see OBHOF page on this site for bios and photos for 2003 – coming soon!
Our mission statement is in the headliner of the page above, and the established responsibilities of FOR Blues are the Blues Festival and the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame with it’ s Inductions on Memorial Day Weekend, it was May 27th this year. We have about 100 inductees so far. started in 2004….
Becoming a true BLUES SOCIETY with members will enable us to SEND A BAND TO THE INTERNATIONAL BLUES FOUNDATION’S IBC – the INTERNATIONAL BLUES CHALLENGE in January. We sent Last call and Little Brother Eric Walker last January…Eric made it to the 2nd round…not bad against 200 other groups!
Info: Selby Minner 918 855 0978
this year’s dates are Sept 2, 3, and 4
If you would like signage and free tickets,
please contact us to receive our
Sponsor Levels of Opportunity for you!
call or email and we will email you the package!
918 855 0978 selbyminner@gmail.com
thank you!
we do the MINI FEST in the spring
The original Juke Joint was opened by D.C.’s Grandmother Miss Lura in 1936 when D.C. was one year old. It was the Cozy Corner, and despite a fire and needing to rebuild from the ground up in the early 60s, stayed open until her death in 1968. D.C. was born on this spot! When he moved back from touring for 30 years with his wife/ bassist/dream buddy Selby they reopened the place as the Down Home Blues Club in 1988. Soon it was too small, and the couple enlarged the place to twice it’s original size by 1991, in time for the first Rentiesville Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival …700 people came, 7 bands and Little Johnny Taylor was the headliner.
mailing address: 103020 D.C. Minner Street Checotah OK 74426
Oklahoma Today wrote: 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
(please double click for large clear images)
one of his best friends in life Dorothy Miss Blues Ellis Tiny and Direct Connect
The 30th Annual RENTIESVILLE BLUES FESTIVAL is Sept 4, 5, 6 – Labor Day Weekend.
Thanks for your support! All input welcome! Selby Minner F.O.R. Blues Inc. (918) 855 0978
Talking about the Festival – 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”
CHECK OUT: struggle and hope web site by Kari Barber – they are did an amazing job of filming Rentiesville and the Blues Fest and all the Original Black Townships….. got Struggle and Hope onto Independent Lens
CHECK OUT – LeRoi Jones – Amini Baraka upon looking at a collection of Blues records at a young age said ““It took me a decade to find that those records told a story: Every voice, every title is telling you the story of Afro-American history. I really latched onto that idea. And I went back and started listening to the blues.” Amiri Baraka also known as LeRoi Jones, author of BLUES PEOPLE published in 1963
the blog – BLACK HISTORY MEETS BLACK MUSIC :https://www.npr.org/sections/ablogsupreme/2013/07/26/205541225/black-history-meets-black-music-blues-people-at-50
D.C. Minner birthplace in Rentiesville site of Blues Festival
Volunteering is the ultimate exercise in democracy. You vote in elections once a year, but when you volunteer, you vote every day about the kind of community you want to live in. – Marjorie Moore Besides that, when you volunteer you have more fun because you get to meet people like you and be part of the action — Selby