album, released only in Europe . But now, almost 40 years after meeting, the two friends and musicians join forces on Alligator Records’ THAT’S MY PARTNER! ( AL 4874), a blazing hot live album recorded at these historic, raucous shows.

Guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Elvin Bishop has been singing and recording his rollicking brand of electrified down-home blues for almost 40 years, now. Bishop's history-making tenure as a founding member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in the 1960s, his chart-topping hits in the 1970s, and his emergence on Alligator Records in the late 1980s and into the 1990s place him at the forefront of electric blues guitarists. Elvin's music is a mix of his blues roots with contemporary funk and rock flavors spiced with a touch of country and the laid-back feel of his Northern California home. Rolling Stone referred to Bishop's music as “a good-time romp...raucous blues with high-energy soloing, mixtures of careening slide and razor-edged bursts, all delivered with unflagging enthusiasm and wit.”

Growing up in the 1940s on a farm in Iowa with a loving but non-musical family, Elvin seldom heard music as a kid. "This was before TV," Elvin says, "and on the radio you got a lot of Frank Sinatra and 'How Much Is That Doggie In the Window' type of stuff."

The family moved to Tulsa , Oklahoma , when Elvin was 10, in 1952. Tulsa was "totally segregated," says Elvin, "I mean, hard core. Oklahoma was not that far ahead of the rest of the South, I'd say." Elvin remembers seeing Ray Charles in the Big Ten Ballroom with a rope stretched the length of the room to separate blacks and whites. "The one thing they couldn't segregate was the airwaves," says Bishop. "When rock and roll started up, in the mid-'50s, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino and Little Richard showed up on white radio."

And then, late one night when Elvin was 14 or 15, the atmospheric conditions a little rough, Jimmy Reed's harmonica came cutting through the static from WLAC in Nashville, and Elvin Bishop's life was changed. The song was "Honest I Do." "That piercing harp came through, cutting in like a knife, and I said, 'Oh, man, that's it.' I found out that blues was where the good part of rock and roll was coming from." Elvin was also a big fan of Tulsa ’s Flash Terry.

He began collecting blues records, and quickly realized that many of his favorite records were recorded in Chicago . In 1959, he used a National Merit Scholarship as a way to get closer to his blues heroes by enrolling in the University of Chicago , with its campus tucked in the middle of the South Side ghetto. “The first thing I did when I got there,” Elvin recalls, “was make friends with the guys working in the cafeteria. Within fifteen minutes I was into the blues scene.” Leaving his physics studies behind, Bishop turned to blues music full time. He befriended Little Smokey Smothers, and would hang out with the established guitarist for hours on end. Smothers liked Bishop and took the willing student under his wing, teaching Elvin how to play real blues guitar. Very quickly, Elvin became an accomplished and innovative player.

After Elvin crossed paths a few times with fellow U of C student and harmonica player Paul Butterfield, the two began sitting in at black blues clubs, often jamming with Buddy Guy and Otis Rush. Paul and Elvin soon recruited Michael Bloomfield as second lead guitarist, and a groundbreaking, all-star band began to take shape. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, formed in 1963 (along with Mark Naftalin on keyboards, Jerome Arnold on bass and Sam Lay on drums), introduced electric Chicago blues to the rock audience for the first time. By 1967 the band's popularity hit an all-time high as their straight Chicago blues sounds drifted even further into rock and roll. Their highly influential albums set the stage for the dual lead guitar attack that the Allman Brothers and Derek and the Dominos (among others) adopted. Bishop recorded three albums with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band before deciding to move on.

Towards the end of the 1960s, Bishop headed to the San Francisco area. He became a regular at the famed Fillmore jam sessions, playing alongside Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, B.B. King and many others before embarking on a solo career. He recorded first for Fillmore Records, then Epic and then for Capricorn, where his career took off to new heights. He charted with Travelin’ Shoes before scoring big with Fooled Around And Fell In Love (the song, with vocals supplied by pre-Jefferson Starship singer Mickey Thomas, reached number three on the pop charts).

Gettin' My Groove Backon on Blind Pig Records is Elvin's first new studio album in seven years. I love it.

