Andrew Sullivan met his music teacher at an Alice Cooper concert when he was six. By the time he was 11 he’d shared the stage with Cheap Trick, performed with Blues Oyster Cult and Gary Hoey and player the Biscuit. He plays keyboards, drums and trumpet, but guitar is his favorite. “They all have different tones, and they’re fun to play, and it’s fun to have a lot ’cause I can experiment with different sounds.”

This 16-year-old guitarist was named Youth Performer of The Year in 2018 and 2017 by the Colorado Blues Society in their Member’s Choice Awards. She’s played the Biscuit as well as Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge, The Big Blues Bender and The Greeley Blues Jam. She sat in with The North Mississippi Allstars in 2016.

The Biscuit welcomes this family band from Sulphur Springs which plays Texas blues. Singer and guitarist “Diamond” Jack Holdsworth has recruited the whole family into the act, with wife Elan on bass, daughter Dani at the drums, and son DR showing talent beyond his years on vocals and guitar. They list their influences as Stevie Ray Vaughn, Albert King, Howlin’ Wolf, BB King, Freddie King, Jimmy Vaughn, Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin, Son House, Muddy Waters, Lightnin Hopkins, Sam Carr, Jack Johnson, Frank Frost, and Pinetop Perkins.

Eighty-four-year-old Clarence Sims, aka The West Coast Godfather of The Game, aka The Pope of Pimping is an expimp who estimates in his 1999 documentary American Pimp that in his entire career he had more than 9000 prostitutes working for him. The 14 originals on Fillmore Slim’s 2007 The Legend of Fillmore Slim album profile a character whose music is somewhere between Bo Diddley’s “I’m A Man” braggadocio and Snoop Dogg shout outs. His music is full of colorful references to the kind of scenes Willie Dixon could only imagine. Slim’s lived them. “I got a knock at the door,” he sings on the title cut. “I looked up and there was the man. I was put away for a long time. I paid my dues, and now I play the guitar in my hand.”

CW Gatlin is an Arkansas Delta native and a regular at the Biscuit. A lifelong friend of Levon Helm, he’s also performed with The Band, appearing on their 1993 Jericho album. Like The Band, his music has elements of rock, country and he’s a member of The Rockabilly Hall of Fame. In his long career he has performed with Mack Self, W.S. Holland of Johnny Cash’s band The Tennessee Three, Robert Nighthawk, Ace Cannon, Paul Burlison, Frank Frost and Sam Carr of The Jelly Roll Kings.

Reba’s “Heaven Came to Helena” has become the festival’s unofficial signature song. Reba was Memphis’ top rocker until Rufus Thomas heard her in a cover band in 1992 and told her, ‘Ya got it! You use it! Do it!’ She’s done background vocals for John Nemeth, Tracy Nelson, Huey Lewis & The News, Jimmy Thackery, and Jim Dickinson. That’s Reba on background vocals for U2 and B.B. King on “When Love Comes to Town” on Rattle & Hum recorded in 1990 at Sun Studios. But it’s the Biscuit that puts the fire in her belly. “Being here made me realize that there’s a lot more to this music stuff than I ever expected, and everybody that plays here can kick ass. So, it was like, yeah, I’m doing this come hell or high water. I don’t care, but until I kinda gave myself over to (realizing) Delta roots music was what was moving me, I was just peddling till then. Memphis is blues, but King Biscuit is the freaking deal. This is it. It’s like are you kidding me?”

Jesse Cotton Stone weaves together the stylistic threads of definitive regional styles of the Blues ranging from Pre-War Acoustic Delta Blues, Electric Juke Joint Boogie, North Mississippi Hill Country, and Cotton Patch Soul Blues to the Urban Chicago Blues Roots of Soul-Funk and Psychedelic Rock, bringing his listeners through the doors of a Heart-Wrenching Boutique of Vintage-Toned American Blues Music with relentless showmanship of a True Entertainer. Jesse Cotton Stone creates a comprehensive scope of the Original American Music, not only by playing his role in keeping the traditions of Blues music alive, but also by contributing to the evolution of this Storytelling Tradition with his own Original Flavor of what he calls “HELLCOUNTRY” and “Electric-Cotton Soul” Blues.

Andy Talamantez spent 23 years in the aerospace industry before becoming a fulltime blues guitarist, first with Nick Nixon, a veteran Nashville blues singer whose background included jamming with a young Jimi Hendrix. When Nixon retired in 2016, Andy T. teamed with Alabama Mike releasing his fourth album Double Strike co-produced with Anson Funderburgh, the only artist to have appeared at all the King Biscuit Blues Festivals. Both Nixon and Alabama Mike handled vocals reminiscent of Sam Myers, Funderburgh’s late vocalist. Andy T.’s early influence was Eric Clapton, but he honed his style playing with Smokey Wilson and Guitar Shorty in the late ’90s.

