T-Bone Walker Blues Fest

Henry Gray was born on January 19, 1925 in Kenner, Louisiana, an outskirt of New Orleans. Within a few years his family moved to a small farm in Alsen, Louisiana a few miles north of Baton Rouge. It was here that Gray began to demonstrate his talent on the piano at the age of eight.   At the age of sixteen, Henry was asked to play with a band at a club near his home in Alsen.   He gathered the courage to tell his father. To Henry's surprise, his father agreed, but only if Henry was accompanied by his father. Henry played the gig and made some money. As Henry tells it, "When my father saw that I could make money playing the blues, he liked that all right!"  It was this event that gave birth to Henry Gray's remarkable sixty year career in the history of the Blues.

In 1956, Howlin' Wolf asked Henry to join his band. Henry did and remained Wolf's main piano player until 1968.  More recently, Henry received a Grammy nomination for his work on TelArc Records’ 1998 release "A Tribute to Howlin' Wolf". Also, Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones paid homage to Henry by having him play at Jagger’s 55th birthday bash in Paris in '98 along with a few other blues legends. In the summer of '99, Henry joined Marva Wright and her band for a 30-day Louisiana music European tour produced by Blue House Records. Finally, Henry Gray and the Cats will continue "keepin' the blues alive" according to God's plan. Support the blues!

Malford Milligan is a world class blues/soul singer, based out of Austin, Texas. With his nationally acclaimed band "Storyville," he recorded 3 CDs; 2 with Atlantic Records, and 1 with November Records. He performed on "Austin City Limits" 3 times; twice with "Storyville," and once with Eric Johnson. Malford Milligan has also appeared on the Conan O'Brian show. Malford Milligan has toured with BB King, James Cotton, Edgar Winter, Double Trouble, Kenny Wayne Shepard, and many more. Malford is now fronting "The Malford Milligan Band."

Malford has recorded on more than 30 albums with such artists as, Hal Ketchum, Marcia Ball, Doyle Bramhall, Alejandro Escoveda, Sue Foley, Stephen Bruton, Chris Smither, Eric Johnson, Double Trouble, The Boneshakers, and Toni Price among others. His new CD, "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished," will be released soon!

20 year old Emily Elbert is a singer/songwriter with deep musical roots and a clear love for creative expression.

Fresh off a northeast run with G Love and Special Sauce and a showcase spot at the Folk Alliance Festival in Memphis, Elbert is quickly growing in the national spotlight. Her lifelong passion for music from around the world, and distinctive combination of jazz, folk, soul, blues, and pop creates a sound that engages the hearts, minds, and ears of listeners around the globe. Emily blends a hip musical perspective with an in-depth knowledge of classic songs to create unique vocal and guitar arrangements.

Elbert’s debut CD, Bright Side, contains eleven original songs that she wrote, arranged, performed, and recorded at Bob Gentry’s New Masters Studio in Tyler. When performing live, her sets include music from Bright Side, as well as new compositions and adaptations of music ranging from Joni Mitchell to Michael Jackson.

For Dorothy Choncie Ellis, the road from Direct, Texas has been a long glorious trip. Orphaned at an early age, self determination and love for life and people has led her into many adventures of living. Think for a minute about the young girl from Direct, whose Mama carry instilled in her a love and respect for books and learning. From the cotton fields to servant quarters, Dorothy pursued education, earning a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology from the University of Central Oklahoma. Her journey has brought her close to a Doctorate, but she has other passions as well. All along the way, Dorothy belted out Big-Time Blues, and self-published “For Blacks Only” a collection of memories in 1979. Dorothy became “Miss Blues” when ‘You is one black rat” was blaring on the wind up Victrola. She has performed with Richard “Groove” Holmes, Little Joe Blue, Drink Small and others; she opened for Bo Diddley, has appeared at many blues festivals including the T-Bone Walker Blues Fest, Arcadia Blues Festival, Pinedale Blues Festival, Southwest Blues Heritage Fest, Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival and more. Miss Blues, Dorothy Ellis, has the soul of the blues inside her.

She was inducted into the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame in 2004! In 2007, Miss Blues was voted the Best Blues Band in Oklahoma and received a "Woody" award from the Oklahoma Gazette which called her "the state’s first lady of the blues - all soul and she lets you know it! Belting out songs in a signature way that her many admirers have come to call the Texas Shout!" Miss Blues has been featured (cover story) in both the February 2000 and October 2007 issues of Southwest Blues Magazine.   Dorothy Ellis sings with a passion that reclaims the emotion for all women who have been in the grip of heartache. Miss Blues not only sings the blues, she is the blues.  So welcome ... step inside the blues .... come hear what the blues really are: Miss Blues

David “Honeyboy” Edwards was born in the heart of the Mississippi Delta in 1915. He left his hometown of Shaw and the sharecropper's life as a teenager, when he met Delta bluesman Big Joe Williams. Following Big Joe, he hopped the freight trains of blues lore -- the Pea Vine, the Southern, the Yellow Dog. He learned to play on dusty street corners in small southern towns and the good-timing houses of New Orleans. In 1942 Library of Congress archivist and folklorist Alan Lomax caught up with the fast-moving, itinerant Honeyboy in Clarksdale, Mississippi and recorded 15 of his stories and songs for the Library of Congress collection. These recordings "virtually summarized what Delta musicianship of that decade had to offer”. Frequently sought out by film-makers, historians, and writers for his recollections of earlier days and important musicians, Honeyboy has been a featured musician and narrator in half a dozen films and is mentioned in most of the major books about blues. In 1997, his own book, The World Don't Owe Me Nothing: The Life and Times of Delta Bluesman Honeyboy Edwards, was published. This account is a deeply personal story of his early life as a sharecropper's son and his years as an itinerant musician. It also offers a "vivid oral snapshot of an America that planted the blues." The World Don't Owe Me Nothing has received high critical acclaim. It was declared a "Best Blues Book" by Living Blues Magazine and was honored with the Handy Award for Literature. Honeyboy Edwards was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1996 and was the Blues Music Awards Acoustic Artist of the Year 2007. Honeyboy received a Grammy for the album “Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen – Live in Dallas”. The T-Bone Walker Blues Fest and Music City Texas Theater are honored to have David “Honeyboy” Edwards grace our stage.

"Delta blues veteran David Honeyboy Edwards has remained utterly true to his roots through a career that began in Mississippi in the 1930s. A Honeyboy Edwards show is a rare, unselfconscious performance of living blues history."

Whether leading his tight ensemble or layin’ it down with his one-man band, 19th Street Red has shown himself to be a vital link to the old school blues performers that put this style on the map. Possessed with a rare authority and gritty passion, his own version of delta blues has him playing cities all over the U.S. As a child Red was smitten by the music of blues greats Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and T-Bone Walker. Collecting and absorbing blues records became his biggest pastime. By the time he was twenty-six Red was fronting an outfit in an “across the tracks” establishment called “Alva’s Lounge” in Northwest Washington D.C. Red’s long time interest in Gulf Coast Blues and R&B manifests itself in his band performances and songwriting. His daytime and midnight one-man band performances along Canal and Bourbon Street have stirred up all kinds of interest. With radio spots, nightclub gigs, festivals, and local media exposure 19th Street Red’s reputation as a New Orleans based bluesman has gained him a foothold in the Crescent City and the Deep South.