      John Orr, staff writer, San Jose Mercury News and others

James Junior Markham

“He has planted feet, and they have deep roots” says former drummer Chuck Blackwell. “It is deep within him and it is real. He has always kept a positive reputation in a tough business…I love him dearly”. “He has the right attitude and it is contagious. He is a spark and pulls the best out of anyone who plays with him.” says co-vocalist and friend for 47 years Jackie Dunham. This harpist singer has worked from coast to coast with a virtual who’s who of national and Tulsa musicians… Nashville , Los Angeles , Philadelphia …all places Jr. has worked. The huge list of musicians he has wolked with include Leon Russell, J.J. Cale, A.C. Reed, Dr. John, Willie Nelson, The Rolling Stones pianist Bobby Keyes… He ran his own club the Paradise bringing nationals into Tulsa and hopes to open another someday. Jesse Ed Davis, Buddy Miles…. Jr Markham is a busy man in the music world.

  Steve Pryor was born in Tulsa in 1955.

                                              Has traveled to California and New York City where he worked with the Paul Butterfield Band during 1982-3. Steve started writing and recorded with Scott Hutchinson. They signed with the major record Label Zoo Ent. In 1991The Steve Pryor Band album was released. There was a tour with the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Steve has won the Spotnick Award from the Tulsa World five of the first six years it was held. He was inducted into the Spot Awards Hall of Fame. This man is a passionate guitarist. A strong influence is Freddie King. “People that get into this business to make a million dollars playing guitar – bless their hearts. I hope they do good things with their money. But that’s not the reason we do it,” Steve says. “I thought it was the coolest thing in the world that someone would sit down in front of a  microphone and make this thing (music) that would last forever. That’s the reason I’ve always played music; just to see the look on their (people’s) faces.” Reaching people – Steve does it well. He also survived a horrific auto accident two and a half years ago, and survivor that he is, he has come back the better for it.

Selby Minner  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 accesible, 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 2 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’s health is shaky now, 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 (now in it’s third year). 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, and countless others. She has worked tirelessly to develop the community and spread the good word about Oklahoma Blues. She has recently moved back to the guitar and her lead playing is getting better all the time as DC encourages her and is slowly pushing her to the front of the band.

                                Frank Swain

Was born in Bristow OK on March 2, 1938 . He worked with Flash Terry who he met while Flash was working with Jimmy “Cry Cry” Hawkins. Due to distant family relations to both owners of the Big-10 Ball room, Frank got in free and saw every major black act which came thru the state from 1954 to 1956. Flash later called him for a recording job. The session was picked up by Indigo records of Los Angeles . He then traveled with Ernie Fields and band. Eventually he settled back in with Flash Terry and band, backing Little Johnnie Taylor, Lowell Fulson, Nappy Brown, Johnny Adams, James Peterson, Hubert Sumlin and many others. Many of these were at the Dusk til Dawn Blues festival here in Rentiesville. Frank Swain, Flash Terry and band always did a superb job of backing these artists. Frank Swain is a walking encyclopedia of Tulsa music history and should be recorded telling the stories.

James Walker  was born March 11, 1941 in Fort Townson Oklahoma . He moved to McAlester in 1946 where he began singing and

  playing guitar at age ten. He learned from his father Hosea. James made his first guitar out of a cigar box at age nine. After several school gigs he later worked with Charles ‘Bobo’ Rushing. James Walker’s band is known a Touch of Class and has performed with Joe Simon, Ted Taylor, Johnny Taylor, Esther Phillips, Ike and Tina Turner, Lynn White and many others.

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                                                                      INDUCTEES FOR 2005

COME CELEBRATE WITH US!
          We are honoring Oklahoma or Oklahoma related Blues musicians who have a lifetime of achievement in the blues!

During the Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival in Rentiesville over Labor Day Weekend, the inductees of 2005, eight people nominated by Blues Societies around the state and chosen by DC Minner and the Friends of Rentiesville Blues Inc., will be inducted into the Oklahoma BLUES Hall of Fame!

SATURDAY SEPT 3, 2005

Lowell Fulson
Mary “Little Miss Peggy” Wallace Johnson

SUNDAY SEPT 4, 2005

Sam Franklin
Dr French E. ‘Doc Blue’ Hickman – Keeping the Blues Alive (KBA) Award
Ace Moreland
Herbie  Welch
Claude Williams
Harry Williams

We are proud and honored to be able to give back to these musicians who have done so much for the blues community and music lovers in general with their lifetime commitments to the music we love! We are also honored to have the support of the 
Anadarko Blues Society, the Blues Society of Tulsa ,  The OK Blues Society, Route 69 Project, Tornado Alley Blues Association, Tulsa Blues Club and the Larry Johnson Blues Foundation as we work to create a truly state wide  OKLAHOMA BLUES HALL OF FAME

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 S   Sam Franklin    by Dan Quan                      

Harry Wms    Claude Wms   
Herbie Welch in Rentiesville OK      
      Little Miss Peggy

  Doc Blue Ace   M                                                                                                                                                                                             Moreland
http://www.mp3.com/lowell-fulson/artists/288/biography.html
                                                                               Mr. Lowell Fulson   

 

                      ||

                 This is year number 2 for the OK Blues Hall of Fame, and this year we have reached across Oklahoma to

7 other blues organizations for nominations so we can become more truly representative of the entire state!