Ms. Margie Turner hails out of Eldorado, AK. She began singing at age 8 at Union Ark Baptist Church. At the age of 12 she moved with her family to Oakland, CA. Margie began singing the Blues at an early age while being chaperoned by her mother. Her skills and vocal stylings eventually led her to Dallas, TX where she met and background sang for Johnny Taylor and she eventually became an opening act for Marvin Sease. Today, Margie shares her talent on stages in the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Area with her band, The Outback Blues Band, and has performed on various festivals including The Hayward/Russell City Blues Festival, Oakland’s Art & Soul Festival, The Dusk til Dawn Festival, Rentiesville, OK, The King Biscuit Blues Festival, W. Helena, AK and at countless venues throughout California. Margie’s performance is “Delta Smooth” with a little “Oakland Grit”. It’s Blues that will make you wanna’ dance or, most certainly pat your feet. 

<p>

Earnestine Barze , “Lady E”, was born in Glendora, Mississippi, the state that has produced more blues men and women than any other state in the US. Earnestine loved to sing and dance when she was young. In 1971 she migrated to California, continuing her education and receiving a degree in Business. Shortly after, Earnestine began singing again. Her Gospel roots made it an easy transition for her into the R&B and Blues scene. She performs at many clubs in Oakland, the surrounding Bay Area and throughout California. She has performed on the Monterey Blues Festival, Hayward-Russell City Blues Festival, The Red, White, & Blues Festival Stage, Alameda CA County Fair, and at The King Biscuit Blues Festival, W. Helena, AK. When on stage, in true Mississippi tradition, “Lady E” delivers a raw energy, soulful performance one you will remember and she will tell you, that’s what she’s about. 

<p>

DeJeana Burkes was born and raised in Detroit, MI. Growing up vibin’ with the Motown sound and singing in church is how DeJeana developed her interest in both music and production. DeJeana spent all of her babysitting money as a teenager going to the Motown Revue, watching them sing and perfect their acts before hitting the road. It was in those seats she decided she could both sing and produce shows. Today, she resides in Richmond, CA in the San Francisco Bay Area. She performs locally in clubs, on festivals and is a producer of the North Richmond Music Festival. She has performed on the Polk Street Festival, San Francisco, Hayward Russell City Blues Festival, Richmond Juneteenth, Blues Ball, Medicine Park, OK and The King Biscuit Blues Festival in Arkansas. When DeJeana hits the stage it’s all business. While witnessing her passion, drive, and sass coupled with her strong vocals and melodic tones audiences do understand what she means when she exclaims “When you’ve got Burkes, It Works and the “It” is, she leaves It all on the stage to enjoy. 

Paul Thorn all but stole the show from B.B. King at King Biscuit in 2010. His 2018 album, Don’t Let The Devil Ride debuted in the Billboard Top 100 the first week of release. Thorn calls the music on the album dance pole gospel: “If you listen to the music that’s really sexy sounding, it sounds exactly like the music we sang in church when I was growing up. When we’d go visit the black churches, it was raunchy, man. It was spiritual, but it almost had a sexual undertone to it, and that’s what you hear on some of these songs on this record.” “Every time I play a festival, I don’t want the last slot. You get more people to see you when you go on next to last ’cause when you go on last, they’re gonna be leavin’ on your last song which is a bummer. When you’re playing that last song, and you’re the headliner, you’re watching people walk out as you’re singing. That’s a bummer, man!”

 “I’ll Take You There,” The Staple Singers’ 1972 number one Billboard Hot 100 hit, has taken on more poignant meaning for all humanity in this year of the pandemic.

 This song was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame in 1999 and remains the most successful and recognizable single of the Staples’ half-century-long career. Forty-eight years later, that inspirational song remains the centerpiece of Friday’s headliner Mavis Staples’ repertoire. And she’s just one of more than 100 storied acts performing during four days at the south’s premiere blues festival in the heart of the Delta on the banks of the Mississippi River.

“You can root her in the church. You can root her in the blues. You can root her in jazz It doesn’t matter. She is ageless and genre-less because she brings joy,” says Cheryl Pawelski, co-founder of Ominvore Entertainment Group, who has spent 25 years of reserving, curating and championing some of music’s greatest legacies. “Mavis is, as the continuing voice of the Staple Singers, is just pure, shear joy, and that cuts through every genre. That cuts through every era.”

Mavis recently told NPR: “I’m happiest when I’m singing. I’m just grateful that I have so many fans that still want to hear me, you know, and grateful to the record company for making room for me to continue. It’s my gift — it’s what God put me here for, I do believe.”

