FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 8, 2015

CONTACT INFO Selby Minner 918 855 0978 FB Rentiesville Blues

35 bands on 3 stages, 5 pm until 5 am $15/day, Volunteers and Kids Free,
Rentiesville OK is off US 69, 5 miles N of I-40 ...2 exits North OR and 3 exits South of Muskogee .www.dcminnerblues.com - dcminner@windstream.net
25 Years And Going Strong-
The Rentiesville Blues Festival

The Rentiesville Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival will take place from Friday Sept 4th until Sunday Sept 6th from 5 pm until 5 am. Presented in Rentiesville at the D.C. Minner Museum and OBHOF, 422978 John Hope Franklin Blvd. Tickets are $15 per person per day with children ages 12 and younger free. For more information on tickets, performance times, camping, or volunteering, visit the website www.dcminnerblues.com or call 918 855 0978

Friends of Rentiesville Blues and Selby Minner are proud to announce a full line-up of local, regional and national acts for the 25th annual Rentiesville Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival, slated for Labor Day weekend. The festival will be held at the old Minner family-farm-turned-venue, the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame on Sept 4 – 6th.

Background:

When D.C. and Selby Minner started the Blues Festival in 1991, someone who lived there said “no one can find Rentiesville – not even Little Johnny Taylor” wrong! 700 people came in that Sunday afternoon. Little Johnny Taylor and 6 other bands put on an awesome show.
A couple of festivals later Selby was talking to the Blues Foundation in Memphis. They said “Blues Festival? --we didn't know there was any Blues in Oklahoma.” (!!) But when they sent their writer, he wrote in their newsletter “Suffice it to say 'all night party' is a pretty apt description, - this Festival is a must-see to say you are in touch with the Blues scene in this country today!” Rentiesville rocks!
One year it rained on us and fans were calling it the Blues Woodstock.
You keep music alive by enjoying it... and Blues is some of the best party music ever created. “Hey Everybody, Let''s Have Some Fun!” “Gonna Rock this place tonite … all nite long...we ain't never going home!”

Minner on the Festival:

“Well, if you do something long enough, eventually you hope you get good at it, and I am really proud of this year's lineup! This is a community of music lovers. It has been a hard year for people...so much rain, and lots of stress...just watch the news... people need to come together and share the love. Nothing brings people together like music, particularly Blues, and the Festival draws a wide variety of people from near and far... everybody is here...and we hope you will mark your calendars and be here too!”

NEW THIS YEAR

WORKSHOPS all week from some of our best

Technology – check him out Roger Hurricane Wilson bring him your questions!!

web, social media and digital recording INFO

Debbie Blackwell how to make your own CDs
Harold Aldridge where did the blues com from?
Bonnie McCoy The Memphis Minnie & Big Joe Wms connection

SPECIAL CD Project funded by the OAC – Checotah High School's Rt 66 Big Band headed by Jim Davis OBHOF and Roger Hurricane Wilson OBHOF. Roger will come in from GA and record a blues/jazz CD with the students during the week of the festival!

AND Volunteer Sponsor Party Under the Tent THURSDAY nite with Danny Timms 7 – 9 Sept 3 – as a thank you to Sponsors and the '20 hour pre-fest volunteers'

It takes a lot to do a Blues Festival – come HELP early, meet people, and start the night BeFoRe!
D.C. Minner Rentiesville MUSEUM –Opened recently!! and the Honey Springs Visitor and Research Center across the street to the NE is now under construction!

2015 LINEUP for the RENTIESVILLE BLUES FESTIVAL 2015

FRIDAY, September 4th 2015

Rentiesville Blues Festival at D.C. Minner's
MAIN STAGE Fri Sept 4

4:00pm Gates open; Happy Hour
between sets: Harold Aldridge, OBHOF – Taft and Tahlequah OK