Anadarko Southern Plains Blues Society, the Blues Society of Tulsa ,  The OK Blues Society, Route 69 Project, Tornado Alley Blues Association, Tulsa Blues Club and the Larry Johnson Blues Foundation.

                                   
              
Short Bios of the 2005 class

Little Miss Peggy
 Little Miss Peggy toured with the big bands . Originally from New Orleans she sang with Bill Parker and many others – Larry Johnson and the New Breed…still tearing ‘em up in OKC with her full throated soulful approach.   
            
             Lowell  Fulson

An originator of the West Coast Sound with hits Everyday I Have the Blues and Tramp, Reconsider Baby and many more, a giant in the industry.

Sam Franklin
Sax player extroadinaire, worked on the Albert Collins on the road for years, a joyous performer. The Davenport (Iowa) Blues Fest just got him a room and paid him so he could sit in with anyone he liked thru the entire Festival!

Dr French E. ‘Doc Blues’ Hickman – Keeping the Blues Alive (KBA) Award
Doc Blue came to the blues late in life – a dentist in Chicago on a Dental Convention found the blues and left Chicago a changed man. Credited with doing more to support the musicians in OKC than any other he runs the Biting Sow which has kept the blues community growing for years.

Herbie  Welch
 Taught Blues Hall-Of-Fam-ers Tony Mathews and DC Minner to play Guitar!!! When his left hand fingers were cut ½ off in a work accident, Herbie re-taught himself to play guitar – great guitar!

Harry Williams
Flash Terry’s drummer and musical partner from 1965 until Flash’s passing in 2004. Born in Kansas City, Harry toured with Ike and Tina Turner during 1963 and 1964. Always a helping hand to the blues community.

Ace Moreland
Born in 1952, in Miami Oklahoma Part Cherokee and all bluesman he wrote prolifically and was recording engineer for King Snake touring for years and returning to OK over the holidays and putting together a band to play locally thru the holiday season. His life was short, but he jump-started beginners, toured with the best, and was well loved by blues lovers family and friends across OK and the US.
 Claude Williams
Toured the world as trumpet and coronet player and band leader for Ike and Tina  Turner over many years.  Claude lived for years in LA – always busy , hairdresser, Photographer, Jesse Jackson look-alike actor, ….