Andrew Sullivan met his music teacher at an Alice Cooper concert when he was six. By the time he was 11 he’d shared the stage with Cheap Trick, performed with Blues Oyster Cult and Gary Hoey and player the Biscuit. He plays keyboards, drums and trumpet, but guitar is his favorite. “They all have different tones, and they’re fun to play, and it’s fun to have a lot ’cause I can experiment with different sounds.”

This 16-year-old guitarist was named Youth Performer of The Year in 2018 and 2017 by the Colorado Blues Society in their Member’s Choice Awards. She’s played the Biscuit as well as Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge, The Big Blues Bender and The Greeley Blues Jam. She sat in with The North Mississippi Allstars in 2016.

The Biscuit welcomes this family band from Sulphur Springs which plays Texas blues. Singer and guitarist “Diamond” Jack Holdsworth has recruited the whole family into the act, with wife Elan on bass, daughter Dani at the drums, and son DR showing talent beyond his years on vocals and guitar. They list their influences as Stevie Ray Vaughn, Albert King, Howlin’ Wolf, BB King, Freddie King, Jimmy Vaughn, Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin, Son House, Muddy Waters, Lightnin Hopkins, Sam Carr, Jack Johnson, Frank Frost, and Pinetop Perkins.

Eighty-four-year-old Clarence Sims, aka The West Coast Godfather of The Game, aka The Pope of Pimping is an expimp who estimates in his 1999 documentary American Pimp that in his entire career he had more than 9000 prostitutes working for him. The 14 originals on Fillmore Slim’s 2007 The Legend of Fillmore Slim album profile a character whose music is somewhere between Bo Diddley’s “I’m A Man” braggadocio and Snoop Dogg shout outs. His music is full of colorful references to the kind of scenes Willie Dixon could only imagine. Slim’s lived them. “I got a knock at the door,” he sings on the title cut. “I looked up and there was the man. I was put away for a long time. I paid my dues, and now I play the guitar in my hand.”

CW Gatlin is an Arkansas Delta native and a regular at the Biscuit. A lifelong friend of Levon Helm, he’s also performed with The Band, appearing on their 1993 Jericho album. Like The Band, his music has elements of rock, country and he’s a member of The Rockabilly Hall of Fame. In his long career he has performed with Mack Self, W.S. Holland of Johnny Cash’s band The Tennessee Three, Robert Nighthawk, Ace Cannon, Paul Burlison, Frank Frost and Sam Carr of The Jelly Roll Kings.

Reba’s “Heaven Came to Helena” has become the festival’s unofficial signature song. Reba was Memphis’ top rocker until Rufus Thomas heard her in a cover band in 1992 and told her, ‘Ya got it! You use it! Do it!’ She’s done background vocals for John Nemeth, Tracy Nelson, Huey Lewis & The News, Jimmy Thackery, and Jim Dickinson. That’s Reba on background vocals for U2 and B.B. King on “When Love Comes to Town” on Rattle & Hum recorded in 1990 at Sun Studios. But it’s the Biscuit that puts the fire in her belly. “Being here made me realize that there’s a lot more to this music stuff than I ever expected, and everybody that plays here can kick ass. So, it was like, yeah, I’m doing this come hell or high water. I don’t care, but until I kinda gave myself over to (realizing) Delta roots music was what was moving me, I was just peddling till then. Memphis is blues, but King Biscuit is the freaking deal. This is it. It’s like are you kidding me?”

Jesse Cotton Stone weaves together the stylistic threads of definitive regional styles of the Blues ranging from Pre-War Acoustic Delta Blues, Electric Juke Joint Boogie, North Mississippi Hill Country, and Cotton Patch Soul Blues to the Urban Chicago Blues Roots of Soul-Funk and Psychedelic Rock, bringing his listeners through the doors of a Heart-Wrenching Boutique of Vintage-Toned American Blues Music with relentless showmanship of a True Entertainer. Jesse Cotton Stone creates a comprehensive scope of the Original American Music, not only by playing his role in keeping the traditions of Blues music alive, but also by contributing to the evolution of this Storytelling Tradition with his own Original Flavor of what he calls “HELLCOUNTRY” and “Electric-Cotton Soul” Blues.

Andy Talamantez spent 23 years in the aerospace industry before becoming a fulltime blues guitarist, first with Nick Nixon, a veteran Nashville blues singer whose background included jamming with a young Jimi Hendrix. When Nixon retired in 2016, Andy T. teamed with Alabama Mike releasing his fourth album Double Strike co-produced with Anson Funderburgh, the only artist to have appeared at all the King Biscuit Blues Festivals. Both Nixon and Alabama Mike handled vocals reminiscent of Sam Myers, Funderburgh’s late vocalist. Andy T.’s early influence was Eric Clapton, but he honed his style playing with Smokey Wilson and Guitar Shorty in the late ’90s.