6:00 Eric Sengbusch - Houston

7:15 Jus Sayin - Tulsa

8:30 Selby Minner, OBHOF and Dan Oklahoma Slim Blues on the Move

9:45 Wanda Watson – Tulsa, OBHOF

11 Johnny Rawls – Blues Foundation Soul Blues Artist of the Year Miss

12 Layce Baker Jr. And Black Diamond – California, Oklahoma, OBHOF

BACK PORCH STAGE Fri Sept 4

6:00 Mike LaFever - Tulsa

7:15 Oklahoma Ollie - Los Angeles, OK

8:30 The ROXY in Muskogee - Spotlight on Young Talent Group

9:45 Spa City Blues Society, Blues in the Schools group

11 Dirty Red and The Soul Shakers with Ron Hubbard (formerly w Miss Blues)

BLUES CLUB STAGE indoors Fri Sept 4

6:00 Kit Love Robertson, Anarchy Blues Boulder, Muskogee

7:15 Harry and Debbie Blackwell both OBHOF - Dunsmuir CA

8:30 Bat-Or Kalo - Israel

9:45 INDOOR JAM with Debbie Blackwell, Kit Love Robertson, Eric Sengbusch and more

12 - 5 am Selby and Band,
followed by Wanda Watson, Johnny Rawls and Layce Baker Jr. and Black Diamond

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 5th 2015 Rentiesville Blues Festival at D.C. Minner's

MAIN STAGE Sat Sept 5th

4:00pm Gates open; Happy Hour
between sets: Eric Walker OKC

6:00 Checotah H School Rt 66 Big Band with Roger Hurricane Wilson and Jim Davis OBHOF

7:15 Selby Minner band w Okla Slim, Cecil Gray OBHOF also Little Miss Peggy OBHOF

8:30 Lil Jimmy Reed coming in from Alabama

9:45 Miss Blues OBHOF Texas and OKC

11 Johnny Rawls – Blues Foundation Soul Blues Artist of the Year from Mississippi

12 Oklahoma Ollie LA, CA and OK

BACK PORCH STAGE Sat September 5th

6:00 Mama Cookie OKC

7:15 Dylan Whitney Band

8:30 Bonnie McCoy – great neice of Memphis Minnie here from Kansas City

9:45 Heather Buckley Tulsa – formerly with Salty Dog

11 Big MaClyde Sheeley Wichita KS
12 Cowboy, Bronko, - Checotah and Big Dave Carr Jr (sax) - Dallas

BLUES CLUB STAGE indoors Sat Sept 5th

5:00 Dues Paid – Bartlesville with Wolf Man Black OBHOF

7:15 Sunsetter - OKC

8:30 Cecil Gray and Band

9:45 INDOOR JAM with Debbie Blackwell and Berry Harris and more

12 - 5 am Selby and Band,
followed by Lil Jimmy Reed and Johnny Rawls and Miss Blues maybe Layce Baker Jr.

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 6th 2015 Rentiesville Blues Festival at D.C. Minner's

MAIN STAGE Sun Sept 6th

4:00pm Gates open; Happy Hour
between sets: Roger Hurricane Wilson OBHOF, GA and w Bonnie McCoy sometimes

6:00 GOSPEL including Rev. Harper of Eufaula and Rev Tony Wise's Men's Chorus

7:15 Direct Connect OKC

8:30 Selby Minner Dan Oklahoma Slim and Steve Shrum

9:45 Larry Garner Baton Rouge Louisianna

11 Johnny Rawls – Blues Foundation Soul Blues Artist of the Year from Mississippi

BACK PORCH STAGE Sun Sept 6th

7:15 Piano Man

8:30 Last Call -

9:45 Baby Ray Mucker OBHOF – Pittsburg CA, McAlester

11 Magic Mike Updegrove 12 Dangerous GentlemsnZ

BLUES CLUB STAGE indoors Sun Sept 6th

6:00 Brothers Dupree with Sista Sarah Wade - Lawton OK
7:15 Berry Harris – OBHOF - Stringtown OK and Wichita KS
8:30 Jimmy Preacher Ellis - OBHOF – Seattle, Tulsa, now Dallas
9:45 INDOOR JAM with Debbie Blackwell and Cecil Gray, Jimmy Ellis, Berry Harris and
12 - 5 am Selby and Band, Bonnie McCoy
followed by Larry Garner Band and Johnny Rawls with Harry Blackwell and more!

RENTIESVILLE BLUES FESTIVAL

“Everything about Dusk Til Dawn is a ‘family’ affair. Started by D.C. and Selby, the extended ‘family’ includes 7 Board Members, over 100 volunteers, and thousands of dedicated fans. Many returning each year since the very beginning (1991).