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DC Minner Inducted into Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame 1999 When D's induction was first announced, the Phoenix wrote: "D.C. Minner is a local legend. He has been working with children for years, teaching them an appreciation for a uniquely American form of music.  Flash Terry and DC Minner "Minner, an extraordinary blues guitarist, will be inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame this year. It's a long overdue recognition, as far as we're concerned....Blues is one of music's more expressive and honest incarnations, and Minner is one of it's finest musicians..."    After the honor of being inducted into this and two other Halls of Fame (Payne Co. On-line and OK Jazz), DC realized the most blues people these places could ever induct in one year would be two or three. Since he has the place, knows the community and since a lot of blues players are getting on in years he decided to start the OKLAHOMA BLUES HALL OF FAME!                             This beautiful photo courtesy of Jerry Willis - Flash Terry and DC Minner OK Music Hall of Fame Indct'n More photos from that nite courtesy of Rocky Frisco: http://www.rockyfrisco.com/flash.html
(TO SEE SEE OTHER PRESS ON THE FESTIVAL and BAND etc. go to the Press Room)
in Rentiesville at the  Down Home Blues Club / Preservation Hall Inducted 2004 during the   Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival We are proud and honored to be able to give back to these musicians who have done so much for the blues community and music lovers in general with their lifetime commitments to the music we love! We are also honored to have the support of the Blues Society of Tulsa and the OK Blues Society as we work to create the OKLAHOMA BLUES HALL OF FAME!                                                                   INDUCTEES 2004 Flash Terry Lem Sheppard James Michael Antle Tony Mathews Berry Harris Larry Johnson Dorothy 'Miss Blues' Ellis Big Dave 'Bigfoot' Carr Hiram Harvell We are honoring Oklahoma or  Oklahoma related musicians who have a lifetime of achievement in the blues! During the Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival in Rentiesville over Labor Day Weekend, these nine people chosen by DC Minner and the Friends of Rentiesville Blues will be inducted into OK's first ever BLUES Hall of Fame! We are proud and honored to be able to give back to these musicians who have done so much for the blues community and music lovers in general with their life time commitments to the music we love! We are also honored to have the support of the Society of Tulsa  and the OK Blues Society as we work to create the OKLAHOMA BLUES HALL OF FAME!                   F.O.R. Blues presents the  OK BLUES HALL OF FAME  INDUCTEES      2004 inducted at the Dusk til Dawn Blues Fest Sept 3, 4, 5th before their sets (918) 473-2411       Hiram Harvell                                      Berry Harris Tony Mathews                                       Lem Sheppard               Flash Terry                                                                   Mike Big Dave Carr                                      Larry Johnson                                     Dorothy ‘Miss Blues’ Ellis Narva Johnson, Founder of the Larry Johnson Foundation accepts Larry's induction from DC Minner 2004                                             FRIDAY                  Flash Terry - Tulsa Tulsa’s legendary bandleader – he played Dusk til Dawn every year but the year after he retired. His Uptown Horns will lead the tribute to Flash on Friday. Lem Sheppard - Educational Contributor - Pittsburg KS South Africa, work in the schools across the US for two years solid, Performer at Dusk Til Dawn over 10 years, acoustic between the sets, main stage, Lem hails from Pittsburg KS (will play between sets Sat at Fest) Mike Antle - Educational contributor - Okmulgee A blues guitarist to his heart, Mike left us at a young age but not before he taught over 40 guitar students a week at John Michael’s Music store; NSU had just hired him to teach guitar there. Winner Battle of the Blues Bands here, from Okmulgee SATURDAY Tony Mathews – Hollywood, Checotah LA session man, Ray Charles’ first guitarist – toured with Ray 18 years, and Little Richard as well. Plays Rentiesville every year. He grew up 5 miles away in Checotah. (will play Sat at Fest, and do Ray Charles Tribute) Berry Harris – Wichita KS, Stringtown OK Berry has been playing blues 55 years or longer, plays piano as well as guitar… Berry Harris is such a mainstay of the Wichita KS blues scene that the city of Wichita named a Berry Harris Day (Berry will play Sat at Fest)                                  Larry Johnson - OKC, LA  Ran his New Breed Band out of OKC over 10 years, Included OKC’s Claude Williams, Madd Ladd, Ron Hardin, Vernon Powers, D.C. Minner and Gordon Simms. The band played Wichita regularly and toured nationally behind Freddie King, Chuck Berry and others). The New Breed worked out of Memphis 2 years, on tour with O.V. Wright. DC and Tony Mathews to the moved west coast, DC came back and got Larry who then worked out of LA from 1970 until 2000. Larry won the Guitar Showdown at the Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival. The CD of the showdown is his only recorded work that we know of.                                  