Ms. Margie Turner hails out of Eldorado, AK. She began singing at age 8 at Union Ark Baptist Church. At the age of 12 she moved with her family to Oakland, CA. Margie began singing the Blues at an early age while being chaperoned by her mother. Her skills and vocal stylings eventually led her to Dallas, TX where she met and background sang for Johnny Taylor and she eventually became an opening act for Marvin Sease. Today, Margie shares her talent on stages in the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Area with her band, The Outback Blues Band, and has performed on various festivals including The Hayward/Russell City Blues Festival, Oakland’s Art & Soul Festival, The Dusk til Dawn Festival, Rentiesville, OK, The King Biscuit Blues Festival, W. Helena, AK and at countless venues throughout California. Margie’s performance is “Delta Smooth” with a little “Oakland Grit”. It’s Blues that will make you wanna’ dance or, most certainly pat your feet. 

<p>

Earnestine Barze , “Lady E”, was born in Glendora, Mississippi, the state that has produced more blues men and women than any other state in the US. Earnestine loved to sing and dance when she was young. In 1971 she migrated to California, continuing her education and receiving a degree in Business. Shortly after, Earnestine began singing again. Her Gospel roots made it an easy transition for her into the R&B and Blues scene. She performs at many clubs in Oakland, the surrounding Bay Area and throughout California. She has performed on the Monterey Blues Festival, Hayward-Russell City Blues Festival, The Red, White, & Blues Festival Stage, Alameda CA County Fair, and at The King Biscuit Blues Festival, W. Helena, AK. When on stage, in true Mississippi tradition, “Lady E” delivers a raw energy, soulful performance one you will remember and she will tell you, that’s what she’s about. 

<p>

DeJeana Burkes was born and raised in Detroit, MI. Growing up vibin’ with the Motown sound and singing in church is how DeJeana developed her interest in both music and production. DeJeana spent all of her babysitting money as a teenager going to the Motown Revue, watching them sing and perfect their acts before hitting the road. It was in those seats she decided she could both sing and produce shows. Today, she resides in Richmond, CA in the San Francisco Bay Area. She performs locally in clubs, on festivals and is a producer of the North Richmond Music Festival. She has performed on the Polk Street Festival, San Francisco, Hayward Russell City Blues Festival, Richmond Juneteenth, Blues Ball, Medicine Park, OK and The King Biscuit Blues Festival in Arkansas. When DeJeana hits the stage it’s all business. While witnessing her passion, drive, and sass coupled with her strong vocals and melodic tones audiences do understand what she means when she exclaims “When you’ve got Burkes, It Works and the “It” is, she leaves It all on the stage to enjoy. 

Paul Thorn all but stole the show from B.B. King at King Biscuit in 2010. His 2018 album, Don’t Let The Devil Ride debuted in the Billboard Top 100 the first week of release. Thorn calls the music on the album dance pole gospel: “If you listen to the music that’s really sexy sounding, it sounds exactly like the music we sang in church when I was growing up. When we’d go visit the black churches, it was raunchy, man. It was spiritual, but it almost had a sexual undertone to it, and that’s what you hear on some of these songs on this record.” “Every time I play a festival, I don’t want the last slot. You get more people to see you when you go on next to last ’cause when you go on last, they’re gonna be leavin’ on your last song which is a bummer. When you’re playing that last song, and you’re the headliner, you’re watching people walk out as you’re singing. That’s a bummer, man!”

 “I’ll Take You There,” The Staple Singers’ 1972 number one Billboard Hot 100 hit, has taken on more poignant meaning for all humanity in this year of the pandemic.

 This song was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame in 1999 and remains the most successful and recognizable single of the Staples’ half-century-long career. Forty-eight years later, that inspirational song remains the centerpiece of Friday’s headliner Mavis Staples’ repertoire. And she’s just one of more than 100 storied acts performing during four days at the south’s premiere blues festival in the heart of the Delta on the banks of the Mississippi River.

“You can root her in the church. You can root her in the blues. You can root her in jazz It doesn’t matter. She is ageless and genre-less because she brings joy,” says Cheryl Pawelski, co-founder of Ominvore Entertainment Group, who has spent 25 years of reserving, curating and championing some of music’s greatest legacies. “Mavis is, as the continuing voice of the Staple Singers, is just pure, shear joy, and that cuts through every genre. That cuts through every era.”

Mavis recently told NPR: “I’m happiest when I’m singing. I’m just grateful that I have so many fans that still want to hear me, you know, and grateful to the record company for making room for me to continue. It’s my gift — it’s what God put me here for, I do believe.”

