Twelve years on the road performing, and D. C. and Selby Minner were ready to move back to Oklahoma. D.C. Minner was born in Rentiesville, OK, and in 1988 he returned to re-open his grandmother Lura’s Cozy Corner as the Down Home Blues Club.
The Festival grew out of the all-night club. DC enlarged the place, and the first Festival filled the enlarged club up two weeks after it was finished. In 1991, seven bands with Little Johnny Taylor as the headliner. They were hoping for 350 people, and when 700 came thru the door that Sunday afternoon they figured they were onto something good.
The next year Big Ray came down with his bulldozer for two weeks, they put up a fence and built the outdoor stage and went to two days. Two nights, really as the nights are cool in rural Rentiesville, even if it is hot in the daytime.
The couple had met so many friends scattered across the country from the 12 years of touring, that they figured if they had one weekend a year with a great reason to get here (try 30 bands!!) the friends might get to meet each other. Also they knew lots of great musicians who weren’t playing festivals and who were sure qualified.
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!”
The Rentiesville Fest has turned into a reunion of sorts, both for musicians and fans. A showcase for great regional blues bands – headed up by 5 international stars – many on the move up through the ranks, and proud to be included in the Rentiesville tradition – and a focus for the music loving community across the state and beyond.
One year it rained on us and fans were calling it the Blues Woodstock.
As the Festival has grown many people have come on board to help make it happen; it’s far too much for one or two people to do. So we are grateful to these wonderful people who help make this three night event happen. Eddie Bagwell from the Blues Soc of Tulsa wrote: “If you want to discover what the blues is really all about, you’ll make plans for this one next year. ….It was so beautiful and pure, I wish you were all there”
D.C. 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!”
BACKGROUND: Blues on the Move
D. C. Minner worked out of Oklahoma City all thru the late 50’s and the 60’s as the bassist and bandleader with Larry Johnson and the NEW BREED. This group was the top OKC blues/R&B band and they were a ‘pick-up’ band who traveled with and backed many national acts on parts of their tours. They did this with Freddie King for two years, moved to Memphis and did this for O. V. Wright. Also out of OKC for Eddie Floyd (Knock on Wood), Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley and many others.
D. C. moved to Witchita KS in different formations of this group, Denver, and later to Los Angeles. There he had a band with Tony Mathews, someone he grew up with as Tony was from Checotah. In the 70’s he moved north to Berkeley and the Redwoods (Whale Gulch, Whitethorn), and switched from bass to guitar. After this he grouped with Selby who had moved to Berkeley after finishing art school in Providence RI at RISD. She had traveled and performed her way west with Jim Donovan (guitar, vocals), as Home Cookin’. D. C. found himself using the ODYSSEY bar on San Pablo Ave. as a lab for his new songs and new instrument. Selby was holding down some Saturday night spots there, and with the encouragement of friends they formed BLUES ON THE MOVE in 1976.
INCREDIBLE PHOTOS (2013): History of the Fest
This Festival brought you Watermelon Slim, Jimmie D. Lane, Rosie Ledet, Kelly Joe Phelps, Deborah Coleman, Indigenous and BlindDog Smokin’ and Michael Burks long before anybody else even knew who they were…
Also an incomplete list of those who have played over the years:
Little Johnny Taylor, Preston Shannon, Sonny Rhodes, Tutu Jones, Johnny Rawls, Don Shipps, Shawn Pittman, Roger Hurricane Wilson, Jenn B and the Groove Kings, Karen Vance, Little Miss Peggy, Will Williams, Buz and the Soul Senders, Rickey Preston, Harry and Debbie Blackwell, Smilin’ Bob Lewis, Polly Ess, Joanna Connor, Rosie Ledet, Blues Boy Willie, Glen D. Lane, Guitar GG Amos, Larry Johnson, Johnny Adams, Hubert Sumlin, Big Bad Smitty, Harley ‘Cowboy’ Hamm, Andrew Jr. Boy JOnes with Kerrie Lepai, Clarence ‘Fillmore Slim’ Simms, Little Joe McLearan, Magic Slim, James Peterson, Kenny Neal, Micheal Burks, Nappy Brown, Miss Blues, Drink Small, Eddie C Campbell, Deborah Coleman, Flash Terry, Leon Blue, Miss. Amy, Linda Shell, D.C.Bellamy, Lighting Lee McWaters
Lem Sheppard, Smokey Wilson, Little Eddie Taylor, AC Reed, Johnny Johnson, DC Bellamy, Eddie Kirkland, Tutu Jones, TS Henry Webb (of the Flock), Wanda Watson, Three Wheel Drive, Bar-B-Q Bob, Cary Bell, Lurie Bell, Rudy Love, Chris Cameron, Blues Express, Berry Harris, James Walker, Buzzards, Blackhawk, Jimmy D. Lane, Lurrie Bell, Pinkie & Snakeshakers, Indigenous, James Peterson, Lucky Peterson, Blackhawk Blues Band, Jimmy D Lane, Claude Williams, Joanna Connor, Barbara Dane, Jesse Cahn, Kelly Joe Phelps, Smokn’Joe Kubek, B’nois King, Ted Cash, Lady B., Jerry Cryout, Joe Louis Walker, Vernon Garrett, Randy McAllister, The Detonators, Zac Harmon, Guitar Shorty, Larry Garner, Joe Louis Walker, Tee Dee Young, Little Ed and the Blues Imperials … and many more!
Thanks to all who have played over the years!
By Oklahoma Today:
Red Dirt Blues – Many establishments are dedicated to the legacy of the blues, but none displays the spirit of the genre in Oklahoma like the former bootleg juke joint that is the Down Home Blues Club in Rentiesville. At the Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival , Oklahoma acts and nationals like Johnny Rawls will play all weekend to celebrate 25 years of festivals and the late blues Legend D.C. Minner. facebook Selby Minner or DC Minner Rentiesville Museum / For Blues Inc.