SUNDAY                                               Dorothy ‘Miss Blues’ Ellis - OKC, Paris TX “Not a songbird” writes the Edmond paper. Originally from Paris Texas, Dorothy ‘Miss Blues’ Ellis got to OKC and ran out of money; she has had a profound affect on the city’s music scene ever since. “Texas shout” is how we define her powerful vocals! She plays Sunday in Rentiesville this year.                                            Big Dave ‘Bigfoot’ Carr - OKC from OKC, the Spencer area; had his own group in Denver. A warm and soulful tenor sax man he is Bronko’s Uncle. Bronko and Big Dave’s sons will do a tribute to him on Sunday at Dusk til Dawn Hiram Harvell– S.F. CA A tremendous talent on keyboard, Hiram worked as DC Minner’s drummer through the 70’s, later as his keyboard man. A Haight St. San Francisco regular, Hiram played the Dusk til Dawn for years, helping define the spirit of the Festival. "Negro Blues"  dcminner@lakewebs.net  www.dcminnerblues.com   F.O.R. Blues Inc.  (918)473-2411 Recent PRESS for Us AND Berry Harris! Thought you might like to read the article going to our Old Town Gazette.  Attached is the pic likely to run with it.  Thanks for all the info.  JBou Blues Hall of Fame Established in Oklahoma Wichita Bluesman Berry Harris Among First 9 to be Inducted Berry Harris, one of Wichita’s reigning blues legends, is being honored this Labor Day weekend in the state where he began his rise as a musician and comic before bringing his blues to Kansas. Berry Harris’ East Texas style blues flavored with roadhouse R&B, and salty repartee have been applauded on the Kansas and Oklahoma music scene for over five decades. In a ceremony during the Sept.3-5th Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival in Rentiesville, OK, Harris and eight other Oklahoma blues men and women will become the first inductees to the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame. DC Minner, a life-long blues artist and host of the 14th Annual Dusk til Dawn Blues Fest, is at the heart of the nonprofit Friends of Rentiesville Blues effort to establish the Hall of Fame. Together, they chose Harris and eight others -- Flash Terry, Lemuel Sheppard, Mike Antle, Tony Mathews, Berry Harris, Larry Johnson, Dorothy "Miss Blues" Ellis, Big Dave "Bigfoot" Carr and Hiram Harvelle -- for their lifetime of achievement in the blues. The Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame also has the support of The Blues Society of Tulsa and the Oklahoma City Blues Society. Born in Chockie, OK November 27, 1929, Berry T. Harris also claims Atoka, Boggy Bend and Stringtown as boyhood homes in the southeastern part of the state, still known as "Little Dixie." Growing up in the grip of The Depression, money was scarce, conveniences few, and the only singing Berry recalls was in church. When his grandfather got the first radio in their black community, every Saturday night brought the family together to listen to the Grand Ol’ Opry. Harris credits his uncle U.L. Washington with his early upbringing and introduction to the guitar. "I first learned to play in ‘E natural’ . . . "Sail On Black Girl," "Mr. Crump" and "Take Me Back," he remembers. After a hitch in Korea as an MP from 1948-52, Berry came back to Oklahoma with the jokes he’d honed in the Army and started performing more "blue comedy" than music at Leo’s Club (ala Redd Foxx and other black comedians still limited to underground recordings and nightclub acts.) It was Leo Thompson who bought a guitar and amp and encouraged Harris to stick with it. Berry teamed with Charles "Bo Bo" Rushing and high school music teacher Tollie Moore, Jr. to learn new licks, expecting little to come of it. But Thompson wrangled an audition for Berry with Bennie Johnson who liked what he heard -- the two songs Berry had just learned: Peewee Creighton’s "Blues After Hours" and "Honky Tonk" by Bill Doggett -- and Harris was on his way to Muskogee as a member of Johnson’s 12-piece orchestra at night and driving a cab during the day. In 1957, Levy Langover and Jerry Burns (uncle of WSU alum and musical theater star Carla Burns) came through Tulsa looking for musicians. Harris was hired to join the house band at Wichita’s Rhythm City Club, earning $75 a week and living rent-free. He also met and married Loretta in 1958 and during nearly 50 years, two daughters and six grandchildren together, Harris’ life has always included music, but he bypassed life on the road. With a family to support, Berry worked for each of Wichita’s aircraft companies at one time or another before retiring from Boeing. "Most of the musicians in town have played with me," said Harris in a 1998 interview. "But none of them ever took me anywhere . . . they may come by to borrow my guitar, but they never took me anywhere! I’ve seen ‘em come and go, and they were all gonna be big stars . . . and you see who’s still here." Harris does, however, boast song writing credit for his tune, "I’ve Got a Problem," recorded at least three times, once by his Chicago-bound contemporary and fellow local blues legend, Jesse "Sonny Boy" Anderson, and most notably by the internationally acclaimed, Buddy Guy. Berry Harris says he’s played in "every dump and dive" in Wichita; places like Flagler’s Garden, The Tick Tock Lounge, The Bomber Club, The Rock Castle (once the Coyote Club, now Roadhouse Blues), The Esquire Club, El Morraco, and The Sportsman (forerunner of the 9th St. Elks Club. His 9th Street Blues Band was the second band to