Andrew Sullivan met his music teacher at an Alice Cooper concert when he was six. By the time he was 11 he’d shared the stage with Cheap Trick, performed with Blues Oyster Cult and Gary Hoey and player the Biscuit. He plays keyboards, drums and trumpet, but guitar is his favorite. “They all have different tones, and they’re fun to play, and it’s fun to have a lot ’cause I can experiment with different sounds.”

This 16-year-old guitarist was named Youth Performer of The Year in 2018 and 2017 by the Colorado Blues Society in their Member’s Choice Awards. She’s played the Biscuit as well as Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge, The Big Blues Bender and The Greeley Blues Jam. She sat in with The North Mississippi Allstars in 2016.

The Biscuit welcomes this family band from Sulphur Springs which plays Texas blues. Singer and guitarist “Diamond” Jack Holdsworth has recruited the whole family into the act, with wife Elan on bass, daughter Dani at the drums, and son DR showing talent beyond his years on vocals and guitar. They list their influences as Stevie Ray Vaughn, Albert King, Howlin’ Wolf, BB King, Freddie King, Jimmy Vaughn, Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin, Son House, Muddy Waters, Lightnin Hopkins, Sam Carr, Jack Johnson, Frank Frost, and Pinetop Perkins.

Eighty-four-year-old Clarence Sims, aka The West Coast Godfather of The Game, aka The Pope of Pimping is an expimp who estimates in his 1999 documentary American Pimp that in his entire career he had more than 9000 prostitutes working for him. The 14 originals on Fillmore Slim’s 2007 The Legend of Fillmore Slim album profile a character whose music is somewhere between Bo Diddley’s “I’m A Man” braggadocio and Snoop Dogg shout outs. His music is full of colorful references to the kind of scenes Willie Dixon could only imagine. Slim’s lived them. “I got a knock at the door,” he sings on the title cut. “I looked up and there was the man. I was put away for a long time. I paid my dues, and now I play the guitar in my hand.”

CW Gatlin is an Arkansas Delta native and a regular at the Biscuit. A lifelong friend of Levon Helm, he’s also performed with The Band, appearing on their 1993 Jericho album. Like The Band, his music has elements of rock, country and he’s a member of The Rockabilly Hall of Fame. In his long career he has performed with Mack Self, W.S. Holland of Johnny Cash’s band The Tennessee Three, Robert Nighthawk, Ace Cannon, Paul Burlison, Frank Frost and Sam Carr of The Jelly Roll Kings.

Reba’s “Heaven Came to Helena” has become the festival’s unofficial signature song. Reba was Memphis’ top rocker until Rufus Thomas heard her in a cover band in 1992 and told her, ‘Ya got it! You use it! Do it!’ She’s done background vocals for John Nemeth, Tracy Nelson, Huey Lewis & The News, Jimmy Thackery, and Jim Dickinson. That’s Reba on background vocals for U2 and B.B. King on “When Love Comes to Town” on Rattle & Hum recorded in 1990 at Sun Studios. But it’s the Biscuit that puts the fire in her belly. “Being here made me realize that there’s a lot more to this music stuff than I ever expected, and everybody that plays here can kick ass. So, it was like, yeah, I’m doing this come hell or high water. I don’t care, but until I kinda gave myself over to (realizing) Delta roots music was what was moving me, I was just peddling till then. Memphis is blues, but King Biscuit is the freaking deal. This is it. It’s like are you kidding me?”

Jesse Cotton Stone weaves together the stylistic threads of definitive regional styles of the Blues ranging from Pre-War Acoustic Delta Blues, Electric Juke Joint Boogie, North Mississippi Hill Country, and Cotton Patch Soul Blues to the Urban Chicago Blues Roots of Soul-Funk and Psychedelic Rock, bringing his listeners through the doors of a Heart-Wrenching Boutique of Vintage-Toned American Blues Music with relentless showmanship of a True Entertainer. Jesse Cotton Stone creates a comprehensive scope of the Original American Music, not only by playing his role in keeping the traditions of Blues music alive, but also by contributing to the evolution of this Storytelling Tradition with his own Original Flavor of what he calls “HELLCOUNTRY” and “Electric-Cotton Soul” Blues.

Andy Talamantez spent 23 years in the aerospace industry before becoming a fulltime blues guitarist, first with Nick Nixon, a veteran Nashville blues singer whose background included jamming with a young Jimi Hendrix. When Nixon retired in 2016, Andy T. teamed with Alabama Mike releasing his fourth album Double Strike co-produced with Anson Funderburgh, the only artist to have appeared at all the King Biscuit Blues Festivals. Both Nixon and Alabama Mike handled vocals reminiscent of Sam Myers, Funderburgh’s late vocalist. Andy T.’s early influence was Eric Clapton, but he honed his style playing with Smokey Wilson and Guitar Shorty in the late ’90s.