"Vendors sell t-shirts, jewelry, barbeque, fried fish, candy, ice cream, and even ‘fried pies.’ The Kid’s Village sprouts up around an old school bus. Kids stay busy with Face painting, costumes, ‘dragons’, puppets, clay pottery, and harmonica classes, made lovingly available by a group of exceptional volunteers. These are all hands-on activities, keeping young minds occupied while the hypnotic sounds of blues slowly soak into the young minds that will be the future of the blues. This Kid’s Village is unlike anything we’ve seen before!!!” reported Cheryl of Blues Festival Guide and Tom Yearnshaw after visiting the event. But – just for fun - the juke joint is adults only!

The weekend is promoted as family-friendly. The Rentiesville crew is working hard to keep Rentiesville, one of the original Historic Black Towns (13 now left of over 50) alive and moving into the future, to transform the community by offering a truly extraordinary experience for music lovers. Also to commemorate Festival Founder and Blues Legend D.C. Minner who was born on the spot, and who went from the “house of shame (his words: from his Grandmother Lura's Juke Joint) to 6 Halls of Fame.”
About 7 food vendors will be onsite, offering "mouth-watering dishes like catfish, pulled pork, and gyros," Selby said.

Art vendors will offer handcrafted items such as paintings, jewelry, hand made Native American flutes and African art.

The festival, sponsored and produced by F.O.R. Blues, will include music related workshops, an artists alley for local artisans to share their wares and full line-up of local, regional and national acts.

The Best of the Best; the Cream of the Crop
B R E A K D O W N . . .
B a n d B I o s

Oklahoma's best

Danny Timms OBHOF (toured 11 years with Kris Kristofferson, several months with Bonnie Raitt)
the ROXY Spotlight group - 21 and under led by Michael Anthamatten 5 young women who PLAY!

Sunsetter and the Jazzy Blues Men Band with Ms Sunset the one and only Ms 'Spank Me Baby' in OKC
Direct Connect OKC's Showcase
Joann McMillan the Puppet Lady will be back with costumes in the Kid's Village – and big big bubbles

Ron Hubard - band leader for Miss Blues many years... with his show Dirty Red and the Soul Shakers!

Cecil Gray OBHOF … from Elgin, Nammy Award Winner 2014
Heather Buckley spirited singing from Tulsa's own

Eric Walker
Dylan Whitney age 17 with his 'new' band … not a solo anymore!
Harry Williams
Magic Mike Updegrove formerly with Miss Blues now with his own outfit.
GOSPEL Sunday at 6 pm Main Stage – free for seniors – Rev Tony Wise's VOPBC Men's Choir, Rev Harper – Eufaula....
Danny Cox Brother's Dupree with Sista Sarah Wade from Lawton to rock the house

From Across the Nation

Jimmy Preacher Ellis – Despite picking up and moving a lot over his career (Seattle, LA, Honolulu, New Orleans, Tulsa, and Dallas have all at one time been been home), Jimmy "Preacher" Ellis is "an Arkansas soul brother" by birth, and an OBHOF inductee.
Bat- Or Kalo – smoky vocals and stinging lead guitar . . . lives here and from Israel originally!
Berry Harris – the voice of the Blues in Wichita KS many years originally out of Stringtown OK

Roger Hurricane Wilson OBHOF out of Georgia, toured over a million miles

Harry and Debbie Blackwell OBHOF Dunsmuir/Mt Shasta CA Hippy Blues together some 30 years.
Eric Sengbusch from Houston great lead guitar!
Bonnie McCoy singer - none other than family to the renowned Memphis Minnie and Big Joe Williams

Baby Ray Mucker OBHOF was born in Slick OK and raised in Stockton CA, he lived and worked out of Hugo for years and now fronts Soul Magnetic. His track record includes playing behind Bobby Blue Bland, BB King, Ray Charles, The Whispers, Betty Wright and Billy Preston.
Layce Baker Jr. OBHOF and Black Diamond with his son Layce Baker III on keyboard. From Pittsburg Ca and Quinton OK. . .Cruise ships, Lowel Fulson, many more

Miss Blues from OKC – and Direct Texas in good health and ready to shout the blues!