play in Old Town at Rick’s Rib Rack (now John Barleycorn’s.) "I remember the 50's and 60's . . . Jerry Hahn, Jerry Wood, Rock Green, Renee Aaron . . all them fellows." And he has fond memories of his friend and blues icon, Freddie King. "We both liked scotch . . . we’d sit and drink together and watch my tv right on this couch!" he’ll gesture in his northeast Wichita home where pictures dot the walls, each with a unique story to tell. As for the popular influences of younger musicians: "Most of the young people playin’ . . . need to go back and learn who did what . . . If you’re gonna play (the blues), know the history," admonishes Harris. Music is wrote and played a certain way, play it that way! Good musicians play the way stuff’s ‘sposed to be played. Ain’t nobody in the world plays "Stormy Monday" like T-Bone Walker . . . he plays it with five or six different chords, not just three changes. He recorded it with jazz players, so it’s more mellow. But 95% of everything in blues has only got three changes, so you got to make it sweet." Berry Harris espouses the blues as a direct descendant of the old spirituals sung by African slaves brought here to work the fields and build the fortunes of white land owners. He says blues is the voice of freedom from oppression, the voice of hope, and the only truly original American music. "Ray, rock ‘n roll, jazz, soul music, even some country, all came from the blues . . . and old black men wrote all of it!" Harris has frequently taken part in Blues in the Schools efforts and always enjoys the chance to talk to kids about the music he has lived. His stories are both colorful and first-hand. "You have to live a culture to be able to teach it, " he contends. Harris also shakes his head at present day musicians who ". . . don’t respect each other . . . they’re always talkin’ about who’s the best . . . lots of bad attitudes and big heads! Don’t never tell nobody how good you are, let them tell you how good you are, and then, don’t get to believin’ it ‘cause some people will say anything! I can look at a crowd and tell if people like what I’m playing. Today’s bands don’t play for the people, they play for themselves! You’ve to play a little bit of everything to satisfy people today. You got to remember where you are who you are and what you’re doing." If not the money or fame, what has kept Berry Harris playing the blues? "I like to play," he says simply. He recalls Loretta saying that if he couldn’t get his hands on a guitar everyday he’d probably die, and blues in Wichita would be the worse without him. Berry continues to gig with his 9th Street cronies and is a frequent guest of other blues players in Wichita and Oklahoma, though he notes that pay for musicians is comparatively worse than the days when $25 a night went a lot farther. He looks forward to gigs in No. Carolina where he’ll travel with Matt Walsh in mid-September, and of course, takes immeasurable pride in being honored in his home state as an inaugural member of the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame. Berry Harris is an American original -- like the blues he plays. he says. He is proud of where he’s come from, proud of where his music has taken him. Though Harris is showing a little wear with the passing years, he’s still dapper and quick with a quip on stage, and vows to keep singin’ the blues -- his way. For more information about the 14th Annual Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival in Rentiesville, OK on Labor Day Weekend, Sept. 3-5th, 2004 go to www.dcminnerblues.com or call Selby Minner at 918-473-2411. ~ EXTRA!!! . . .  In mid-August, Berry Harris was also selected by The Friends of Rentiesville Blues to compete for the title "Best Unsigned Blues Band" at IBC2005next February, the crowning event of the annual BluesFirst Weekend in Memphis, TN hosted by The Blues Foundation. Jacqueline Boudreau - Old Town Gazette (Wichita), Aug. 2004     More articles by: Lissa Ann Wohltmann New Search Recent PRESS for Miss Blues! A Trooper Ain’t Always a Man by Carl from BlindDog Smokin' My band is tougher than a tangle of barbed wire in a bull’s tail. We sleep on the basement floors of strangers using our shoes for pillows. We pee on the side of the road in blizzards that hurl the stream and fan it into whiteouts twenty feet away. We eat hard-boiled eggs and tuna fish out of the can while cramped in a van full of instruments, luggage, and trash. We drive all night taking turns at the wheel with the others curled into snoring lumps. We awaken with Orangutan hair-do’s and we smell like tennis shoe sweat. We did this two hundred times a year for a dozen years. It’s no place for a woman—and we are a clean living band. Many bands add booze, dope, cigarettes, and the infamous hide-a-slut to the mix inside the vehicle, which then has to stop for periodic puking, dry heaves, and angry gun-toting husbands in pursuit. June Cleaver would cross herself at first glimpse, even if she wasn’t Catholic. That’s why it’s amazing the toughest member of our touring entourage is a woman. A couple of times a year we take Dorothy Ellis, known for the past sixty-six years as Miss Blues, on long grueling tours, winter and summer, day and night. Not only has she never complained, never asked to go to the bathroom, never asked for special privileges—but she is the life of the party. Miss Blues weighs 260 pounds and once knocked a man out with her size