Ms. Margie Turner hails out of Eldorado, AK. She began singing at age 8 at Union Ark Baptist Church. At the age of 12 she moved with her family to Oakland, CA. Margie began singing the Blues at an early age while being chaperoned by her mother. Her skills and vocal stylings eventually led her to Dallas, TX where she met and background sang for Johnny Taylor and she eventually became an opening act for Marvin Sease. Today, Margie shares her talent on stages in the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Area with her band, The Outback Blues Band, and has performed on various festivals including The Hayward/Russell City Blues Festival, Oakland’s Art & Soul Festival, The Dusk til Dawn Festival, Rentiesville, OK, The King Biscuit Blues Festival, W. Helena, AK and at countless venues throughout California. Margie’s performance is “Delta Smooth” with a little “Oakland Grit”. It’s Blues that will make you wanna’ dance or, most certainly pat your feet. 

<p>

Earnestine Barze , “Lady E”, was born in Glendora, Mississippi, the state that has produced more blues men and women than any other state in the US. Earnestine loved to sing and dance when she was young. In 1971 she migrated to California, continuing her education and receiving a degree in Business. Shortly after, Earnestine began singing again. Her Gospel roots made it an easy transition for her into the R&B and Blues scene. She performs at many clubs in Oakland, the surrounding Bay Area and throughout California. She has performed on the Monterey Blues Festival, Hayward-Russell City Blues Festival, The Red, White, & Blues Festival Stage, Alameda CA County Fair, and at The King Biscuit Blues Festival, W. Helena, AK. When on stage, in true Mississippi tradition, “Lady E” delivers a raw energy, soulful performance one you will remember and she will tell you, that’s what she’s about. 

<p>

DeJeana Burkes was born and raised in Detroit, MI. Growing up vibin’ with the Motown sound and singing in church is how DeJeana developed her interest in both music and production. DeJeana spent all of her babysitting money as a teenager going to the Motown Revue, watching them sing and perfect their acts before hitting the road. It was in those seats she decided she could both sing and produce shows. Today, she resides in Richmond, CA in the San Francisco Bay Area. She performs locally in clubs, on festivals and is a producer of the North Richmond Music Festival. She has performed on the Polk Street Festival, San Francisco, Hayward Russell City Blues Festival, Richmond Juneteenth, Blues Ball, Medicine Park, OK and The King Biscuit Blues Festival in Arkansas. When DeJeana hits the stage it’s all business. While witnessing her passion, drive, and sass coupled with her strong vocals and melodic tones audiences do understand what she means when she exclaims “When you’ve got Burkes, It Works and the “It” is, she leaves It all on the stage to enjoy. 

Paul Thorn all but stole the show from B.B. King at King Biscuit in 2010. His 2018 album, Don’t Let The Devil Ride debuted in the Billboard Top 100 the first week of release. Thorn calls the music on the album dance pole gospel: “If you listen to the music that’s really sexy sounding, it sounds exactly like the music we sang in church when I was growing up. When we’d go visit the black churches, it was raunchy, man. It was spiritual, but it almost had a sexual undertone to it, and that’s what you hear on some of these songs on this record.” “Every time I play a festival, I don’t want the last slot. You get more people to see you when you go on next to last ’cause when you go on last, they’re gonna be leavin’ on your last song which is a bummer. When you’re playing that last song, and you’re the headliner, you’re watching people walk out as you’re singing. That’s a bummer, man!”

 “I’ll Take You There,” The Staple Singers’ 1972 number one Billboard Hot 100 hit, has taken on more poignant meaning for all humanity in this year of the pandemic.

 This song was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame in 1999 and remains the most successful and recognizable single of the Staples’ half-century-long career. Forty-eight years later, that inspirational song remains the centerpiece of Friday’s headliner Mavis Staples’ repertoire. And she’s just one of more than 100 storied acts performing during four days at the south’s premiere blues festival in the heart of the Delta on the banks of the Mississippi River.

“You can root her in the church. You can root her in the blues. You can root her in jazz It doesn’t matter. She is ageless and genre-less because she brings joy,” says Cheryl Pawelski, co-founder of Ominvore Entertainment Group, who has spent 25 years of reserving, curating and championing some of music’s greatest legacies. “Mavis is, as the continuing voice of the Staple Singers, is just pure, shear joy, and that cuts through every genre. That cuts through every era.”

Mavis recently told NPR: “I’m happiest when I’m singing. I’m just grateful that I have so many fans that still want to hear me, you know, and grateful to the record company for making room for me to continue. It’s my gift — it’s what God put me here for, I do believe.”