Oklahoma Ollie in from Los Angeles with his band soulful West Coast Blues w Oklahoma roots.
Selby Minner has been fatured in Living Blues Magazine, on Black Entertainment Television, the Oprah Winfrey Show, OETA and NPR. She has performed with Albert Collins, Lowell Fulsom, Drink Small, Little Johnny Taylor, Hubert Sumlin, Tony Mathews, and opened for Koko Taylor, Albert King, Bobby Bland and Buddy Guy among others. Selby has been inducted into the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame housed in Rentiesville and the Oklahoma Black Museum and Performing Arts Center through the Larry Johnson Foundation. Selby is a seasoned and fun blues singer/bassist who is working with guitar slinger Dan Ortiz on lead. She toured non-stop for 12 years with blues legend D.C. Minner across the US and over to Belgium and Holland before settling at his birthplace of Rentiesville, Oklahoma. There they established the Down Home Blues Club and founded the Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival around 1990, both which continue on to this day. The Festival has gained national attention, and presents more than 200 blues musicians for three days every labor Day Weekend.

Selby grew up in East Providence RI and followed her passion for performing blues music to Berkeley CA where she first competed with and later joined forces with the older blues man. “You are my best student,” he said, years later. She is carrying on the tradition they forged together over 31 years, D.C. having worked as a bassist with legends Feddie King, O.V. Wright, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. The music is Blues, Rhythm and Blues and early Blues based rock. Johnny B Goode, The Thrill is Gone, Lean On Me, My Girl, Stand By Me – standards which have defined the blues – roll off the stage – Jimi Hendrix and originals as well.

Selby has been continuing on and running the Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival with the help of the non-profit FOR Blues Inc and lots of friends since 2008 when D.C. Minner passed. She continues to teach bass and guitar, and to do residencies in schools across the state together with Dan OK Slim Ortiz and her band. She and D.C. together won the KBA (Keeping the Blues Alive) in Education Award from the Memphis based international Blues Foundation in 1999.

Blues on the Move, with it’s warm and enthusiastic performances, is loved by people of all ages. The band covers a full range of beats, melodies and emotions.

Selby’s lead player
DAN ‘OKLAHOMA SLIM’ – Julio Daniel Ortiz Jr.

is the guitarist for Selby and Blues on the Move out of Rentiesville OK. He is an inductee into the Oklahoma Black Museum and Performing Arts Center on Lincoln in OKC, through the Larry Johnson Foundation. Born in Chicago and raised in Lawton OK he had his band Starflight when he was stationed in Germany, where he married Dagmar and had a daughter, Angela, who was born in the States in Lawton at Fort Sill. . Starflight toured Army bases across that country. He returned to the US and also ran a home town version of Starflight in Lawton. Dan moved to Texas and later Florida. He played music there for 18 years. His guitar work is nuanced and powerful, and is influenced by Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy, Albert King, Freddie King, B.B. King, Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown and Stevie Ray Vaughn. Leon Blue (keyboardist for BB King and on most Blues Cruises) says “That man can play that guitar!” Joe Mack wrote “Incredible guitar!!” contact: 918.680-0210 and 918-855-0978

World Class Headliners Rentiesville Festival 20145

Johnny Rawls Soul Artist of the Year Memphis International Blues Foundation. . charms the ladies and the men love him too! Red Cadillac is his hit.. also I Say Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes! You have seen him here before – and this year he is helping us celebrate number 25.
Larry Garner and The Boogaloo Blues Band storyteller in the Blues Baton Rouge, back from yet another European tour Leaving Dow Chemical was initially tough for him, but now he has a devoted following throughout the country and across the Atlantic Ocean. “I’m on tour all the time,” he says. “I go to Europe and England a few times a year. Over there they really like my original stuff. They hear guys playing the blues, but when I come in, they come right up and say, ‘Thank God — a real blues band.’ We take it for granted here. They’re really appreciative there, and so am I.

I’m also on the road here in the US all the time,” says Garner. “I have a 2000 Ford van. It’s got 365,000 miles on it, and I bought it new. You do the math.”Art Tipaldi- Editor, Blues Revue

Awards

Larry Garner won the 5th Annual International Blues Challenge back in 1988, and has toured extensively since. Larry is a five-time Blues Music Award nominee, once for Most Promising Artist, and four times for Contemporary Male Blues Artist.