twelve shoe. He bares the scar on his head to this day. She was born in Texas on a cotton plantation where she worked in the hot sun at the age of four. She started singing at the plantation barrelhouse that same year billed as "Little Miss Blues". She made more money singing than she did all week picking cotton. Over the years she labored to help raise her siblings from an absentee father, who left behind a young and inadequate stepmother. She later left to join an old vaudeville-type circuit, had a baby of her own she toted along, and traveled the country in bad times with even badder companions. I remember a trip where we drove in one long day, 780 miles on ice-packed roads and howling wind back to Oklahoma where she lives. She slept sitting up, kept a supply of fried chicken from gas station warming ovens, and entertained us with her bawdy stories, foghorn laughter, and positive attitude. She performed that night for four hours and then fed us afterwards at her house: slabs of beef ribs, and cake-like cornbread, sending us to bed with the morning sun and homemade sweet potato pie. When I complimented Miss Blues on her road endurance and behavior, she replied simply, "I’m a trooper." In her seventies, Miss Blues still belts out songs from the gut in the raw primal style that reflects a life in the briar patch where she snarled louder than the others to get her share—where passion and compassion are survival tools and not something we vicariously understand from television and movies. I recall a festival where a relatively famous songstress sat backstage in her elaborate motorhome tending her dogs and being pampered by her husband. She put on an anemic show and went her way complaining about having to use a port-a-potty. Miss Blues arrived having ridden two days on a Greyhound bus with fried chicken stashed in her purse and a supply of Jack Daniels incognito in a squeeze bottle. During her blistering performance, the people in the front row looked like weather channel reporters during hurricane Katrina. She signed autographs, garnered a new supply of chicken, took a belt of vodka from a fan, and got back on a Greyhound and went home. She was paid exactly one-fifth of what the promoted gal got. A shame. She was five times the entertainment value. But isn’t that the irony of the music world and our American marketing system? Who wants the real item when you can pay five times more for a synthetic model with a hand-shaking promoter and an ad-campaign. It’s the same way we buy margarine, movies, and motor cars. I guess it’s un-American to say this nowadays, but I’ll take Miss Blues and her old beat up body over a teenybopper with her belly button showing, either for traveling or performance. She’s a trooper.     Published - Thursday, May 20,  This was in Edmond Life & Leisure newspaper and NOT the Sun.  (www.EdmondPaper.com) Specifically, you can read the article and photos at: http://www.edmondpaper.com/archive.taf?id=063388&path=fn%3Dsearch%26x%3D1%26article%3Dmiss%2Bblues Lissa Ann Wohltmann Lissa@EdmondPaper.com She sings her heart, soul out By Lissa Ann Wohltmann Edmond Life & Leisure (the photos below do not open up) Lissa Ann Wohltmann     Photo Credit: Lissa Ann Wohltmann       The blues isn't simply a depressing state of mind. It is music that some consider the poor man's opera. It tells a story, but in a simple, reflective, soul-stirring manner. Opera's clientele, in this country at least, has usually been more high-brow and some say ostentatious. Blues' audiences are considered earthier. Jeffrey Vlaming once said, "Music continues to nourish us in a variety of forms as different as the colors of the spectrum." Dorothy Ellis is one down-to-earth blues singer who nourishes us in her rough and ready demeanor and sound. She personifies the stereotypical blues singer and truly got her start in a poor southern town. While picking cotton in the hot summer sun, she sang simply to stave off boredom. She sang both popular songs of the day, as well as home-grown tunes in the little town of Direct, Texas. Ellis had plenty of material to sing about while gathering the crop of the day. One might say that her life was right out of a soap opera. Her mom died before Ellis became a teenager. She then went to live with her abusive grandmother. "Let me tell you, that woman was mean," Ellis said about her grandmother. "I still have scars." After breaking free from the vicious and brutal young life she led, Ellis embarked on a life minus the physical, but not emotional, pain. She made it as far as Oklahoma City with the few dollars she had in her pocket. "I was starvin' to death," she said about her reason for staying. Back then, Oklahoma City was simply a place where she ran out of money. The Edmond community has the chance to hear Ellis, also known as Miss Blues, at the 16th annual Edmond Jazz & Blues Festival. She will perform at 4 p.m. May 29 in Stephenson Park, next to the University of Central Oklahoma Jazz Lab. Many of Ellis' songs center on tragedy, although she doesn't see it that way. "I write happy blues," she insisted. "It's just a story about life (and) life is not depressing." Her first CD, "Sittin' In" was created with the band Blinddog Smokin'. In it she sings about a man's failing health due to drinking, partying and the like. Yet she counterbalances the man's troubles with the fact that this person has led a good life. Ellis considers it her theme