Andrew Sullivan met his music teacher at an Alice Cooper concert when he was six. By the time he was 11 he’d shared the stage with Cheap Trick, performed with Blues Oyster Cult and Gary Hoey and player the Biscuit. He plays keyboards, drums and trumpet, but guitar is his favorite. “They all have different tones, and they’re fun to play, and it’s fun to have a lot ’cause I can experiment with different sounds.”

This 16-year-old guitarist was named Youth Performer of The Year in 2018 and 2017 by the Colorado Blues Society in their Member’s Choice Awards. She’s played the Biscuit as well as Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge, The Big Blues Bender and The Greeley Blues Jam. She sat in with The North Mississippi Allstars in 2016.

The Biscuit welcomes this family band from Sulphur Springs which plays Texas blues. Singer and guitarist “Diamond” Jack Holdsworth has recruited the whole family into the act, with wife Elan on bass, daughter Dani at the drums, and son DR showing talent beyond his years on vocals and guitar. They list their influences as Stevie Ray Vaughn, Albert King, Howlin’ Wolf, BB King, Freddie King, Jimmy Vaughn, Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin, Son House, Muddy Waters, Lightnin Hopkins, Sam Carr, Jack Johnson, Frank Frost, and Pinetop Perkins.

Eighty-four-year-old Clarence Sims, aka The West Coast Godfather of The Game, aka The Pope of Pimping is an expimp who estimates in his 1999 documentary American Pimp that in his entire career he had more than 9000 prostitutes working for him. The 14 originals on Fillmore Slim’s 2007 The Legend of Fillmore Slim album profile a character whose music is somewhere between Bo Diddley’s “I’m A Man” braggadocio and Snoop Dogg shout outs. His music is full of colorful references to the kind of scenes Willie Dixon could only imagine. Slim’s lived them. “I got a knock at the door,” he sings on the title cut. “I looked up and there was the man. I was put away for a long time. I paid my dues, and now I play the guitar in my hand.”

CW Gatlin is an Arkansas Delta native and a regular at the Biscuit. A lifelong friend of Levon Helm, he’s also performed with The Band, appearing on their 1993 Jericho album. Like The Band, his music has elements of rock, country and he’s a member of The Rockabilly Hall of Fame. In his long career he has performed with Mack Self, W.S. Holland of Johnny Cash’s band The Tennessee Three, Robert Nighthawk, Ace Cannon, Paul Burlison, Frank Frost and Sam Carr of The Jelly Roll Kings.

Reba’s “Heaven Came to Helena” has become the festival’s unofficial signature song. Reba was Memphis’ top rocker until Rufus Thomas heard her in a cover band in 1992 and told her, ‘Ya got it! You use it! Do it!’ She’s done background vocals for John Nemeth, Tracy Nelson, Huey Lewis & The News, Jimmy Thackery, and Jim Dickinson. That’s Reba on background vocals for U2 and B.B. King on “When Love Comes to Town” on Rattle & Hum recorded in 1990 at Sun Studios. But it’s the Biscuit that puts the fire in her belly. “Being here made me realize that there’s a lot more to this music stuff than I ever expected, and everybody that plays here can kick ass. So, it was like, yeah, I’m doing this come hell or high water. I don’t care, but until I kinda gave myself over to (realizing) Delta roots music was what was moving me, I was just peddling till then. Memphis is blues, but King Biscuit is the freaking deal. This is it. It’s like are you kidding me?”

Jesse Cotton Stone weaves together the stylistic threads of definitive regional styles of the Blues ranging from Pre-War Acoustic Delta Blues, Electric Juke Joint Boogie, North Mississippi Hill Country, and Cotton Patch Soul Blues to the Urban Chicago Blues Roots of Soul-Funk and Psychedelic Rock, bringing his listeners through the doors of a Heart-Wrenching Boutique of Vintage-Toned American Blues Music with relentless showmanship of a True Entertainer. Jesse Cotton Stone creates a comprehensive scope of the Original American Music, not only by playing his role in keeping the traditions of Blues music alive, but also by contributing to the evolution of this Storytelling Tradition with his own Original Flavor of what he calls “HELLCOUNTRY” and “Electric-Cotton Soul” Blues.

Andy Talamantez spent 23 years in the aerospace industry before becoming a fulltime blues guitarist, first with Nick Nixon, a veteran Nashville blues singer whose background included jamming with a young Jimi Hendrix. When Nixon retired in 2016, Andy T. teamed with Alabama Mike releasing his fourth album Double Strike co-produced with Anson Funderburgh, the only artist to have appeared at all the King Biscuit Blues Festivals. Both Nixon and Alabama Mike handled vocals reminiscent of Sam Myers, Funderburgh’s late vocalist. Andy T.’s early influence was Eric Clapton, but he honed his style playing with Smokey Wilson and Guitar Shorty in the late ’90s.