Larry was inducted into the Louisiana Blues Hall of Fame in 2002.

The BBC honored Larry as its Bluesman of the Year, and Larry was honored as Blues Songwriter of the Year three times. Larry was twice named Bluesman of the Year Award by Real Blues Magazine.Larry Garner will be the headline act for the final evening of the festival.

"LIL' JIMMY REED" Alamaba...

Born in the late 1930's, to the parents of Morris and Velma Atkins, Leon Atkins (aka- LiL Jimmy Reed), is a native of Hardwood Louisiana, a small town outside of the City Baton Rouge. He who now resides in Enterprise, AL, with his wife of 35 years (Imogene). Leon is the eldest of five siblings, one sister, and four brothers. Being the eldest child, Leon learned first hand the struggles and the discrimination of growing up poor and black in the deep South. At an early age, to escape the depressions which many of the blacks experienced in the poverty stricken South, Leon adopted a love for music. He favored the guitar and the harmonica immediately, and often dreamed of some day becoming a famous guitar player and travel far beyond the hatred of Southern Louisiana. For Leon growing up across the street of a nightclub fascinated him, hearing the sounds of the guitars, pianos, and the jukebox music echoing throughout the night was to him a pure joy. When he saw the local Men playing music he would often imitate them on his childlike imaginary guitar. But soon that would change. When he was just six years old, one of the older Men who had taken notice of Leon's love for music surprised him by making him his very first guitar out of a small cigar box. Leon loved it and that sparked the beginning of a life long relationship of a Man and his guitar.

As Leon grew into his teenage years, he spent most of his after school days working in the local saw mill and the town shoe shop after school. Growing tired of fixing shoes, Leon let it be known to his father that he wanted to play music. One Monday after his father returned home from a good days work with gifts for the family, Leon patiently waited his turn and was speechless, when his Dad handed him a brand new guitar. By that Saturday evening, Leon was playing the guitar as if he had taken music lessons for years. Leon played music by ear without any teachings or lessons ever taken. Soon he entertained the locals around town but realized there must be a better way to help provide for his family and himself.

In the year 1957, Leon turned 18 and went to Barber College in Little Rock AR. He continued to pursue his musical talent as he quickly advanced with simple jobs such as playing in the local juke joints and blues alleys. In these lumber walls and saw dust covered floors, Leon became a favorite of the locals, and others who heard him play. One night in an upper scale blues club, Leon was able to get that one lucky break. A well known blues artist by the name of "Jimmy Reed" was scheduled to perform. Leon knew Jimmy Reed's music really well, from childhood listening to jukebox music from the nearby nightclub. Leon had always wanted to see the real Jimmy Reed and finally he'd gotten the chance to do just that. Be it unknown to Leon, this night would change his life forever. As Leon recalls, Mr. Reed had obviously gotten drunk, and Leon was asked to take his place. "They snuck him out back, and came and got me" Leon recalls clearly. Mr. Reed was just too drunk to play". The crowd couldn't tell the difference and the show was a hit. Leon gave a show stopping performance. And thus he was born "LIL' JIMMY REED"

Now as Lil Jimmy Reed, it afforded him the opportunity to venture outside of his hometown, which made a tremendous impact for becoming a renowned blues entertainer. Leon also realized that he would need something more stable and therefore decided to join the military and fulfill a 20 year career in the Army. Upon retiring from his military duties he then was free to follow through with his childhood dream of being a full time Blues Entertainer. Lil Jimmy Reed has done opening acts and performed with well known artists such as, (USA) - Bobby Blue Bland, Ike Turner, Little Milton, Marvin Sease, Shirley Murdock, Clarence Carter, Rafel Neal and Family, Lyn White, Tabby Thomas, The Love Doctor, Billy Soul Bonds, Willie Clayton; (UK) - Otis Grand (2006); (Iceland) - Andrea og Bluesman; (Denmark)- Troels Jenson to HpLange; (Sweden) - Sven Zetterberg Bluesband, Harry Banks Buzzers, Paul & The Blue Delivery (Finland) - Pepe Ahqvist and many more would be a much appreciated reality.

NEW- D.C. Minner Rentiesville Museum open Sundays 1 – 5 & during the Festival