song. "I've had my fun. If I don't get well no mo - you know I'm goin' down real slow," she sings with her cigarette smoking raspy voice, reminiscent of musicians in a cloudy old New Orleans pub. "Tell Mama pray for me. Forgive me for all my sins." In another tune, "Trapped," she unashamedly sings about herself. "'Trapped' is about me," she said straightforwardly. "I'm trapped in a bad situation," she croons. "My love has turned to hay." She continues with how others treated her in the past. "You know the man won't talk to me. He sits with his face in a frown," she sings with a heavy blues beat. "He says I'm getting" fat. I'm movin' a little too slow." The final line seems to sum up her life. "Where the hell did 40 go?" she sang about the past years. When speaking with Ellis, don't expect anything politically correct to reach your ears. She has a refreshingly different approach to life. She speaks her mind and heart in Miss Blues fashion. She won't purposefully offend others; but if you are overly sensitive, then this woman's deportment is not for you. Her inspirational, energetic and simple style is her trademark. Ellis' street-smart charm will make you laugh and cry simultaneously. Yet, she can still empathize with the lives of the troubled. "Women can identify with this," she said on her CD, before singing about her man leaving her for another. She understands how a woman's anger can turn into rage in 3.2 seconds. "I'm cryin' tears of rage," she sang. "My man is gone with another woman, how do you expect me to behave?" In this tune, she agonizes about the humiliation, the treachery and the pain she feels from the enormous deceit in this broken relationship. "I got the blues so bad. Lord, I can't even eat," she sings broken-heartedly. "All I can do, people, is wring my hands and weep." Ellis isn't only an emotional being, but she's also a practical woman. "Never quit the day job," she warned. She's always had a regular paycheck to enable her to keep a roof over her head and to keep singing her songs. She's been a director at Group Life for Job Corps, an assistant dean of students at Tusculum College in Greenville, Tenn., and finally retired as a nursing home administrator. While working full-time, though, she went back to school to get a master's degree in counseling psychology at the University of Central Oklahoma. Some semesters, she didn't quite have enough money to pay, yet the president of the college at the time gave her a break. "I've got no money to go to school," she told him more than once. Instead of being denied admittance, this man let her pay the tuition in installments. "He was real nice to me," she remembered. Getting this degree wasn't something she needed to get ahead in life. In fact, she's not exactly sure why she did it; it was just something she had to complete in life. Perhaps it was more fodder for her blues. (Lissa Ann Wohltmann can be reached via e-mail at lissa@edmondpaper.com.)       Friends of Rentiesville Blues, in conjunction with the Blues Society of Tulsa and the Oklahoma Blues Society announce the     Founder: D.C. Minner PROCLAMATION: Due to the fact that on average it is only possible for about two blues people a year to be inducted on the OK Music and OK Jazz Halls of Fame and due to the fact that the musicians are getting older and need to be recognized while they are alive, we will induct 8 or ten a year into the OKLAHOMA BLUES HALL OF FAME at the Down Home Blues Club in Rentiesville OK We are starting the OKLAHOMA BLUES HALL OF FAME here because:     We cannot think of a better qualified person to start this OKLAHOMA BLUES Hall of Fame in Rentiesville than this OK Bluesman who is a three time hall of fame inductee himself (Payne County on-line Hall of Fame, OK Jazz Hall of Fame and OK Music Hall of Fame)– plus a KBA (Handy) Award winner in education Being that DC has traveled the nation playing this music over 50 years and knows the Oklahoma Music scene, people in it, their level of expertise and their level of commitment from many perspectives…musician, bandleader, employer thru the Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival, educator…,he is listed on the Oklahoma Sate Arts Council rosters as a Touring Artist and Artist in Residence since 1990, having received commendations of excellence from the Town of Rentiesville, Langston University, OK State Governor and many more..         Also since Blues music as an idiom sprang from the African-American culture, we cannot imagine a better site for a Hall of Fame than the Down Home Blues Club in the historic Oklahoma African-American town ship of Rentiesville (one of the state’s 50 original and 13 remaining Black Townships). OK blues legend DC Minner’s family settled in Rentiesville in 1915 and opened a family juke joint starting in 1930. This has evolved into the Minner’s Down Home Blues Club. We believe the location of the new Rentiesville OK BLUES HALL OF FAME at the crossroads of 69 Highway and I-40, within an hour of the OK Music Hall of Fame in Muskogee, Tulsa’s Jazz Hall of Fame and Tulsa’s historic Cain’s Ballroom will be a valid and timely addition to the state’s tourism assets.  An “OK Music Trail”! Tremendous tradition is already in this Rentiesville Blues Club – Therefore we proclaim that we will honor this tradition, moving it into the future by creating the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame here with D.C. Minner as it’s founder.