Ms. Margie Turner hails out of Eldorado, AK. She began singing at age 8 at Union Ark Baptist Church. At the age of 12 she moved with her family to Oakland, CA. Margie began singing the Blues at an early age while being chaperoned by her mother. Her skills and vocal stylings eventually led her to Dallas, TX where she met and background sang for Johnny Taylor and she eventually became an opening act for Marvin Sease. Today, Margie shares her talent on stages in the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Area with her band, The Outback Blues Band, and has performed on various festivals including The Hayward/Russell City Blues Festival, Oakland’s Art & Soul Festival, The Dusk til Dawn Festival, Rentiesville, OK, The King Biscuit Blues Festival, W. Helena, AK and at countless venues throughout California. Margie’s performance is “Delta Smooth” with a little “Oakland Grit”. It’s Blues that will make you wanna’ dance or, most certainly pat your feet. 

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Earnestine Barze , “Lady E”, was born in Glendora, Mississippi, the state that has produced more blues men and women than any other state in the US. Earnestine loved to sing and dance when she was young. In 1971 she migrated to California, continuing her education and receiving a degree in Business. Shortly after, Earnestine began singing again. Her Gospel roots made it an easy transition for her into the R&B and Blues scene. She performs at many clubs in Oakland, the surrounding Bay Area and throughout California. She has performed on the Monterey Blues Festival, Hayward-Russell City Blues Festival, The Red, White, & Blues Festival Stage, Alameda CA County Fair, and at The King Biscuit Blues Festival, W. Helena, AK. When on stage, in true Mississippi tradition, “Lady E” delivers a raw energy, soulful performance one you will remember and she will tell you, that’s what she’s about. 

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DeJeana Burkes was born and raised in Detroit, MI. Growing up vibin’ with the Motown sound and singing in church is how DeJeana developed her interest in both music and production. DeJeana spent all of her babysitting money as a teenager going to the Motown Revue, watching them sing and perfect their acts before hitting the road. It was in those seats she decided she could both sing and produce shows. Today, she resides in Richmond, CA in the San Francisco Bay Area. She performs locally in clubs, on festivals and is a producer of the North Richmond Music Festival. She has performed on the Polk Street Festival, San Francisco, Hayward Russell City Blues Festival, Richmond Juneteenth, Blues Ball, Medicine Park, OK and The King Biscuit Blues Festival in Arkansas. When DeJeana hits the stage it’s all business. While witnessing her passion, drive, and sass coupled with her strong vocals and melodic tones audiences do understand what she means when she exclaims “When you’ve got Burkes, It Works and the “It” is, she leaves It all on the stage to enjoy. 

Paul Thorn all but stole the show from B.B. King at King Biscuit in 2010. His 2018 album, Don’t Let The Devil Ride debuted in the Billboard Top 100 the first week of release. Thorn calls the music on the album dance pole gospel: “If you listen to the music that’s really sexy sounding, it sounds exactly like the music we sang in church when I was growing up. When we’d go visit the black churches, it was raunchy, man. It was spiritual, but it almost had a sexual undertone to it, and that’s what you hear on some of these songs on this record.” “Every time I play a festival, I don’t want the last slot. You get more people to see you when you go on next to last ’cause when you go on last, they’re gonna be leavin’ on your last song which is a bummer. When you’re playing that last song, and you’re the headliner, you’re watching people walk out as you’re singing. That’s a bummer, man!”

 “I’ll Take You There,” The Staple Singers’ 1972 number one Billboard Hot 100 hit, has taken on more poignant meaning for all humanity in this year of the pandemic.

 This song was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame in 1999 and remains the most successful and recognizable single of the Staples’ half-century-long career. Forty-eight years later, that inspirational song remains the centerpiece of Friday’s headliner Mavis Staples’ repertoire. And she’s just one of more than 100 storied acts performing during four days at the south’s premiere blues festival in the heart of the Delta on the banks of the Mississippi River.

“You can root her in the church. You can root her in the blues. You can root her in jazz It doesn’t matter. She is ageless and genre-less because she brings joy,” says Cheryl Pawelski, co-founder of Ominvore Entertainment Group, who has spent 25 years of reserving, curating and championing some of music’s greatest legacies. “Mavis is, as the continuing voice of the Staple Singers, is just pure, shear joy, and that cuts through every genre. That cuts through every era.”

Mavis recently told NPR: “I’m happiest when I’m singing. I’m just grateful that I have so many fans that still want to hear me, you know, and grateful to the record company for making room for me to continue. It’s my gift — it’s what God put me here for, I do believe.”